The Uselessness of $ARB Token

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Why is $ARB the Top100 most useless token? Sorry for the rant. I have nothing against @arbitrum but despise tokens without utility and use cases. PS Governance is not a real utility. Raise a hand if anyone of you voted on any proposal. See 👀

1/ We can divide blockchains and cryptocurrencies into a few main categories. The first would be base layer blockchains on top of which others build (L0 & L1) e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, and Cosmos.

2/ They are the core of payments, DeFi protocols, and applications. The second category includes projects aiming to resolve L0 and L1 problems: scalability and fees. They are layer-2 and 3 blockchains utilizing various technologies such as optimistic and zero-knowledge proofs.

3/ Projects like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Loopring fall into this category. The next, most noticeable groups are stablecoins (fiat-backed, CDP, algorithmic) and exchange tokens. Last but not least, memecoins play a significant role in crypto whether we like it or not.

4/ Nowadays, it is all brought down to blockchain = cryptocurrency. Out of thousands of already created coins, 99.99% are worthless, imo. Teams try to outdo each other by programming different incentive mechanisms (staking, burning) and use cases (voting rights, benefits).

5/ Fundraising via token issuance is an advantage and a curse at once. It was never easier to collect capital from institutions and individual investors. Unfortunately, some projects take advantage of it, only focusing on making a coin asap instead of considering its necessity.

6/ So, you might ask why I condemn ARB. Arbitrum is the most prominent and most used Ethereum L2 solution. First and foremost, I have a problem with the ARB token but not with Arbitrum. The network itself works fine and encompasses a great ecosystem of protocols and applications.

7/ And that is one of the main reasons I think ARB is useless - Arbitrum worked completely fine without a token. Therefore, if something works well there is no justification for creating a cryptocurrency. Or maybe there is, but it is not a noble approach.

8/ Developers built a massive project and wanted to capitalize on it finally. Sorry, but as it currently stands it is the only explanation for the ARB token to arrive. Let’s dive into ARB token’s possible use cases to try to justify its existence.

9/ L0 and L1 blockchains’ tokens primarily serve as transaction fee means of payment. ETH, ATOM, or AVAX participate in every transaction. Because Arbitrum scales the Ethereum network, the fees are still paid in ETH, not ARB.

10/ Blockchains are based on distributed node networks, and each node participates in ensuring security. Node runners dedicate their resources (hardware, electricity) to make blockchains secure and online.

11/ They receive remuneration in the form of networks’ native coins or tokens in exchange. This is the fundamental cause of cryptocurrency existence, and ARB token is not utilized this way because Arbitrum is an Ethereum L2 where ETH covers this role.

12/ Because ARB is not used in basic tasks, developers were forced to come up with other useless utilities. They went for voting rights and governance. Cool, but let’s be honest, which DeFi participant voted on anything? It is a pointless use case for an individual user.

13/ Voting rights are only used by whales and institutions wanting to push their proposals in the network e.g., Binance voting on launching Uniswap on BNB Chain. Sure, it is nice to have the possibility and conviction about decentralization, but no single person uses that.

14/ ARB token has other standard utilities such as staking or liquidity provisioning, but it is nothing special and almost every cryptocurrency has those.

15/ Don’t get me wrong, Arbitrum is a valuable project. I use it and benefit from lower fees and faster transactions. I even received an ARB airdrop. However, it does not change the fact that ARB has no utility or use case.

16/ Hence, ARB earns the name of the most useless token in the Top100 market cap or maybe even the entire crypto space. You might disagree and mention shit and memecoins as rightful worthless project candidates and you would be right unless...

17/ ...their whole existence was dictated by speculation, gambling, and providing fun. They take over the betting market, and instead of putting money into sports, people bet on shitcoins. ARB was not designed for it (I assume, at least), and its creators should know better.