Robinhood plans to build layer2 Depth analysis on Arbitrum

Recently, news about Robinhood's plan to build a layer2 on Arbitrum has attracted widespread attention in the industry. This move not only signifies a further integration of traditional finance and crypto technology but also brings new imaginative possibilities for the application prospects of layer2 technology.

From a technical perspective, Robinhood's choice of Arbitrum's Nitro tech stack is quite similar to a well-known trading platform's selection of Optimism's OP Stack tech stack. However, past experiences indicate that the success of a tech stack does not equate to the success of the parent chain. The rise of a certain trading platform's layer2 project relies more on its brand effect, compliance resources, and user acquisition capabilities. This may also provide some reference value for Robinhood's choice of Arbitrum.

In the short term, this news may not directly affect the price trend of Arbitrum tokens. However, in the long run, if Robinhood successfully realizes the "US stocks on-chain" scenario, it could change the awkward situation of layer2 as an Ethereum scaling solution being "technologically sound but lacking implementation," opening up an unprecedented path for large-scale applications in the L1+L2 architecture of the Ethereum ecosystem.

It is worth noting that Robinhood's layer2 project may move towards specialization, specifically customizing a set of on-chain infrastructure that fits traditional finance. Considering the characteristics of T+0 settlement for stock trading, real-time risk control, compliance requirements, etc., Robinhood may need to conduct depth customization at the virtual machine level, consensus mechanism, and data structure of layer2 to fully leverage the potential of Layer2 expansion solutions.

Arbitrum's technical solution indeed has certain advantages compared to other layer2 solutions. The Nitro WASM architecture has higher execution efficiency and has a natural advantage in handling complex financial calculations; Stylus supports multi-language development of high-performance contracts, capable of handling some heavy computational tasks in traditional finance; BoLD addresses malicious delay attacks, reinforcing the security of optimistic verification; Orbit supports customized Layer3 deployment, providing enough flexibility for development features. These technological advantages seem to perfectly match the strict infrastructure requirements of traditional finance.

The challenges faced by US stock on-chain and crypto exchanges far exceed those in the traditional cryptocurrency space. They will not only face speculative users but also a user base familiar with traditional financial products. These users are accustomed to millisecond-level responses, 24/7 uninterrupted services, and T+0 seamless settlement experiences. More importantly, they are often backed by institutional funds, algorithmic trading, and high-frequency strategies, which place extremely high demands on system stability and performance. This means that Robinhood's layer2 project will face unprecedented challenges.

Overall, Robinhood's layout of layer 2 is of great significance. It is not just about adding a new player to the layer 2 tech stack, but rather a hardcore experiment to validate whether cryptocurrency infrastructure can support the core businesses of the modern financial system. If the experiment is successful, it will accelerate the digital reconstruction process of the entire trillion-dollar traditional financial markets, including bonds, futures, insurance, and real estate. In the long run, this will directly benefit the application scenarios of the entire Ethereum L1+L2 ecosystem's technical infrastructure, and it may also redefine the value capture logic of Layer 2.