# Beginner's Guide (to Arbitrum)

Arbitrum is built by [Offchain Labs](https://offchainlabs.com/), a team of world-class blockchain engineers, researchers, and Ethereum experts. Arbitrum One mainnet launched on August 31, 2021.

* Arbitrum serves as Ethereum's next-generation Layer 2, bundling many transactions into one before submitting to Ethereum L1 — dramatically reducing fees while inheriting Ethereum security
* It uses Optimistic Rollups: smart contracts that batch transactions to reduce computation time and gas consumption
* Arbitrum successfully migrated to Arbitrum Nitro on August 31, 2022, further improving performance
* On March 23, 2023, Arbitrum distributed its $ARB governance token to the community

Adding Arbitrum support to your wallet is all you need to get started. Once set up, you can transfer funds via one of the supported bridges or from a centralized exchange that supports Arbitrum withdrawals.

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## Getting Started Steps

1. [**Create a wallet**](/gemach-dao/miscellaneous/beginners-guide-to-arbitrum/wallet-creation.md) — set up MetaMask if you do not have a wallet yet
2. [**Set up for Arbitrum**](/gemach-dao/miscellaneous/beginners-guide-to-arbitrum/wallet-setup-for-arbitrum-compatibility.md) — add the Arbitrum network to your wallet
3. [**Bridge funds**](/gemach-dao/miscellaneous/beginners-guide-to-arbitrum/bridging-tokens-to-arbitrum.md) — move ETH or tokens to Arbitrum

> ⚠️ **Important:** All transaction fees on Arbitrum are paid in **ETH**. Always keep some ETH in your Arbitrum wallet to cover gas costs.


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