{"/blog/the-missing-message-mystery":{"version":1,"title":"The Missing Message Mystery - Optimism","description":"This is the story of our experience looking into a bug that caused our Optimistic Ethereum testnet deployment to stop accepting new L1 ⇒ L2 deposits for a period","keywords":"","h1":["The Missing Message Mystery"],"h2":["Noticing the symptoms","Starting the debugging process","Checking the DTL","Finding the root cause","Option 1: Maybe Kovan reorg’d","Option 2: Maybe we accidentally skipped a block","Option 3: Maybe Infura broke","Solution: Learn, adapt, and move on.","Conclusion"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Kelvin Fichter","July 27, 2021","This is the story of our experience looking into a bug that caused our Optimistic Ethereum testnet deployment to stop accepting new L1 ⇒ L2 deposits for a period of several days in the early days of June 2021. For some context, L1 ⇒ L2 deposits take assets sitting on an L1 chain (like Ethereum) and move them into an L2 chain (like Optimistic Ethereum). During the incident, the testnet deployment was unable to correctly credit deposits. I found this story fascinating because we were able to create a reasonable fix for the issue without understanding the exact source of the bug. It’s one of those stories that highlights the messy reality of building software for humans. I’ll also be interspersing this post with some of the engineering lessons we took away from the incident. Enjoy!","We first became aware of an issue with Kovan deposits after several users reported the problem to us directly (a reminder that we need to improve our automatic alerting for these sorts of problems). The general symptoms reported were that users were able to start deposits by sending transactions on L1 but would never receive any funds on L2. Obviously this was pretty problematic because it prevented users from moving assets into L2. This definitely had to be fixed as quickly as possible.","Engineering Lesson #1: user reports are a last line of defenseUser reports should be a last line of defense when discovering issues. If you’re finding issues because of user reports then you probably don’t have sufficient alerting in place. In this specific case we should’ve been regularly submitting deposit transactions and monitoring those transactions for failures.","We started our debugging session by making a small list of the different pieces of the software that could potentially be causing the problem. Based on user reports, we knew the following:","Deposits could be correctly initiated on L1","Deposits were NOT correctly being reflected on L2","Point (1) meant that the bug likely wasn’t coming from our smart contracts (the deposit transactions would probably be reverting if it was an issue in the smart contracts). Luckily our software stack is relatively simple and there aren’t many places for a bug to hide. If the issue wasn’t in the contracts, then it was either in the L2 geth node OR in the process that carries transactions over to L2 geth (a tool known as data transport layer or DTL for short; it’s a terribly vague name and we’re accepting suggestions for alternatives 😂).","The DTL is a minimal piece of software that doesn’t often see failures like this. We made a few deposits of our own and found that the DTL was correctly discovering and indexing these deposits, so our suspicion turned to L2 geth. A quick skim through the logs didn’t reveal much other than the fact that our new deposit transactions were clearly not being executed on L2.","Fortunately, our luck turned when we found the following log lines:","Syncing enqueue transactions range start=2500 end=3545...Syncing enqueue transactions range start=2500 end=3546...Syncing enqueue transactions range start=2500 end=3547","These logs are emitted when L2 geth tries to execute a series of L1 ⇒ L2 deposit transactions. We’d expect the start value to increase over time because L2 geth should be executing one transaction and moving on to the next. The fact that the start value wasn't changing suggested that L2 geth was somehow getting stuck when trying to execute deposit 2500. Now we just had to find out what was going on with deposit 2500.","The easiest way to figure out what was going on was to check the data transport layer to see what was getting sent over to L2 geth. The DTL has a nice API that we can manually query to see what’s being sent over to the sequencer. So we sent the following query:","GET <https://url.of.dtl/enqueue/index/2500>","What did we get back? null. Apparently the DTL just didn't have any record of this deposit.","So what about deposit 2501?","GET <https://url.of.dtl/enqueue/index/2501>","Not null! Yep, the DTL had a record for that. And it had a record for every other deposit after that. This was clearly the source of the initial issue. The DTL didn't have a record of deposit 2500 so L2 geth wasn't able to progress beyond deposit 2500 but new deposits were still being accepted. Hmm...","The bizarre nature of this bug suggested that it might be non-deterministic. I mean, why would just deposit 2500 be missing? Sure enough, a new DTL synced from scratch picked up the deposit just fine. This meant we could get the system back online by resetting the production DTL, but we still didn't understand exactly why this had happened in the first place. Aiming to avoid similar problems in the future, we set out to find a root cause.","Lucky for us, the DTL is a relatively simple piece of software — it doesn’t do very much. It’s basically just a loop that:","Looks up the last L1 block it’s in sync with","Finds the next L1 block to sync to","Finds, parses, and stores events within that block range","Updates the last L1 block it’s in sync with","As a result, there just aren’t many things that can cause it to break like this. Nothing obvious stood out to us, so we ended up having to do a good bit of digging. We came up with three potential sources of the bug in order of decreasing likelihood.","Our first intuition was that maybe Kovan had experienced a large block reorganization. When large reorgs happen, nodes may temporarily see outdated views of the network. The DTL on Kovan was configured to wait for 12 confirmations (blocks) before accepting a transaction. If this were the root cause then we’d expect to see some sort of reorg of more than 12 blocks.","A quick look at Etherscan’s reorg list and we were back to square one. At the time of the incident, no reorgs had occurred for almost a month. Unless Etherscan was experiencing a large localized outage and falling out of sync with the rest of Kovan, it’s unlikely that there was any sort of 12+ block reorg that went unnoticed. On to the next one.","If it wasn’t a reorg, then maybe our software really did just accidentally skip a block during the sync process. Although this seemed pretty unlikely, we needed to make sure that this wasn’t the source of the issue.","To figure out whether we’d skipped a block or not, we had to find a specific log line that would tell us if we’d scanned the L1 block that contained the deposit. In order to do that, we first needed to find the block in which the event was emitted. So we went back to Etherscan to search for the deposit:","The return value here is a struct of the form:","struct QueueElement {     bytes32 transactionHash;     uint40 timestamp;     uint40 blockNumber;}","Where the timestamp and blockNumber here are the timestamp and block number of the block in which this deposit was submitted. We had what we came for: this deposit was submitted in block 25371197. Now we just had to take a look through the DTL logs to (hopefully) find a log covering the block in question. Sure enough:","The targetL1Block in this log line matches the L1 block we were looking for. We definitely attempted to sync the block that contained the deposit. So why didn't we see anything?","Our investigation into the DTL logs made it clear that the deposit should’ve been detected by the DTL but wasn’t. Additionally, the DTL didn’t throw any errors when it was syncing this block. We just didn’t find any events.","Relatively confident in our DTL code, we started to look for potential reasons to blame someone other than ourselves (because it’s easier that way). We found that Infura was returning various 504 errors at around the same time that this error was triggered:","Interesting? Yes. Proof of a problem with Infura? Not so much. Maybe something went wrong at Infura on June 9th. Or maybe not. Who knows. Unfortunately, we did not store a record of our RPC requests and were therefore not able to debug this issue any further with logs alone.","Engineering Lesson #2: keep a record of your RPC requests.If an Ethereum node is critical to your system, consider keeping a record of all RPC requests made to the node. Logs can always be deleted after some reasonable period of time to keep storage costs low.","Engineering Lesson #3: Infura is not consensus.Consider sending requests to multiple nodes or node providers simultaneously to cross-check the validity of incoming results. Consider hosting one or more of these nodes yourself. You absolutely should not rely on the assumption that your node provider will always return correct results. Trust, but verify.","We were stuck with a relatively unsatisfying conclusion: either Infura broke or there was a bug in our system that we couldn’t figure out. We were also under a bit of pressure because people rely on our Kovan testnet, and deposits into the system were still completely borked. We knew we could resync the DTL to get the system back up but without a root cause we were probably just setting ourselves up to face the same issue in another day or two.","After some discussion, a compromise was drawn:","Resync the DTL to get the system back up.","Add some more logic to the DTL so it can recover from missing events.","Add a log line whenever this recovery logic is triggered so we can debug further in the future.","This strategy made the best of the situation. The DTL’s new recovery logic shielded us from the worst effects of the underlying problem. If the bug ever reared its head again we’d get a convenient log line instead of a halted system. Win-win.","Engineering Lesson #4: root cause isn’t everything.Sometimes it’s possible (or even preferable) to mitigate an issue before you fully understand it. You should still monitor for future of occurrences of the issue. Consider brainstorming other effects that the unknown bug may trigger on your system.","And such it was that we could effectively mitigate a bug without understanding its root cause. Our patch has successfully recovered from this error on multiple occasions since the original incident. At the time of writing this post, we still haven’t figured out the root cause of this issue — we have too many other things to work on and our recovery logic is doing a perfectly fine job at dealing with this in the meantime (yay, fault tolerance!).","I found this saga so interesting because it highlighted some of the dirtier aspects of software engineering. The process of building and maintaining software is never as straightforward as we’d all like it to be. Practical concerns can often come at the expense of doing things the “ideal” way. At the end of the day, good software engineering is more like a rough science than pure mathematics. You will need to deal with the messy situations that arise when people are building software for other people. All you can do is make the best of it: learn, adapt, and move on.","We’re hiring to build the future of Ethereum. If you liked what you read here, check out our job listings. Maybe you’ll find your next home. 💖","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-missing-message-mystery"},"/blog/the-road-to-sub-dollar-transactions-part-1-slashing-fees-by-30":{"version":1,"title":"The Road to Sub-dollar Transactions Part 1: Slashing Fees by 30% - Optimism","description":"Last month was OP Mainnet’s 1-year mainnetiversary. We’re incredibly proud of this milestone — but the path is far from over","keywords":"","h1":["The Road to Sub-dollar Transactions Part 1: Slashing Fees by 30%"],"h2":["A Primer on OP Mainnet Transaction Fees","Finding Our New Fee Parameters","Hold on wait a minute, you all thought we were finished?"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","February 15, 2022","Sup nerds!","Last month was OP Mainnet’s 1-year mainnetiversary. We’re incredibly proud of this milestone — but the path is far from over. As rollups mature, the path to sub-dollar fees begins.","About a month ago, we took the next step down this path, cutting transaction fees by about 30%. An average Uniswap trade dropped from $3.35 to $2.55, and at times has neared $1. Wonder how exactly we were able to accomplish this? Read on to find out!","In order to understand how we cut costs we first need to understand what makes up a transaction fee on OP Mainnet. Fees are made up of 1) Rollup Costs: The cost of “rolling up” transactions into batches and submitting them to Ethereum (L1), and 2) L2 Execution Costs: The cost to run the transaction on OP Mainnet (L2). For a deeper-dive, read “How Optimism Works” in the Optimism docs.","1) Rollup Cost","Rather than paying L1 Ethereum gas prices for your entire transaction execution, on OP Mainnet you only pay those prices for the portion of your transaction data that is submitted to L1 in a transaction batch. This cost includes the actual Calldata (input data) for your transaction, as well as a Fixed Overhead cost, which is the additional processing required to add an additional transaction to the largerbatch.","OP Mainnet also adds a dynamic overhead (Fee Scalar) premium. This gives us a buffer in case L1 prices rapidly increase, and excess funds are directed towards public goods. (Read about Optimism PBC’s commitment to Public Goods Funding and a retrospective on our first funding round).","Calldata cost and L1 Gas Price are derived from L1 Ethereum, but Fixed Overhead and Fee Scalar are the “fancy numbers” that can be tuned by OP Mainnet.","The “Layer 1 Gas Fee” represents these rollup costs:","Layer 1 Gas Fee =Fee Scalar * L1 Gas Price * (Calldata + Fixed Overhead)","Rollup costs currently make up about 99.6% of a transaction fee on OP Mainnet, so we have the greatest potential to lower fees by optimizing this portion.","2) L2 Execution Cost","Transactions on OP Mainnet use the same amount of gas as an equivalent transaction would use on Ethereum; however, the standard cost for gas on OP Mainnet is only 0.001 gwei, many times cheaper than Layer 1. This gas price can increase slightly during high usage periods, but only makes up 0.4% of the total transaction fee on average.","The “Layer 2 Gas Fee” represents the execution cost:","Layer 2 Gas Fee = L2 Gas Price * L2 Gas Used","Transaction Savings","Adding the rollup costs and L2 execution costs gives us the total transaction fee. For simpler transactions such as ETH transfers, OP Mainnet fees are about 5x cheaper than Ethereum, but for more complex actions such as a perpetual swap or an options trade, OP Mainnet can be 200x+ cheaper than using L1 Ethereum directly!","Before we lowered fees, Fixed Overhead parameter was set to 2750 gas per transaction, and the Fee Scalar was set to 1.5x. A few things changed since these were originally set:","Lower Cost Structure: As a result of OP Mainnet’s Nov 11 EVM Equivalence upgrade, less gas is needed to submit OP Mainnet transaction batches to L1. The actual overhead cost decreased almost 25%, from 2750 to 2100 gas per transaction.","Learning from Experience: While it was still super early in OP Mainnet’s life, we learned from our first few months of mainnet that we had capacity to reduce the premium buffer from a ~35% margin to a 10% margin (Margin = [Fees Collected — L1 Submit Costs] / Fees Collected).","Overhead Gas Decrease on EVM Equivalence Upgrade","Projections and Optimizations","The next step was to translate these lower costs into cheaper fees for OP Mainnet users. To properly tune the Fixed Overhead and Fee Scalar parameters, we had to understand what influences our fee margin:","Calldata: Calldata gas varies by transaction type (i.e. ETH Transfer: 0 calldata gas, Chainlink Oracle Update: 890 gas, Uniswap V3 trade: 3200 gas). An average transaction used 1100 calldata gas, but this will trend higher or lower as different apps gain popularity OP Mainnet.","Overhead: The cost of adding a transaction to a batch decreases as the total batch size increases. This is one of the ways where Layer 2 scaling differentiates from Layer 1 scaling: The more transactions there are, the cheaper transactions become. Overhead has already dropped from 2750 to 2100 gas, and will continue to decrease as OP Mainnet usage increases.","L1 Gas Prices: Transactions are submitted to L1 a few minutes after they happen on OP Mainnet, and L1 Gas Prices change quite a bit in that time. If L1 gas prices rise, then the submitter pays more than it expected to, and if L1 gas prices fall, then it pays less than it expected to. During volatile gas price periods, this gap can get as wide as a 10% difference.","Transaction Batch Submitter — Overhead Gas Costs by Batch Size","We knew what these factors looked like today, but expected that usage could change once we lowered fees (i.e. more transactions, more calldata used). So we made some hypotheses to come up with a range of scenarios, and then simulated 5000 random days within those bounds (think Monte Carlo method). From there, we had a simple optimization problem: get as close as possible to our target 10% margin by changing the Fixed Overhead and Fee Scalar.","The result: Fixed Overhead of 2100 and Fee Scalar of 1.24","To implement the change, we just had to send two transactions: One to modify the Fixed Overhead, and one to modify the Fee Scalar. Then voila: 30% lower transaction fees!","Want to stay up to date with the data? See our Transaction Cost Contributors Dashboard here.","As we said at the outset — this was just a step in a continuous path of reducing our network fees. As the product keeps maturing, more and more OPtimizations will arise. Stay tuned for an upcoming article on the next step: transaction compression! And if you can’t wait, take a sneak peek — as always, we’re building it out in the open.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-road-to-sub-dollar-transactions-part-1-slashing-fees-by-30"},"/blog/a-love-letter-to-etherscan":{"version":1,"title":"A Love Letter to Etherscan - Optimism","description":"Dearest Etherscan,  How to describe what you mean to us? Let us count the ways. You are","keywords":"","h1":["A Love Letter to Etherscan"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","August 10, 2021","Dearest Etherscan,","How to describe what you mean to us? Let us count the ways. You are…","The stable provider of knowledge.","The humble watcher of the realm.","The telescope with which we marvel upon the decentralized heavens.","The bedrock on which the house of DeFi stands.","The quiet knight of web3.","The loyal shepherd of Ethereum.","Anyone who has used Ethereum knows about Etherscan. But often unappreciated is the awesome team behind the name, how great a product they’ve built, and how vital that product is to this community.","It’s also worth mentioning what Etherscan is not: It’s not serving annoying ads, it’s not full of superfluous bells and whistles, and it’s not shilling a token (though the team is certainly more than deserving). It simply gives you the information you’re looking for, and it does so with incredible speed and reliability.","While bringing Optimistic Ethereum into production, we’ve leaned heavily on Etherscan. Some examples include custom pages to help with L1 <> L2 observability, custom API endpoints for retrieving indexed transactions on the OVM, and the message relayer enabling users to finalize withdrawals. Suffice it to say, Etherscan has been an indispensable part of our development process.","In addition to building a critical piece of the Ethereum ecosystem, the Etherscan team is incredibly easy to work with. From the cute stickers they drop in our group chat, to their fast response time to questions, to the willingness to tackle any feature request or bug fix, they’re among the most attentive and valuable members of the Ethereum community.","On behalf of everyone at Optimism: much love to Etherscan!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/a-love-letter-to-etherscan"},"/blog/introducing-smock-v2":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing Smock v2 - Optimism","description":"Solidity devs: meet Smock v2. The Solidity mocking library. A collaboration between Optimism and the fantastic team over at DeFi Wonderland.","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing Smock v2"],"h2":["Features"],"h3":["Fake any contract","Manipulate any contract function","Make assertions about calls","Create mocks backed by real contracts","Manipulate variables inside of mocks","And so much more…"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Kelvin Fichter","August 11, 2021","Solidity devs: meet Smock v2. The Solidity mocking library. A collaboration between Optimism and the fantastic team over at DeFi Wonderland.","Smart contract testing has historically been… hard? If not hard, then just confusing. Way back in the early days of Solidity the best way to test a contract was to write another contract responsible for doing all the testing. This was a terrible idea for about 20 different reasons. I’ll name a few of the most important ones:","You had to write your test code in Solidity.","You had to re-compile your test contracts just to change your tests.","Your test contracts and target contracts shared the same chain state.","It was a huge time sink for everyone involved. It was mostly okay because smart contracts were relatively simple back then. But, of course, this lack of testing infrastructure meant that contracts couldn’t be very complex.","It took a while, but we finally evolved to use JavaScript testing frameworks like Truffle to vastly improve the testing experience. We got to inherit some of the nice features of tools like chai and mocha. Our tests became at least somewhat legible. You could actually build contract systems with a reasonable amount of complexity.","Hardhat eventually came along and improved upon many of the things that Truffle, admittedly, did first. But Hardhat’s major advancement was its plugin system — developers now had the ability easily to manipulate their testing environment to an extent never really possible with Truffle.","Yet throughout all of this improvement, Solidity developers have still had to deal with one absolutely terrible pattern: mock contracts, written in Solidity, just to be able to unit test very specific functionality. I mean, really??? Here are a few reasons why this is so bad:","You have to write your test code in Solidity.","You have to re-compile your test contracts just to change your tests.","Your test contracts and target contracts share the same chain state.","???","Yeah. Anyway. We fixed that.","Introducing: Smock v2. Contract mocking in JavaScript. More powerful than you can imagine. Never write a mock contract in Solidity again.","const myFake = await smock.fake('MyContract');const myOtherFake = await smock.fake(myContractFactory);const myOtherOtherFake = await smock.fake(myContractABI);const myOtherOtherOtherFake = await smock.fake(myContractInstance);","myFake.myFunction.returns(1234);myFake.myOtherFunction.returns({ myStructField: 1234 });myFake.myOtherOtherFunction.returns((fnArg) => { return fnArg * 10 });myFake.myOtherOtherOtherFunction.reverts(); // womp womp!","expect(myFake.myFunction).to.have.been.calledOnce;expect(myFake.myFunction).to.have.been.calledWith(1234);expect(myFake.myFunction).to.have.been.calledBefore(myFake.myOtherFunction);","const myMockFactory = await smock.mock('MyContract');const myMock = await myMockFactory.deploy();// Does everything a fake can do!myMock.myFunction.returns(5678);","await myMock.setVariable('myVariable', 1234);await myMock.setVariable('myOtherVariable', { myStructValue: 1234 });","Do I really need to say anything else? Go try it out. It’ll change your life. Seriously.","https://github.com/defi-wonderland/smock","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-smock-v2"},"/blog/cannon-cannon-cannon-introducing-cannon":{"version":1,"title":"CANNON CANNON CANNON: Introducing Cannon - Optimism","description":"Today, we’re extremely excited to formally introduce Cannon to the world. Cannon is OP Mainnet’s next-gen fault proof. Its initial implementation by geohot","keywords":"","h1":["CANNON CANNON CANNON: Introducing Cannon"],"h2":["Cannon …","Come Break the Cannon!","Thanks"],"h3":["… is EVM equivalent","… reuses the geth EVM","… uses stateless magic","… minimizes transaction costs","… is coming to prod"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","March 9, 2022","Today, we’re extremely excited to formally introduce Cannon to the world. Cannon is OP Mainnet’s next-gen fault proof. Its initial implementation by geohot became the first public fault proof implementation that can run an EVM-equivalent L2. Oh, and it also enables the theoretical minimum calldata gas costs.","From day 1, Cannon has been built with OP Mainnet: Bedrock — our next major release — in mind. Cannon will become a foundation of OP Mainnet for years to come.","Today, we are taking our next step in realizing Cannon’s promise, by launching a bug bounty with up to $250k in prizes! Details can be found at the bottom.","But what exactly is Cannon?","Cannon (github) is the world’s first EVM-equivalent fault proof implementation. Cannon allows us to run the unaltered EVM on L2 with no sacrifices.","Cannon takes a fresh approach to fault proofs compared to existing rollups, achieving true EVM equivalence: instead of re-implementing the EVM, it leverages an existing EVM implementation (geth!).","In particular, minigeth — a minimally modified subset of go-ethereum (no JSON-RPC, no proof-of-work) — is compiled to MIPS, a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC). RISC is designed to be as simple as possible. If you know anything about Optimism, you know that we ❤️ simplicity — the MIPS VM is then implemented on-chain in less than 400 lines! 😍","Unlike our previous fault proof design, which re-ran the EVM over a whole transaction on L1, Cannon only needs to execute a single minigeth MIPS instruction on chain. This is a similar approach to existing projects like Truebit, Arbitrum, and Cartesi, but it introduces a key new feature.","Minigeth replaces geth’s state database with a new¹ primitive called the preimage oracle. The preimage oracle can be queried with a 32 byte hash, and will return the preimage for that hash into the machine memory. This may sound counterintuitive, but it works. And it’s incredibly powerful.","This simple abstraction allows the fault proof program to access anything in the L1 or L2 state, with an on-chain overhead independent of the size of that state. Other L2 implementations, such as Arbitrum’s AVM, required from-scratch implementations of state management to achieve this. But — since the database used by geth already maps hashes to their preimages, the preimage oracle accomplishes this without sacrificing EVM equivalence and with minimal changes to code.","All existing rollups today submit transaction data to a smart contract, and a hash of the calldata is stored in the state. That overhead imposes costs which must then be passed on to users.","This is necessary² because transactions need to be accessible to dispute contracts during a fault proof. However, the preimage oracle gives us a new way to access transaction data: the L1 block header itself.","Because no on-chain processing of transactions is required, they can be posted as calldata to an L1 account with no code at all.","This yields the smallest possible L1 gas cost for an L2 transaction. It also compounds with other savings techniques, such as calldata compression and blob transactions, together passing massive savings on to users.","(once you all break it!)","There is still a long road forward before we can deploy Cannon into production. It will play a critical role in OP Mainnet’s security, and it deserves an abundance of scrutiny and hardening.","Today, we’re taking the next step towards securing Cannon — we are launching a bug bounty!","We now have a bug bounty open on ImmuneFi. The terms are simple: if you’re able to break Cannon, you’ll get $50k. Not to mention the clout you’ll get for hacking a famous hacker!","To get started, head right over the Cannon repository or check out the details on Immunefi. We also recommend checking out the Cannon high-level overview as well as the detailed overview.","We would like to give a huge shoutout to geohot for pioneering cannon’s initial implementation and for so many conversations along the way. We’d also like to thank Immunefi for hosting the bug bounty for us!","As always, if you’re interested in joining a talented group of Optimists dedicated to building a scalable and sustainable future for Ethereum we’d love to hear from you! Check out all open roles on our jobs board.","Footnotes","[1] When we first started sharing cannon, we discovered that Cartesi had previously proposed a “dehashing device” as an area of future work. However, this was framed as a tool for reading external blockchain data — what is unique about our approach applying this method to the L2 state itself, and the advantages for EVM equivalence it brings.","[2] As mentioned in the previous footnote, Cartesi’s “dehasher” was proposed as future work to give a way to read other blockchains. The Arbitrum whitepaper also proposed mapping L1 blocks into AVM tuples as future work, and lightclients also proposed another way to implement this. Our contribution is to accomplish the optimal L1 data costs, and L2 state access costs, with a unified abstraction that preserves EVM equivalence.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/cannon-cannon-cannon-introducing-cannon"},"/blog/the-road-to-sub-dollar-transactions-part-2-compression-edition":{"version":1,"title":"The Road to Sub-dollar Transactions, Part 2: Compression Edition - Optimism","description":"Optimistic rollups are rapidly gaining maturity. As we move beyond the “zero to one” phase, the name of the game is optimization–and the most tangible optimization","keywords":"","h1":["The Road to Sub-dollar Transactions, Part 2: Compression Edition"],"h2":[],"h3":["Calldata Overview","Compression Overview & Results","Conclusion","Appendix: Algorithm Summary"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","March 3, 2022","Optimistic rollups are rapidly gaining maturity. As we move beyond the “zero to one” phase, the name of the game is optimization–and the most tangible optimization is cost. Within the next month we will be decreasing fees 30–40% by deploying the first ever system-wide calldata compression on any production ORU network. Get ready.","Looking further ahead, we have plans to unlock even more savings this summer as part of OP Mainnet: Bedrock. This post dives into the nitty-gritty of calldata compression: in particular, how we evaluated compression algorithms, and how we will use them to pave the way to sub-dollar fees.","OP Mainnet uses Ethereum as a data availability layer. This means that each transaction executed on OP Mainnet is stored (but not executed) on Ethereum. Right now we store OP Mainnet transactions in calldata. Multiple L2 transactions are batched up into a binary blob and the blob (plus some other info) is stored in the data field of the transaction. To later retrieve that data, we look at the body of transactions (which are stored in the blocks themselves). Because Ethereum blocks are saved, OP Mainnet can always be reconstructed from Ethereum.","While storing data in the blocks is much cheaper than storing it in contract state, keeping historical blocks around forever does incur a cost on node operators. As such, Ethereum charges for calldata. It costs 4 gas per zero byte and 16 gas per non-zero byte of calldata (zeros represent around 40% of bytes in transactions submitted to OP Mainnet).","While posting calldata is a large part of where rollup savings come from, it still represents the primary cost passed on to users. So, the more we can reduce the amount of data posted, the cheaper we can make rollups. Enter compression: the art of reducing the size of data! What follows is an in-depth analysis of compression statistics run on real-world data.","We looked at 22 thousand batches (nearly 3 million individual transactions) that OP Mainnet had submitted to Ethereum and compressed them in different configurations to determine how to best implement compression and experiment with what is possible.","We also looked at a variety of compression algorithms and measured both the compression rate (the size of the compressed data as a percentage of the uncompressed size) and the estimated fee savings (assuming that 40% of bytes in a transaction are the zero-byte).","One configuration option that is important to understand is the presence of a dictionary. A dictionary is created ahead of time to show the algorithm data fragments that are commonly used in real world data. The compression algorithm uses a dictionary to better compress data, particularly when compressing a small amount of data at once. By taking a random sample of transactions, we can create a dictionary for zlib and zstd which improves the compression ratio when compressing individual transactions and batches.","As most fields in an Ethereum transaction are random (addresses and function selectors are hashes, signatures should be random), a single Ethereum transaction does not compress well. Because Ethereum also heavily discounts 0 bytes, which compression algorithms quickly remove, the fee savings will not be as much as the compression rate. As such, to get the highest fee savings, we need to run an advanced algorithm over as much data as possible.","Here are the results for compressing transactions by themselves:","Algorithm","Mode","Dictionary?","Compression Rate","Estimated Fee Savings","zlib","transaction","no","63.97%","8.61%","yes","59.33%","15.24%","zstd","62.87%","10.18%","48.31%","30.99%","LZW","68.29%","2.44%","Brotli","65.78%","6.02%","ZLE","59.37%","15.18%","view rawindividual-transactions.csv hosted with ❤ by GitHub","As you can see, compressing individual transactions on their own will only get us 10–15% savings. Note that the size of transactions is reduced by more than this, but the savings are less–this is due to the cheaper zero bytes discussed above.","Zstandard with a dictionary is significantly more performant because there are commonalities between each transaction and what is stored in the dictionary. However, zstd still performs better when compressing larger amounts of data at once.","On the other extreme is compressing every single example transaction in one go. This is not possible in practice, but serves as an example of the maximum possible compression ratio.","total","38.40%","45.14%","35.92%","48.68%","36.19%","62.30%","11.00%","34.41%","50.84%","view rawtotal-transactions.csv hosted with ❤ by GitHub","So, in this example we are looking at somewhere between 10% and 50% savings due to compression. But what can we actually achieve in practice?","When looking at compressing batches of transactions (hundreds of transactions), the compression ratio is significantly better than compressing individual transactions, but slightly worse than compressing every transaction at once. This is because users tend to interact with some contracts significantly more than other contracts. In addition, certain fields (like chain ID and gas price) tend to be similar across transactions. Compression algorithms rely on these similarities to do their job.","batches","40.13%","42.67%","39.61%","43.41%","40.12%","42.68%","37.31%","46.70%","62.24%","11.09%","39.21%","43.99%","view rawbatched-transactions.csv hosted with ❤ by GitHub","When comparing the different compression algorithms, we identified zlib, zstd, and brotli as the algorithms that compress the most. We ruled out Brotli because it is much slower than zstd or zlib at similar compression ratios. In general, the better compression ratio an algorithm (or setting for an algorithm), the slower the compression algorithm runs. ZSTD tends to perform better than other compression algorithms over a wide range of compression speed/ratio options in common benchmarks. Also note that Ethereum transactions have different characteristics than the data in the benchmarks.","Zlib and zstd are quite close, and we’ll be rolling out zlib compression (without a dictionary) in the short term because it has quite good results, good speed, and good availability in different programming languages. Longer term, we expect to lean into zstd to achieve the highest possible compression ratio and lowest possible user fees.","In summary: if historic trends continue, we can expect to reduce fees by 30–40% by introducing the compression explained above.","Zlib batch compression is coming to OP Mainnet soon.","Kovan on 3/17","Mainnet on 3/24","Zstd based compression (with a dictionary) is on the roadmap for OP Mainnet: Bedrock, with release slated for later this year.","In addition to reducing user fees through compression, OP Mainnet is also looking to improve Ethereum’s ability to serve as a data availability layer via EIP-4844 & similar approaches to shave further costs.","That’s it for now! Stay tuned for the next post on another step along the road to sub-dollar transactions! Oh, and as always if you’re interested in joining a talented group of Optimists dedicated to building a scalable and sustainable future for Ethereum we’d love to hear from you! Check out all open roles on our jobs board.","Compression Options","Upstream Link","golang default level","https://pkg.go.dev/compress/zlib","Level 3","http://facebook.github.io/zstd/","LSB, 8","https://pkg.go.dev/compress/lzw","Level 6","https://github.com/google/brotli","n/a","https://github.com/ethereum/pyethereum/blob/develop-snapshot/ethereum/compress.py","view rawappendix.csv hosted with ❤ by GitHub","ZLE stands for zero-byte run length encoding. It is a simple compression algorithm that replaces a string of zeros with how many zeros should be there.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-road-to-sub-dollar-transactions-part-2-compression-edition"},"/blog/ethdenver-rollup-recap":{"version":1,"title":"ETHDenver: Rollup Recap - Optimism","description":"It’s hard to overstate how much fun we had at ETHDenver last week. We’re still coming down from our post-conference high — the inevitable fallout from a week","keywords":"","h1":["ETHDenver: Rollup Recap"],"h2":["What we worked on","Community Projects","Talks and Panels","It’s Been Real, Denver!"],"h3":["Data-blob-transactions (mini-danksharding)","Transient storage implementation (EIP-1153)"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","February 24, 2022","It’s hard to overstate how much fun we had at ETHDenver last week. We’re still coming down from our post-conference high — the inevitable fallout from a week of unabated excitement and dopamine depletion. Call it the ETHDenver detox.","While it’s true that all good things must come to an end, we can at least ease last week’s passing with a quick summary of its events in an attempt to make the glow last just a little bit longer.","It’s safe to say the Optimism team really made the most of ETHDenver 2022 — not only were we lucky enough to mingle with many community members (thanks to everyone who attended OP game night!), we also got to work building a few projects we’re very excited about. Our focus for ETHDenver was on potential improvements to Ethereum itself.","You may have already seen the tweet thread by one of our team members summarizing the creation of the first data-blob-transaction prototype. If you haven’t, we highly recommend checking it out.","The TL;DR is that mini-danksharding introduces a new “data blob” transaction type to Ethereum. This blob data is only required to be available for a shorter period of time than regular blockdata, and is not directly readable within the EVM. This lowers the hardware requirements per byte of data, meaning that the amount of data can be larger than regular calldata.","Blob transactions have the potential to increase the transaction bandwidth accessible to Ethereum rollups by up to 100x — pretty exciting stuff! And equally exciting to be able to prototype at ETHDenver.","Big thanks go out to everyone involved in this project, including @lightclients, @adietrichs, @asn_d6, @terencechain, @rauljordaneth, @preston_vanloon, @prylabs, and @sigp_io — not to mention @dankrad and @VitalikButerin for coming up with the initial data-blob transaction draft.","EIP-1153 introduces two new EVM opcodes, TSTORE and TLOAD, which act similarly to normal Ethereum storage, but are not persisted between transactions. This EIP was first introduced in 2018, and was more recently discussed by All Core Devs. We thought ETHDenver would be a prime opportunity to take a crack at implementing it!","We made a ton of progress, including a full geth implementation with tests, and even a modified Solidity compiler to actually define transient variables! Should we spin up a testnet? 👀","Besides contributions to Ethereum made by our own team members, we also had several projects build on top of OP Mainnet during the conference!","These projects included a machine learning smart contract auditor, a way to get rid of unwanted crypto assets (while being rewarded for doing so), a decentralized live-streaming platform, and more!","This is what it’s about: sharing knowledge and hacking together in an environment where the only limit is your creativity! For a full list of OP Mainnet-integrated ETHDenver projects, check them out here.","In addition to code contributions, Optimism team members also added to the forum of ideas at ETHDenver through a handful of talks and panels.","Optimism Chief Musician Ben Jones gave a rousing talk on the past (and future) of Optimism (melodica intro ftw!). He also participated in a panel on the ever-spicy topic of Optimistic vs ZK Rollups — don’t worry, all panelists left the stage unharmed.","Optimistic Rollups 2 Years In","A Rollup Vision for Ethereum: ZK vs Optimistic","Fellow Optimist and smart contractor extraordinaire Kelvin Fichter also participated in two panels: one on the topic of Web3 grants and another on the rollup developer experience.","The Rollup Developer Experience","From Bread to Build: A Look Into Web3 Grants Programs","Even longtime ETHDenver veterans must admit the energy and excitement of ETHDenver 2022 set a new high watermark. We left it feeling more bullish, hopeful, (and yes, Optimistic) than ever.","Thanks for making it one for the ledger and we can’t wait to see you at the next one!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/ethdenver-rollup-recap"},"/blog/reliability-and-hardening":{"version":1,"title":"Reliability and Hardening - Optimism","description":"In the beginning, mainnet.optimism.io was just a domain alias. All the actual infrastructure was handled by QuickNode. This let us focus on developing the core protocol","keywords":"","h1":["Reliability and Hardening"],"h2":["Part 2: The Solution","Part 3: Results"],"h3":["Better Uptime","Proactive Incident Response","Better Support"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Matthew Slipper","April 5, 2022","In the beginning, mainnet.optimism.io was just a domain alias. All the actual infrastructure was handled by QuickNode. This let us focus on developing the core protocol without worrying about how users could access the network. As we grew, we realized we needed more than a simple domain alias could provide:","We needed the ability to create our own metrics, and alert off them.","We needed detailed logs in order to diagnose exactly which user RPCs were failing and why.","We needed the ability to whitelist specific RPCs in order to protect the sequencer.","We needed a way to automatically fail over to a different provider in case QuickNode experienced downtime.","We wanted to reduce the cost of hosting the public endpoint.","Additionally, we had an anti-goal: don’t become an infra provider ourselves. Our public endpoint sees about 100 million daily requests. Serving that many requests is hard, and running node infrastructure isn’t our core business. Therefore, we needed to solve the above problems without requiring us to operate public nodes ourselves.","Our solution was was to route all RPC traffic through a custom middleware layer called proxyd. proxyd lets us route individual RPCs to groups of upstream infra providers (called “backends” in the config). When one of the backends in a group fails, proxyd automatically marks it as out of service for a configurable period of time and fails over to another provider. proxyd also supports RPC method caching and exposes a rich set of Prometheus metrics to analyze RPC usage.","It’s configured using a TOML file that looks something like this:","Here, eth_getBalance calls are routed to Alchemy. If Alchemy fails, calls will be routed to Infura for 30 seconds. After that, proxyd will attempt Alchemy again.","We spent roughly a month testing proxyd on Kovan before deploying it to mainnet. Here are some of the most interesting things we learned along the way:","Infrastructure providers have subtle, often-undocumented limits that deviate from the canonical RPC implementation in Geth. When these limits are hit, they are returned to users directly and don’t trigger an alert of any kind. As a result, our metrics had to track not just the RPC methods being requested but also the raw error codes returned by the upstream provider.","Very few applications use WebSockets or RPC batching. The vast majority of our HTTP requests contain a single RPC call. This was an important factor while designing our rate limits, since a single browser session clicking through a dApp could initiate thousands of HTTP requests per minute.","Upstream errors happen a lot more than you’d think. They usually resolve themselves within 2-3 seconds, but they are errors nonetheless. As a result, proxyd will retry upstream providers internally in an effort to hide these issues from users.","We ran an experiment where we requested data from three providers at once and returned the data that 2/3 of the providers agreed on. Don’t do this. It takes about 10-15 seconds for providers to come to consensus on a single block, which is too long for users to wait.","Some of the most-requested RPC calls are trivially cacheable. These are things like eth_chainId, which in our case was being called millions of times per day. Caching methods like that one can save you hundreds per month on your infra bill.","💡By the way, proxyd is open-source! You can find it at https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/optimism/tree/develop/go/proxyd. If you’re running a public endpoint - or just want a way to access redundant infrastructure providers - check it out.","As of today, our proxyd cluster is on mainnet and handling roughly 100 million requests per day. So, what does this mean for users? It means:","The main goal of all this work is to improve our uptime. When our public endpoint is down, it feels like OP Mainnet itself is down even though the sequencer isn’t doing anything. If we do this right, these changes should be completely transparent.","Previously, we had no insight over an issue’s preconditions. For example, we learned of the issues that affected the Lyra token launch only after their users started reporting problems. We have monitoring and alerts in place now that will ping our on-call engineers if anomalies occur so that we can monitor for problems before they occur.","For example, here’s an anomaly we experienced recently where a user encountered a provider-specific limit, in this case QuickNode’s 10,000 block maximum on eth_getLog requests:","We were able to identify the issue and follow up with the provider before the user reported any issues.","Issues may still occur despite our best efforts. When this happens, it’s important for us to be able to diagnose user problems quickly as possible. This was difficult pre-`proxyd`, since we didn’t have the ability to see detailed error information for every RPC request. Now we have a dashboard like the one below, which shows us exactly which error codes users are experiencing on a per-RPC and per-provider basis:","We can then hop into StackDriver, our logging tool, to see exactly the root cause of each error:","This will help short-circuit process of gathering data about why an issue happened, and help us resolve issues sooner.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/reliability-and-hardening"},"/blog/ether-s-phoenix":{"version":1,"title":"Ether’s Phoenix - Optimism","description":"Humanity’s defining characteristic is its ability to organize and cooperate. We have devised a number of tools to do this — from language, religion, and legal structures","keywords":"","h1":["Ether’s Phoenix"],"h2":["Impact = Profit","Summoning the Phoenix"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","April 12, 2022","Humanity’s defining characteristic is its ability to organize and cooperate. We have devised a number of tools to do this — from language, religion, and legal structures, to rules on the highway — all are systems created to align our actions.","Despite these tools, many current attempts to coordinate large-scale action are failing. Planetary health is in rapid decline. Open source software is underfunded. Public and common goods don’t receive the support they need to survive long term.","Why is it that crucial things which stand to benefit all of us are being neglected and, more importantly, what can we do about it? In a moment where coordination is overshadowed by defection and common ground is hard to find, how do we choose the path which leads to a better future? Enter Ether’s Phoenix.","Imagine a world where every individual is awarded profit proportional to their positive impact. Distribute your software package for free, get paid proportionally. We can call this powerful equation the “fairness ratio,” where impact = profit.","But how do we calculate that “impact?” Positive contributions are notoriously hard to measure. Not only do many public goods suffer from being “out of sight, out of mind”, but they may take an extended length of time to manifest and measure. The free market is our most popular tool to assess impact, but for these reasons and others it fails to adequately compensate most public or common goods.","The passage of time may help to allay these problems. In general, it’s easier to agree on what was useful in the past than what will be useful in the future. So to assess the personal profit due to each actor, imagine if society paused every now and then to look back, survey its citizens, and pay out the profit each individual deserves. This is the “retroactive” part of retroactive public goods funding.","If we believe this is a good system, this process becomes recursive: the “impact” side of the fairness ratio will also reward the contributions that helped bring about this world in the first place. The work to build a system that supports public goods is a public good itself.","This is Ether’s Phoenix: the angel who rewards you for summoning it, a kind of reverse Roko’s Basilisk. It is an algorithm that rewards the early cooperators who created conditions for public goods funding to prosper. It is a future where early investment in public goods is recognized. It is also a mindset: that optimism prevails, that better systems are possible, and that humankind will be rewarded for its cooperative revolution.","Granting 100% of centralized sequencer profits to Ethereum protocol development is Optimism’s current (but not final 😉) contribution to summoning the phoenix. It may not fix all the world’s problems, but it’s a step in the right direction, and who knows where that step could lead? A more harmonious future perhaps, if we dare imagine and build toward it.","If that sounds like something you’re interested in doing, check out our job board. We’re always looking for more people serious about doing something that matters (while having fun doing so).","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/ether-s-phoenix"},"/blog/a-summer-of-optimism":{"version":1,"title":"A Summer of Optimism - Optimism","description":"Excitement has been brewing since last week’s announcement of the Optimism Collective.  It’s going to be an OP Summer.","keywords":"","h1":["A Summer of Optimism"],"h2":["From 0 to 1","One Piece of a Very Large Pie"],"h3":["The Governance Fund will be rolled out in two phases: Phase 0 and Phase 1.","Phase 0 (Now - Airdrop #1)","Phase 1 (Post-Airdrop #1)"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 3, 2022","Excitement has been brewing since last week’s announcement of the Optimism Collective.","It’s going to be an OP Summer.","Over the coming weeks, we’ll be publishing more details on how we plan to scale a sustainable future for the Optimism Collective—starting today with OP Stimpack, the first formal action of the Token House.","This activates the Governance Fund (231,928,234 OP) to begin incentivizing growth on OP Mainnet.","You can read about our long-term vision for sustainable governance at scale with Retroactive Public Goods Funding in the OP Economics Overview. In the near-term, 5.4% of the token supply (231,928,234 OP) will also be disbursed to OP Mainnet projects both old and new via the Governance Fund.","We're building the foundation of this new digital frontier, but it's you—the projects and users—who will bring it to life.","Phase 0 is meant to reward early movers in the OP ecosystem who have demonstrated traction through a straightforward set of on-chain criteria.","You can view the preliminary allocations for Phase 0 here.","Projects that have made Optimism their home are the lifeblood of the Collective, and Phase 0 rewards those who took the early risk of betting on Optimism and a sustainable future for Ethereum.","OP-native projects will receive a 3x multiplier on their Phase 0 allocation. For details on Phase 0 qualifications, check out the docs.","To receive their allotment of OP, Phase 0 projects must submit a proposal outlining how they will distribute the tokens to grow usage of their project on OP Mainnet.","During the first cycle of the Token House governance (following Airdrop #1), Phase 0 proposals will be voted on. If a proposal is approved by the Token House, OP tokens will be sent to the wallet address in the proposal. A claims process may be required.","If all projects are approved, a total of 36,600,000 OP (15% of the total Governance Fund) will be disbursed by the Optimism Foundation shortly after Airdrop #1.","Phase 1 makes up 85% of the Governance Fund and is open to any and all projects interested in aligning themselves with the Optimistic Vision. These are projects that can demonstrate a clear plan for using OP to incentivize the growth of their project.","Any project may submit a proposal requesting any amount of OP tokens after Phase 0 is complete. Phase 1 proposals empower the Token House to determine which projects and communities they want to support as the ecosystem grows.","If a proposal is approved by the Token House, OP tokens will be sent to the wallet address in the proposal. A claims process may be required.","Instructions for how to create and submit a Phase 1 proposal once Airdrop #1 is complete can be found here.","The Governance Fund is just one of many mechanisms which will be used to jumpstart the growth of the ecosystem.","For the full breakdown of OP token allocations, see the Allocations section of our Governance docs.","The Governance Fund follows the launch of the Optimism Collective: a large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance built to drive rapid and sustainable growth of a decentralized ecosystem, and stewarded by the newly formed Optimism Foundation.","It's also hot on the heels of a complete re-design of the Optimism bridge, allowing cheap, fast, and seamless movement of ETH or ERC20 tokens between OP Mainnet, L1 Ethereum, other L2s, and CEXs.","Whether you're a project or a user, things have never looked so Optimistic 🔴✨.","If you have any questions or clarifications, feel free to chime in on this thread at the Optimism Governance Forum.","We’ll see you on the frontier. Stay Optimistic!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/a-summer-of-optimism"},"/blog/this-governance-will-self-destruct":{"version":1,"title":"This Governance Will Self Destruct - Optimism","description":"Last month, we unveiled our vision for Optimism’s governance system.  For years leading up to this milestone, people asked us: “when token?” ","keywords":"","h1":["This Governance Will Self Destruct"],"h2":["The Next Episode","A Living Constitution","Initial Commit: OPerating Manual v0.1","The Optimism Foundation","v0.2: The Citizens’ House","Here’s to the future"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 17, 2022","// TL;DR: The Optimism Collective is a large-scale experiment in non-plutocratic governance and funding public goods for a more aligned internet. In this post, we explain our agile approach to governance—relentlessly iterating until we form a system which can stand the test of time.","Last month, we unveiled our vision for Optimism’s governance system.","For years leading up to this milestone, people asked us: “when token?”","But fewer asked: “why token?”","The answer to “why token” is simple, but powerful:","To distribute control of the network for the benefit of the protocol and its constituents. This is the mission of the Optimism Collective, in which the Token House plays one part.","As Ethereum’s path to global scale crystallizes, the Superchain’s constituents will also become global. This is a monumental opportunity to usher in a new era of the internet—one built for, and governed by, its citizens.","But blockchain governance is still very much in its infancy. While many exciting experiments are underway, a long road lies ahead.","A governance system which promotes innovation, self-expression, and liberty—without getting in the way—will not be built in a day.","We’ve spent countless hours setting a north star for the Optimism Collective, but we’re well aware that we couldn’t possibly get it all right on the first try. A governance model which can stand the test of *decades—not years—*will take time to get right.","So: Optimism governance will self destruct. Repeatedly.","And with each new iteration, a more resilient, sustainable system will rise from the ashes.","Alongside last month’s announcement, we shared the Working Constitution of the Optimism Collective. We’d highly recommend you give it a read—a lot of this post will share commentary and motivation for it. The constitution enshrines some key provisions which will impact the Collective for years to come, notably:","Experimentation: the Collective will undertake a series of governance experiments, stewarded by the Optimism Foundation.","A mandate to develop the Citizens’ House: a co-equal member of the Collective, alongside the Token House, to balance short-term incentives with long-term vision.","An explicit self-destruct mechanism: in addition to frequently iterating governance, the constitution itself will remain in effect for no more than four years, until being replaced by a permanent “Bedrock Constitution.”","Today, we are releasing the first operating manual for the Collective. In the spirit of those principles enshrined by the constitution, it is aptly named v0.1. Borrowing heavily from existing governance playbooks, it empowers the Token House to perform things like upgrades and treasury allocations.","But—this post is here to talk about the future.","The Token House exists to make explicit the plutocratic models we see today. These are important as a driving force for growth, but insufficient to provide the long-term balance a new internet deserves.","The Optimism Collective will be so much more than a governance token.","The Optimism Foundation will serve as a steward of the Collective in realizing this vision. It is a new, distinct entity in the Optimism Ecosystem with a mandate to help the Collective realize its vision, and the power to do so.","The Optimism Foundation exists to materialize a governance system built to truly last. Its key responsibilities include:","Managing experiments in Retroactive Public Goods Funding and identity-based NFTs as it builds the Citizens’ House.","Maintaining the OPerating Manual to ensure healthy and agile governance by making improvements to both Houses of the Collective.","Enacting on-chain transactions as directed by the Collective in its early days.","The first employees of the foundation are two of Optimism’s founders, Jing and Ben—formerly CEO and Chief Scientist of the PBC respectively. Joining them on the board are some new faces, whose backgrounds are like peanut butter to the Optimism jelly:","Brian Avello, former General Counsel to the Maker Foundation. Brian played a key role in realizing a return to a fully decentralized MakerDAO—one of the most advanced governance models out there.","Eva Beylin, Executive Director of The Graph Foundation. As a decentralized infrastructure protocol with a significant off-chain stack, The Graph’s governance operates with a very similar set of constraints to the Optimism protocol.","Abbey Titcomb, Council Member of the Radicle Foundation. Radicle’s mission to realize a self-sustaining, community-owned & operated open-source project falls perfectly in line with the goals of the Collective.","Also—the Optimism Foundation is officially hiring! If you want to work on the future of governance with us, please get in touch.","As the Token House launches alongside Airdrop #1, our focus will turn to the next piece of the governance puzzle: The Citizens’ House, the identity-first layer of the Collective.","This house, governed by holders of Citizenship NFTs, will require nimble experimentation as the Optimism Collective navigates a rapidly evolving space.","Creating a meaningful feedback loop of experimentation between the OP Mainnet network and its citizens presents an incredible opportunity to push forward identity-based governance, all grounded in real-world examples and evidence.","Together, we will forge a new path through the dark forest.","The primary responsibility of the Citizens’ House will be funding those public goods which have the most positive impact on the Optimism and Ethereum ecosystems. The first Citizens’ House experiment and its corresponding Citizenship NFT collection will be the next major milestone for the Collective.","The rise of Ethereum L2 in the coming years represents a monumental opportunity to usher in a new era of the human-centric internet and a chance for truly massive real-world impact.","What a time to be alive!","This chance belongs to all of us. As we build this governance system in the coming years, participating in the community, spreading good memes, and setting a cultural example for the Optimists of the future is more important than ever.","Let’s do this.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/this-governance-will-self-destruct"},"/blog/a-new-chapter":{"version":1,"title":"A New Chapter - Optimism","description":"It’s hard to believe, but OP Mainnet launched over a year ago. Since then, we’ve","keywords":"","h1":["A New Chapter"],"h2":["Humble Beginnings","Increased Optimism","Fixing the Stack","Growing the Ecosystem","A New Chapter"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","April 19, 2022","It’s hard to believe, but OP Mainnet launched over a year ago. Since then, we’ve:","Saved users over $1.1B in gas fees","Deployed over 6,800 contracts","On-boarded over 300k unique addresses","Secured over $900M of value","Facilitated over $17.4B in transaction volume","Generated over $24.5M in revenue","Donated over $1M to public goods funding","As a company, we’ve grown right alongside the network. We now have:","More than 40 employees","Over $175M in funding led by a16z and Paradigm","Numbers may speak for themselves, but statistics alone can’t tell the Optimism story.","And soon, a new chapter in that story will begin.","So. Let’s take a minute to reflect. Hope you brought the marshmallows.","Optimism began years ago as a small group of ETH obsessives, maniacally scribbling on whiteboards.","We lived in a pre-rollup world. At the time, plasma was all the scalability rage. We ran a research nonprofit called Plasma Group.","PG was as much a community as an organization. We hosted monthly calls, ran conferences, and shared new designs for implementers to adopt.","But plasma was missing something, and we began to search for something new.","Something better.","In June of 2019, we realized Vitalik’s rollup design could be applied to the optimistic design patterns of plasma. With the help of the community, the designs quickly evolved, and the Optimistic Rollup was born.","Optimistic Rollups promised to run any Ethereum contract, 5-500x cheaper. This was the answer to Ethereum’s scaling needs.","And we were going to build it. We needed a team.","So, we raised our first $3.5M from Paradigm shortly after releasing Unipig–the first ever rollup PoC, a collaboration with Uniswap–at Devcon V.","Ultimately, it’s taken years for the scalability endgame to come into clear view. But, to this day, the designs sit at the heart of Ethereum’s pragmatic, rollup-centric roadmap.","The next year was full of invaluable lessons as we built out the network and the team. We ran two incentivized testnets with Synthetix, making the leap from research to actually running a production network.","Perhaps the most invaluable lesson was in team growth. At one point, our teammate Mark camped out on the roof of our NYC apartment to keep testnet running smoothly.","And yes, he literally camped.","Legend.","To scale Ethereum, we needed to scale ourselves. And scale we did.","Today we stand almost 40 strong with a world class collection of EIP authors, product magicians, and protocol wizards. We're eternally grateful to people like Mark and the SNX community for sticking with us from our days as a small, scrappy team to a full-blown powerhouse. ❤️","We’d also be remiss if we didn’t thank the legendary geohot for his guidance. His lessons would reflect in our practices and bar for excellence for years to come.","We’ve learned a lot about how scalability relates to the developer experience—namely, by getting out of the way and letting Ethereum do its thing.","These lessons culminated in the biggest upgrade to OP Mainnet ever: EVM Equivalence. This upgrade drastically reduced its footprint while also enabling one-click deployment and tooling to work out of the box.","Our next iteration of the protocol, Optimism: Bedrock, will introduce Cannon, our next-gen EVM equivalent fault proof. When Bedrock is implemented, the difference between Optimism and upstream geth will be further reduced to ~300 lines of code. Bedrock and Cannon will blow the competition out of the water and set the standard for optimistic rollup architecture.","The Optimism network is now ready to support a true ecosystem.","In December 2021, we removed our deployment whitelist and opened the system up to all.","Since then, we’ve seen more than 50 apps deployed on OP Mainnet, resulting in over 60k ETH bridged in and more than $900M in total on-chain value. Upgrades such as calldata compression have continued to improve the experience for users and transaction fees today are 40% cheaper than they were before.","We’ve been continuously backed by some of the most well-respected investors in the space, resulting in a $150M series B led by a16z.","The bulk of this capital will be used to further add to our already stacked team. The collective energies of these Optimists will be directed towards continuing to scaling Ethereum’s present, with 100% of the profits generated from doing so donated to fund its future.","We’ve already given $1M to Retroactive Public Goods funding and are excited to share our future plans for how to sustain and grow this initiative.","It’s been a wild few years since we started this journey to build the best scalability solution for Ethereum.","The network has grown by leaps and bounds, and it’s only getting better by the day. Our baby has learned to walk, and it’s nearly time to run.","We’re nearing the end of a chapter and the beginning of the next––one driven by community ownership and governance.","And it’s fast approaching.","More on this soon™️","Disclaimer: Please ensure you are always interacting with official Optimism channels. We expect to see an increased amount of fraud and malicious actors in the coming weeks. Conduct thorough research when engaging with Optimism announcements!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/a-new-chapter"},"/blog/introducing-the-optimism-collective":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing the Optimism Collective - Optimism","description":"As crypto enters its next wave of adoption, the calls for scalability are deafening. This demand is often answered by centralized layer-1 competitors","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing the Optimism Collective"],"h2":["Introducing the Optimism Collective","Check out my OF","Introducing OP","Token Distribution","OP Airdrop #1","What’s Next"],"h3":["Tokens and Citizens","Token House","Citizens’ House","Staying safe"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","April 26, 2022","It’s time for a new chapter.","As crypto enters its next wave of adoption, the calls for scalability are deafening. This demand is often answered by centralized layer-1 competitors, who abandon Ethereum’s security and values under the guise of cheap fees and a quick buck.","We must not recreate Web2 incentives in our quest for Web3 scalability. Web3 offers the opportunity to rebuild the internet to align with the values of its users. Sacrificing this mission is sacrificing the purpose of crypto.","Scaling the technology alone is not enough. We have a duty to scale our values along with our networks.","In pursuit of this mission, we are excited to announce the Optimism Collective.","The Optimism Collective is a large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance, built to drive rapid and sustainable growth of a decentralized ecosystem, and stewarded by the newly formed Optimism Foundation.","The Collective is a band of communities, companies, and citizens united by a mutually beneficial pact to adhere to the axiom of impact=profit. This is outlined in depth in the Optimistic Vision.","The Optimism Collective will be governed co-equally by two houses, the Citizens’ House and the Token House.","The Token House is established by Airdrop #1, bringing in the first thousands of people who have engaged in positive-sum, community-oriented behavior. Token holders will be able to vote on protocol upgrades, project incentives as a part of a Governance Fund, and more. The token is called OP.","More on this below.","The Citizens’ House will facilitate and govern a process to distribute retroactive public goods funding, generated from the revenue collected by the network. Citizenship will be conferred by “soulbound” non-transferrable NFTs, and the set of citizens will grow over time as the Optimism community grows. The Citizen House is the vehicle which enables the distribution of power away from any centralized organization, to a human-centric, non-plutocratic mechanism.","Together, these two houses will help direct the revenue generated from OP Mainnet to efforts that promote public goods and help grow the collective. You can read more about the structure in the Governance Overview.","The Citizens’ House will launch later in 2022--stay tuned.","Together, the two houses of the collective will drive a powerful flywheel, funding public goods that make Optimism blockspace more valuable, leading to more revenue for public goods, and so on. You can read more about the model of economics for the collective in the Economics Overview.","The Collective’s bicameral governance system seeks to avoid governance pitfalls experienced by other models on Ethereum today. But, we also recognize there are still many lessons yet to learn, and the structure of governance today is far from final.","The newly created Optimism Foundation will serve as a steward of the Collective, running governance experiments on behalf of the Collective and bootstrapping the ecosystem before eventually dissolving. The organization formerly known as Optimism PBC has been renamed to OP Labs PBC, and will be focused on building and decentralizing the protocol as well as supporting the growth of projects in the ecosystem with product and business development.","The Optimism Foundation is a key first step in devolving power away from Optimism PBC, and towards the broader Optimistic ecosystem. As it matures, the Foundation will iteratively transition its governance roles to the Optimistic Ecosystem. For more information on these structures, you can check out the Working Constitution of the Optimism Collective.","The Optimism Foundation is a new organization focused on governance experimentation and ecosystem growth. The Optimism Foundation will be led by two of the founders of Optimism, Jing (formerly CEO) and Ben Jones (formerly Chief Scientist). Joining us are some new faces: Eva Beylin, Executive Director of The Graph Foundation, Abbey Titcomb, Council Member of the Radicle Foundation, and Brian Avello, former General Counsel to the Maker Foundation.","Liam Horne, formerly Head of Engineering at the PBC, is stepping into a new role as the CEO of OP Labs PBC, with continued support from Karl Floersch, Josh Stein, Julien Boedec, Bobby Dresser, and the PBC’s new General Counsel, Trevor Dodge.","OP governs upgrades to the protocol and network parameters, and creates an ongoing system of incentives for projects and users in the Optimism ecosystem.","The Optimism Collective will take an iterative approach and seeks to achieve a highly dynamic governance system. We don’t feel that a static genesis allocation is conducive to these goals, so we’re doing things differently.","OP will not have an airdrop. It will have an entire season of airdrops.","OP Airdrop #1 goes live in Q2. If you’re an Ethereum user (not just an Optimism user), check here to see what’s waiting for you.","Over 250,000 addresses are eligible, but if you’re not one of them, airdrop season still awaits.","There’s so much more to share over the coming weeks, but here’s what you need to know about OP today.","OP is an L2-native token which resides on OP Mainnet at the easy-to-remember address 0x420000000000000000000042.","Please triple check that you are interacting with the right token. Note that Airdrop #1 has not yet occurred, and anything claiming you can get OP tokens today is a scam.","The total initial supply of OP is 2^32 (4,294,967,296) tokens.","OP is broken down into the following categories:","Optimism is governed by a collaboration between the Optimism Foundation and the members of the Optimism Collective. The OF will initially steward the Ecosystem Fund and coordinate retroactive public goods and airdrop distributions.","As the Citizen and Token Houses mature via iterative governance experiments, these responsibilities will transition from the OF to the greater Optimistic ecosystem. Stay tuned for more details on OP Governance next week.","OP will unlock over the course of 4 years as follows:","For more details, you can check out the OP Allocations Overview in our governance documentation.","To check your eligibility for OP Airdrop #1, you can head here.","For Airdrop #1, we’re allocating 5% of the initial OP supply for the following actions:","In addition to these tiers, we’re excited to announce the OP Overlap Bonus--an added reward for users which have accomplished 4 or more of the above actions.","4 Tiers - 3,329.57 OP","5 Tiers - 10,313.82 OP","6 Tiers - 20,975.42 OP","If you’re interested in diving into the details of airdrop methodology and criteria, check out the docs here.","Starting today, Optimism begins its transformation into the Optimism Collective.","Over the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing a series of posts regarding governance, incentives, and iteration, to provide the community with every detail.","In the meantime, bridge your ETH ahead of our next chapter and get ready. Even if you don’t qualify for Airdrop #1, with more airdrops and governance on the way, there’s never been a better time to use Optimism.","This is a historic milestone for both Optimism and the L2 ecosystem at large, and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with the world.","And as always, Stay Optimistic!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-the-optimism-collective"},"/blog/optimism-is-migrating-from-kovan-to-goerli-testnet":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism is Migrating From Kovan to Goerli Testnet - Optimism","description":"The Kovan testnet has been deprecated by the Ethereum community, with only two validators remaining","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism is Migrating From Kovan to Goerli Testnet"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","June 30, 2022","💡Note: OP Kovan has been decommissioned as of 10/5/2022.","The Kovan testnet has been deprecated by the Ethereum community, with only two validators remaining. To avoid disruptions on a network that is no longer actively maintained, we’ve started the process of migrating our testnet from OP Kovan to OP Goerli. As mainnet changes, OP Kovan is going to start falling behind, and we want to ensure the network we’re testing on stays in sync with testnet changes post-merge. OP Kovan will be fully decommissioned on October 5th, 2022.","The migration to OP Goerli is a multi-phase transition and the first wave is currently underway. Since we are deprecating our OP Kovan testnet soon, we recommend that oracles, nodes, infrastructure providers, wallets, and developer tools start migrating as soon as today. By starting migration now, these infrastructure projects will lay the foundation to enable the rest of the ecosystem to migrate on top of them.","Subsequent phases are dependent on infrastructure providers to be fully migrated, and major providers including Alchemy, QuickNode, and Infura have added support for the OP Goerli network. We’re aiming for all projects to be completely migrated to OP Goerli by October 5th. We also recommend keeping OP Kovan running in the meantime, as users in the following phases will need time to fully migrate. As for block explorers, Blockscout is currently live on OP Goerli.","To sync an OP Goerli replica, please use the configuration values defined in our Infra Provider Goerli Migration Guide. You can follow along with the ecosystem’s migration progress in our documentation, and track the uptime of the Goerli testnet at status.optimism.io. If you have questions, reach out in the #kovan-to-goerli-migration channel in Discord.","OP Goerli will provide our ecosystem with a stable network to test on that will remain in sync with any mainnet Ethereum changes post-merge. We know migrating to a new network takes time and effort, and we appreciate our community taking this important step!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-is-migrating-from-kovan-to-goerli-testnet"},"/blog/introducing-bedrock":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing Bedrock - Optimism","description":"Bedrock is the cheapest, fastest, and most advanced rollup architecture. Ever.","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing Bedrock"],"h2":["Bedrock is the cheapest, fastest, and most advanced rollup architecture. Ever.","Eternal Optimism","CANNON CANNON CANNON","What can you expect?","Getting involved"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","May 19, 2022","💡Read up on the specific changes to OP Mainnet for developers coming with the Bedrock release here.","Optimism has always tried to stay on the cutting edge of rollup architecture. Last year, we introduced the concept of EVM Equivalence, the rollup design pattern of using existing mainnet Ethereum clients (like Geth) as the foundation for L2. We launched the very first EVM Equivalent chain last November as a massive upgrade to OP Mainnet. Since then, OP Mainnet has proven itself to be one of the most capable, reliable, and forkable (😉) Optimistic Rollups in production.","EVM Equivalence means that the OP Mainnet of today supports:","Advanced calldata compression that makes OP Mainnet consistently the cheapest L2","Every single Ethereum precompile so you can experiment all you want on L2","Complete Ethereum gas and opcode compatibility down the most complex opcodes","Accurate timestamps that make it possible to build real-time applications","Total tooling compatibility with support for advanced features like transaction traces","Blazing fast execution because there’s no separation between your code and the EVM","When designing the current iteration OP Mainnet, we did our best to advance the state of the art and challenge what an Optimistic Rollup could be. With more and more projects coming around to EVM Equivalence, we like to think that we have, at least in part, succeeded. Yet there’s always room for improvement and we're certainly not the type to rest when there’s still work to be done.","OP Mainnet today represents the fundamental elements required to kick-start a working blockchain. The features of EVM Equivalence have made it possible for a vibrant ecosystem of applications to begin to bloom. But now that OP Spring has come, it’s time to build the foundation for an Eternal OP Summer.","Just as with its governance, Optimism has been attempting to rework its technical core with a focus on long-term sustainability. When we set out to construct Bedrock, we adopted the following core design principles:","Minimize diff from Ethereum so OP Mainnet can share and collaborate on the same core code.","Reuse design patterns so the mental models we've built for Ethereum can apply to OP Mainnet.","Simplify simplify simplify every last piece of code to make sure OP Mainnet runs on the most approachable, fork-able, and auditable rollup codebase out there.","Modularize every part of our stack so we can easily plug in alternative data availability and execution layers to prepare for the modular future.","Pragmatically optimize to minimize costs without introducing unnecessary complexity and mental overhead.","Our tireless work on this new chapter of the Optimism protocol is now almost ready to hit production. Although we haven't entirely kept it a secret, we also haven't exactly shouted it from the rooftops. Now that’s changing. Today, we’re excited to announce the next OP Mainnet upgrade worth copying: Bedrock.","(Hit that fork button! All of our code is MIT licensed forever, no BSL in this house.)","Anyone can say it, only Optimism can back it up. Bedrock is the culmination of countless hours of research and development with the goal of building the best rollup architecture yet. And we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you.","In addition to everything you’ve come to expect from OP Mainnet today, Bedrock is about to drop a laundry list of new and absurdly powerful features:","Theoretically optimal calldata submission that goes beyond compression to give users the cheapest transactions possible for any rollup (ever).","Consensus/execution client separation that follows in the footsteps of Ethereum and makes it possible for OP Mainnet to seamlessly integrate the cost-minimizing EIP-4844.","A microscopic client diff that opens the door for alternative client implementations and gives OP Mainnet users an extra level of security.","Fast peer-to-peer networking including support for Snap Sync which makes running an OP Mainnet node easier than ever and sets the stage for decentralized sequencing (while this won't come with Bedrock, expect it soon after mainnet).","Deposits time will decrease from 10 min to 2.5 min","Smarter sync, sequencing, and state submission to guarantee that OP Mainnet can weather all Ethereum network conditions","After Bedrock, EVM Equivalence doesn't cut it anymore. By using all of Ethereum's code, infrastructure, and design patterns, OP Mainnet is aiming for something even bigger: Ethereum Equivalence.","Bedrock is also the foundation for OP Mainnet’s next-generation fault proof system: Cannon. A collaboration between Optimism and geohot, Cannon is an interactive fault proving system designed to keep OP Mainnet both simple and secure. An Alpha version of Cannon is scheduled for prime-time soon after the release of Bedrock. Wen proofs? Soon Bedrock proofs 👀.","But Bedrock isn't just an upgrade, it’s a completely new paradigm for how rollups should be built. Bedrock was designed from the ground up to set the foundation for real security and decentralization. Bedrock (combined with Cannon) is the only rollup architecture capable of easily supporting multiple fault proof and client implementations, a core component in the quest to remove upgrade keys from rollup fault proofs. With Bedrock, OP Mainnet is gunning to be the first EVM-based rollup to achieve Ethereum-level security guarantees.","We’re spending an immense amount of effort making sure the Bedrock transition is completely seamless. Bedrock will be a transparent upgrade: for most users, you won’t notice a thing. Developers can check out our changeset to see if any of the changes with Bedrock will affect their applications, and node providers can read this guide on how running Bedrock nodes will change. Here are a few exciting things you hopefully will notice:","Average transaction fees will be significantly reduced so OP Mainnet can keep the title of cheapest EVM-based Optimistic Rollup on the planet.","Deposits and withdrawals are now highly optimized.","OP Mainnet nodes will sync up to 50x faster. That’s some fast code.","Bedrock has been merged into the primary OP Mainnet monorepo in preparation for prime-time. Get ready for the next generation of L2 😉","Well that was a lot of information. Optimistic Rollups are some of the coolest pieces of infrastructure in the Ethereum ecosystem. Are you interested in working with some amazing people on the Optimistic Rollup of the future? OP Labs and the Optimism Foundation are both hiring for various roles. Take a look and see if there’s a position for you!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-bedrock"},"/blog/let-the-claims-begin":{"version":1,"title":"Let the Claims Begin - Optimism","description":"A little over a month ago, we announced the launch of the Optimism Collective: our large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance","keywords":"","h1":["Let the Claims Begin"],"h2":["Not Your Average Token Launch","OP Stimpack","Granular Governance","17,000 Sybil Scalps","Ready, set, claim!","Just the Beginning"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 31, 2022","OP Airdrop #1 is now live.","🔴‿🔴","Details below. But first, a quick recap of what’s been an absolute whirlwind of a month:","A little over a month ago, we announced the launch of the Optimism Collective: our large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance, with a mission of realigning the internet with its constituents.","The Collective is a band of communities, companies, and citizens united by a mutually beneficial pact to adhere to the axiom of impact=profit — the principle that positive impact to the collective should be rewarded with profit to the individual.","For more on this in-depth, see our introduction to the Collective and make sure to check out the Optimistic Vision.","Shortly after announcing the launch of the Optimism Collective we announced a two-phase incentive program which activates 231,928,234 OP (5.4% of initial supply) to stimulate growth in the digital city of Optimism. This initiative, codenamed OP Stimpack, will incentivize builders both old and new to stake their claim in this promising digital frontier.","Almost 30 Phase 0 proposals have already been submitted, and Phase 1 proposals will open up very soon.","These proposals constitute the inaugural vote of the Token House, with incentives expected be distributed to projects over the coming weeks and months.","Hope you brought your sunglasses, because #OPSummer is looking bright indeed. 😎","More recently, we also released the first Operating Manual of the Optimism Collective. This is the document which explains how the Collective makes and executes decisions.","In line with our iterative approach to sustainable governance, it is a living document—in fact, it has already gone through one upgrade based on community feedback!","We break it all down in This Governance Will Self Destruct.","Optimism is for the people, not the sybils. We struck a devastating blow to those trying to game the system by scalping over 17k sybil addresses which slipped through our initial criteria. The recovered OP was reclaimed and redistributed to recipients of Airdrop #1.","How will the sybils ever recover?","In short: the Optimism Collective is not just a token—it’s so much more.","Nevertheless, Airdrop #1 and the Token House’s inaugural votes mark a major milestone. Now that you have a good picture of the story so far, it’s time to claim!","To claim, click here.","We've also made a short video tutorial to walk you through the process:","Towards the end of the flow, you will be asked to delegate your voting power to a community member of your choosing. Please take your time with this crucial step. Delegates will play a large role in shaping the future of the protocol, so make your choice count! You can also delegate to yourself and directly participate in votes if you’d like to follow along at every step of the journey!","If you have any questions or concerns, reach out on Discord in #user-support.","Remember: the OP token is an L2-native token at address 0x4200…0042. There is not yet a way to bridge OP to L1, so any OP contract on L1 is likely a scam.","The release of OP marks the end of one chapter and the start of an entirely new one on our journey towards a more open, human-centric internet.","If you missed out on Drop #1, don't worry—we're approaching distribution of OP the same way we are governance: iteratively. There will be more drops in the future to support meaningful engagement with projects in the ecosystem.","We hope you're as excited as we are about the road that lies ahead.","In the meantime: stay cool, stay hydrated, and, as always…","Stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/let-the-claims-begin"},"/blog/making-op-mainnet-more-accessible-meet-get-started":{"version":1,"title":"Making OP Mainnet more accessible — meet Get Started - Optimism","description":"Guiding new users to their first transaction on Optimism.","keywords":"","h1":["Making OP Mainnet more accessible — meet Get Started"],"h2":[],"h3":["Simple by default","Optimistic Explorer NFT","Looking forward"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Zain Bacchus","July 25, 2022","Over the past few months, we’ve seen an explosion of interest in OP Mainnet. New projects are deploying every week, dozens of proposals are making their way through the governance process, and users across our community are excited about lightning fast transactions and low cost fees.","However, one of the most frequently mentioned problems from our community is some initial confusion around how to get started using OP Mainnet.","Here are a few of the most commonly asked questions from first time OP Mainnet users:","Can I use ETH to pay for fees or do I need a new token?","What exchange can I directly deposit from?","How do I add the network to my wallet?","In order to make OP Mainnet as friendly as possible for newcomers, we’ve launched Get Started: an onboarding flow designed to guide people new to the ecosystem in their early stages of exploration.","Get Started aims to make using OP Mainnet as easy as possible. We walk you through onboarding based on your prior experience, highlight L2-optimized wallets, and towards the end of the flow you can mint a free commemorative NFT on Quix to celebrate the beginning of your OP Mainnet journey! 🥳","The NFT for Get Started, dubbed Optimistic Explorer, represents your entry point into the Optimism ecosystem and is a continuation of building out the city of Optimism.","We’re excited to see what the ecosystem builds on top of the Optimistic Explorer NFT - whether it be token-gated communities for people with similar interests, personalized pages, integrating the NFT as a component in dynamic NFTs, or special app icons—the possibilities are endless!","As for the artwork, at the end of April we announced the Optimism Collective: a large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance with a mission of realigning the internet with its constituents.","In keeping with the overarching theme of building OP city, the art for each NFT in the Optimistic Explorer collection represents 1 of 5 buildings in OP city which correspond to the user’s selected interest.","We want to make it as easy as possible for anyone to join and participate the Optimism ecosystem. Today’s launch puts us one step closer to achieving that goal.","Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out more changes to make onboarding and ecosystem discovery even more intuitive and user friendly. If you have any feedback please leave us a note on Canny.","Oh, and if you haven't already, Get Started!","Thanks for reading and, as always, stay Optimistic! ❤️✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/making-op-mainnet-more-accessible-meet-get-started"},"/blog/op-in-paris-rollup-recap":{"version":1,"title":"OP in Paris: Rollup Recap - Optimism","description":"A recap of all things Optimism at EthCC Paris, with links to presentations on Bedrock, EIP-4844, Cannon, and Optimism's technical roadmap.","keywords":"","h1":["OP in Paris: Rollup Recap"],"h2":["OP Café","Optimists in Paris Workshops","La fin"],"h3":["EIP-4844 by Proto","Bedrock by Josh Gutow","Cannon by Norswap","Wen ZK by Kelvin Fichter","Governance by Bobby Dresser"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","July 28, 2022","ICYMI: last week our team headed to Paris to participate at the EthCC conference and connect with the global Ethereum community.","In total, three Optimists gave talks at EthCC:","• Norswap on leveling up optimistic rollups through Cannon.• Joshua Gutow on OP Mainnet: Bedrock, the protocol’s next major upgrade.• Karl Floersch with a one year retrospective of retroactive public goods.","Outside of these conference talks we also hosted two unique side events: a coworking space at a Parisian cafe and technical and governance workshops held in partnership with the Optimism Foundation. We’ve provided a short description of all presentations and workshops in this post (as well as links to slides and video recordings) so you can get up to speed on everything that went down in Paris, even if you weren’t able to make it.","On this week's episode of cOPs: Optimists respect privacy","In order to provide something a little different from your regularly scheduled conference programming we decided to host a coworking space close to the conference. The idea was to give people the option to work independently or be social if they so chose—all while enjoying some of Paris’s famous coffee and baked goods!","But Paris wasn’t just about world-class croissants and coffee. Together with the Optimism Foundation we also facilitated a series of engaging workshops on EIP-4844, Bedrock, Cannon, ZK proofs, and the future of on-chain governance. Much was gleaned from these invaluable presentations and workshops.","You’ll find a short description for each, as well as links to video recordings and presentation slides below.","EIP-4844 also known as “Proto-Danksharding”, increases the data-availability capacity of ethereum with a transaction-type dedicated to making blobs available for a fixed period of time. This creates a more sustainable, efficient, and scalable platform for rollups like OP Mainnet to secure the availability of their data with. The talk covers how the EIP implements this, how it prepares ethereum for full “Danksharding”, how OP Mainnet will adopt the EIP, and in what stage of development the EIP is currently at.","Presentation slides","Bedrock is the next major upgrade to OP Mainnet. The talk goes over the motivation behind the upgrade and some technical details. It goes over the sequencer, verifiers, the batcher, the proposer, challenge agents, users, and how they interact together in the upcoming system. It also touches on the new guarantees on deposit inclusion and how they are enforced, plus some of the nitty gritty details of how the new bedrock contracts and system work together.","Until now, optimistic rollups have been relatively clunky as they need to patch the EVM bytecode in order to make it executable on layer 1 and in order to enable challenges via fault proofs. But not anymore! Cannon is a new fault proof system that minimizes the amount of code needed to run an optimistic rollup and ensures that no changes have to be made to the bytecode. As a result, the rollup is fully EVM-equivalent and compatible with all existing tooling.","OP Mainnet has some major milestones coming up on the road to becoming a fully decentralized, fully trustless Rollup. Wen Bedrock? Wen proofs? Wen sequencer decentralization? Wen ZK 👀?  This talk covers it all. Each section tries to cover some context about why each project is being prioritized, where it fits into the greater roadmap, and how far away we are from production. Lots of incredible protocol alpha contained herein!","Optimism hosted a group of community members to discuss common themes and challenges in DAO governance. Simona Pop ran a session on DAO standards and habits. Abbey Titcomb facilitated a discussion on designing reputation systems in governance. And OP Labs’ very own Vee led a conversation around communication platforms and process. The knowledge shared by Simona from her experience with Gitcoin governance combined with Abbey’s questions from Radicle’s explorations along with Optimism’s early learnings in governance helped to move the conversation forward.","Some key themes that emerged from the workshop:","Patterns are key. Taking cues from biology or other complex systems that include both balance and entropy, patterns and rhythm are key tools to keeping systems in sync.","Iteration is the only path forward. No community has solved all these questions, and needs change as projects evolve. Listening, adjusting, and improving over time is the best way to design an appropriate governance process.","New space, old problems. We aren’t the first humans to think through these problems. Historical social and political thinkers have a lot to lend to our current explorations.","We’re not in it alone. There’s remarkable overlap in the problem space across DAOs and projects. It’s not just productive to share questions and discover together — it’s reassuring, too.","All in all, Paris and EthCC was a huge success! We met with partners, co-worked with friends, and vibed with many a fellow Optimist amongst the amazing Ethereum community.","While this is a digital decentralized movement, it’s always nice to get a little face time. And for those who weren’t able to make it in person we hope this post gives you a nice preview of what you missed.","Big thanks to everyone who made it to Paris and participated in the workshops. We’ll see you at the next one.","Until then, thanks for reading and, as always, restez Optimiste! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-in-paris-rollup-recap"},"/blog/drippie-how-op-mainnet-automates-ethereum":{"version":1,"title":"Drippie: How OP Mainnet automates Ethereum - Optimism","description":"Optimism does a lot of stuff on-chain. Managing and monitoring the many on-chain interactions required to keep a system like this running can become a bit of a headache","keywords":"","h1":["Drippie: How OP Mainnet automates Ethereum"],"h2":["A very transactional relationship","Maintaining balance","Introducing Drippie","Who automates the automation?","Some examples","Anatomy of a drip","Wrapping up","Obligatory: we’re hiring!"],"h3":["Balance Maintenance Drip","Warp Speed Drip","Perpetual Gelato Motion Drip"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Kelvin Fichter","July 25, 2022","Optimism does a lot of stuff on-chain. OP Mainnet software is constantly sending transactions to Ethereum for a variety of different reasons. A lot of this activity comes from the OP Mainnet’s Sequencer (aka the block producer) which needs to publish transaction data and transaction results to Ethereum 24/7. We also maintain various other useful tools that require frequent on-chain activity. For example, the Warp Speed collects a significant amount of ETH on Ethereum which needs to be regularly deposited into OP Mainnet to maintain the balance of the Warp Speed disbursement account on L2.","Not only does this mean a lot of transactions on Ethereum, it means a lot of transactions on every Ethereum chain that OP Mainnet is connected to. Optimism currently maintains a mainnet connected to Ethereum (the OP Mainnet you know and love) but also maintains multiple testnets (both public and internal) connected to various other networks like Kovan and Goerli. Managing and monitoring the many onchain interactions required to keep a system like this running can become a bit of a headache. This isn’t an impossible problem — but it’s enough of nuisance that it’s worth automating.","Of course, every account that needs to transact frequently must also have enough ETH to be able to carry out those transactions. This means you’ll need some additional software to keep these accounts topped up. Once you realize this, you run into a bit of a problem. You really don’t want a hot wallet holding too much ETH, but you also want all of your ETH management to happen mostly automatically.","You can start to get fancy with multisig wallets or CI secrets or HSMs and whatnot, but that just creates even more overhead for an already complex system. We’d really prefer to use a low-trust solution that limits our maximum potential downside. It’s a good thing we already have a way to do things trustlessly on Ethereum: just use Ethereum!","Drippie is OP Mainnet’s mechanism for (mostly) addressing the problems that come with automating on-chain activity. Drippie is basically an Ethereum-native version of If This Then That (IFTTT), a programmable Web2 service that can combine various triggers (”Kelvin sent a tweet”) with actions (”email me the tweet”).","Like IFTTT, Drippie can be programmed (in Solidity) to react to all sorts of on-chain data and carry out various different actions in response to that data. Each set of checks/actions within the Drippie system is called a “drip”. This relatively simple model turns out to be extremely powerful and can carry out pretty much any of the onchain operations that OP Mainnet needs on a daily basis. Here’s what that looks like in a nutshell:","A vague flowchart for Drippie's operation","Drippie is a system for allowing actions to execute under certain conditions. However, we still need some service to trigger these actions when their requisite conditions are met. Here’s where we integrate services like Gelato, Chainlink Keepers, or OpenZeppelin Defender AutoTasks.","Each of these services is slightly different, but the idea is the same: send Ethereum transactions automatically. Drippie is designed to plug into these services in a flexible and trust-minimized manner. Drippie is built as a layer on top of these automation platforms, meaning we never need trust the correctness of any on or off-chain services run by these providers and we’re never locked into any single provider.","Drippie supports multiple automation backends!","We currently run Drippie on top of Gelato and we’ve been very happy with Gelato’s performance (thanks Gelato! nice work 🙂). Although we don’t expect issues from Gelato any time soon, we’ll likely look to integrate other providers as a backup to guarantee that drips always execute in a timely manner. Either way, we run Drippie alongside a robust monitoring service that tracks drip executions in real-time and alerts us when drips aren’t being executed on time.","If one backend goes down, we can use others as a backup","Talk is cheap, code is expensive! We’ve spent a lot of time describing what Drippie is, but not but what it can actually do. Let’s give Drippie some more color by checking out some examples of the various drips that OP Mainnet actually uses in production.","One of our simplest drips is meant for balance maintenance — when the balance of an account decreases below a certain threshold, we can automatically execute an action that sends more ETH to the account. We typically combine this with a drip interval that prevents the drip from executing more than once every X (minutes/hours/days/etc). By restricting the frequency at which the drip can execute, we limit the impact of a compromised recipient wallet to just the current balance of that wallet and the value of a single drip execution (which are both typically relatively low). If a wallet compromise is ever detected, we can pause the drip and prevent ourselves from losing any additional funds.","Flow for the Balance Maintenance drip","Warp Speed is the name for the operational mode on the OP Mainnet gateway that allows users to send ETH to L2 via a custom bridge. Warp Speed is relatively straightforward — users send small amounts of ETH to a contract on L1 and then an off-chain service detects this deposit and triggers a transaction to transfer the deposited amount to the user on L2. Low-tech, but highly impactful for users trying to bridge small amounts of ETH to OP Mainnet.","A big problem with Warp Speed is that ETH builds up in a smart contract on L1, but deposits are being disbursed on L2. We regularly need to transfer the ETH from the L1 contract to the L2 disbursement address to keep the money flowing. Drippie makes this process a breeze. We’ve set up a simple drip on mainnet that triggers whenever the balance of the Warp Speed deposit contract exceeds a certain threshold. This drip will then withdraw funds out of the Warp Speed contract and deposit them (through OP Mainnet’s Standard Bridge) directly into the account of the disbursement wallet on L2. Nifty!","Flow for the Warp Speed drip","We previously mentioned that Drippie currently runs on top of Gelato, a fantastic Ethereum transaction automation service. Gelato requires that we somehow pay for the transactions that it executes. Gelato currently offers two methods of payment: transactions can either pay for themselves or users can deposit funds into an account that can be debited to pay for executed transactions. In an effort to minimize the complexity of each drip and to minimize vendor lock-in, we make use of the second method and fund an account that pays for Gelato transactions.","Of course, this means that the Gelato account needs enough of a balance to continue to pay for transactions! Just like we have a drip for funding other accounts, we also maintain a drip that keeps the balance of our Gelato account topped up. Whenever the balance of our execution account drops below a certain threshold (as reported by the Gelato treasury contract), we automatically deposit another few ETH into Gelato. This ends up looking like a slightly more advanced balance maintenance drip that shows off the flexibility of Drippie by querying and executing arbitrary smart contract functions.","Flow for the Gelato Deposit drip","As a result of this meta-automation, we can effectively run Drippie forever as long as the Drippie contract holds enough ETH. As we gain more confidence in the Drippie contract, we’ll aim to store more and more ETH until it can effectively be (trustlessly) self-sufficient for months at a time. Wild stuff!","We tried to make the process of defining new drips as easy as possible. Here's the configuration for one of our production drips, the TeleportrWithdrawal drip:","Every drip has an interval, the minimum amount of time that must elapse between two executions of the drip. Drips also refer to a dripcheck, a simple Solidity contract that takes input parameters (the checkparams) and figures out whether the drip should be executable or not. Here, the TeleportrWithdrawal drip is using the CheckBalanceHigh check:","Finally, the drip also specifies an array of actions. Actions have a target, some data, and optionally also some ETH value. We've also integrated some simple Etherscan tooling to pull down the ABI for any verified contracts so that we can specify data as function names and parameters (instead of having to encode the function data manually).","I had a blast building Drippie, and hope others find it as useful as I do. Drippie, drippie-mon (the Drippie monitoring service), and all related Drippie tooling is fully open-source and MIT licensed. If you’d like to use it in your own project, please feel free to do so! If there’s enough interest in Drippie, we might spin it out into a separate repository and try to make it more accessible for projects outside of OP Mainnet.","Hit us up on Discord, GitHub, or directly on Twitter (try DMing me at @kelvinfichter) if you do end up trying to use Drippie. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!","As ever, OP Labs is hiring across the board. If you enjoyed reading about Drippie and you’d like to work with amazing people on the future of Ethereum, you might might be particularly interested in our openings for Senior Software Engineer, Developer Tools or Senior Infrastructure Engineer, DevOps. Cya on the internet! ❤️","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/drippie-how-op-mainnet-automates-ethereum"},"/blog/op-summer-summary":{"version":1,"title":"OP Summer Summary - Optimism","description":"Earlier this year, we declared a Summer of Optimism heralded by the launch of the Optimism Collective, the OP token, and the distribution of grants to projects aligned","keywords":"","h1":["OP Summer Summary"],"h2":["Just getting started","In summery"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","August 29, 2022","Earlier this year, we declared a Summer of Optimism heralded by the launch of the Optimism Collective, the OP token, and the distribution of grants to projects aligned with The Optimistic Vision in order to kickstart the growth of the Optimism ecosystem.","Fast forward to the present, and we're beginning to see just that!","On-chain transactions are up, with OP Mainnet settling an average of 150k+ transactions per day over the last 30 days—up about 40% versus the prior 90 days.","OP Mainnet Transactions per Day","OP Mainnet Transactions per Month","Since 12 of 43 incentive programs have launched, over $700M has been bridged from L1 to OP Mainnet, a >600% increase vs the same time period pre-incentives.","An ecosystem is only as strong as the projects which compose it. Projects which have implemented their incentive programs have also seen a marked increase in inflows, liquidity, TVL, and transactions.","All in all, it’s safe to say the seeds planted this Spring are beginning to bear fruit. ✨","A total of 51,149,838 OP have been earmarked for distribution to date, including 42mm OP from the Governance Fund’s ~200mm allocation.","Of the 43 projects earmarked to receive this 51,149,838 OP during Optimism Governance Season 1, 12 have launched their incentives programs to date, with 31 more coming soon!","To help keep track of Optimism Ecosystem project incentive programs, we've created a public dashboard which we'll keep up to date. We've also added an 'OP Summer incentives' filter to the ecosystem page at optimism.io.","The incentives fueling OP Summer have only just begun to be distributed and utilized by projects in the ecosystem. Expect OP Summer to heat up even more as projects continue to utilize their allocations!","Meanwhile, in the world of governance, we’re entering Season 2, with many awesome improvements in the works. To stay up to date on and participate in Optimism governance follow @OptimismGov, check out the Governance forum, and don't forget to delegate your OP if you haven't already.","As you can see, there is massive potential for builders to stake their claim in the new, open internet. Just have a look at the projects which have already done so. Are you a project aligned with The Optimistic Vision? You can still apply for funding through governance.","If you're a brand new user, it's never too late to Get Started. If you're not sure where to begin, poke your head in our Discord and say hello!","Until then--stay safe, remain curious--and, as always, stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-summer-summary"},"/blog/announcing-opcraft-an-autonomous-world-built-on-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Announcing OPCraft: an Autonomous World built on the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"Building an entirely on-chain crafting-based voxel game using the OP Stack.","keywords":"","h1":["Announcing OPCraft: an Autonomous World built on the OP Stack"],"h2":["A secret little world…","So what is OPCraft?","Why on-chain Autonomous Worlds?","Taking it one step further…","How did we build OPCraft?","How do I play?"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Nick Balestra","October 18, 2022","Over the last few months, we at Lattice have been working on an exciting technical collaboration with the OP Labs team.","You may have seen glimpses of it on Twitter—tweets with a wall of emojis referencing autonomous worlds or screenshots of funny looking structures in the foreground of a blocky landscape. Or maybe you overheard tales from your friends who were at Devcon about an exciting new on-chain game.","Today we’re officially unveiling OPCraft: a fully on-chain 3D voxel world built with MUD (our open-source on-chain game engine) on top of the OP Stack (OP Mainnet’s modular rollup architecture).","OPCraft is an Autonomous World—a fully on-chain virtual space where every single aspect of the World—every river, blade of grass, and patch of snow sitting atop the mountain ranges—exists on-chain, and every single action in the World happens as an Ethereum transaction.","Just like other crafting-based voxel Worlds, you can explore procedurally generated landscapes, mine ores, place materials, and craft new items. Players can create majestic architectures, erect monuments, and terraform the land; either alone or collaboratively.","OPCraft runs on an op-chain; meaning the blockchain is mainly being used towards updating the World as players modify it. Just like a normal rollup, developers can deploy smart contracts on this chain and anyone can run a node in order to access it.","OPCraft’s network runs on OP Mainnet’s OP Stack architecture, with simple adjustments made for higher throughput and shorter block times.","Autonomous Worlds unlock new affordances not found with traditional centralized and opaque game servers. Here are some examples, in order of craziness:","Custom clients: Picture the OPCraft World in incredible 4K definition, beautifully ray traced and rendered by Unreal Engine 5. Or picture an enterprise-grade project management UI for managing and automating mining operations in OPCraft… Because the World lives entirely on-chain, anyone can go build a custom client that interacts with it without needing special permissions, as long as the inputs and outputs conform to the protocol. Just like a DeFi protocol that can be accessed through many different portals, OPCraft doesn’t have a canonical representation. We can’t wait for someone to build a client replacing all characters with anime characters, or a complete rewrite with beautiful shaders.","Interoperability: All the rules and data of OPCraft lives on-chain; smart-contracts can interact with OPCraft just like regular players, or retrieve specific information from the World. Imagine a smart contract that pays you 1 ETH for every diamond block that you mine for it, or a smart contract that etches your name into its stone monument in the World for a price. Given OPCraft runs on-chain, developers can deploy smart contracts that drive trustless player economies, or even entire new game features. Who is going to build the OPCraft AMM that can only be accessed from a special cave at the center of the World 👀?","Augmented reality: AR, but not in the way you think. Expanding on the entities and rules of the World, developers can create additional properties that augment the World. For example, a developer can create a “team” property attached to objects placed by players. Now players who choose to opt-in to this augmented version of the World can see which team a building belongs to and receive NFTs when they help their team take over new areas of the World. This enables exciting meta-games, rivalries, and drama completely driven by players and developers.","We believe fully on-chain Autonomous Worlds are the logical next step to crypto gaming; and we hope that OPCraft—along with the release of the technology it was built upon—kickstarts an on-chain gaming renaissance.","Many traditional multiplayer games are shut down when the company operating the game runs out of money or frequently change the rules in a way that heavily penalize the existing user base.","An Autonomous World, on the other hand, has the ability to forego having an owner that can alter the past and change the rules of the World. Additionally—by virtue of running on a blockchain—the World can remain alive for as long as a single full node stores its entities and enforce its rules.","It is important to note that OPCraft—currently a proof-of-concept—is not completely ownerless. It runs on a custom OP testnet that will only run for approximately two weeks. However, just like current rollups, it has a credible path towards autonomy and permissionlessness.","OPCraft is open source—both contracts and clients—and we hope to see motivated players deploy their own persistent World on any EVM-compatible chain, and soon on custom instantiations of the OP Stack in order to unlock even more player throughput.","OPCraft was uniquely enabled by two new technologies:","OP Mainnet’s OP Stack: a set of modules that can be easily plugged together to create your own chain.","The MUD Engine: an open-source engine for creating Autonomous Worlds, built by Lattice.","Using MUD and the OP Stack, it only took us a little more than a month to build OPCraft from the ground up.","For those looking for a more in-depth technical write-up on how we built OPCraft, we’ll be releasing an article on the topic very soon at https://mud.dev/blog. Follow @latticexyz to get notified when it comes out.","The OPCraft World is now publicly available at this link.","The World will be available for approximately two weeks for you to mine, build, and craft to your heart’s content. On Halloween (31 October at 23:59 UTC) the World and the chain will be frozen in time, immortalizing any structures, art, and monuments you’ve created.","So get out there, join our Discord channel, and craft something cool!","See you in OPCraft!","💡If you're a project or developer interested in building on the OP Stack, get in touch.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/announcing-opcraft-an-autonomous-world-built-on-the-op-stack"},"/blog/earn-nfts-while-learning-about-popular-apps-on-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"Earn NFTs while learning about popular apps on OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"Explore the Optimism app ecosystem with Quests","keywords":"","h1":["Earn NFTs while learning about popular apps on OP Mainnet"],"h2":[],"h3":["Demystifying crypto apps","Helping apps reach a new audience on OP Mainnet","What’s next"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Zain Bacchus","September 20, 2022","Crypto can be an intimidating experience for newcomers to the space.We’re always looking for opportunities to make OP Mainnet more accessible, both in the sense of creating better on-ramps and making use-cases easier to understand.That’s where Optimism Quests comes in. Quests are a guided exploration of the OP Mainnet app ecosystem that allows users to earn NFTs while learning about popular apps in an engaging way.","When talking with OP Mainnet users we found that one of the biggest barriers preventing people from exploring more apps was a lack of clarity around applications’ use cases. Our community expressed a strong desire to begin learning about new and different apps on OP Mainnet, but didn’t know where to begin.","Optimism Quests solves that problem by educating new users about some of the most popular apps in the Optimism ecosystem.","For this first season of quests, we’re launching with 18 apps including some of your favorite NFT and DeFi protocols. Over time, we plan to add additional apps in the ecosystem.If you're building on OP Mainnet, please fill out this short form if you would like your app to be featured in future seasons.","We think the Optimism Quests could help drive app discovery for a new group of users: people who are curious about OP Mainnet, but who’d like more guidance on how apps work before trying them. By serving this need, we hope to make OP Mainnet more accessible in the process.You can start taking advantage of this feature by visiting app.optimism.io/quests. If you have any feedback please leave us a note on Canny.","See you for the next update!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/earn-nfts-while-learning-about-popular-apps-on-op-mainnet"},"/blog/introducing-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"The Optimism Collective is an attempt to birth a new form of organization, built on the belief that that humans > capital and impact = profit","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing the OP Stack"],"h2":["The Past","The Present","The OP Stack","The Far Future","The Near Future"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","October 17, 2022","The Optimism Collective is an attempt to birth a new form of organization, built on the belief that that humans > capital and impact = profit, and committed to tackling the coordination problems which crypto as a whole has yet to solve.","Ultimately, Optimism isn’t building a blockchain—it’s building a digital society.","But ambitious goals demand equally ambitious infrastructure.","Today, we’re proud to introduce the next evolution of Optimism’s scalability architecture: the OP Stack.","The OP Stack is a modular, open-source blueprint for highly scalable, highly interoperable blockchains of all kinds. Not just rollup. Not just optimistic.","The OP Stack is a bet on the ingenuity of the entire Ethereum community. It makes it easier than ever to build your own blockchain, empowering you to focus on what matters–the cutting edge.","The OP Stack is also a bet that the future is neither multi-chain nor mono-chain. Instead, we believe that a group of highly integrated chains will form an emergent structure, the Superchain, which powers the collective.","This blog post builds upon talks given by OP Labs’ Karl Floersch and Kelvin Fichter at Devcon 6.","As OP Mainnet approaches 2 years in production, it’s pretty humbling to look back to our beginnings as starry-eyed scalability researchers all those years ago. Over that long and winding road, two themes have remained constant: minimization and modularization.","One formative early lesson on this path was when a wise wandering sailor named geohot replaced a 6,000-line transpiler we had worked on for months with a 300-line modification to the Solidity compiler that took just a handful of days. Geohot forever raised our bar for the simplicity and elegance required to become an open source standard across the entire Ethereum ecosystem.","We took this lesson to heart. In 2021, we made the difficult decision to throw away our original rollup design, the OVM, in favor of a more modular approach which separated execution from proving. And boy, did it pay off–the result, our EVM Equivalence upgrade, still holds its own against the latest releases from alternative rollups, despite being nearly a year old.","For the past year, we’ve been heads down working towards our next release–Bedrock–which doubles down on those principles of modularity and minimization. This new design leverages some modularity introduced for The Merge–consensus/execution layer separation–to make Optimism’s code stupid simple. With 100x less code than our original OVM, and only 1,000 lines of code required to implement an alternate client (looking at you, Optimistic Erigon 👀), we knew we had something truly powerful on our hands.","And as this new, highly modular codebase started to reach stability… something strange began to happen. People started forking the codebase and using it for things we’d never even imagined.","OP Mainnet was already the most forked ORU out there, but these new forks were weird. We were used to forks adding small features or swapping out the data availability layer to decrease fees. We did not expect the next fork to be anything like what we got: OPCraft.","Lattice, the fantastic team behind this project, took the Bedrock codebase and put an entire voxel game on-chain. The OPCraft world lives on-chain, mining in-game blocks produce on-chain transactions… crazy stuff.","After OPCraft came yet another ridiculous fork, this time from the crew over at 0xPARC — the Optimistic Game Boy. Nalin Bhardwaj and Adhyyan Sekhsaria swapped out Bedrock’s execution engine with a Game Boy emulator, effectively building a Game Boy Rollup. Even better, since the Game Boy emulator could compile down to MIPS, the entire execution of the emulator was fault provable via cannon. Wow.","It was in this moment that we realized: geohot’s sage advice—and our multi-year bet on elegant, standardized, open source software—was beginning to bear fruit. We knew we had something special on our hands. We had started by reusing Ethereum to modularize our own codebase, and now the Ethereum community was reusing our modules to build things that had never been seen before.","So… what were we supposed to do?","The OP Stack is the code powering Optimism’s next-gen architecture. It’s a series of modules that work together to form coherent, reliable blockchains. Each of these components implements a specific layer of the stack. Here’s what these core components look like:","Modules of the OP Stack, with the Bedrock release configuration in white.","Each layer of the OP Stack is described by a well-defined API, to be filled by a module for that layer. You can easily modify existing modules or create your own entirely new modules to fill the needs of whatever application you’re building. Want to swap out Ethereum for Celestia as a data availability layer? Sure! Want to run Bitcoin as the execution layer? Why not!","The OP Stack is the first realization of the modular blockchain theory. We’re finally moving beyond charts that describe how this might work to a concrete codebase where you actually get to fit these components together. If you’re a developer, you can find much more information about the API for each component and how the different components work in tandem to create a modular chain system in Kelvin’s Devcon talk.","The OP Stack is being built, first and foremost, for the Optimism Collective. It’s Optimism’s way to future-proof the entire ecosystem. Perhaps the most important way the OP Stack achieves this is the abstraction of the proof layer when settling funds onto another chain. As long as the proof layer satisfies the proof API, it can be slotted into the system. All of this can happen with zero impact on user experience. Long-term, this makes it possible for OP Chains to adapt to newer proof systems as well.","Bitcoin rollup? Bitcoin Rollup! Gameboy Plasma? Gameboy plasma! Tamagotchi Bitcoin Rollup? …Tamagotchi Bitcoin rollup!","Releasing the OP Stack will the first step in an explosion of highly compatible L2s and L3s. We lovingly call these op-chains. By sharing and contributing back to a hardened, standardized, and modular codebase, all of these systems can work together to build the future of Ethereum. With a shared message-passing format, these chains can easily communicate with each other without custom adapters for each and every chain.","The OP Stack is an opportunity to create something amazing. We have the opportunity to scale Optimism’s values across a networked collective of blockchains—and core to that vision is Sequencing. Although many chains will want to run their own Sequencers, the reality is that Sequencing can be hard to set up and, in the long-term, will need to be decentralized to provide the liveness guarantees that users expect. It’s likely that many more chains won’t want to run their own Sequencers, just like Optimism decided to piggy-back on Ethereum’s consensus layer to avoid needing its own validator set.","When multiple op-chains share a Sequencer Set, they get access to a fantastic feature: atomic cross-chain composability. Sequencers that produce blocks on multiple chains at the same time can guarantee atomic interactions between those chains. This works because a single entity has the ability to produce blocks on each chain — they don’t need to rely on other validators to include these atomic transactions. Op-chains that opt in to the Optimism Collective’s shared Sequencer Set become part of a system where the boundaries between chains dissolve.","Even though it’s made of multiple chains, the addition of atomic cross-chain interactions means that this feels to end users like a single logical chain. We’re calling this emergent endgame the Superchain.","As with everything we do, the Superchain exists to continue to push ourselves and the Ethereum ecosystem towards the vision of a sustainable and independent digital society. By opening up the Collective’s resources to not just OP Mainnet, but also to the many different op-chains that plug into the Superchain, it becomes possible for entirely new chain ecosystems to collaborate towards this future.","The OP Stack is still in the early stages of being turned into a standalone product. Our primary objective for the next few months is still to ship the Bedrock upgrade, the flagship OP Stack release, to OP Mainnet. Eventually, the Bedrock codebase will be refined into an OP Stack release, with things separate documentation for how you can run and modify your own OP Stack-based op-chain.","For now, if you’re interested in playing with the OP Stack, get in touch — or, if you’re feeling as adventurous as our early adopters, Optimism’s code is always developed in the open! 😉","Together, we will create the future of coordinated, collaborative cyberspace.","Together, we will summon Ether’s Phoenix.","The future isn’t multi-chain or mono-chain, it’s Superchain.","Stay Optimistic, nerds.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-the-op-stack"},"/blog/op-in-bogotá-rollup-recap":{"version":1,"title":"OP in Bogotá: Rollup Recap - Optimism","description":"A recap of the time your Optimistic amigos spent at ETHBogotá and Devcon 6, complete with Hackathon winners, workshop highlights, and links to our many presentations.","keywords":"","h1":["OP in Bogotá: Rollup Recap"],"h2":["OP Café","Rollup Day","Devcon"],"h3":["Hackathon","Developer Infrastructure/Tooling","OP Mainnet Games & NFT Infrastructure","Govtech and Community Infrastructure","Jump rOPe"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","October 21, 2022","We recently returned from an eventful trip to Colombia for ETHBogotá and Devcon 6, where we had the opportunity to spread the Optimistic word and connect with a global community of Ethereum developers and builders.","At Devcon 6 we officially announced the OP Stack: a modular, open-source blueprint for highly scalable, highly interoperable blockchains of all kinds. The OP Stack is a bet on the ingenuity of the entire Ethereum community, and there was no better venue to introduce it than at Devcon!More on the OP Stack later, but first--let's jump into the events at ETHBogotá leading up to Devcon!","Booth visitors skipping high transaction fees with your favorite Layer 2!","A total of 44 projects submitted their projects during the hackathon and we awarded eight prizes in three different categories.","zipline: Ethereum light client, executing off-chain and proven via Cannon, which allows trustless bridging past the challenge period.","Shrimp farm: A simple no-nonsense transaction tracer for OP Mainnet.","EIP-3074: Implementing EIP-3074 on OP Mainnet L2 geth.","Anonymous Vickrey Auctions On-Chain: Maximally private, second price, sealed bid auction aka Vickrey auctions.","DappStop: Censorship-resistant mobile app distribution platform","Gates.wtf: User verification using decentralised identity and custom conditions.","GiveFire: Collective giving protocol that makes the ritual of consistent collective giving go viral.","Blobscan Explorer: EIP-4844 block explorer.","To inspire these intrepid hackers Vee, our Head of Community, gave a workshop about Why Optimism is home–diving into the amazing things that can be done on the Optimistic side of the blockchain. From funding opportunities, to infrastructure, to user testing, to community support--there's a lot of reasons to build in the City of Optimism! ✨","While meeting hackers and learning about the amazing projects they built on OP Mainnet in 48 hours was the highlight of ETHBogotá, equally as fun was hosting the Jump rOPe Challenge at our booth.","Over 200 people literally skipped high transaction fees for our limited-edition Optimism socks. The goal was to do as many skips as possible in thirty seconds. Shout out to @ninjabakufu who ended up on tOP with an incredible 120 jumps in 30 seconds!","After ETHBogotá ended but before Devcon began we hosted OP Café: a co-working space for folks to come through, hang out, vibe, and collaborate.","Many of the folks who popped into OP Café also joined us for Rollup Day, an event dedicated to, you guessed it, all things rollups! Optimists from both OP Labs and the Foundation participated in talks and panels, including Ben Jones, Mofi Taiwo, and Mark Tyneway. The full video recording of the event can be viewed here.","ETHBogotá set a high bar, but Devcon managed to be just as amazing. The positive energy was palpable at the Agora Convention Center, and nowhere more so than on the stage where a few of our very own Optimists gave talks covering a wide array of topics.","First off, Karl Floresch gave an incredibly memorable presentation the OP Stack: the technical compliment to the Optimistic Vision.","Karl's talk was a tough act to follow, but Kelvin Fichter was up to the task with his deep dive of modular rollup theory through the lens of the OP Stack.","Putting this theory into practice, Kelvin also joined the Lattice team  for their presentation on MUD: their next-gen engine for on-chain games which, along with the OP Stack, was used to create OPCraft--an entirely on-chain crafting-based voxel game.","If these great presentations weren't already enough, Norswap also gave a talk on Rollups, Shards, and Fractals.","While Protolambda participated in a workshop on Danksharding and Data Availability Sampling.","Finally, the always eloquent and multi-talented Ben Jones absolutely rocked the stage with his talk on fixing the internet with Layer 2 governance.","***BONUS CONTENT: Weird ETH Yankovic also made a musical guest appearance. Eat your heart out Marc Rebillet!","The positive and Optimistic vibes shown in these presentations were also to be found at our booth, where our passionate visitors shared what they’re most optimistic about!","And with that, we've recapped Optimism's action-packed week in Colombia. We hope you enjoy digging your teeth into this broad array of content. We're extremely excited about the potential provided by the OP Stack and we can’t wait to see what else you end up building with it!¡Gracias, hasta la proxima vez, y mantente la optimista! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-in-bogotá-rollup-recap"},"/blog/making-blockchains-human-friendly":{"version":1,"title":"Making Blockchains Human-friendly - Optimism","description":"Alpha leak: today marks the start of the beta for the Optimist NFT, a customizable profile picture project meant to represent user identity across the Optimism ecosystem","keywords":"","h1":["Making Blockchains Human-friendly"],"h2":["The Optimistic Vision"],"h3":["From 0 to reputable, backed by the blockchain","So what exactly is a decentralized attestation layer?","A canvas for builders"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","December 15, 2022","Alpha leak: today marks the start of the beta for the Optimist NFT, a customizable profile picture project meant to represent user identity across the Optimism ecosystem. Coming soon to a Collective near you! 👀","The Optimist NFT is one of the first applications built on top of the AttestationStation, a neutral reputation contract built on OP Mainnet.","The goal of the AttestationStation is to provide a neutral, accessible data source for builders creating reputation-based applications. By enabling anyone to make arbitrary attestations about other addresses, we can create a rich library of qualitative and quantitative data that can be used across the ecosystem.","Let’s dive in!","For crypto to benefit humanity, we need to ensure that humans have a voice.","Today’s economies favor the preferences of the wealthy—even in crypto. ERC-20 tokens are the dominant form of on-chain identity, and token votes are the main way that preferences are expressed. Token votes serve a useful role, but they don’t represent the preferences of people—they represent the preferences of capital.","Reputation is key to making blockchains less-plutocratic and to maximize human utility. Just as token systems reveal the preferences of token holders, a reputation layer will allow us to gauge the preferences of human beings.","By creating a robust reputation layer, we will finally have the data to measure impact. Only then will we be able to measure impact and realize our vision of a world where impact == profit, and where human preferences are promoted.","The first step towards this vision begins with the introduction of the AttestationStation, a permissionless smart contract deployed on OP Mainnet that gives users the ability to make arbitrary attestations about other addresses. As an example, an attestation may assign a ‘trust score’ to an address. Attestations could present any qualitative statement:","Anyone is able to read, write, and build on top of this data primitive. When multiple entities participate in providing qualitative attestations about actors within a community, an invaluable data library is created for the broader ecosystem.","To paint a picture — actors might submit attestations that are contextual to their brand, ecosystem, and governance structure.","Other actors may then take a subset of available attestations and design interpretations that are meaningful in their respective contexts.","With that being said, attestations aren't a new concept. So why is the AttestationStation different from other attestation products? The AttestationStation is deliberately dead simple and serves as an open invite to ecosystem contributors to come build an open and permissionless attestation graph together.","Creating this system in a decentralized and open-source manner is important because it allows for greater inclusion and representation of different perspectives. This can help to ensure that the system is fair and accessible to all, and that it accurately reflects the diversity of the communities it serves.","The key to building a neutral attestation layer boils down to permissionlessness. Most identity services in crypto today derive reputation from a single source or service.","Any point of centralization can be used to capture a decentralized protocol. So, to build a decentralized identity system, we can’t rely on any single, centralized service or provider.","In a centralized system, the identity service owns the identity attributes of users.","How do we create a decentralized identity system? Instead of having a single entity owning user data and identity, OP Mainnet's reputation layer will be formed by a network of peer-to-peer (p2p) attestations.","Decentralization allows various actors to contribute to an ecosystem of identity attributes.","We can then take the graph of p2p attestations from the AttestationStation and run computations like EigenTrust over the set of data to derive identity sets on top of a purely subjective web of trust.","To build a robust, trustworthy identity network, these computations will be run iteratively. We can start with a purely subjective web of trust, and use that starting point to derive a larger web of trust, and so on — we can begin to establish a credibly neutral reputation that is entirely peer-to-peer.","The first wave of trusted identities will be used to score future attestations. By repeating this process, a web of trust is formed from the most trusted attestations and identities in the ecosystem","To create an invaluable data library for the broader ecosystem, we’re launching the AttestationStation in collaboration with teams across the ecosystem including Clique, Flipside, Gitcoin Passport, Guild, nxyz, Otterspace, Trust Protocol, and Wonderverse. These teams are either adding attestations to the contract, indexing event data to make it easily accessible to developers, or integrating the AttestationStation as part of their existing products.","This initial experiment is an open invite to build together towards a better future. By working together to build out this library for the community, we’ll be able to unlock a variety of new use cases: on-chain representative governance, credit scores empowering the next generation of DeFi protocols, reputation profiles for DAO contributors and ecosystem participants, and a multitude of decentralized social apps, are all possible with this simple primitive.","Realizing the potential to transform web3 with identity will be a community effort. This is why we are starting small with the AttestationStation and this open invite to come experiment with us. We can already think of a bunch of fun projects to build today, like:","EigenTrust — Compute EigenTrust trust scores for a subset of the AttestationStation!","SybilRank — Create a SybilRank calculator! (h/t Barry Whitehat for the suggestion)","Data visualizations — Create data visualizations representing the different types of attestations in the AttestationStation","Predictive attestations — Instead of attesting “I trust XYZ”, try fun attestations like, “I believe XYZ will be considered trusted by a majority of node in the future”. Plus, what if we add a slashing condition to the predictive attestation?","Attestation delegation — Build a system which manages attestations automatically for users. This system should enable users to delegate some of their attestation assignment to a third party. For instance, users may opt-in to delegating their trust scores to a sybil detection court system. Another project is to build that sybil detection court system!","Attestation import — Write proxy contracts which import attestations of various formats into the standardized AttestationStation format so that they can be consumed by the standard AttestationStation tooling.","Viral attestations — Create systems which make it fun and easy for users to attest useful information about each other.","…The list goes on! This is the tip of the iceberg with what is possible.","The number of projects that are possible and the way these projects all contribute to each other’s success underscores the importance of modularity, composability, and open source. We know we can’t do this alone, and we are so excited to be a part of a broader community that solves identity together, as a public good.","To learn more about how teams are building on top of the AttestationStation or to get involved, visit our developer documentation. A huge thank you to Hans for helping bring this experiment to life.","We’re excited to see what experiments and applications are built on top of the AttestationStation. If you’re building on the AttestationStation, please reach out - we can’t wait to see what we can all build together!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/making-blockchains-human-friendly"},"/blog/eip-4844-an-optimistic-bet-on-rollup-scalability":{"version":1,"title":"EIP-4844: An Optimistic Bet on Rollup Scalability - Optimism","description":"EIP-4844 (protodanksharding) is on the rise. With its development, memes, and community support, it's anticipated as the next big upgrade to Ethereum","keywords":"","h1":["EIP-4844: An Optimistic Bet on Rollup Scalability"],"h2":["A History of EIP-4844 Development","A Community Rallies","Development Process","A Blobspace World"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Mofi Taiwo","November 10, 2022","EIP-4844 (protodanksharding) is on the rise. With its development, memes, and community support, it's anticipated as the next big upgrade to Ethereum. But what is it really? In a nutshell, it's a new transaction type that makes it easy to write cheap but ephemeral data on L1. The data, represented as blobs, relies on some nifty new cryptography to ensure that it is available long enough for L2 use. There are plenty of resources on that topic. Here, we’ll cover the overall effort to push EIP-4844.","EIP-4844 implementation started as a hackathon idea during ETHDenver 2022 where our own protolambda, terencechain from Prysm, and a couple others hacked an early prototype. This involved a geth fork that adds the blob transaction type and implements new crypto needed to secure the blobs.","The real development of EIP-4844 began later that spring with the immediate goal of fully implementing consensus and execution client prototypes. Early on we knew that getting an EIP of this magnitude to mainnet couldn't happen without the full support of the Ethereum community. While we still had at least nine months until the targeted hard fork, that time was critical to identify any major issues in the specification well before testnet. Our first milestone was achieved in early summer with Prysm and geth forks for EIP-4844. This was the first time we had fully spec-compliant execution and consensus clients.","We learned a lot from this exercise, including where the spec needed more detail, how to reduce implementation complexities, and the causes of performance issues. One noteworthy problem we’re still improving on is the speed of verifying blobs (transactions). Thanks to Ethereum Foundation researchers, we came up with a novel application of almost forgotten 70s math to update the spec and thus improve the efficiency of blob verification. Vitalik writes about it here. In a nutshell, we are able to amortize the cost of expensive blob verification using the following formula:","Where we evaluate blobs (aggregated by the polynomial y) at a point heuristic to generate, in a sense, a succinct proof of knowledge.","Developing a key upgrade like EIP-4844 (and seeing it included in an upcoming hard fork) requires the skills and efforts of a broad community. We joined forces with developers from Coinbase, Prysm, and Worldcoin to test, implement, and ship EIP-4844. The first fully implemented EIP-4844 devnet was presented on an EIP-4844 community call, which gave us a test environment for researchers and developers to hack what we built.","While community calls were helpful, we were still missing key feedback from client devs - especially given 4844’s development in parallel with The Merge. Devcon VI in Bogota was a pivotal moment for EIP-4844, giving us an opportunity to present, instruct, and discuss the upgrade with Ethereum core devs at the EF, as well as client teams. We released devnet v2, which implemented the latest specification of EIP-4844, giving the client devs an opportunity to gain more familiarity with the proposal. Devnet v2 was also used to build a Blobs Explorer during the ETHBogota hackathon.","Thanks to several research and development workshops hosted by the Ethereum Foundation, we were not only able to code together in person, but we also onboarded new core developers onto EIP-4844. As a result, we came up with a roadmap to getting EIP-4844 included for the next mainnet upgrade.","For a long time, the development process went something like:","Implement specification","Test specification","Update specification based on test results","Repeat","As the spec was constantly in flux, devnets were our primary means of testing EIP-4844 because they were easy to spin up. Now that the spec is almost complete, we're productionalizing the implementation which includes hive testing, transaction fuzzing, providing test vectors for client interoperability, and testnets. Our goal is to make it easy for client devs to implement EIP-4844 and be confident that their implementation is according to specification.","The scope of EIP-4844 covers both consensus and execution, and thus its complexity is somewhere between EIP-1559 and The Merge. Furthermore, we want (need!) to ship EIP-4844 with the Shanghai HF. This gives us roughly a month or so from now to have a fully functional EIP-4844 testnet ready. To top it off, this is happening while client devs are busy implementing withdrawals for Shanghai. Since The Merge, client devs have been focused on fixing client bugs, cleaning up the code and working on withdrawals. We now have two non-trivial features: withdrawals and EIP-4844, concurrently being developed for the next hard fork. Executing this will be a true test of the efficiency and resourcefulness of the Ethereum community.","The EIP-4844 effort is the largest (other than maybe The Merge) community-led effort. With so many l33t devs now working on EIP-4844, we can pull this off.","Once EIP-4844 is deployed to mainnet, and data availability - dubbed blobspace - is unlocked for L2 use, we expect the cost of rollup L1 transactions to be reduced by at least 20x. We expect all rollups to take advantage of blobspace to reduce transaction costs for their users. It’s exciting to see what sort of applications the Ethereum community will come up with for Blob Transactions. From \"blob splitters\" to NFT metadata, EIP-4844 will create a new set of applications that need access to inexpensive and available data without compromising on security.",".oO","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/eip-4844-an-optimistic-bet-on-rollup-scalability"},"/blog/introducing-the-citizens-house-10m-op-to-public-goods":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing the Citizens’ House: 10m OP to Public Goods - Optimism","description":"Optimism is many things: a rapidly diversifying economy, a stack of open source modules for scalable blockchains, and a Collective of companies, contributors","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing the Citizens’ House: 10m OP to Public Goods"],"h2":["Bicameral balance","Funding public goods to build a better economy","How does RetroPGF work?","Announcing RetroPGF 2","Voting badges","Beyond RetroPGF 2","Building together"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","December 6, 2022","Optimism is many things: a rapidly diversifying economy, a stack of open source modules for scalable blockchains, and a Collective of companies, contributors, and community members working towards common goals. It is an ethos and a vibe.","Optimism’s vision is to create a global economy with a profit motive for public goods. To reach this vision, Optimism is pioneering a new model for digital governance – one that both echoes our earliest democracies and learns from our industry’s current patterns.","Nearly two years ago, OP mainnet launched. Last Spring, the first branch of the Optimism Collective governance was born when the Token House came online.","Today, Optimism is announcing its second round of Retroactive Public Goods Funding, which dedicates 10m OP tokens to fund public goods. We’re also introducing the first iteration of the Citizens’ House to govern how this funding is allocated.","This is the next step towards delivering on Optimism’s core belief that rewarding public good to the collective with profit to the individual is key to growing a vibrant economy.","The Citizens’ House exists as an equal counterpart to the Token House.","The Token House, made up of OP token holders and their delegates, uses a traditional model of coin voting to govern the core economics of the Optimism Collective, including ecosystem grants, oversight of the OP token treasury, and certain network parameters like sequencing.","But a system that serves human utility must be capture-resistant, which pure token voting inherently can never provide.","Enter the Citizens' House: a one-person one-vote system which roots power not in financial capability, but in identity. Together, the Token House and Citizens’ House make decisions for the Collective.","The primary responsibility of the Citizens’ House is determining how to allocate funding for public goods. Why?","Because our world is built on public goods, and those public goods are crumbling.","Open source software has fueled the internet’s progress, but its production is woefully underfunded. Builders burn out while corporations profit off their free legos. Without financial support, free software becomes unsafe — putting users, companies, and communities at risk.","And when building public goods isn’t profitable, the best and brightest of our generation are drawn to more lucrative work, rationally putting self-interest above the needs of the community.","The Optimism Collective believes that building public goods should be profitable.","This key ingredient to the Optimistic vision is more than just altruism – it’s core to our success. Optimism’s codebase itself is an open-source project, and builds on the shoulders of countless OSS giants which came before it.","This means public goods funding is a critical growth strategy. For Optimism, well-funded public goods means better developer tooling, widespread user education, safer infrastructure, and industry-leading research. It means Optimism can last and thrive.","Once we show that this model can drive a successful economy for the Collective, we can take the principle of impact = profit to the world.","The Citizens’ House funds public goods through a process called “retroactive public goods funding” (RetroPGF). RetroPGF is based on the idea that it’s easier to determine what was useful than to issue proactive grants for what might be useful. The process runs as a series of discrete rounds, each with the same structure:","First, a scope of funding is declared publicly. What utility or positive externality are we trying to fund? In the initial few rounds of RetroPGF, funding scope is determined by the Optimism Foundation. Eventually Citizens will determine funding scope themselves based on what they determine the Collective needs.","Afterwards, impact is evaluated. The Citizens’ House reviews projects and votes on impact against the declared funding scope. The output is a set of scores that determine how much funding each project receives.","Optimism has committed to distributing 20% of the OP token treasury through RetroPGF. RetroPGF 2 will be funded from that allocation. Future RetroPGF rounds will incorporate additional funding sources such as protocol profits.","The cycle is simple, but the details are endless. What criteria do voters use to evaluate impact? What information are projects required to share? What voting algorithm is most effective at revealing group preference? How does the product experience affect voting outcomes? What is our working definition of the “public” we are benefitting?","Keeping to our principle of iterative governance, Optimism will run many rounds of RetroPGF over the coming years to experiment with design and process. These iterations will bring together theory, practice, and feedback from the community to explore how to build a mutually beneficial retroactive funding process.","RetroPGF 2 is the second instance of Optimism’s ongoing funding experiments. In January 2023, RetroPGF 2 will distribute 10 million OP tokens to fund public goods that support development and usage of the OP Stack.","Work may be nominated in one of three categories:","Infrastructure + Dependencies: software used to build or deploy the OP Stack; contributions to protocols or standards upon which the OP Stack runs; experiments that support future development of the core OP Stack protocol.","Tooling + Utilities: work that helps builders create applications on OP mainnet, build on the OP Stack, interact with governance of the Collective, or use applications built on OP Mainnet.","Education: work to spread awareness and knowledge of how Optimism works, whether technically or socially.","Why this scope? We can’t talk about funding public goods without supporting the free software that powers OP Mainnet itself. From repurposing Ethereum’s codebase, which allows our network to provide unparalleled EVM equivalence, to the countless tools our developers build with, to our own code itself – Optimism bleeds open source.","In aggregate, we call the code which powers Optimism the OP Stack. Supporting the public goods which power it will help Optimism bring a new economy to global scale.","The process for RetroPGF 2 is as follows:","Anyone may nominate projects or individuals for funding from January 17 - 31 on the Optimism Governance Forum.","In order to be eligible for funding, nominated projects or individuals must complete a project profile in the RetroPGF Application Manager between January 31 - February 21.","RetroPGF 2 badgeholders will vote on how to allocate funding to projects. Voting will take place from February 28 through March 14.","Results will be announced in late February, followed by a public community retrospective.","For more information on the process, visit the RetroPGF 2 documentation. For announcements and updates, follow @OptimismGov on Twitter.","Voting badges for RetroPGF 2 will be distributed to 90 community members:","Each badgeholder in RetroPGF 1 will receive a new voting badge, and will be able to distribute a voting badge to one community member of their choosing.","Optimism’s Token House will elect ten badgeholders, each of whom will be able to distribute a voting badge to one community member of their choosing.","Finally, the Optimism Foundation will distribute 21 voting badges to community members, each of whom will be able to distribute a voting badge to one community member of their choosing.","The Optimism Foundation will distribute badges using the following guidelines, and encourages other badgeholders to consider these criteria in their own distribution:","💖 Is this person a proven advocate for the value of public goods, in crypto or beyond?","💡 Can this person help advance the process and structure of retroPGF as a funding mechanism?","🔎 Is this person a domain expert in any of the categories up for funding in RetroPGF 2?","🌱 Has this person shown strong alignment with the long term growth of the Optimism ecosystem and the mission of the Collective?","Voting in RetroPGF 2 does not guarantee permanent participation in the Citizens’ House and future iterations of RetroPGF. Citizenship criteria may change dramatically. Ownership over citizenship distribution is eventually the responsibility of Optimism’s two-house governance system.","For more information on RetroPGF 2 and the Citizens’ House, visit our governance documentation.","This round of RetroPGF 2 is the next step on an evolving journey. In this phase, the Citizens’ House will only be responsible for voting on RetroPGF within a scope and process provided by the Optimism Foundation.","In future stages, the Citizens’ House role will expand. For example, in addition to voting on RetroPGF funding, the Citizens’ House will work alongside the Token House to govern allocation of protocol profit, collaborate on criteria for participation in the Citizens’ House, and engage in a system of checks and balances to enforce the Collective’s Codes of Conduct.","In its final form, we envision a global Citizens’ House made up of many thousands of Optimists, where a good reputation in the Collective can earn anyone a seat at the table.","To create the foundation for this identity-based governance, Optimism is introducing a simple identity layer called the AttestationStation as part of the Citizens’ House v0.1 launch. The AttestationStation is a straightforward registry contract that serves as the Collective's first experiment for reputation production and consumption in the Optimism ecosystem. Eventually the Citizens’ and Token Houses may grant citizenship based on reputation recorded in the AttestationStation.","We expect this process to be emergent, community-led, and participatory. There’s plenty to explore, including zero-knowledge and private attestations, composability with other teams building decentralized identity, and applications in consumer experiences.","The Collective will continue to run RetroPGF rounds in tandem with growth of this reputation system, increasing the number of citizens over time.","RetroPGF 3 will happen later in 2023; its scope will be announced publicly at the end of RetroPGF 2.","RetroPGF is a core part of Optimism’s vision. If done right, it will form the backbone for a new type of economy. As with any complex system, though, this new process can’t be centrally planned or designed all at once. The only way to build it well is to build it together. This journey will require care, open-mindedness, patience, and – yep we’re goin’ there – optimism.","Anyone can get involved with RetroPGF by nominating projects during the open nomination period from Jan 14 – 31. More information on how to make nominations will be shared on the Governance Forum and by @OptimismGov on Twitter.","To follow along with RetroPGF 2, future iterations of the Citizens’ House, and happenings across Optimism Governance:","Sign up for our RetroPGF newsletter","Follow @OptimismGov on Twitter","And, as always: Stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-the-citizens-house-10m-op-to-public-goods"},"/blog/pragmatism-designing-a-figma-library-in-the-open":{"version":1,"title":"Pragmatism: designing a Figma library in the open - Optimism","description":"In alignment with our goal to decentralize the Optimism ecosystem, we plan to open source more and more pieces of the Collective","keywords":"","h1":["Pragmatism: designing a Figma library in the open"],"h2":["Ongoing iteration","Latest Figma features","Easy to customize","FontAwesome support","Theming","React library and Storybook","What Pragmatism isn't","Extensions packs","Feedback welcome"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Nick Balestra","November 3, 2022","Open source and public goods are at the heart of Optimism’s ethos.","In alignment with our goal to decentralize the Optimism ecosystem, we plan to open source more and more pieces of the Collective. Today, we are very excited to publish our Figma library, Pragmatism, to the Figma community. Anyone will be able to view, fork, and leave feedback on this design system.","Here are some of the features that define Pragmatism:","Pragmatism will be constantly evolving as we continue to shape the system for our needs. You won’t need to wait long periods between updates to Pragmatism, as we will publish additions and changes on a reoccurring basis. There will be a change-log for every component to help you keep track of the updates.","Our libraries are using the latest Figma features such as “Nested instances” and “Booleans”. Although we used plugins like Similayer to create the library, you don’t need them to update or use the library.","It’s important to us that Pragmatism is easy to fork and customize for diverse use cases, whether that be when experimenting at hackathons or launching novel use cases.","One thing we are doing to help with this is documenting the usage of component design tokens but actually employing them in the components. This way, there are as few as possible shared layers to update. As an example, it would be trivial to change the primary color from red to purple.","We are currently using FontAwesome for icons. This allows you to have access a wide set of icons — just type the icon name in the component to change the asset.","When necessary, we also intend to sponsor new icons like we did for hexagon-image.","All the components have both light and dark themes as variants so it can easily be switched from the right panel in Figma, without the need for multiple libraries or external plugins.","While many of Pragmatism’s components have been partially implemented on Optimism’s website, none of the design system is public yet. Next year, we plan to release a dedicated React library and Storybook front end so that anyone can view and use the component code.","Defining what Pragmatism isn’t is as important as defining what it is. If you plan on using the library for your personal or work designs, these limitations may help you judge for yourself if Pragmatism is the right fit for your project.","Here are things we don’t plan on doing:","Supporting internationalization (Pragmatism will be in English/US).","i18n is very important and we plan to document and code behaviors that could arise when localizing the app. However, we currently don’t plan to have i18n variants in our Figma library because of the maintenance overhead. An example is right-to-left languages that would need dedicated variants.","Having all of the states of a component as variants.","Some states like “Focused” will be variants when often used in mocks (e.g. Text input), while it might just be documented for other components (e.g. Pill tab).","Adding “web2 only” components. We will only add components that makes sense in a web3 context (for example, we are unlikely to add address inputs or credit card inputs).","Today we are releasing our core Figma file. In the future, we plan to make the many extensions we have public—be they layout (bridge header and footer) or assets (token logos, app logos, 3rd party partner color, etc.).","Let us know what you think and what should be changed by leaving feedback in the Figma file. We look forward to reading it!We hope Pragmatism makes your next design project easier and more organized. After all, just because you're Optimistic doesn't mean you can't also be Pragmatic!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/pragmatism-designing-a-figma-library-in-the-open"},"/blog/building-the-infrastructure-for-public-goods-funding":{"version":1,"title":"Building the infrastructure for public goods funding - Optimism","description":"Gitcoin’s new grants protocol is actively under development and, as of this writing, currently in an alpha testing phase","keywords":"","h1":["Building the infrastructure for public goods funding"],"h2":["A brief history of Quadratic Funding","Retroactive Public Goods Funding","Building a community-centric protocol","Decisions, decisions: the voting strategy contract","Designing for community sovereignty","Experimenting with the new protocol"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Gitcoin","December 16, 2022","Gitcoin’s new grants protocol is actively under development and, as of this writing, currently in an alpha testing phase. The details in this blog post reflect the latest information at the time of writing, and could change as the alpha test season progresses. You can keep track of the latest product updates by following @gitcoin on Twitter.","Gitcoin is in the process of making the infrastructure for public goods funding more accessible. To do this, we’re building our grants protocol–a tool for solving funding coordination problems– in public, with input from our community.","One of the biggest challenges facing blockchain ecosystems and communities is coming to an agreement on which problems builders should direct their efforts to solve. Thus far, decision-making on early-stage project funding has been gatekept by private investors and black box platforms. However, decision-making on which projects get the chance to succeed and which are excluded has long-term consequences on who is served by technology that is created.","That’s why we’re creating a protocol that makes it easier for funding to be allocated to projects in a transparent manner. A protocol that is accountable to the community and makes plural funding mechanisms more accessible. Given the open-source nature of the protocol, we hope that once it’s publicly accessible, people will be able to run experiments with various plural funding mechanisms and that multiple funding rounds serving different ecosystems will be running concurrently at any given time.","To start, we’re running a series of alpha rounds to test our MVP with vision-aligned partners such as Optimism. Here, we’ll look at how the protocol works and our vision for what a transparent, on-chain infrastructure for public goods funding looks like.","The development of our grants protocol is based on the experience in executing grants programs that Gitcoin has acquired through running fifteen grants rounds with partners including the Ethereum Foundation, a16z, zkSync, and more. At the crux of our program is one of the key mechanisms of the protocol: a fund allocation system known as Quadratic Funding (QF).","Originating from a 2020 paper co-authored by Glen Weyl, Vitalik Buterin, and Zoe Hitzig, QF matches funds based on the number of contributors rather than the total amount funded. It aims to push decision-making to the edges instead of concentrating it in the hands of whales and power brokers. It accomplishes this by matching funds contributed to a crowdfunding campaign with the following equation:","This formula says that the amount received by the project is proportional to the sum of the square roots of the contributions received. In plain terms, this means that projects with a higher quantity of grassroots supporters would receive more funds than those which received more money through individual donations.","These matched funds are sourced from a “matching pool,” which can either be raised from a series of funding partners or, in the case of many of our early partners, sourced from a large ecosystem treasury.","To date, Gitcoin has distributed over $72M in matching funds to hundreds of projects in the Web3 ecosystem through QF.","The Optimism Foundation will be utilizing our new grants protocol to run their second retroactive public goods funding round. RetroPGF is a system for funding public goods based on the idea that it’s easier to reward projects that have been useful in the past, than proactively fund untested solutions that could bear fruit in the future.","The ultimate vision for RetroPGF is to create a funding cycle for public goods akin to what currently exists for for-profit startups. The entity deciding which projects merit funding in this scenario is known as a Results Oracle, and, as proposed by Vitalik can take a variety of forms, including a single entity or organization, a smart contract with a fixed allocation table, or project token. The Oracle funds projects that have been recognized as already providing value, with funding it receives from protocol fees. In the case of RetroPGF 2, Optimism’s Citizens’ House will serve as the Results Oracle, and be responsible for distributing funding through a vote from 90 badge holders.","Gitcoin is launching the new grants protocol out of a belief in pluralism. We believe experimentation with a variety of approaches to funding public goods is necessary to determine which methods are most effective for different types of communities, and ultimately lead to the most impact. We’re excited to support RetroPGF 2 and play a part in building a new system to make building public goods a more sustainable endeavor for builders.","With the protocol, funding is organized through programs and rounds. All in all, the overall architecture can be summed up as follows:","Programs create the framework for deploying multiple rounds under one ecosystem’s umbrella. Think of it as the brand name for a series of rounds.Rounds handle the specifics on how funding is allocated. This can be done through quadratic funding or a different strategy (like quadratic voting) – it’s up to the community. Rounds also handle details on the payout process itself.","A round is one wave of a program and runs for a limited amount of time. During a round, community members are able to browse grants and, using their selected mechanism, help decide how funds should be allocated among those grants. For example, GR15 was the fifteenth round of the Gitcoin Grants’ quadratic funding program.","Within a round, there is a:","Round core contract that holds the main details of the round and serves as the coordination point for the round’s set of contracts","Voting strategy contract that determines the plural mechanism used in the program (e.g., Quadratic Funding or something else).","Gatekeeper contract that determines who is eligible to have a say in how the round’s funds are distributedPayout strategy contract that actually distributes the funding.","There are a few different types of users involved in interacting with a grants program through the protocol:","Program operators and round operators are wallets that have permission to create and manage a program and round, respectively. For the purposes of testing the protocol, these are currently the same people, but if a program grows more mature and requires more staff, one could theoretically assign different people to these roles.","Voters are wallets who cast a vote for a grant during the round. Grantees are projects who apply for acceptance into a round, and upon approval are eligible to receive funding based on the amount of votes / individual contributions they receive.","To use the protocol, first, an operator creates a program on-chain by interacting with the ProgramFactory contract to deploy a unique ProgramImplementation contract.","After deploying the program, the operator deploys the series of contracts that will govern their round: the payout strategy, the voting strategy, the gatekeeper, and the round core. In this process, the round core contract is deployed last so that the other three contracts’ addresses can be linked to the round core.","There are a few parts to the process.","First, all of the voting strategy contracts– which define the voting algorithms for grants within a round– are deployed.","Then, as in the program deployment process, the RoundFactory contract is deployed, followed by the RoundImplementation contract, before the latter is linked to the former. Every PayoutStrategy contract is unique to RoundImplementation, which is why the payouts contract is deployed first.","Currently, communities can choose to either develop with our abstract voting strategy contract, or use the built-in Quadratic Funding voting strategy. This is where the level of plurality in a given round is determined.","The core methods of the abstract contract allow contributors to cast multiple votes, which can be weighed and should emit events after a vote is cast in grant explorer. Developers are free to extend this contract to adjust the weight assigned to different votes and which rounds the voting contract is assigned to. This flexibility allows various degrees of pluralism to be introduced into a round depending on the community’s needs and experimenting with different ways of fund distribution.","The QF contract implements Quadratic Funding in a program by allowing voters to cast multiple weighted votes to grants with a single transaction and is inspired by the bulk checkout contract from the centralized grants platform. It supports fund distribution through both ERC-20 token transfer and native token transfer to the grant address from the funder to the project (not including funds from the matching pool).","Distribution is handled by the payout contract, which takes the updated, weighted distribution the community decides on as uploaded by the executed RoundImplementation contract and sends it to the projects that received the most votes.","Gitcoin’s new grants protocol is intentionally designed to be flexible. While technical implementation is important to ensure program operations occur without a hitch, much of the success of a grants program lies in the design decisions made by program operators. These include the specific priorities that ecosystem stewards choose to focus on for a particular round, whether it’s infrastructure or sustainability.","It also includes the level of voting power that the community is given through the voting strategy contract. Round operators can choose to implement Quadratic Funding or another mechanism that incorporates more plural decision-making or limit voting to a centralized group of judges. As a result, the fact that a protocol is run on Gitcoin’s grants protocol doesn’t guarantee that it is pluralistic because it is a permissionless, censorship-resistant tool that supports any round. However, it still remains a transparent alternative to centralized, black box platforms, and it remains easier to audit fund movement through blockchain.","We also believe that our grants protocol serves as a valuable form of community intelligence to ecosystem leaders and other community members through its flexibility and allowance for pluralism. The types of projects that receive votes to be funded are a valuable signal of a community’s values and priorities. Hence, we think of our grants protocol as much as an organizing tool to overcome coordination problems as we think of it as a funding protocol. It has the potential to change the paradigm of existing funding infrastructure by making the community a core unit of peer-to-peer funding, where previous apps have focused their efforts on the individual, and also makes it easier to allocate resources internally within growing ecosystems.","On OP Mainnet, you can explore Gitcoin’s grants protocol more during the upcoming test round. Gitcoin is partnering with the Optimism Foundation to run the second retroactive public goods funding round supporting open-source developers who are crucial to maintaining key parts of OP Mainnet’s technology.","The nomination window will be open from January 3 to January 17 2023. The approval and signup deadline ends on January 24. The voting period will last from January 31 to February 10.","While we’re currently refining our documentation, the code repository for the MVP of our protocol is open-source, and can be found here. We welcome interested contributors who want to take a deeper dive.Stay tuned for more information on the application and selection process for Optimism RPGF Round 2 in the coming weeks! Follow @OptimismGov on Twitter and subscribe to the RetroPGF newsletter to stay in the loop.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/building-the-infrastructure-for-public-goods-funding"},"/blog/optimism-2022-year-in-review":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism 2022: Year in Review - Optimism","description":"Wow. 2022 has been quite the decade.  As we prepare to leave it behind us and greet the new year, we thought we'd take a look back on another year of Optimism.","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism 2022: Year in Review"],"h2":["Building for the Future","By the Numbers","Ecosystem","Gov Stuff","Mirror Subscriber NFT","Adieu 2022"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","December 20, 2022","Wow. 2022 has been quite the decade.","As we prepare to leave it behind us and greet the new year, we thought we'd take a look back on another year of Optimism.","In 2022, OP governance was born. In April, we introduced the Optimism Collective, and soon after, the Token House went live. It’s now entering its third Season of iterative governance. They sure grow up fast!","RetroPGF 2 will allocate 10m OP to public goods early next year, an early step in applying that same iterative philosophy to the Citizens’ House. In preparation, we recently shipped the AttestationStation—a permissionless data primitive built for reputation networks.","Speaking of—the year has been marked by steady, relentless shipping from OP Labs. Optimism Bedrock incorporates years of lessons running OP Mainnet to create a modular, performant, Ethereum-equivalent codebase built to last: the OP Stack. The Bedrock code is getting its final polish. On January 12, Optimistic Goerli will upgrade to the Bedrock release, with mainnet to follow soon after.","OP Labs also made key contributions towards EIP-4844, a major step forward in Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap.","Then there’s the scores of projects that joined the Optimism Ecosystem in 2022, including industry heavyweights like Aave and OpenSea among many others. The Optimism Universe continues to expand—see the numbers below.","So sit back, relax, pour yourself a mug of your favorite hot beverage and enjoy this Phoenix’ eye view of the last year at Optimism.","On the protocol side, this year was all about writing an Optimistic codebase built to last. The Collective has been hard at work building the cheapest, fastest, most minimal codebase for an Ethereum-equivalent rollup, ever.","This release, called Bedrock, incorporates countless lessons learned over 2 years operating an in-production rollup. The upgrade to Bedrock will enable OP Chains to offer the lowest L1 data costs, support multiple execution clients, implement security improvements for bridged assets, and increase throughput.","The OP Goerli testnet upgrade to Bedrock goes live on January 12. Soon after, a mainnet upgrade proposal will be submitted to the Token House. If that proposal is successful, OP Mainnet can migrate to Bedrock in Q1.","Bedrock is an upgrade to our codebase (the OP Stack) which lays the foundation for us to achieve our vision for the future. In addition to mainnet itself, it can also power bespoke, modular blockchains, and extends our vision for a self-sustaining cycle of public goods funding.","Also key for Optimism’s future is ensuring we remain at the forefront of scaling Ethereum. Case in point: EIP-4844, a proposal to implement protodanksharding on Ethereum mainnet, evolved from an ETHDenver hackathon project, to a scheduled Ethereum upgrade in under a year. We’re looking forward to helping Ethereum bring 4844 to mainnet by June 2023.","The data doesn’t lie: the City of Optimism saw steady growth in 2022. More people are using OP Mainnet and more dApps are launching, both while benefiting from the security of Ethereum. One year after the EVM Equivalence Upgrade, the number of OP Mainnet transactions has more than 10x’d. Put simply: there’s more people using the chain to do more things.","The total value of assets held on OP Mainnet has also increased dramatically. On-Chain Value has almost 10x'd as well, going from 116k ETH ($540M) to 995k ETH ($1.3B) in the same twelve month period. While this metric alone doesn’t define the chain's health, it is one part of a bigger picture demonstrating overall ecosystem sustainability.","A blockchain is only as strong as its ecosystem. Our ecosystem also saw strong growth in 2022, with 54 new active (> 100 txs / day) dApps deployed throughout.","These deployments spanned a variety of categories—from DeFi to NFTs—including native protocols like Velodrome, as well as industry beloved stalwarts like Aave and OpenSea.","Here’s a glance at the top six OP Mainnet dApps in 2022, measured by number of transactions and fees generated.","Yes the devs are developing and the users are using, but let's not forget the community is also governing.","2022 saw the creation of the Token House with what many consider one of the best designed and most widely distributed airdrops in crypto. OP Airdrop #1 kickstarted the Optimism Collective’s experiment in digital democratic governance with the Token House.","On Day 1 of the most recent round of voting, 11.7k unique addresses cast votes with OP. 155k wallets are currently delegating 22.9M OP in governance, while 55.7M OP of grants have been approved by governance to date.","We are witnessing the birth of a fledgling digital nation, on-chain and in real time.","With a little over half a year of implementation, iteration, and improvement, the Token House is in full swing. The stage is set for the Citizens's House—the yin to the Token House's yang—to get off the ground.","The first iteration of the Citizens' House was recently announced: 10M OP to the people and projects that make Optimism possible with RetroPGF 2—coming in Q1 2023.","As you can see there’s a lot to celebrate this year at Optimism. To commemorate it we're releasing a free to mint NFT for Optimism’s Mirror newsletter subscribers. To collect this special Genesis Subscriber NFT you just need to connect your wallet and provide an email address. Minting will be available until December 31st at 11:59 PM UTC.","Genesis Subscriber NFT: Ether’s PhoenixThe Optimism Collective334,650 Minted","For now this commemorative NFT is just that—a fun holiday gift and Web3 way to celebrate the year at Optimism. Stay tuned for more interesting use cases for Optimism Subscriber NFTs in the future.","2022 was a huge year at Optimism and we can’t wait to see what 2023 will bring. The future of the Optimism Collective is as bright as ever, so bridge on over to the City of Optimism, try out some of the many dApps available, and start building a parallel digital nation with us.","Stay Optimistic, and see you next year! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-2022-year-in-review"},"/blog/op-goerli-is-migrating-to-bedrock":{"version":1,"title":"OP Goerli is Migrating to Bedrock - Optimism","description":"After a year of intense research and development, OP Labs has built the cheapest, fastest, most minimal codebase for an Ethereum-equivalent rollup, ever","keywords":"","h1":["OP Goerli is Migrating to Bedrock"],"h2":["Who will be impacted by the Goerli migration?","Will this affect OP Mainnet users and applications?","Bedrock is OP Mainnet, optimized."],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","December 21, 2022","After a year of intense research and development, OP Labs has built the cheapest, fastest, most minimal codebase for an Ethereum-equivalent rollup, ever. We plan to bring this game-changing architecture to OP Mainnet in an upgrade called Bedrock.","To get ready for this release, we are migrating OP Goerli to Bedrock on January 12, 2023.","Most OP Mainnet users and applications won’t notice this migration, but we do need support from some of our partners and node operators. Read on for the specifics about Testnet migration, and to find out just how hype you should be for the Bedrock upgrade.","We are already working with partners like Alchemy, Ankr, Chainlink, Etherscan, Infura, Quicknode, and Tenderly to ensure a smooth upgrade. On January 12, we’ll share a migrated database so that these partners and other node operators can spin up their upgraded Bedrock nodes.","Node operators can check out our doc on how to run Bedrock nodes and our Upgrade Guide to prepare for the Testnet upgrade. It’s possible some of these partners may schedule their Goerli upgrades after January 12, so if you are a developer dependent on one of these services, please check in with them directly to confirm their timeline.","Additionally, anyone who does automated deposits and withdrawals that don’t go through our gateway will need to update to using our SDK, or re-implement this functionality. Specifically, you need to add a gas buffer for deposits to the gateways you use, and the gateways must support two-step withdrawals.","No. As long as your front ends can support the change in block time, there is nothing for you to do (this applies to almost every application and smart contract protocol!). If you’re a developer who is interested in what’s coming to OP Mainnet with the Bedrock upgrade, you can read up on the changes here.","Everyday users of OP Mainnet will not be affected by the Testnet upgrade.","After a smooth Testnet migration, a mainnet upgrade proposal will be submitted to the Token House. If that proposal is successful, OP Mainnet can migrate to Bedrock in Q1.","After the Bedrock upgrade, our EVM equivalent, most-forked L2 code base will be even better. Bedrock will enable OP Mainnet to:","Offer the lowest possible L1 data fees. No other rollups have figured out how to get these fees lower.","Future-proof its proof schemes. OP Mainnet will be able to incorporate multiple proof mechanisms (including ZK proofs!).","Support multiple execution clients, allowing for client diversity & client-specific benefits.","Implement two-step withdrawals for bridged assets. Users will be able to monitor for bad behavior themselves, making withdrawing bridged assets much more secure.","As we gear up for mainnet Bedrock migration, we will have lots more to share about these technical innovations, so stay tuned!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-goerli-is-migrating-to-bedrock"},"/blog/bedrock-security-reviews-audit-competition":{"version":1,"title":"Bedrock Security Reviews & Audit Competition - Optimism","description":"With the recent successful migration of the OP Goerli to Bedrock, we are approaching a crucial phase of the Bedrock release: the OP Mainnet upgrade.","keywords":"","h1":["Bedrock Security Reviews & Audit Competition"],"h2":["Ensuring the Security of the Bedrock Release","Putting Bedrock’s Security to the Test: Join our Audit Contest!"],"h3":["Code Reviews & Audits","Two-Step Withdrawals","Invariant Testing","Formal Verification of our Deposit Path","Competition Parameters","How to Participate"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","January 20, 2023","This article was written in collaboration with Maurelian.","With the recent successful migration of the OP Goerli to Bedrock, we are approaching a crucial phase of the Bedrock release: the OP Mainnet upgrade.","The size and complexity of Bedrock means that ensuring the security and stability of the system was just as ambitious a task as building it. We learned a lot and are excited to share what we learned with you.","In this article we go over some security highlights and introduce an opportunity for intrepid protocol and smart contract experts to find bugs in exchange for prizes 👀","Bedrock is a radical reimagining of both the OP Stack and how OP Mainnet works. To meet our objectives for this release, much of the system was redesigned from scratch to be as elegant, simple, and future-proof as possible.","We used this process as an opportunity to integrate trusted third-party security reviews and audits into our learning and growth process as developers and as a team that always aims to improve upon the security of our code.","This holistic approach resulted in our most secure, stable codebase yet, and led to some novel solutions to common security issues that arise for L2 ecosystems.","Too often third-party audits are viewed as merely a box to tick before shipping. We engaged the best software assurance partners in the game very early on in the Bedrock development process.","Receiving ongoing feedback from security reviews enabled us to identify gaps in our process and incorporate recommendations, which ultimately improved our capacity to write secure software.","Here’s a summary of the reviews we commissioned throughout development to help secure this release:","In April of 2022, we worked with OpenZeppelin on a review of an early version of the Bedrock contracts.","In the same month, Trail of Bits performed a review of our Rollup Node and Optimistic Geth.","In early July, Sigma Prime conducted a review of Bedrock’s critical Golang components (the Rollup Node and Optimistic Geth).","In mid-July (with the Sigma Prime audit ongoing) OpenZeppelin took another look at the contracts. They focused on our Bridge, including the new ERC721 Bridge.","In September we asked our partners at Trail of Bits to identify and test the invariants of our system. Not only did this report give us a useful artifact listing those invariants, but we also received numerous fuzz tests for both our Golang and Solidity code.","By November, our Bedrock codebase had matured, and engineering work was focused primarily on clean up, testing, planning the upgrade. At this time, we asked Trail of Bits to take one last look at Bedrock.","If nothing else, 2022 was the year the crypto community learned that cross chain bridge security is hard. Many vulnerabilities were reported (or exploited) throughout the industry, including some which took advantage of faulty proof implementations.","In order to increase the safety of the assets in our bridge contracts, we’ve implemented a two-step withdrawal process for funds being moved from OP Mainnet to Ethereum Mainnet.","Here’s what we changed:","Currently, when a user makes a withdrawal from OP Mainnet to Ethereum Mainnet, they initiate the withdrawal on OP Mainnet and then finalize the withdrawal 7 days later on Ethereum Mainnet.","With two-step withdrawals, users make a withdrawal from OP Mainnet, prove the validity of that withdrawal on Ethereum Mainnet about an hour later, and then they wait the standard 7 days to finalize the withdrawal on Ethereum Mainnet.","Two-step withdrawals allow us to verify early in the withdrawal process that the withdrawal is not a duplicate; that it matches a withdrawal on OP Mainnet. It ensures that every withdrawal from the bridge on Ethereum Mainnet has a corresponding withdrawal on OP Mainnet, making it much more difficult to exploit a potential flaw in our bridge mechanism.","A critical component of securing Bedrock was going through a rigorous process of defining the invariants in our code. We then verified these invariants using Echidna for fuzzing and Foundry for fuzzing and invariant tests.","We found that clearly defining our invariants was an effective way to ensure a common understanding of the intended behaviour of our system, across the engineering team.","Bedrock’s deposit path introduces a variable pricing mechanism (similar to that of EIP1559), which charges based on the demand for L2 gas from deposits.","We recently completed an engagement with Runtime Verification to formally verify that deposits will always succeed when users make a deposit to OP Mainnet. We will share the report for this engagement when it is available.","We’ve gone to great lengths to ensure the Bedrock release of the OP Stack is stable and secure, but there’s one more step we can take to confirm we didn’t overlook anything.","With the help of Sherlock, we will be hosting an audit contest to put Bedrock’s security to the test.","The Bedrock release is substantial. It presented us with an opportunity to host an unconventional and innovative audit contest that includes client software (i.e. Geth and Golang) and involves looking at a live system on a testnet instead of just source code in Github.","This is a fun and novel opportunity for bounty hunters with diverse skillsets to flex their expertise!","For this competition, auditors will be looking at OP Goerli. This system was recently upgraded from our legacy system to the new Bedrock architecture.","This means that rather than looking for bugs in the contract’s source code, participants will be able to interact with a live system, complete with block explorers and other infrastructure.","For full contest details, including some pointers for how to get started with your analysis, check out our competition page on Sherlock.","Read the competition details (including all available prizes!) on Sherlock’s website.","Sign up to participate through Sherlock.","Read our code, look for bugs, and win bounties!","The competition will run from Jan. 23 to Feb. 6. Thank you for helping us ensure the security of OP Mainnet!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/bedrock-security-reviews-audit-competition"},"/blog/building-bedrock":{"version":1,"title":"Building Bedrock - Optimism","description":"The successful OP Goerli Testnet upgrade is behind us, a robust audit competition is putting the Bedrock architecture under a microscope, and voting on the upgrade","keywords":"","h1":["Building Bedrock"],"h2":["The Design Philosophy Behind the First Release of the OP Stack","What’s next?"],"h3":["Reduce, Reuse, Re-engineer","Ethereum-Equivalence","Modularity"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","February 3, 2023","The successful OP Goerli Testnet upgrade is behind us, a robust audit competition is putting the Bedrock architecture under a microscope, and voting on the upgrade proposal submitted to the Token House commences February 15. Bedrock is so close to landing on OP Mainnet, and we want to take this opportunity to share more details about the vision and technical specifics behind this release.","Read on to learn about the design philosophy that went into crafting the Bedrock upgrade, why it is important, and how it translated into improvements on OP Mainnet at a protocol level.","From the earliest stages of conceptualizing the Bedrock upgrade, reducing the amount of code in the OP Stack was a key priority for the OP Labs engineering team. This goal is both practical and strategic. Very simply, each line of code in a codebase costs money to maintain and presents another opportunity for a bug. The less code in a system, the less expensive it is to maintain and the more secure it can be.","The way OP Labs achieved a minimal codebase was by reusing as much code as possible from Ethereum. Pragmatically, this also increases security. A new L2 codebase is bound to have more bugs than one that has been in production and battle-tested for 8 plus years.","Beyond this, reusing the Ethereum codebase helps us arrive at our second guiding principle for building Bedrock: true Ethereum-equivalence.","Ensuring the Bedrock release is as close to 100% Ethereum-equivalent as possible is good for developers in our community. Inheriting improvements from L1 will require much less lift from developers who work on Optimism at a protocol level. It will also reduce the load on the OP Labs engineering team and help them build with our community in mind. Minimally modified execution clients make it easy for us to stay up to date with Ethereum Mainnet changes as they are implemented.","All of this adds up to an ecosystem that will make it simple for all Ethereum-native protocol contributors to experiment on OP Mainnet after the Bedrock release.","Bedrock is designed with similar abstractions and minimal difference from Ethereum. Our codebase also makes use of common Ethereum terms. Protocol-level equivalence means that core Ethereum contributors will understand implicitly how to use the OP Stack, and OP Labs developers will similarly find it easy to contribute to Ethereum.","Ultimately, being 1:1 with Ethereum allows us to serve as the proving ground for experimental projects and EIPs in the future. Core Ethereum devs will be able to experiment, test, and innovate on the most Ethereum-equivalent L2 codebase out there.","Modularity is the star of the Bedrock release, making it simple to swap out different components in the OP Stack. It prepares Optimism for the future, enabling support for multiple execution layer clients and allowing the rollup to use either fault proofs or validity proofs (e.g., a zk-SNARK) as a proof mechanism. This flexible architecture can also adapt to future developments in the Ethereum ecosystem.","This flexibility also just makes it really fun to build on Optimism, because it opens the door to endless possibilities that come from customizing modules for specific purposes. In this way, Bedrock enables significant experimentation and innovation on the protocol side of the OP Stack.","The best example of how this can work in practice is the work Lattice did to modify the OP Stack to release OP Craft.","An upgrade proposal has be sent to the Token House for approval. If it passes successfully, OP Mainnet’s migration to Bedrock will happen in the weeks following—all hands on deck to ensure a smooth upgrade!","If you can’t get enough of all things Bedrock, check out the technical Bedrock explainer we just released in the Ethereum-Optimism Community Hub. We are also hosting a Bedrock-themed AMA in our Discord on February 8th at 6:30pm UTC—hope you can join us! (edit: here’s a direct link to the Discord event!)","Stay tuned for a lot of deep-dive content in the coming weeks, including several Dev blog articles examining specific protocol improvements like two-step withdrawals, reduced L1 data fees, multi-client support, and more.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/building-bedrock"},"/blog/op-drop-2":{"version":1,"title":"OP Drop #2 - Optimism","description":"In May 2022, Optimism conducted Airdrop #1, distributing over 200m OP tokens to 250,000 early adopters and engaged users.","keywords":"","h1":["OP Drop #2"],"h2":["Who’s eligible for Airdrop #2","What’s next"],"h3":["Bonuses"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","February 9, 2023","⚠️ Stay safe: ⚠️ there is no claims page for Airdrop 2. Tokens have been sent directly to eligible addresses. Do not interact with any website claiming to distribute Airdrop #2. The OP token contract address is 0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000042.","In May 2022, Optimism conducted Airdrop #1, distributing over 200m OP tokens to 250,000 early adopters and engaged users.","With the introduction of OP, the Collective set out to establish a bicameral governance system that provides the foundation for our growing digital city.","Since then, the Token House has matured as the first piece of Optimism governance. 88k addresses have voted on over 90 proposals to distribute more than 55m OP tokens across the ecosystem. This month it will review and vote on Optimism’s first protocol upgrade proposal to Bedrock. And a total of 293k addresses are delegating their voting power — a positive-sum activity that helps strengthen the fabric of Optimism’s governance system.","At the same time, OP Mainnet is developing into a booming economy. Over 1.5 million addresses have sent 64 million transactions since our first Airdrop, spending nearly $15 million in fees on the network—saving an order of magnitude more in the process. Participation in governance and in the Optimism economy is what helps our Collective grow and thrive.","Today, Optimism is announcing Airdrop #2: 11.7m OP distributed to over 300k unique addresses to reward positive-sum governance participation and power users of OP Mainnet.","Optimism has committed to distributing 19% of the total initial token supply to the community through Airdrops. Airdrop #1 distributed 5% of the total initial token supply. This Airdrop #2 is roughly 1/20 as large, and distributes ~0.27% of the total initial supply, or 1.44% of the overall Airdrop allocation. 13.73% of the total initial token supply remains for future Airdrops.","Read on for more detail about eligibility criteria and distribution. If you missed out on this Airdrop, don’t worry — more news coming soon.","Airdrop #2 has been distributed to:","Addresses that have delegated the voting power of their OP tokens.","Addresses that spent more than $6.10 on L2 gas since March 25, 2022 — the average cost of a transaction on Ethereum L1.","A snapshot was taken on Jan 20, 2023 at 0:00 UTC to determine eligibility. More detailed information criteria is available in our documentation.","Why delegation? Optimism cares deeply about the power of crypto to create and scale new coordination mechanisms. A healthy governance system is crucial to the overall success of the Optimism Collective — and a key piece of healthy governance are delegators, the OP token holders who choose to transfer the voting power of their tokens to a community member to vote those tokens in governance. Delegation is a positive-sum activity that helps strengthen the fabric of Optimism’s governance system. This Airdrop is designed to reward the users who share these values and have put their OP tokens to use in the first three seasons of Token House governance by delegating.","→ To delegate your own tokens, head to app.optimism.io/delegates. (Note: this will not affect your eligibility for Airdrop 2.)","Why gas spend? Optimism is nothing without the people interacting with applications and products in our ecosystem. Sure, OP MAINNET is a heck of a lot cheaper than L1 Ethereum — since May, the average transaction on L1 Ethereum cost $6.10 compared to just $0.22. But OP Mainnet could still be cheaper, right? While we’re all stoked for EIP 4844 to make transactions an order of magnitude more affordable, sometimes you just can’t wait. This Airdrop provides a partial gas rebate for all those power users who’ve racked up more than $6.10 in gas spend since the first airdrop snapshot. Here’s to you 🫡","→ Explore applications on OP Mainnet. (Note: this will not affect your eligibility for Airdrop 2.)","But wait — there’s more ✨","Just like the first Airdrop, there are several bonus multipliers to recognize those users who’ve been especially involved.","If an address hits ≥1 of these bonus attributes, it receives a multiplier on the baseline drop amount it qualified for.","The bonus attributes are:","Substantial delegation: you delegated 272 OP for ≥ 200 days, or an equal multiple of more OP * time over a shorter period.","Gas guzzler: you spent more than $20 on L2 gas since May 31 2022.","Consistent Optimist: you used an application on OP Mainnet in six different months since May 31 2022.","Active delegator: You had ≥ 20 OP delegated at the date of snapshot.","1 bonus category = 1.05x. 2 categories = 1.10x. 3 categories = 1.50x. 4 categories = 2.00x","For a detailed breakdown of methodology and criteria, head to our documentation.","There is no need to claim this airdrop. If your address was eligible for this Airdrop, you will receive OP directly to your wallet. Distributions began on approximately 19:00 GMT February 9, and will complete in the hours following.","Again, there is no need to claim this airdrop. Do not interact with any site asking for you to claim Airdrop #2. Always check the domain of sites you are interacting with.","Optimism has committed to 19% of its initial token supply for airdropped distributions. If you missed out on Airdrop #2, don’t worry — there are more to come. Having multiple airdrops allows us to experiment & iterate on this ever-evolving mechanism in order to further facilitate positive-sum behavior in the ecosystem. It's never to late to participate!","And, as always,","Stay Optimistic ✨🔴","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-drop-2"},"/blog/op-in-denver-rollup-recap":{"version":1,"title":"OP in Denver: Rollup Recap - Optimism","description":"A recap of the super time Optimists from OP Labs and the Optimism Foundation had talking about scaling Ethereum, the Superchain, and RetroPGF at ETHDenver.","keywords":"","h1":["OP in Denver: Rollup Recap"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","March 10, 2023","Not sure whether it was the altitude, the conversations, the hacks, or a combination of all three, but we’re still floating from our amazing time with the Ethereum community at ETHDenver! We’ve recapped the highlights for you here, complete with presentation links, pics, and hackathon winner deets!","The Superchain makes its official conference debut!","Following close on the heels of the Base launch and the Superchain vision announcement, we had a lot to talk about!","Our own CEO, Liam Horne joined Jesse from Base, Eva from The Graph Foundation, and Stani from Aave for a panel covering how L2s are scaling Ethereum for global adoption, moderated by Molly from Protocol Labs.","In a follow-up to his presentation at Devcon on the OP Stack, Karl Floersch continues the story with a deep dive into the Superchain and how it will change the way we develop in web3. Here is a link to his slides.","We will update this blog post to include Karl's ETHDenver presentation video when it becomes available.","Whether you were with us in Denver or not, you can stay informed about future Superchain developments by filling out this form.","Learnings from OP Labs","In addition to the Superchain, we also covered other onchain happenings. From our DevRel team, Kelvin Fichter talked about building decentralized, attestation-based identity onchain. Come for the knowledge, stay for the slide art.","He continued to share his thoughts on a panel, where he sat down Masha Healy & Evin McMullen as they all discussed Web3 identity off-chain, on-chain, or both.","Our own resident wallet and exchange expert, Vivian Tao, weighed in during a panel that discussed what it will take to seamlessly onboard the next billion users and the next 100K builders in to Web3. Spoiler alert: it includes solving for standardization and improving usability.","Findings from the Optimism Foundation","At both ETHDenver, and Schelling Point, Justine Humenansky shared findings from her months long research into DAO governance and policy. Not only did she organize her research results into 10 categories and bless us with actionable takeaways for each, she also open sourced her work! Check out her presentation and dive into The Collective DAO Archives, a searchable library of DAO policies, programs, and processes.","The OP Stack, the codebase that powers OP Mainnet, is the most overpowered public good in the game. But don’t take our word for it; you can take Ben Jones’ - aka Weird ETH Yankovic - who covered all things RetroPGF and how the OP Stack fits into the broader Ethereum ecosystem.","Hackathon","We also sponsored three bounties for BUIDLWeek, challenging builders to create apps, tools, and visualizations for AttestationStation. Top scorers included Trustsight, an on-chain reputation system combining attestations and EigenTrust; an ATST explorer by Escher Fanboyz; Lumen, a proof-of-funds system for under-collateralized loans; and an interactive kinetic sculpture prototype that reacts to on-chain events.","In all, eight winners took home a total of $25K in prizes, while also building the future of decentralized identity. Not bad for a week’s hacks!","And there you have it: the lowdown from our time in Cow Town!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-in-denver-rollup-recap"},"/blog/optimism-s-path-to-technical-decentralization":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism’s Path to Technical Decentralization - Optimism","description":"An update on OP Labs’ goals for advancing Optimism’s technical decentralization.","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism’s Path to Technical Decentralization"],"h2":["Strategic Approach","Milestones","The Superchain and Beyond"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","February 23, 2023","Optimism aims to empower humanity by enabling global coordination of human intelligence via decentralized blockchain technology. OP Labs contributes by building technical infrastructure to help make this optimistic vision possible. An essential component of this vision is the decentralization of the OP Stack codebase.","Much of the work at OP Labs over the last year has been about readying the OP Stack to support broader technical decentralization. For example, the Bedrock release will enable the use of multiple proof schemes and multiple clients. Multi-client fault proofs are a fundamental component for technical decentralization, and the modular framework of Bedrock will have a big impact on the community’s ability to decentralize the actual development of the OP Stack.","With all this in mind, we wanted to share an update on OP Labs’ goals for advancing Optimism’s technical decentralization together with the Collective.","It is important to be intellectually honest about the challenges communities face when working towards decentralization. Namely, writing complex, bug-free code is incredibly difficult, yet critical, as a single vulnerability can be catastrophic for any L2.","We are advocates of being intentional, pragmatic, and abundantly cautious in the steps that are taken to activate fault proofs onchain. While full provability will take time, there are several protocol upgrades that can be developed in parallel to move the OP Stack meaningfully further along the decentralization spectrum without waiting for fault proof readiness.","We call these parallelized upgrades baseline decentralization milestones. These protocol upgrades decentralize custody of the bridge upgrade keys and enable permissionless output proposals. The community could continue to iterate on fault proofs carefully, while pushing towards baseline decentralization at the same time.","Baseline decentralization is our top priority, and something we hope to help deliver towards the end of this year. Looking ahead, we expect completing precursors for fault proof decentralization will be a focus into 2024.","Once baseline decentralization and the Cannon fault proof milestones have been achieved, the community can shift its focus to other high-level themes such as deploying additional proof systems on Mainnet, phasing out the attestor network, removing upgrade keys, and decentralizing the sequencer.","We’re excited that everyone building on the OP Stack codebase can contribute to, and benefit from, our collective efforts to advance its level of technical decentralization. And in a post-Superchain world, all connected L2s can inherit this vision and progress.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-s-path-to-technical-decentralization"},"/blog/here-s-how-bedrock-will-bring-significantly-lower-fees-to-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"Here’s How Bedrock will Bring Significantly Lower Fees to OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"This post explores how the Bedrock upgrade will bring 47% reduction in protocol costs and security fees to Optimism Mainnet.","keywords":"","h1":["Here’s How Bedrock will Bring Significantly Lower Fees to OP Mainnet"],"h2":["Where do Costs Come From?","Identifying Improvements","Iterating the Fix","Batching and Compressing Data","Cost Reduction by the Numbers","Up Next: Fee Optimization & EIP-4844"],"h3":["Compression Algorithm","Minimized usage of Ethereum gas"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Joshua","March 2, 2023","Lower usage fees is a design principle that shapes a huge portion of the Bedrock release. It led to a complete re-architecting of how transactions are posted to L1 and vice versa.","Despite the outsized impact of this approach, it emerged from a very simple hypothesis: lower fees = good. We want our ecosystem to be the most accessible: the easiest, the most fun, and the most affordable to build and transact on.","In the end, the Bedrock upgrade will bring a 47% reduction in protocol costs and security fees to OP Mainnet. Read on to find out how we achieved this.","There are two sources of cost when it comes to sending a transaction on OP Mainnet: the L2 execution fee and the L1 data/security fee.","The L2 execution fee is comparable to how regular transaction fees work on Ethereum, with the added bonus that execution gas prices on OP Mainnet are incredibly low because the network is not as congested the L1.","The L1 data fee occurs because all transactions on OP Mainnet are also published to Ethereum. This step is crucial to the security of OP Mainnet because it means that all of the data needed to sync an OP node is always publicly available on Ethereum. It's what makes OP Mainnet an L2. Users on OP Mainnet have to pay for the cost of submitting their transactions to Ethereum. Because the cost of gas is so expensive on Ethereum, the L1 data fee dominates much of the total cost of a transaction on OP Mainnet.","Early on in Bedrock development, we were able to identify several areas that resulted in unnecessary costs for users. In particular, OP Mainnet’s legacy system was designed in a way that didn’t use L1 data space as efficiently as possible. For example, the pre-Bedrock system for posting data to Ethereum was simply to add as many transactions as possible to a compressed bunch of data that could fill up a single L1 transaction.","To fix this, the logical place to start was to try improving the efficiency of how the large amounts of data posted to Ethereum were compressed. We also identified that reorganizing the way data was sent to L1 from OP Mainnet could maximize the usage of available space for data on L1.","Once we had a rudimentary proof of concept that submitting groups of transactions made up of compressed data moved us closer to our goal, we focused on optimizing this approach.","A key constraint that informed development was the need to split up the body of an L2 block across multiple L1 transactions. If someone submits a large transaction to L2, it probably needs to be split up to fit into L1 Calldata. Further, the algorithm we use to compress data yields a better ratio the more data you feed it. To address this constraint and maximize the compression ratio, we designed a system that takes advantage of these properties.","The key building block of this system are batches. A batch is a wire format designed to minimize costs and software complexity for writing to the L1. Traditional blocks are transformed into batches that take away as much extra information as possible, retaining only essential, small amounts of metadata.","Next, lists of L2 transactions called sequencer batches are compressed together into something called a channel. Each channel has a maximum size (initially ~9.5Mb). these channels will be compressed using a compression algorithm before being submitted to L1. Compressing a lot of batches into each channel is where we gain the efficiency of a good compression ratio.","Channels are further broken down into channel frames. This is the piece that helps us address the key constraint defined above. Slicing channels into frames lets us handle very large L2 transactions by sending these transactions to the L1 in parallel, thus packing the corresponding L1 transaction as full as possible.","When selecting a compression algorithm, we considered candidates like zstd, brotli, and LZW, but ultimately chose zlib because it offered good performance for our needs.","Good performance in this case means the right balance of good compression ratio vs. good compression and decompression speed for what we are trying to achieve. This reflects a typical trade-off in choosing compression algorithms: speed/compression ratio performance.","The final piece contributing to fee reduction is that Bedrock removes all execution gas, reducing L1 data fees to the theoretical minimum.  We went into depth on this in our Bedrock Explainer.","Here’s an excerpt:","Bedrock removes all execution gas used by the L1 system from submitting channel data to the L1 in transactions called batcher transactions. All validation logic that was previously happening on smart contracts on the L1 is moved into the block derivation logic. Instead, batcher transactions are sent to a single EOA on Ethereum referred to as the batch inbox address.Batches are still subject to validity checks (i.e. they have to be encoded correctly), and so are individual transactions within the batch (e.g. signatures have to be valid). Invalid batches and invalid individual transactions within an otherwise valid batch are considered to be discarded and irrelevant to the system.","Following the Bedrock upgrade, we are projecting a 47% reduction in protocol costs/security fees comprising 99% in state chain commitments and 20% in batch submission costs.","After the upgrade, we will release an update via the OP Labs Twitter account that includes post-Bedrock data (which will show how accurate our projections were), so keep an eye out for that.","We are really proud of the design and solution we built to lower fees for the Bedrock release. It is the result of our team leaning into solid engineering fundamentals and executing cleanly.","Our team is continuing to refine fee optimization to get L2 data fees lower, so be on the lookout for this in releases beyond Bedrock. One specific thing we can do is to time batch submission so that batches are guaranteed to be submitted in a particular window of time (10 minutes, say) and we can time the batches to submit when fees are lowest in those 10 minutes.","Even more exciting, EIP-4844 will soon be included in Ethereum. When that happens, the costs associated with posting data to an L1 will decrease further.","If this post got you excited about building on OP Mainnet, check out our docs to find out how to contribute to the community. Also, our Bedrock Explainer has much more detail on the many amazing features to come with the Bedrock release.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/here-s-how-bedrock-will-bring-significantly-lower-fees-to-op-mainnet"},"/blog/optimism-goes-m-u-l-t-i-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism Goes m̶u̶l̶t̶i̶ Superchain - Optimism","description":"Optimism was built to empower humanity through decentralized blockchain technology that enables unprecedented coordination of human intelligence across the globe","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Goes m̶u̶l̶t̶i̶ Superchain"],"h2":["An Inconvenient Truth","An Optimistic Future","A Based Announcement"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","February 23, 2023","Optimism was built to empower humanity through decentralized blockchain technology that enables unprecedented coordination of human intelligence across the globe, at scale. And there is a lot to celebrate: by our estimation, over the past two years, OP Mainnet has cumulatively saved users $2.69 billion in fees, 15.8 years of waiting for transaction confirmations, and currently secures $2.8 billion in onchain value.","But the reality is: nobody has truly scaled Ethereum. That includes us.","If Ethereum is to rival the goliaths of web2, and take software’s next bite of the world, it needs internet-level scale. No single chain today can offer that.","At the same time, a multichain world brings its own challenges. Ethereum L2s are already pushing the limits of tooling and UX, and we are nowhere near global scale. To support the next hundreds, thousands, and millions of chains, we need a paradigm shift.","The reality is–as growing brands and ecosystems look for platforms to call home, they have limited, imperfect options. Large ecosystems like Coinbase are faced with a difficult decision: they can deploy on Ethereum and forfeit scalability, choose a single L2 and be dependent on that ecosystem, or deploy and maintain their own chain and fragment liquidity and network effects.","What if we could have both the scalability of parallel chains and the composability of a single blockchain? What if all those chains shared an open source stack that prioritized decentralization, governance, security, and making constant improvements in tandem?","It’s time for Optimism to prepare for the next wave of adoption.","It’s time to build a unified network of chains, not just one.","It’s time to build together, not apart.","It’s time for Optimism to become a platform for chains.","Optimism has always been an open source project, and proudly has the most forks of any L2. But now, it’s time to double down. This isn’t just about creating many chains–it’s about uniting them into a single network.","We call the result the Superchain.","The Superchain seeks to integrate otherwise siloed L2s into a single interoperable and composable system. We need to work towards a future where launching an L2 is as straightforward as deploying a smart contract to Ethereum is today.","Lastly–and perhaps most importantly–when we build together, we win together. This is why sustaining the OP Stack codebase as a public good is critical. Speaking of…","Today, we welcome a new entrant to the Optimism ecosystem: Coinbase.","Coinbase joins as both a core developer of the OP Stack codebase, and as a new L2 blockchain built on it, called Base.","As core developers, Coinbase will join OP Labs in contributing to the mission of the Optimism Collective, extending the OP Stack’s lead as the most OverPowered public good in the game.","As a chain, Base will commit a portion of transaction fee revenue back to an Optimism Collective treasury, furthering the vision for a sustainable future where Impact = Profit.","In the near term, this collaboration strives to upgrade OP Mainnet, Base, and other L2s to an initial Superchain structure, with shared bridging and sequencing.","In the long term, the Superchain can blossom into a sprawling network which maximizes interoperability, shares decentralized protocols, and standardizes its core primitives–all while funding the public goods which enable it.","We will scale together.","If you’d like to join us, get in touch, or start contributing.","And, as always,","Stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-goes-m-u-l-t-i-superchain"},"/blog/announcing-the-results-of-retropgf-2":{"version":1,"title":"Announcing the Results of RetroPGF 2 - Optimism","description":"Retroactive Public Goods Funding is the engine that drives the growth of the Optimism ecosystem.","keywords":"","h1":["Announcing the Results of RetroPGF 2"],"h2":["Recipients of RetroPGF 2","To sustainability and beyond","Next Steps"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","March 30, 2023","Rewarding positive impact while fueling ecosystem growth","Retroactive Public Goods Funding is the engine that drives the growth of the Optimism ecosystem.","With the knowledge and data afforded by hindsight, RetroPGF aims to effectively allocate capital to the builders whose efforts have provided public good to the Collective.","By investing in the projects and people that have created positive impact, the Collective is supercharging the tooling, education, infrastructure, utilities, and open source software that makes Optimism the best crypto ecosystem to build on.","In the Optimism Collective, your positive impact will be rewarded with profit.","RetroPGF Round 2 is the Collective’s second experiment in allocating public goods funding. In this round, 69 out the 71 selected badgeholders – our early “citizens” – voted on how to allocate 10M OP to projects and people who have supported the usage and development of the OP Stack. For more information on badgeholder selection criteria, see the Optimism docs.","In this second round of RetroPGF, 195 people and projects were nominated for funding, and all 195 were awarded funding by the badgeholders! While going above and beyond in assessing project impact these badgeholders allocated their votes among 40 different projects on average. The median OP received by a project for RetroPGF 2 was 22,825, while the top 10% of projects received more than 140k OP.","Together, projects from RetroPGF round two have collectively built some of the core infrastructure that Ethereum and Optimism depends on (shout out Protocol Guild, Solidity, Geth, Goerli, and many others), supported thousands of devs in building decentralized applications (shout out Remix, BuidlGuidl, CryptoZombies, and ETHGlobal to name a few) and onboarded countless new Optimists with their Educational content (sup Optimism Support NERDs, Michael Vander Meiden, Optimism en Español, and more).","See the full list of all RetroPGF 2 recipients here, or through the RetroPGF discovery page.","RetroPGF 2 Recipients - Infrastructure","RetroPGF 2 Recipients - Education","RetroPGF 2 Recipients - Tooling & Utilities","Funding was evenly distributed by badgeholders across three categories: Education, Infrastructure, and Tooling & Utilities.","In the Education category, the Collective funded 70 people and projects. The top three recipients were L2Beat, ETHGlobal, and BuidlGuidl.","RetroPGF 2 Breakdown - Education","Round 2 also funded 43 infrastructure projects. Protocol Guild, geth, and Solidity were the top three recipients in this category.","RetroPGF 2 Breakdown - Infrastructure","Lastly, 82 Tooling & Utilities projects also received funding. OpenZeppelin, DefiLlama, and wagmi received the most for this category.","RetroPGF 2 Breakdown - Tooling & Utilities","Optimism is committed to running regular rounds of RetroPGF, experimenting with scope, structure, and process along the way.","The Collective aims to make RetroPGF as reliable as clockwork, creating a source of funding that public goods builders can depend on. If done right, the Collective will create an economic model where public goods are rewarded with profit equal to their impact—something our modern economies fail at.","This vision is key to Optimism’s future.","The completion of RetroPGF 2 is a massive achievement that puts Optimism one step further down the path of decentralization. Congratulations to the recipients of this round, and a massive thank you to the citizen badgeholders who helped to make it possible!","Want to get involved? The best way to participate is to create something for the Collective! Stay tuned for our upcoming announcement about RetroPGF 3 by subscribing to our newsletter.","Want to learn more? You can read more about RetroPGF in our announcement post, or find more details about how each round works in our documentation.","We’ll be sharing more about our learnings and reflections from RetroPGF 2 soon. In the meantime, you can mint this Mirror Subscriber NFT to commemorate this historic milestone for Optimism, Ethereum, and the open source community at large. All proceeds from the minting of this NFT will be added to funding for RetroPGF 3.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/announcing-the-results-of-retropgf-2"},"/blog/increasing-confidence-in-the-op-mainnet-bridge-with-two-step-withdrawals":{"version":1,"title":"Increasing Confidence in the OP Mainnet Bridge with Two-Step Withdrawals - Optimism","description":"The Bedrock upgrade will introduce a new two-step withdrawal process to the Optimism Mainnet bridge that will improve its security & make exploits much more difficult.","keywords":"","h1":["Increasing Confidence in the OP Mainnet Bridge with Two-Step Withdrawals"],"h2":["How Two-Step Withdrawals Work","Visualizing the New Withdrawals Flow","Increasing Confidence in Bridge Security"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","clabby","March 22, 2023","Of all the scenarios keeping protocol engineers up at night, bridge exploits are close to the top of the list. When it hits OP Mainnet, the Bedrock upgrade will introduce a new two-step withdrawal process to the bridge that aims to improve security, provide a better user experience, and help our ecosystem devs sleep a bit sounder.","The new withdrawal process on the L1 has been split into two parts: proving and finalizing. To withdraw funds from OP Mainnet, users must submit a proof for their withdrawal as soon as the output for the L2 block that contains the withdrawal transaction appears on the L1. On average, it takes about an hour for this output to appear on Ethereum. Once the proof for the withdrawal is submitted, users wait the standard seven day finalization window before the withdrawal can be finalized by the user on the L1.","Previously, withdrawals were only subjected to the seven day finalization window. Fraudulent withdrawals could be challenged, but there were more opportunities for bad actors to take advantage of bugs in this withdrawal process.","Since two-step withdrawals introduce a requirement to prove all withdrawals on L1, an opportunity to challenge fraudulent proofs is also introduced. Once the proof has been submitted, the OptimismPortal contract starts the seven day finalization period, which becomes a window of time in which to challenge any fraudulent proof. This makes it harder for anyone to take advantage of a bug in the merkle-patricia trie (MPT) contract, which verifies inclusion proofs.","Essentially, the decoupling of proof verification and finalizing transactions boosts the security of the bridge by vastly increasing the difficulty of exploiting OP Mainnet’s bridge. Any attempts at an exploit are also more transparent and monitorable. A fun side effect of this approach is that decoupling of proof verification and withdrawal execution also brings us closer to the true properties of optimistic rollups.","So, how does this new process work? Here's a technical breakdown of the steps involved:","The old finalized withdrawal transaction function inside the OptimismPortal contract has been split into two functions: proveWithdrawalTransaction and finalizeWithdrawalTransaction.","The SDK has been updated to support both proving and finalizing withdrawals on L1.","Once the output that contains your withdrawal has been proposed on Ethereum Mainnet, you are able to prove your withdrawal transaction. Once you prove your withdrawal transaction, the 1-week window starts.","At the end of this window, if your transaction hasn’t been challenged, you no longer need to provide that proof to the finalized withdrawal transaction call.","When you call finalize withdrawal transaction, it will check to see if the proof you submitted a week ago passed the challenge window. If it has and hasn’t been challenged, the funds will be realized on L1.","Here are two diagrams that visualize these changes:","This approach provides a significant upgrade to the security of OP Mainnet’s bridge—it is worth noting that bugs faking MPT proofs have impacted other protocols in the past, so bridge improvements were a key priority when scoping the Bedrock upgrade.","It is our hope that the introduction of two-step withdrawals increases confidence in the security of OP Mainnet’s bridge, especially for our partners who may limit the amount of funds they hold on OP Mainnet due to fears of bridge hacks. With this upgrade, users can monitor for bad behavior themselves, making it easier for them to participate in the ecosystem with peace of mind.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/increasing-confidence-in-the-op-mainnet-bridge-with-two-step-withdrawals"},"/blog/exploring-a-new-rpc-endpoint-to-support-erc-4337-and-account-abstraction":{"version":1,"title":"Exploring a new RPC endpoint to support ERC-4337 and account abstraction - Optimism","description":"This blog post delves into the intricacies of account abstraction, ERC-4337, and the benefits of a novel RPC endpoint that is being built to make","keywords":"","h1":["Exploring a new RPC endpoint to support ERC-4337 and account abstraction"],"h2":["Understanding account abstraction and ERC-4337","Introducing a new RPC endpoint for conditional inclusion","Interested in getting involved?"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Mark Tyneway","April 4, 2023","Account abstraction is an exciting development that aims to revolutionize the way users interact with blockchains in the Ethereum ecosystem. This blog post delves into the intricacies of account abstraction, ERC-4337, and the benefits of a novel RPC endpoint that is being built to make it easier for bundlers to succeed. If this post gets you curious about what we’re building, don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter to see how you can get involved.","In essence, account abstraction allows users to define an authorization policy for performing actions on behalf of an account. This policy, implemented in a smart contract wallet, simply returns true or false, determining if the action is authorized.","Currently, Ethereum uses an ECDSA signature to authorize transactions from specific accounts. However, smart contract-based authorization policies can be more computationally intensive, and therefore, more expensive to execute. To prevent denial of service attacks on the network, the authorization policy within smart contract wallets must be constrained.","Account abstraction can be implemented either statefully or statelessly. Stateful account abstraction enables more expressive authorization policies but the authorization policy can return different values as the blockchain state changes over time. Stateless account abstraction, on the other hand, is generally less expensive to validate but less expressive.","ERC-4337 is an out-of-protocol meta-transaction standard that enables a form of account abstraction. It allows users to interact with the network by sending UserOps to their smart contract wallets, which can be bundled into transactions by bundlers.","One challenge with stateful account abstraction is that a UserOp valid at one block may be invalid at another block. To address this issue, a new RPC endpoint has been proposed that conditionally includes transactions based on validity conditions. This development aims to make it easier for bundlers to be successful.","This RPC endpoint allows users to specify conditions for their transaction inclusion, such as preferred account values, storage slots, block numbers, or timestamps. The block builder's profitability and reputation are the only factors ensuring that user preferences are observed. Bundlers should monitor block builders' performance and stop sending bundles to those that do not observe their preferences.","While this RPC endpoint is more efficient than requiring full simulation of the bundle, it still adds resource consumption to the block builder. An upper bound on resource consumption must be defined to prevent denial of service attacks. This upper bound can be larger if a reputation system is built on top, where successful bundlers are given more resources than unsuccessful ones.","What might such a reputation system look like? Well, with this RPC endpoint, block builder profitability and reputation are the sole factors ensuring user preferences are observed. As block builders earn more through transaction fees by acting honestly, their reputation with bundlers improves, creating a flywheel effect that can help to bootstrap the 4337 economy. Since there are no in-protocol incentives to ensure that bundler preferences are followed, bundlers should monitor the performance of the block builders and stop sending bundles to block builders that do not observe their preferences. Having a permissionless set of block builders is important so that bundlers can opt out of block builders that are malicious.","The proposed RPC endpoint for ERC-4337 promises to improve the efficiency and flexibility for bundlers, making it easier for them to succeed in this growing account abstraction ecosystem. If you're a developer interested in collaborating on this project, please send me a message reach out to me at @tyneslol on Twitter.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/exploring-a-new-rpc-endpoint-to-support-erc-4337-and-account-abstraction"},"/blog/introducing-op-erigon-how-the-bedrock-upgrade-unlocks-client-diversity":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing op-erigon: how the Bedrock upgrade unlocks client diversity - Optimism","description":"Test in Prod leveraged the modular and open source OP Stack to develop an alternate execution client, op-erigon, now available to test on OP Goerli.","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing op-erigon: how the Bedrock upgrade unlocks client diversity"],"h2":["What is client diversity and why is it important?","How the Bedrock upgrade enables client diversity on OP Mainnet","Introducing op-erigon","The power of the OP Stack"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","protolambda","April 20, 2023","The upcoming Bedrock upgrade will enable OP Mainnet and other OP Stack chains to support multiple clients, significantly enhancing the network's resilience and adaptability. Yesterday we celebrated the announcement of Magi, a16zcrypto’s rollup client, and today we are announcing that an alternate execution client has hit OP Goerli: op-erigon!","This exciting development was achieved by Test in Prod, a team entirely external to OP Labs, demonstrating the power of the modular and open source OP Stack.","While these first versions of op-erigon and Magi on OP Goerli need ongoing testing to ensure stability and prepare for an eventual OP Mainnet launch, they nevertheless represent a huge milestone in L2 client diversity.","Read on to find out more about why Bedrock was designed to enable client diversity, and to get all the details on how to test op-erigon on OP Goerli.","A client is a piece of software that syncs the blockchain and allows users to interact with it. In Ethereum, there are multiple clients developed and maintained by separate teams, which provides client diversity. This diversity is crucial for several reasons:","It offers different features and optimizations. Clients developed in various languages (such as Rust, Go, and Java) can explore different ideas, optimizations, and research initiatives, fostering creativity and ensuring no single bottleneck hampers progress.","It provides choice for developers. Users can select a client that fits their interests or specific use cases, providing opportunities for experimentation and alignment with their requirements.","It helps hedge against client failures. Most importantly, a diverse client base ensures the network can continue operating even when one client faces issues. Ethereum has experienced critical bugs in the past, but the chain didn't fail because there were multiple clients available for use while the bugs were resolved.","The Bedrock upgrade is designed to achieve modularity and support multiple clients by adopting the same consensus layer and execution layer split as L1. By maintaining the same engine API boundaries that exist on L1, the upgrade minimizes the changes needed to adopt another client, enhancing flexibility and adaptability.","This modularity is echoed in plans for Cannon implementation on OP Mainnet: the network will be able to accommodate fault proof diversity as well. Fault proof diversity is backed by client diversity, and every combination of multiple clients and multiple proofs contributes to a quorum of the final outcome. This ensures that the network can continue operating, even in the face of bugs; OP Mainnet will keep on chugging. 🚂","As of today, the first iteration of op-erigon is live on OP Goerli. The Test in Prod team is eager to have users test out the network so they can refine the product and eventually ship it on OP Mainnet!","If you want to experiment with this new client offering, head to this GitHub repo or Test in Prod’s OP Goerli Public RPC. You can find Test in Prod on Twitter, and you can follow this link for an invite to their Discord to report bugs or find support for getting set up. Curious readers can also browse the op-erigon fork-diff or Otterscan, the op-erigon block explorer that Test in Prod has set up.","Users should be aware that new clients may not be entirely stable from the start. However when client usage is balanced with time-tested alternative clients, just like on L1, stability issues become less likely over time. By trying out op-erigon and providing feedback to the Test in Prod team, community members are helping to enrich the Optimism ecosystem. Thank you!🫡","The launch of op-erigon and Magi on OP Goerli not only highlight the benefits of the Bedrock upgrade, but we hope they inspire developers to explore the OP Stack and build their own infrastructure. Ecosystem builders like Test in Prod and a16zcrypto are vital to the Optimistic Vision, and their hard work on this high-impact component of OP Mainnet deserves recognition.","This week we celebrated the launch of two new clients on OP Goerli, and the Bedrock upgrade structures the OP Stack in such a way that it is relatively simple for builders familiar with Ethereum to build and productionize other client integrations. If you're interested in contributing to projects like this, don't hesitate to reach out!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-op-erigon-how-the-bedrock-upgrade-unlocks-client-diversity"},"/blog/building-a-decentralized-identity-ecosystem-together":{"version":1,"title":"Building a Decentralized Identity Ecosystem, Together - Optimism","description":"The Optimism Collective is building a better economic engine that fuels positive-sum games, and decentralized identity is central to that goal","keywords":"","h1":["Building a Decentralized Identity Ecosystem, Together"],"h2":[],"h3":["Iterating towards decentralized identity","AttestationStation upgrades to the EAS Standard","Building the decentralized identity ecosystem together"],"h4":["Launching the OP Mainnet contracts with Bedrock"],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Zain Bacchus","May 4, 2023","The Optimism Collective is building a better economic engine that fuels positive-sum games, and decentralized identity is central to that goal. Decentralized identity not only unlocks democratic governance and innovation, but also empowers individuals to have greater control over their finances and participate in the global economy on their own terms.It's been four exciting months since announcing how the Optimism Collective is experimenting with attestations and reputation data to power the Citizens’ House, where community members participate in a one-person-one-vote system based on Collective contributions, and we're thrilled to share the ecosystem’s progress thus far:","Since the launch of the AttestationStation, the Optimism ecosystem has been iterating towards  decentralized identity:","Over 500,000 attestations issued on OP Mainnet: Since December 2022, pioneering teams like Otterspace, Clique Social, Flipside, and RociFi have issued more than 500,000 attestations. There’s a variety of reputation data now onchain and available to experiment with. AttestationStation has also been integrated into Sismo and Guild.xyz, enabling communities to use this reputation data for personalized experiences and access control.","Attestations for Retroactive Public Goods Funding 2 (RetroPGF2): In March, the Optimism Collective leveraged attestations to identify the badgeholder voters responsible for distributing 10M OP tokens to 195 ecosystem projects. The results of RetroPGF2 were also posted as attestations, creating an onchain record of the outcomes.","AttestationStation upgrades to the EAS standard: As we work with collaborators in the ecosystem to enable decentralized identity and reputation, we’re excited to share that we’re upgrading the AttestationStation to conform to the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) Standard. This means developers can use one common standard for making attestations that interoperate across the Superchain and Ethereum Mainnet.","As we move towards a multichain, cross-chain, and Superchain future, Optimism and EAS are on a mission to bring permissionless attestations to developers across the Ethereum ecosystem.","Attestations are important building blocks for building trust online. The challenge is that there is currently no base layer for any entity to make attestations about anything. Solutions are fractured, making it difficult for individuals to manage their identity in a decentralized and secure way. To iterate towards the future, the AttestationStation has been upgraded to the EAS Standard. Having one common standard allows developers to create more seamless and secure experiences for their users and open up new opportunities for innovation in the decentralized identity space.To get a glimpse of what’s possible with attestations, visit the interactive tutorial and explore the identity docs.","The upgraded contracts using the EAS Standard are live on OP Goerli and you can start experimenting with them today. The upgraded contracts will be available on OP Mainnet following the launch of Bedrock.","If you’re a previous user of the AttestationStation, you can continue using the AttestationStation v0 contracts but it's recommended you migrate to the upgraded contracts.","We're excited to continue iterating with builders in the Optimism Collective to allow for decentralized identity use cases to emerge in the ecosystem.The most significant way to help is by creating experiences that enable people to signal contributions to the ecosystem that can be used in governance, DeFi, social, and gaming. Visit optimism.io/ideas for inspiration or view requests for proposals to participate in our decentralized identity efforts.","We encourage you to explore the potential of attestations and if you're already using AttestationStation, we'd love to hear your feedback and collaborate on building a decentralized identity as a public good.","Join us in shaping the future of decentralized identity together!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/building-a-decentralized-identity-ecosystem-together"},"/blog/improving-token-discoverability-and-trust-through-the-superchain-token-list":{"version":1,"title":"Improving token discoverability and trust through the Superchain Token List - Optimism","description":"The Superchain Token List will simplify the process of bridging tokens between Ethereum and OP Chains built on the OP stack, including OP Mainnet and Base.","keywords":"","h1":["Improving token discoverability and trust through the Superchain Token List"],"h2":["Understanding the Superchain ecosystem","The Superchain Token List workflow"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Harry Markley","April 24, 2023","As we continue to work towards our vision of a scalable, interconnected network of chains built on the OP Stack, we're excited to introduce a new feature that will provide important continuity between these chains: the Superchain Token List.","This unified token list will simplify the process of bridging tokens between Ethereum and the various OP chains, streamlining token discovery and management. Read on to learn more about the Superchain Token List, how it works, and how you can start using it today.","The Superchain, envisioned by the Optimism Collective, is a horizontally scalable network of chains that share security, a communication layer, and an open-source development stack. This permissionless system will enable new chains on a shared network, fostering scalability, innovative applications, and a revenue model that rewards app and protocol developers for their contributions.","In February, we introduced our vision for the Superchain while announcing Base as the second L2 chain to be built on the open-source OP Stack, following OP Mainnet. The Superchain begins with these two networks and will expand in the years ahead to encompass hundreds of chains that function as a single platform from a consumer standpoint. These chains will be connected through seamless interoperability infrastructure.","A crucial aspect of realizing this vision is establishing and outlining standards for all shared components accessible to these chains. Today, we are excited to introduce the Superchain Token List, a unified token list for application developers and consumers to use when bridging tokens from Ethereum to OP Mainnet, Base, and all future OP chains in the Superchain.","In collaboration with our ecosystem partners at Base (shoutout to Roberto!), we have developed this unified list, now serving as the source of truth for the OP Mainnet bridge UI and Base bridge UI. Developers can utilize the Superchain Token List for token discovery when deploying their apps on the Superchain.","To request that your token be added to the Superchain Token List, head over to the Superchain Token List repo and create a PR.","Each token added to the list undergoes an automated validation process based on the data provided by the requester. During this process, we verify the token's onchain information and validate whether the asset can be bridged using the standard bridge.","Automation is also employed in our build and release process. Once a token is merged into the token list repo, it is instantly deployed to the Superchain Token List. Additionally, the Superchain Token List is available as an npm package that can be directly imported into your application, eliminating the need for an RPC trigger to acquire the token list.","Whether deploying a liquidity network or DEX on an OP Chain(s), developers can use the Superchain Token List in similar ways, avoiding the hassle of adding tokens individually to their application.","Please note that by adding a token to the list we aren’t making any claims about the token itself; tokens are not reviewed for their quality, merits, or soundness as investments.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/improving-token-discoverability-and-trust-through-the-superchain-token-list"},"/blog/progressing-towards-decentralization-highlights-from-the-keys-in-mordor-summit":{"version":1,"title":"Progressing towards decentralization: highlights from the Keys in Mordor summit - Optimism","description":"In February, OP Labs engineers and core developers from the Optimism Collective gathered in person for the Keys in Mordor summit. The goal for this summit?","keywords":"","h1":["Progressing towards decentralization: highlights from the Keys in Mordor summit"],"h2":["Focus of the Summit"],"h3":["Prepping the OP Stack for Bridge Decentralization","Cannon","Dispute Games","Summit Outcomes, and What’s Next"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","May 1, 2023","In February, OP Labs engineers and core developers from the Optimism Collective gathered in person for the Keys in Mordor summit. The goal for this summit? Figure out how to take Optimism’s upgrade keys to Mordor and safely throw them into Mount Doom, rendering the protocol technically decentralized.","Attendees spent several days examining OP Mainnet and mapping out a secure and pragmatic path to decentralizing key components the network’s architecture. This path was outlined in an earlier blog post that describes OP Labs’ strategic approach to technical decentralization, and defines five key milestones along this path. These milestones are Permissionless Output Proposals, Bridge Decentralization, Cannon Fault Proof Program, Cannon Fault Proof VM, and Dispute Game Integration.","The summit also included several research-intensive presentations that dug into more granular details of our technical decentralization milestones, including Withdrawal Claims, Cannon, and Dispute Games.","Mark Tyneway delivered a presentation on Withdrawal Claims. In the presentation, he outlined the plans for Withdrawal Claims architecture that will enable the decentralization of OP Mainnet’s bridge.","What is a Withdrawal Claim? Essentially, a user will submit a claim to L1 that they can withdraw, and an arbitrary proving system can dispute or validate that claim. A claim is valid if there is no dispute through the fault proof window, or, in the future, instant validation when the OP Stack has validity proofs. The process requires a bond. Instead of using gas on a lot of compute and storage, users place a bond along with their claim, which they get back after the finalization period.","The existing architecture of the bridge includes the following properties: two-step withdrawals, message replayability, 1:1 mapping between domains, single storage proof, similar code paths on L1 and L2, and compatibility with Ether, ERC20, and ERC721 tokens. Withdrawal Claims aim to improve the existing architecture of the bridge by removing the proof validation code path, making withdrawals cheaper, and eliminating the need for output submission (this is crucial for the first Technical Decentralization milestone, Permissionless Output Proposals 👀).","Mark noted this new architecture requires minimal changes: one new contract, one removed contract, and one modified contract. The design also adheres to the all-important principle of minimal diff from the L1.","Importantly, the architecture does not rely on Cannon being ready, as a multisig-based `ThresholdAttestationDispute.sol` can be used for short-term implementation, while also allowing for Dispute Games when that component of Cannon is ready to be implemented.","As a result of discussion at the Summit, Withdrawal Claims was split into a two-part project: the implementation of Permissionless Output Proposals, which allow users to withdraw without relying on the sequencer or any other centralized infrastructure. Part two will be the full implementation of Withdrawal Claims and bridge decentralization.","Now it’s time for the big one, the one we’ve all been waiting for. At the summit, Protolambda shared how the Cannon VM internals are put together and how programs can be fault-proven. The program will permissionlessly verify blocks and run OP Mainnet’s rollup state transition function to produce L2 outputs from L1 inputs.","Cannon consists of three main components: the fault-proof program, the fault-proof VM, and the Dispute Game. The program is designed to ensure the correctness of offchain computations, whereas the virtual machine (VM) is responsible for executing the fault-proof programs in Cannon's system. It supports the instruction set MIPS and ensures the correctness of the L2 outputs by resolving the execution of individual fault-proof program steps during the dispute game. Finally, the Dispute Game is the mechanism employed by Cannon to narrow down disagreements between parties regarding the correctness of off-chain computations.","In his presentation, Proto outlined some implementation risks, such as differences between the onchain MIPs implementation and the offchain Unicorn MIPS emulator, memory and register overlaps, limited memory space, instruction implementation bugs, unexpected Go runtime behavior, and the usage of MPT proofs for VM memory.","Finally, Proto discussed what it would take to update Cannon for production usage, including getting the fault-proof program to successfully verify blocks, improving onchain MIPS execution, and integrating Cannon with an onchain dispute game. He also outlined his progress on developing an additional fault-proof VM, Asterisc, which supports RISC-V 👀","In the last presentation of the summit, Clabby educated attendees on Dispute Games, and how he envisions them enabling Cannon implementation.","Dispute games are mechanisms for finding the correct truth among many conflicting claims. Players make claims about their views of the truth, and the game's goal is to identify the single, correct truth among this set of claims.","Implementing Cannon on OP Mainnet will involve two nested dispute games: the block hash bisection game and the execution trace bisection game. The block hash bisection game aims to find the exact block hash at which multiple L2 chain histories diverge, while the execution trace bisection game aims to find the exact instruction within the state transition where multiple VM states diverge. These games work together to find and resolve disagreements within the system, ensuring the integrity and correctness of the layer 2 chain history.","In this system, the Dispute Game is being designed to be generic, meaning we can re-use all of the same generic dispute game infrastructure to create the block hash bisection game and the execution trace bisection game. There is also potential for future dispute game types to be developed, such as one backed by validity proofs, or an attestation proof game.","Dispute Games allow Cannon to take a set of conflicting claims, narrow in to the most granular point of fault that the parties disagree on, and secure a resolution to maintain the security and reliability of the network.","A very important result of the Keys in Mordor summit was devising a strategy for progressing towards the technical decentralization of the OP Stack. The milestones that were set can be completed in tandem, so progress is made towards baseline decentralization milestones like permissionless output proposals and bridge decentralization while we iterate on fault proofs.","The summit was also an opportunity to get some of the leading engineers in the Optimism ecosystem on the same page about all the architecture that needs to come together so that we feel confident tossing those upgrade keys in Mordor.","In the coming weeks you can look forward to more detailed technical explainers on how OP Labs developers are thinking through each milestone in our decentralization strategy. Until then, you can check out our docs if you feel inspired to contribute to the OP Stack.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/progressing-towards-decentralization-highlights-from-the-keys-in-mordor-summit"},"/blog/season-4-our-next-experiment-in-community-governance":{"version":1,"title":"Season 4: Our next experiment in community governance - Optimism","description":"The Optimism Collective is building community governance through experimentation. This iteration happens through time-bound governance experiments known as “Seasons.”","keywords":"","h1":["Season 4: Our next experiment in community governance"],"h2":["Season 4: laying the groundwork for more community involvement","Achieving The Optimistic Vision"],"h3":["Ongoing analysis of DAO design","The power of experimentation","Collective Intents","Missions and Alliances","Collective Trust Tiers"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 16, 2023","The Optimism Collective is building community governance through experimentation. This iteration happens through time-bound governance experiments known as “Seasons.” Seasons allow the Collective to test new strategies for incrementally increasing community involvement in the governance of the Optimism Collective, while incorporating reflection and feedback as fundamental stages of the process.","This approach is informed by ongoing research into the challenges and successes of other DAOs.","The Optimism Foundation has prioritized research into various aspects of the historical development and processes of DAOs. The design of Season 4 - and the Collective’s approach generally - speaks to a few concepts in particular, such as: adopting multiple decision-making models, creating prioritization frameworks to guide strategy, and ensuring funding structures are flexible.","The full results of this research were compiled by Optimism Foundation Governance Lead Justine into a series of governance roadmaps and a searchable library of DAO policies, programs, and processes: The Collective DAO Archives. If you’re interested, check out DAO governance timelines here and search the governance library here. If you’d like to lend support to maintaining the Archives, check out the Foundation Mission RFP.","The Collective is testing these concepts out in time-bound periods of experimentation followed by reflection. This framework allows us ample space to learn from the outcomes, improve upon the ideas, and hold votes on new experiments. Community members and delegates have been welcoming to new ideas, as there is always an opportunity to discontinue failed experiments and try new ones. This openness fosters innovation and allows us to iterate quickly on DAO governance, a challenge faced by both DAOs and governments outside of crypto.","In Season 4, the Collective will run several key experiments designed to increase community involvement in the gradual decentralization of Optimism.","Strategy and prioritization are crucial muscles of any successful organization. Executing these thoughtfully becomes even more challenging in a DAO. Season 4 introduces “Intents,” which are flexible and directional goals designed to align and focus the Collective towards shared goals. All work supported or executed by the Collective should be in pursuit of these Collective Intents. In Season 4, the Collective allocates a specific budget for each Intent, aimed at supporting the highest leverage initiatives working towards that Intent.","Most DAOs experience structural challenges wherein working groups resembling persistent business units are individually funded for an indefinite period of time. Individual budgets are allocated out of an unscoped treasury, and consolidated into an overall budget that is often unsustainable and tends to overfund non-core work while underfunding strategic work.","With the inclusion of “Missions and Alliances,” the Season 4 structure was intentionally designed to avoid these types of challenges.","Missions are proposals for specific initiatives that achieve an Intent. There are two types of Missions:","Proposed Missions - Submitted under an Intent, these missions allow the Governance Fund to support a broader range of initiatives aligned with Intents.","Foundation Missions - Defined by the Foundation, these missions are akin to public Requests for Proposals for the Partner Fund and also work towards Intents.","Alliances are groups of contributors that temporarily work together start-to-finish to accomplish a Mission. An Alliance can be a pre-established organization or a group of contributors that comes together specifically to complete a Mission.","All DAOs struggle with accountability. The Optimism Collective first implemented arbitrary funding limits in an attempt to create more accountability. Now, Trust Tiers allow funding limits to be set based on contribution, reputation, and impact instead. Alliances can submit proposals based on Trust Tiers, the first step towards a more robust reputation system based on positive impact within the ecosystem. Attestations will also be incorporated in Season 4, allowing reputation to start accumulating onchain.","For a full guide to Season 4 and to see community discussion about these experiments, visit the Collective’s governance forum.","Season 4 marks a powerful iteration in the development of the Optimism Collective's governance structure. Introducing foundational concepts like Collective Intents, Missions, Alliances, and Trust Tiers lays the groundwork for a more decentralized and community-driven organization.","The experiments-based approach to governance is a reflection of the Collective’s commitment to learning, iterating, and improving while navigating the complex world of decentralized governance. Progressing through each Season, the Collective inches closer to the vision of a truly decentralized and robust governance system that empowers the community and drives innovation in the industry.","Thanks for staying optimistic with us!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/season-4-our-next-experiment-in-community-governance"},"/blog/retropgf2-learnings-reflections":{"version":1,"title":"RetroPGF2: Learnings & Reflections - Optimism","description":"Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) is one of the leading economic experiments to help decentralize and grow crypto ecosystems","keywords":"","h1":["RetroPGF2: Learnings & Reflections"],"h2":["Analyzing the Results","How Badgeholders Assessed Impact","Scaling Impact Evaluation","Badgeholder Collaboration","Defining Impact = Profit","Voting Tooling","Conclusion"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 25, 2023","Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) is one of the leading economic experiments to help decentralize and grow crypto ecosystems. While still in its very early days, the Optimism Collective is excited to lead the charge on RetroPGF experimentation, and we aim to inspire more builders to contribute to the Optimism ecosystem with the hope – and expectation – of getting funded retroactively for their contributions.","Why does RetroPGF exist?","Without public goods funding, core tools and infrastructure required to keep blockchains running could eventually run out of cash to operate.","Without public goods funding, projects that can’t accept payment from users in order to stay neutral and nonpartisan could run out of cash and cease to operate.","Without public goods funding, the future for a decentralized web is murky at best.","For that reason, we’re truly stoked to share the results and learnings from RetroPGF Round 2.  RetroPGF Round 2 is the Collective’s second experiment in allocating retroactive public goods funding. In this round, 69 out of the 71 selected badgeholders – our early “citizens” – voted to allocate 10M OP to projects who have supported the development and usage of the OP Stack.","RetroPGF Round 2 stretched over multiple months and involved participation from hundreds of projects and community members across the Optimism Collective.","The process:","Badgeholder selection - badgeholders have the power to distribute OP tokens to projects. They’re instrumental in running an effective RetroPGF round. For RetroPGF Round 2, badgeholders were selected across four different criteria.","14 badgeholders were selected based on their participation as badgeholders in round one of RetroPGF","21 badgeholders were selected by the Optimism Foundation","10 badgeholders were elected by Optimism’s Token House","29 badge holders were nominated by badgeholders from the three categories above","Nominations (Jan 17 - Jan 31st) - anyone could nominate a project in the forum by providing a name, impact description and link to Github/Twitter","Project profile creation (Feb 7th - Feb 21st) - Projects had to create a profile where they were asked for general information, as well as a description of their project and its impact. Information provided by Projects can be viewed on the RetroPGF discovery page.","Voting (Mar 7th - Mar 21st) - Badgeholders were provided with a badgeholder manual and asked to evaluate and vote on nominated projects via a voting form. (Mar 7th - Mar 21st)","Top 25 recipients of round 2 and round 1","Results for round 2 are in! Similar to the results of round 1, the variance among projects funded in RetroPGF 2 was relatively low, with little difference in payouts between extremely high impact projects and those with a more moderate impact. Different to Round 1 there was a large spread in token allocation: in Round 1, 58 out of the 76 nominated projects received votes, while in Round 2 all nominated projects (195) received votes. This was likely a result of the small number of badgeholders compared to the tokens allocated, as even a small allocation by a single badgeholder could result in a significant token allocation to a project.","The diversity of projects funded during this round improved compared to Round 1. The majority of the funded projects in RetroPGF 2 were not specific to Optimism but were part of the broader Ethereum ecosystem. Funded projects spanned a wide range of areas, from infrastructure to education, and operated in different languages and regions.","Community reaction to the funding round served as an interesting signal on the health of the RetroPGF flywheel. Many projects expressed excitement, gratitude, and surprise about the OP tokens allocated to them for their past impact. While spreading strong positive vibes, this indicates that the RetroPGF flywheel – where projects and investors make upfront investments in public goods, anticipating that their impact will be retroactively funded by the collective – is still in its early stages. The overall surprise at the rewards demonstrated that this flywheel has not taken shape yet.","Retroactive Public Goods Funding aims to reward past impact based on the idea that it is easier to agree on what was useful than what will be useful. One of the most important experiment parameters in RetroPGF is determining how and what information about projects is presented to voters.","In order for a project to be eligible for RetroPGF, they had to be nominated in the forum and subsequently sign-up via the Project intake form. In addition to functioning as a lightweight filter for qualifying projects, the two steps aimed to collect useful information from projects that badgeholders could use to evaluate the projects’ impact.","The Project Nominations were designed as an open process in which the community could signal what projects generated impact for the Optimism Collective. In total 262 unique nominations were submitted with a significant number of projects nominating themselves.","The nominations played out as a mini-dilemma of the commons, in which few felt responsible or incentivized to nominate relevant projects. Even some of the top recipients of the round had to self-nominate, such as Protocol Guild, Lodestar, Goerli Testnet, OpenZeppelin and Snapshot.","As a result, the information provided during the nomination process ultimately wasn’t used as a valuable community signal on impact and was not actively considered by badgeholders in the project evaluation process. On the other hand, it seems that the fact of being nominated was a positive signal, as every one of the 195 projects nominated received a nonzero funding amount.","Once a project was nominated, the project was asked to sign-up using an intake form. The Project intake form asked for information that was intended to help badgeholders evaluate projects’ impact and potential sources of funding outside retroPGF.","In addition to questions about team size and history, the intake form asked projects the following questions:","“How do you support development and usage of the OP Stack? What public good do you provide to the Collective?”","“How do you sustain yourself? Please list sources of funding and revenue.”","This was a lightweight attempt at giving projects an opportunity to contextualize their impact (the first question) and their profit (the second question) to set up badgeholders to evaluate along the general heuristic that impact should equal profit, consistent with the Optimistic Vision.","However, the information provided by projects was often too vague, making it difficult for badgeholders to accurately assess impact.","“Many projects did not provide enough information on the elements they were evaluated on: what is their impact to optimism, and what is their funding situation like,” Anonymous","“The application form for next season should be more aligned with review assessment process,” Krzysztof Urbanski","“…ask projects to more clearly submit information that will be relevant to the evaluation criteria (impact and access to funding being the main one,” Cassidy","Geth’s Project Profile","Project descriptions and impact descriptions were usually narrative driven, while funding sources were listed without actual numbers. This was likely the result of a minimal prompt provided to projects in the profile intake form, and few examples to model off. Without proper guidance, projects tended to default to their standard messaging, which is often concerned with aspirations about future impact rather than descriptions of the impact they’ve had to date.","Overall the nominations process and project profiles failed to provide high quality context or information to help badgeholders evaluate past impact.","Going forward: How can the Collective surface more high quality data that serves as a “proof of impact” for the evaluation and voting by badgeholders?  What structured data could help badgeholders make less impressionistic evaluations?","Badgeholders faced challenges evaluating projects’ impact — not only because of the lack of high quality data, but also because of the scale of projects to review.","Badgeholders were asked to broadly evaluate as many projects as they felt comfortable with instead of solely focusing on their area of expertise.","The most consistent feedback from badgeholders during the evaluation process was around the overwhelming quantity of projects to review.","“Smooth experience, but way too many projects.”","“...this is really about it being unmanageable for badgeholders.”","In this round, 195 projects were eligible for voting. In comparison, Round 1 of RetroPGF had 76 eligible projects.","Although some badgeholders went the extra mile, reviewing a majority of the projects, most tended to distribute their votes among 20-40 projects, with the median badgeholder allocating their votes among 30 projects.","If RetroPGF is to scale to support hundreds or thousands of projects and people across the Collective, evaluation using the current model will not scale.","This problem is amplified when evaluating the impact of small individual contributions. To tackle this issue, the Optimism Foundation experimented with nominating “Collections.” Each collection was a list of contributors along with a weight for funding distribution across that list.","5 Collections were nominated, including Monorepo Dependencies, EIP-4844 Contributors and Optimism Support NERDS, Ambassadors and Translators. This experiment did help badgeholders allocate funding to these broader groups of contributors, something that might have been more challenging were the collection participants up for funding as individuals.","While most collections were uncontroversial, the EIP4844 collection received significant pushback by Ethereum contributors. Some criticism revolved around creating unnecessarily strong incentives for work that could be retro funded, and the risk that this incentive could push teams to alter their prioritization. Other concerns centered on the challenges of assessing individual contributions to generate the “weights” in each collection, including possible biases towards rewarding work with high visibility.","“It also may have impact among core dev teams themselves: should I be careful in the future deciding in which subprojects do I work within Prysm to expect a higher payout if I work on projects that are of interest to Optimism?” potuz","“I think doing RPGF in this granular of a form incentivizes doing more visible and “popular” work in a degenerate way.”, djrtwo","“Effectively surfacing the people who’ve done the work requires intimate domain knowledge.”","“Even though OP Labs was deeply involved with 4844, the final list still missed some people who should have been included.” trent","Feedback showed that the collection was far from perfect in capturing contributions on a granular level. Some of the sentiment expressed that individual contributions to Ethereum core development should not be rewarded separately, but rewards should rely on a self-curated approach like Protocol Guild, which currently doesn’t take the quality of individual contributions into account.","While Protocol Guild is an interesting solution that sidesteps the problem of evaluating individual contributions, and has been recognized as the top recipient of round 2, it doesn’t allow us to realize the vision of retroactive public goods funding in which impact and profit are aligned on the contributor level and there is an outsized incentive to do high impact work.","This pushback amplified that tracking, indexing, and evaluating contributions is hard and we’re at a very early stage of uncovering solutions to this.","RetroPGF 2 also experimented with using three categories to organize projects. The goal of using categories was to help define and expand the scope of Round 2 and give community members some signals around what type of work might be eligible. At a high level, this approach was moderately successful: Round 3 funded more Education projects than Round 1, in part perhaps because Education was identified as a standalone category worthy of funding.","Categories also had some downside: during project intake, the applicant had to specify which category they fell into, which was challenging for some multidisciplinary builders. And it’s hard to know how many people in the Collective were turned off from applying for RetroPGF because they didn’t see their work represented in one of the three buckets.","“BuidlGuidl is all of these things, which one should I pick for @optimismFND RetroPGF?!?” tweet by Austin Griffith","Going forward, categories may also be used as a form of high-leverage voting, where a voter who doesn’t have expertise in a particular area could allocate funding to the overall category, which is then distributed pro-rata with other badgeholders’ votes. Overall, this is a dimension worthy of further exploration.","How can impact evaluation scale to represent not just the individual experience and impression of badgeholders, but the evaluation of all observed impact within the collective?","In Round 2, 71 badgeholders distributed 10M OP – a substantial amount of responsibility for each participant. To make this evaluation process easier, the Optimism Foundation tried to facilitate a high context environment with extensive guidelines in the badgeholder manual and an onboarding call recapping the most important concepts.","Guidelines were often loose, giving badgeholders frameworks on how to evaluate, but only few explicit criteria or rules. This put the burden on badgeholders themselves to leverage their own judgment in applying these philosophical concepts to the real world.","To make sense of this collaboration between badgeholders was strongly encouraged, a-sync via Discord & Telegram, as well as via collaborative calls hosted by Other Internet.","“These collaborative calls seemed to have the intended effect of understanding how fellow badgeholders were thinking about voting, and circulating that information. However, they also provided a much needed opportunity for real-time reflection on the process, and a collaborative “working out” of what tools were needed to succeed in future iterations.” Toby from OtherInternet","The first call aimed to provide co-working time and leverage badgeholders’ collective intelligence. Attendees spent some time looking through projects with their breakout groups and discussed questions they ran into, and insights about their decision-making processes. The second call focused on feedback, reflection, and aggregating ideas for the next round. Many badgeholders reflected positively on these sessions, and they should likely remain a part of future RetroPGF rounds.","“It was really helpful to have sessions like this one with fellow badgeholders to talk about the process, different methods people were using, and the different ways others were approaching voting”","“[I appreciate the] diversity of badgeholders and the work done by badgeholders to collaborate.”","One of the Optimism Collective's values is 'impact=profit', the idea that individuals should receive profit equal to the impact they provide to the collective. But applying this framework can be challenging, especially without a quantitative framework for evaluating either \"impact\" or \"profit.\".","“Are we taking impact vs profit literally?”","“On the philosophy of impact = profit, we wish there was a clearer definition of what impact looks like.”","This is one of the most complex pieces of RetroPGF: how does a badgeholder evaluate what types of public goods actually deserve funding? Badgeholders across the board expressed the need for more clarity on impact evaluation, and philosophical alignment on the type of project RetroPGF should support.","“Introduce better categories and stronger evaluation heuristics for each category”","“more discussion and structure of what the assessment criteria are - what are the goals and criteria that everyone can agree on”","“different people were assessing different ways and had their own criteria for assessing. People were not in sync on the criteria, and how we each determined that based on the applications was unclear.”","Some badgeholders leaned into the ambiguity and created their own evaluation framework.","A common theme in badgeholders’ evaluation frameworks was the use of categorizations of criteria and their combination to simplify impact assessment. This spanned from binary criteria like “Is the Project Optimism specific [Y/N]” to simplified impact sizing “Contribution Type [Large, Medium, Small]”.","With the popularity of pro-active grant models the consideration for future impact during impact evaluation is hard to unlearn. Badgeholders had multiple discussions on the topic of expected future impact and if it should be considered.","Tim Beiko ran a Twitter poll on “How much should retroactive public goods funding (RPGF) weight “future value delivered” when allocating funds?” with a majority of the votes in favor of considering “future value delivered” in the weighting. While Twitter polls are far from representative, and this poll did not reflect badgeholders beliefs, it shows that there’s still a long way to go on making the concept of retroactive funding well understood.","How do we provide better mental models and definitions for impact evaluation? How can we support badgeholders to more effectively collaborate? How do we communicate the core mechanics of retro funding in a way that preserves badgeholder agency?","The voting experience in round 2 was far from optimal. In the interest of learning and iterating quickly, the Optimism Foundation de-scoped the implementation of an integrated voting interface and instead implemented an MVP solution.","To submit votes, Badgeholders used a DeForm form with wallet verification. To support the vote allocation, badgeholders were provided with a voting scratchpad, to first allocate their votes, making sure they add up 100%, and then copy them over into the form. The scratchpad also emerged as a convenient way for badgeholders to share their vote allocations with other community members.","Voting UX was not ideal, but badgeholders were quite resourceful in identifying creative solutions to the problem. Ludens from Lattice created a script that exports votes from the voting scratchpad and allows you to import them into the form. And during the last days of voting, Vitalik provided a script one could paste into the browser console to quickly tally votes allocated across the ballot.","Future rounds need voting tooling that doesn’t create unnecessary operational issues for badgeholders. But beyond the friction, this emergent behavior provides early validation for a key design hypothesis: that retroPGF should move towards a permissionless protocol that allows community members to build voting, evaluation, and aggregation experiences on top. This deserves exploration in future rounds.","How can the Collective provide a better voting experience to Badgeholders? How can the  Optimism community create tooling that improves the RetroPGF system for all types of participants?","RetroPGF Round 2 supported nearly 200 creators of public goods across the Optimism Collective. It also brought us valuable insights into the design challenges of the retroactive results oracle, bringing us one step closer to summoning Ether’s Phoenix.","In Round 3 - announcement coming soon™ - the Collective will iterate on the core challenges outlined in this piece:","How can the Collective gather more high quality data that serves as a “proof of impact” for the evaluation and voting by badgeholders? What structured data could help badgeholders make less impressionistic evaluations?","How can the Collective provide a better voting experience to Badgeholders? How can the Optimism community create tooling that improves the RetroPGF system for all types of participants?","We will tackle these challenges as a Collective, inviting contributors to build different pieces of the puzzle. Stay tuned for requests for proposals on how to contribute to the RetroPGF protocol.","RetroPGF is a pillar of the Collective, a never-ending cycle, an infinite game. If done right, RetroPGF will scale beyond Optimism to demonstrate a new type of economy for the world that rewards impact. Between then and now, there’s plenty to experiment with.","The scope and shape of RetroPGF Round 3 will be announced in the coming weeks. Sign up for the RetroPGF Newsletter to be the first to know!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/retropgf2-learnings-reflections"},"/blog/multi-proof-design-in-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Multi-proof design in the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"With Bedrock, we built a system that can fit many types of proof schemes, providing a more flexible, secure, and future proof OP Stack for builders in the Optimism","keywords":"","h1":["Multi-proof design in the OP Stack"],"h2":["The Problem: Rigid Proof Schemes in Rollup Design","The Solution: Modular Design, Flexibility, and Security","How Does It Work?","The Future is Super… chain."],"h3":["Standardized Onchain APIs","Standardized Offchain Actors"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Mark Tyneway","May 19, 2023","You’ve heard about the security benefits of multi-client networks, but what if your favorite L2  could incorporate multiple proof schemes into its design? This is exactly what’s in store for OP Mainnet after it upgrades to Bedrock.","Following the logic that client diversity is healthy for a blockchain ecosystem, the OP Stack turns OP Mainnet into a modular blockchain that is capable of proof-scheme diversity as well. Builders will soon be able to utilize any type of existing proof when working with the OP Stack, and the modular design of Bedrock and ensures that the system can adapt to accommodate future innovations in proving.","Let’s delve into the technical aspects of this unique feature and discuss the broader implications for the ecosystem.","Previous iterations of rollup design focused on creating a proof and fitting the system to it. This approach resulted in limited flexibility and adaptability to changing technology. Because of this type of design, contentious debates over optimistic proofs versus validity proofs dominate the conversation in the L2 space.","When designing Bedrock, we wanted to change this narrative. With modularity as a key design principle for the Bedrock upgrade, we built a system that can fit many types of proofs, providing a more secure and future proof solution for builders.","The ability to incorporating multiple proofs into the OP Stack offers numerous benefits, with security being the most notable. Having multiple proofs prevents a bug in any one of them from becoming the canonical truth. This is similar to how multiple implementations of L1 clients provide better overall security. Vitalik has written about how Ethereum’s multi-client philosophy might interact with ZK-EVMs. In that article he notes that multi-client implementations are a form of technical decentralization, the main benefit of which is the resilience it brings against bugs in the network. It also results in a form of social decentralization if multiple independent teams/stakeholders maintain an implementation. The interests of each team goes into the calculation of the roadmap for the network.","Bedrock’s modular design has already enabled multiple implementations of L2 clients to emerge in the Optimism ecosystem, a first for an L2. Like Vitalik and Ethereum, we’re extending this philosophy to allow the OP Stack to incorporate multiple proofs. This leaves the door open for adding zero-knowledge (ZK) validity proofs to OP Mainnet, or another OP Chain like Base, and ensures compatibility with future advancements. The OP Stack's modular design allows it to easily adopt new technologies when they become secure and battle-tested, without requiring significant changes to the codebase.","The proof system in the OP Stack achieves modularity through standardized on-chain APIs and off-chain actors. This allows for mixing and matching of dispute contracts, facilitating easy swapping of proof schemes.","By standardizing on-chain APIs, Bedrock makes it possible to swap proof schemes as long as they implement the standardized API. This means that new proof schemes can be added on the fly and we can even create a m of n scheme where multiple proof schemes are required for operation of the bridge.","Offchain actors, or bots, communicate with the dispute contracts. This system creates a Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) opportunity that incentivizes honest behavior and secures the system, while maintaining the principle that playing the dispute game should always be profitable as an incentive to ensure its continual play. With this model, we are creating an open network of monitoring actors that can step in to resolve disputes to secure the system.","Two implementations of standardized offchain actors are being worked on here and here.","The Bedrock upgrade and its support for multiple proofs aligns with our vision for a scalable network of chains that doesn't fracture our ecosystems, applications, or ability to work together. As the only L2 ecosystem designed for multi-client, multi-proof simplicity, Optimism will lead industry into a more secure, adaptable, collaborative, and ✨ optimistic ✨ future.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/multi-proof-design-in-the-op-stack"},"/blog/building-op-erigon-how-test-in-prod-joined-the-optimism-collective":{"version":1,"title":"Building op-erigon: how Test in Prod joined the Optimism Collective - Optimism","description":"Test in Prod authors this guest post where they share their journey of discovering the OP Stack and building op-erigon.","keywords":"","h1":["Building op-erigon: how Test in Prod joined the Optimism Collective"],"h2":["Discovering Bedrock 🛏️ 🪨 via community hype","A complete vehicle for scaling and decentralization.","Embarking on a mission to build op-erigon","There’s someone more excited than us: OP Labs","It’s about the Collective."],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Test in Prod","June 15, 2023","Sup, nerds! This is Test in Prod. We are the team behind op-erigon.","We were proud to help OP Mainnet’s leap towards client diversity by launching op-erigon on OP Goerli testnet a few weeks ago. (Fellow community members a16zcrypto also launched their rollup client Magi that week!)","Today, we are writing this blog to tell you the story behind op-erigon: our journey to contributing to the Optimism Collective. We hope this story inspires other developers who are looking for an interesting problem to work on or simply an entry point for participating in the Collective.","In January, we were building Layer 1.5—a public good that allows anyone to launch their own rollup easily on their desktop. We were researching Optimism, as we had a hunch that it was the perfect option to launch Layer 1.5 with because of its MIT License.","Many community members were super hyped about Bedrock at that time. We noticed that people who put the 🛏️ 🪨 emojis in their Twitter handle were declaring that the Bedrock update was 🤯 and would fix “everything.” Everyone was talking about improved block time and TPS, but based on the hype we knew that Bedrock had to be a bigger deal than just those details.","OP Labs had not started promoting all of the benefits of Bedrock yet, so we read through Optimism specs and published presentations for the latest information. And after reviewing all the information we could find, we too became super excited about Bedrock after we understood the complete vision.","What is that complete vision, you ask? Bedrock lays the foundation for Optimism’s big picture goals of scaling Ethereum and decentralizing the Collective. There are five important components of the big picture:","Bedrock: A software upgrade & release of the OP Stack that modularizes Optimism’s codebase.","OP Stack: Optimism’s codebase and rollup framework. Allows building custom rollups by combining different modules depending on a project’s particular needs.","Superchain: A vision for an interoperable set of chains built on the OP Stack that enables cross-chain interactions.","Optimism Collective: A group of organizations and people that are collaborating on the OP Stack, the Superchain, and the Optimistic Vision.","RetroPGF: An incentive mechanism that retroactively rewards contributors for their work in the ecosystem, ensuring those who impact the collective profit from their contributions to the ecosystem’s growth.","🤯! We couldn’t miss an opportunity to contribute to this vision. We wrote down our thoughts on Bedrock and the OP Stack in a blog, and got to work reading the specs.","After we posted the blog, we slid into the notorious Kelvin Fichter’s DMs asking if he could review it. Even though it was the very first conversation with him, he was very friendly and even RT’d our post! In our DM conversation, we asked him: “How do we become another OP Labs? Where should we start contributing?” He set up a call, so we happily hopped on.","Thanks, Kelvin ❤️","In the call, we showed off some fancy ideas for OP Stack. Kelvin thought they were good ideas, but said they might not be clear enough for a team who just got to know Optimism. He advised us to start with a task that was very straightforward and impactful: op-erigon. He said it would be a clear success if we could sync the chain!","We immediately started to spend nights and days reading the specs, understanding the code, and building op-erigon. The Bedrock specs were so elegantly designed, and all information we needed was documented online!","We were able to sync the chain after a few crazy weeks, thanks to OP Labs’ support. At ETHDenver, we had a chance to meet Kelvin and many Optimists. We were very surprised that they were even more excited about our work than us! Karl Floersch in particular left a positive impression on us. Here’s the story.","Even though we knew how to code, we didn’t know how to derive actual impact out of our work. But OP Labs helped us plan to spread the word, tell the community this exciting news, and talk about our story! It was a very exciting experience working with OP Labs. 😎","We need you to build the Superchain with us. There are still so many things to build and problems to solve.","I can tell you that the Collective is ready to have you for the following reasons:","The tech is getting there, thanks to years of research of Plasma Group, Optimism, and the community.","Awesome people are gathered there, and know what they’re doing. They are all kind, capable, pure, and super helpful people.","Interesting problems are everywhere, and interesting problems are all opportunities. With RetroPGFl, there’s a clear way to get compensated for your work if you make an impact","Lastly, thanks to OP Labs, Kelvin, Proto, and Lindsay for guiding us and helping us a lot. We couldn’t have done this without ya. ❤️","Stay optimistic, y’all 🫡","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/building-op-erigon-how-test-in-prod-joined-the-optimism-collective"},"/blog/announcing-retropgf-round-3":{"version":1,"title":"Announcing RetroPGF Round 3 - Optimism","description":"The Optimism Collective is excited to announce the third round of RetroPGF. This fall, 30 million OP will be distributed to builders, creators","keywords":"","h1":["Announcing RetroPGF Round 3"],"h2":["Round 3 Details","Why we RetroPGF","Execute, iterate, improve, repeat","How to get involved"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","June 21, 2023","The Optimism Collective is excited to announce the third round of RetroPGF. This fall, 30 million OP will be distributed to builders, creators, and educators who have provided positive impact to the Optimism Collective. If you want to get started building, head to our Ecosystem Contributions board to find a project.","Optimism is building an economy that empowers community members to be recognized and rewarded for their contributions to the Collective. These regular rounds of RetroPGF are key to growing Optimism’s economy, and eventually, to scaling the principle of “impact = profit” to the world.","RetroPGF 3 will distribute 30 million OP tokens to reward contributions that have supported the development and adoption of Optimism. Work may be nominated in four categories:","OP Stack: Work that enhanced the efficiency, security, resilience and awareness of the OP Stack","Collective Governance: Work that provided impact to governance participants of the Optimism Collective, or helped bring new governance participants into the Collective","Developer Ecosystem: Work that provided impact to application developers in the Optimism Collective, or helped bring new developers into the Collective.","End User Experience & Adoption: Work that provided impact to end users in the Optimism Collective, or helped bring new end users into the Collective","RetroPGF Round 3 project registration will open in the coming months and voting will take place in fall 2023.","To be eligible for funding in RetroPGF 3, get started building today! While RetroPGF rewards are ultimately determined by the badgeholder of the Citizens’ House, any type of contribution that fits in the categories above is eligible. Head to the Ecosystem Contributions page for suggestions on what to build that could possibly be funded.","RetroPGF Rounds 1 & 2 rewarded hundreds of public goods builders. For many RetroPGF recipients, the retroactive grant made a meaningful difference to the project’s future or the team’s commitment to the Optimism ecosystem:","\"It’s had a huge impact. The potential for RetroPGF makes it easier to focus on providing maximal value without worrying as much about monetization. It’s also been a great motivation. Working on public goods for years with no reward can be demotivating.” - 0xKofi, Rollup Economics Dashboard","“RetroPGF has made it possible to work on public goods without needing to convince people to provide funding from the get go. Instead I am able to work on what I think will provide the most value and get rewarded if others agree.” - Rosco, Revoke.Cash","\"We’re no longer seeking active monetization, at least while we have a decent runway from the grants. We are prioritizing other public goods companies more and are less concerned with having closed-sourced repos. Before this, we didn’t see a way around corporate culture.” - Aditya, JiffyScan","The Optimism Collective believes that building public goods should be profitable. RetroPGF is a fork of the market economy to support public goods – and we can already see that it’s working for many builders in the Collective.","RetroPGF is Optimism’s mechanism to support the creation of a truly free, open, and decentralized internet that returns value to the people who create and maintain it.","RetroPGF will run frequently and continuously until it becomes the driving funding mechanism behind the entire Optimism Collective economy.","This is an iterative process. Each round is an opportunity to observe, learn, and iterate based on the successes and shortcomings of the previous round.","For a full breakdown of our learnings from RetroPGF 2, see the Learning & Reflections post.  Round 3 will improve upon Round 2 in the following key ways:","In Round 2, badgeholders had to develop their own frameworks for evaluating “impact.” Round 3 will introduce key success criteria for each project nomination category to help align badgeholders while still leaving room for interpretation, discussion, and more granular definition.","In Round 2, voting was high-friction due to low quality project information and poor voting UX. Round 3 will introduce (1) more structured project applications to gather better data, and (2) better voting UX through a custom-built voting application.","In Round 2, badgeholders had to review nearly 200 projects, many in areas outside their expertise. Round 3 will introduce a process for community-sourced recommendations and curation to allow badgeholders to both vote directly, and incorporate the research and expertise of the community.","There’s never been a better time to join the Optimism Collective:","If you’re a developer, check out the Ecosystem Contributions board for a range of ideas and projects to get started on. These may all be good candidates for RetroPGF funding!","If you're working on a project you believe is aligned with our Collective Intents, but need a grant to get started, you can find the guide to apply for a grant here.","If you’re a community builder, check out the NERD program (support, onboarding) or Ambassador program (marketing, business development).","If you want to choose your own adventure, go ahead! 195 projects and people were rewarded in RetroPGF 2 – check out this post for an overview of what was funded to get some ideas about how you can contribute.","Contributing to the Optimism Collective means you’re eligible for RetroPGF.","If you know a project or builder you think should be recognized for their impact in RetroPGF 3, hang tight! To be the first to know when RetroPGF project registration is live, sign up for Optimism’s RetroPGF Newsletter.","Until then, talk soon, and, as always, stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","P.S.","What would a crypto announcement be without an NFT 😉? We teamed up with our friends at Decent to provide a free-to-mint open-edition artwork commemorating the launch of RetroPGF 3. Enjoy!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/announcing-retropgf-round-3"},"/blog/community-driven-development-introducing-op-stack-mods":{"version":1,"title":"Community-Driven Development: Introducing OP Stack Mods - Optimism","description":"OP Labs is excited to start highlighting OP Stack Mods, modifications or improvements to the OP Stack created by members of the Optimism and Ethereum communities","keywords":"","h1":["Community-Driven Development: Introducing OP Stack Mods"],"h2":["Understanding OP Stack Mods","Introducing a Modular Data Availability Interface: an OP Stack Mod by Celestia Labs","Provide feedback on the Modular DA Interface","Help supercharge the OP Stack"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Kelvin Fichter","June 1, 2023","Free and open source software is the beating heart of the Ethereum ecosystem. The ability to permissionlessly run and modify shared software systems is a key driving force behind the entire crypto industry. These same core principles informed the design of the OP Stack, the MIT-licensed, open source codebase that powers the Optimism Collective. If you can dream it, you can build it with the OP Stack.","Because the OP Stack is modular and entirely permissionless, developers across the Ethereum ecosystem are starting to create interesting modifications to the OP Stack all on their own. OP Labs doesn’t always have the capacity to take these additions into production, but like any truly decentralized ecosystem, a team’s capacity for review  shouldn’t be a gating factor for inclusion to the OP Stack. That’s why we’re excited to start highlighting some of the potential OP Stack additions, which we’re calling OP Stack Mods, that are being built by builders in our community.","An OP Stack Mod is a modification or improvement to the OP Stack created by members of the Optimism and Ethereum communities that OP Labs is highlighting for community feedback. By spotlighting Mods, we want to ensure that OP Stack developers get the actionable, real-world feedback on the tools they’ve created that they’ll need to eventually get a modification into production.","OP Stack Mods are similar to beta versions of a product, but are not guaranteed to become part of the OP Stack. Mods that fit a concrete need within the Superchain ecosystem may eventually become part of the OP Stack, but they’ll need your feedback to get to that point.","As part of this announcement, we’re happy to share that Celestia Labs has been working on an OP Stack Mod that would put the data availability (DA) layer of the stack behind a more modular interface.","The upcoming Bedrock release of the OP Stack has paved the way for modularization of various components of the OP Stack, such as the Stack’s proof and execution layers. Building on this, Celestia Labs has independently created an experimental modification that modularizes the Stack’s DA layer by separating it from the ordering layer.","Although chains like OP Mainnet will continue to rely on the strong DA properties provided by Ethereum, an abstracted DA interface opens the door for new chains to be built using the OP Stack that host chain data on whichever platform best fits the chain’s needs. This would further expand types of applications that could make serious use of a blockchain.","This proposed interface would still use Ethereum for its consensus and ordering properties while allowing chains to use other DA providers, like Data Availability Committees or Celestia, depending on each chain’s desired security properties. For a broader overview of the proposed interface, see Celestia Labs’ technical overview.","Celestia Labs has provided the following diagram to demonstrate how this interface can be used to separate DA and ordering:","Celestia Labs is looking for your feedback on its Modular DA Interface. They provided documentation for a demo integration of its proposed interface that uses Celestia as a DA provider. For the interface to be considered for inclusion to the OP Stack, it must be able to support many different kinds of data availability providers.","If you are interested in stress-testing an existing integration, Celestia Labs has kindly provided example documentation for running your own modified OP Stack chain that publishes data to a local development Celestia network. Aggressively publishing transactions to this system may help point out issues in the link between the DA provider and Ethereum.","If you are interested in expanding the capabilities of the OP Stack to support additional DA providers, it would be particularly useful to attempt to integrate your own DA provider using the proposed interface. Issues that you may have during this integration process will be highly valuable feedback to the Celestia Labs team. We are especially interested in Data Availability Committee integrations as well as more experimental approaches that host data on other blockchains that are typically not used for this purpose, like Bitcoin.","OP Stack Mods are a testament to the power and potential of open source software stacks. These Mods not only foster creative solutions but also showcase the spirit of decentralization. We’re excited to be moving quickly towards the future where a majority of development on the OP Stack is driven by permissionless innovation within the Optimism and Ethereum communities.","OP Labs will be highlighting more OP Stack Mods as they appear and become ready for wider review. If you have a novel idea or want to work to supercharge the OP Stack, we invite you to have a world of fun hacking the Stack and releasing your own OP Stack Mods. When you’re ready for feedback, we’ll be here! After all, your contribution might shape the future of the Optimism Collective. 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/community-driven-development-introducing-op-stack-mods"},"/blog/the-op-stack-modular-exponential-scalability-for-l2s":{"version":1,"title":"The OP Stack: Modular, Exponential Scalability for L2s - Optimism","description":"The OP Stack's code is EVM-equivalent, secure, performant, and MIT-licensed. The Optimism Ecosystem Contributions Dashboard can help developers get started.","keywords":"","h1":["The OP Stack: Modular, Exponential Scalability for L2s"],"h2":["Unleashing Modular Scalability with the OP Stack","If You Can Imagine it, You Can Build it!","Hack on the OP Stack"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","June 22, 2023","The OP Stack is a revolutionary step in Ethereum's quesT for scalable solutions. Its modular nature is a first in the industry, enabling Optimism, and its partners to look beyond optimistic rollups to include exciting developments such as zkEVM and off-chain DA.","This post breaks down what makes the OP Stack special, showcases some high-impact contributions from the ecosystem and finally, and invites any and all devs to make their mark by leveraging the OP Stack to participate in the development of the Collective’s foundational technology.","The OP Stack's code is EVM-equivalent, secure, and performant. What sets it apart is its ability to unlock exponential scaling opportunities for the Optimism ecosystem and Ethereum in general, by virtue of its modular design, Ethereum equivalence, and its open-source MIT license.","As an MIT licensed public good, the OP Stack allows the easy swapping of different components and the addition of new capabilities using well-defined interfaces and versioning schemes. This brings a high degree of flexibility to OP Stack architecture, ensuring it can adapt to future developments in the Ethereum ecosystem.","In its design, the OP Stack stays true to its roots—it draws as much as possible from the existing Ethereum architecture and infrastructure. This ensures maximum compatibility with the existing Ethereum developer experience.","The recent OP Mainnet upgrade to Bedrock included the first official release of the OP Stack, the final step towards making this codebase accessible for all developers.","Even before the OP Mainnet’s migration to Bedrock, teams in the Optimism ecosystem started contributing in meaningful ways. Some examples are Lattice, who leveraged the OP Stack to build OPCraft, an incredible experiment in on-chain gaming; Test in Prod, the small but mighty team behind op-erigon; and the industrious devs at a16zcrypto, who built the rollup client Magi.","Now that Bedrock is live, we want to make it as easy as possible for the creative builders in our ecosystem to contribute to the OP Stack. It can be overwhelming to figure out where to start. To help with this, we created the Optimism Ecosystem Contributions Dashboard, which hosts dozens of project ideas that are in search of developers.","The Optimism Collective strives to create a better economy for humans, and it is always open to more contributors. The Contributions Dashboard can help you decide how to get involved with the Collective and contribute in a way that will make a real difference!","For guidance on navigating the Contributions Dashboard and finding a project, the README is a great place to start.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-op-stack-modular-exponential-scalability-for-l2s"},"/blog/here-s-how-you-can-reproduce-op-mainnet-s-migration-to-bedrock":{"version":1,"title":"Here’s how you can reproduce OP Mainnet’s migration to Bedrock - Optimism","description":"On June 6, 2023, OP Mainnet upgraded to Bedrock, and the entire migration process was designed to be verifiable and reproducible.","keywords":"","h1":["Here’s how you can reproduce OP Mainnet’s migration to Bedrock"],"h2":["Planning & rehearsing the migration","Designing a verifiable migration","How to run the migration","Explore the Bedrock release of the OP Stack"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Mark Tyneway","June 26, 2023","On June 6, 2023, OP Mainnet upgraded to Bedrock. This was no small feat, requiring contributions from community members across the Collective. The successful Bedrock migration marked the start a new era for Optimism, one in which we can accelerate our progress towards technical decentralization and achieving the Superchain vision.","There is a lot to celebrate related to the migration, but there is one detail in particular that the team at OP Labs is proud to share, and that is that the entire migration process was designed to be verifiable and reproducible!","This blog post recaps the work OP Labs engineers did to prepare for migration day, and shares how to run the migration script and confirm that the upgrade proceeded as expected.","The migration was achieved using a well-documented and audited open-source migration tool built by the team at OP Labs. This tool took the legacy network's database and converted it into a format compatible with the Bedrock network.","Practically, the upgrade involved migrating ERC-20s Wrapped Ether to native Ether and configuring pre-deploys, which function similarly to Ethereum's precompiles and are used for special operations like bridging or minting.","The team rehearsed for weeks, tracking what needed to happen at each step of the process in granular detail. Each item on the migration checklist was meticulously specified so that execution required minimal effort. The goal was to make the process as “boring” as possible as to prevent operator errors that might arise from having to think too much about the process in the moment. Each rehearsal network operated on a shadow fork, similar to how the L1 Ethereum developers practiced for the merge upgrade.","The migration process went through a Sherlock audit where issues were found and fixed. One example of an issue uncovered through the auditing process was a bug that could allow a user to halt the withdrawal partway through by writing malicious state to storage that is used as input to the migration tool. Before the migration, the team combed through the code looking for any additional issues, no matter how minor. During migration day the team’s diligence prevailed, as the upgrade went smoothly and the sequencer was back up within 3 hours.","The procedure required certain input files, which were obtained by syncing a legacy node. After syncing, the legacy node produced the required witness files, and the migration tool utilized these to verify the full migration's smooth execution. Given this setup, anyone with the ability to sync a legacy node can use the migration script to verify the migration took place as we have claimed it did!","We designed the migration output to be verifiable, for an added layer of transparency. The output generates a unique state root corresponding to a successful migration. Any discrepancy or alteration in the information during migration would lead to the production of an incorrect state root. Therefore, the state root serves as a verifiable testament to the fidelity of the migration process.","The necessary code for the migration is available in the optimism-legacy repository. We kept it separate from the OP Mainnet repository to simplify updates to the main codebase.","In order to run the migration script, you first need a special 'witness' file, which can be generated by synchronizing with a legacy l2geth node. The environment variable L2GETH_STATE_DUMP_PATH needs to be set for this.","Once you have a fully synchronized legacy system, you can run the following command from the op-chain-ops package. Make sure to review all the arguments and environment variables carefully, as they may need adjustment based on your setup.","INPUT_DATA=$MONOREPO_BASE/packages/migration-data/data DEPLOY_CONFIG=$MONOREPO_BASE/packages/contracts-bedrock/deploy-config/mainnet.json DEPLOYMENTS=$MONOREPO_BASE/packages/contracts/deployments,$MONOREPO_BASE/packages/contracts-periphery/deployments,$MONOREPO_BASE/packages/contracts-bedrock/deployments DB_PATH=/mnt/geth","go run cmd/op-migrate/main.go \\ --l1-rpc-url \"$L1_RPC\" \\ --ovm-addresses $INPUT_DATA/ovm-addresses.json \\ --ovm-allowances $INPUT_DATA/ovm-allowances.json \\ --ovm-messages $INPUT_DATA/ovm-messages.json \\ --witness-file $DB_PATH/l2geth-state \\ --db-path $DB_PATH \\\\ --deploy-config $DEPLOY_CONFIG \\ --network mainnet \\ --hardhat-deployments $DEPLOYMENTS \\ --rollup-config-out=$MONOREPO_BASE/rollup.json","The witness file includes information on all accounts that held ether so that it can be transitioned from its ERC20 representation to the native format. It also has information on accounts that initiated withdrawals to ensure that these transactions can transition seamlessly to the new withdrawal system. This way, users won't have to restart their withdrawal after the network upgrade.","If you're unable to fully synchronize a legacy system, you should still be able to download the database at the block either just before or just after the migration using the following command:","wget https://datadirs.optimism.io/mainnet-bedrock.tar.zst","You'll know that the migration has been successfully reproduced if you can spin up op-geth on the migrated database and sync to the latest point of the network.","💡 For a more user-friendly experience in syncing, we've made some improvements via this PR.","The upgrade to Bedrock has transformed the OP Stack into a more flexible and modular system. OP Mainnet can now support multiple clients and multiple proof schemes, and data costs have been significantly reduced. Bedrock has also laid the foundation for the Superchain vision. It prepares us for a future where multiple chains merge, enabling us to accommodate unprecedented growth in a harmonious blockchain ecosystem.","If you want to contribute to this vision, get started by seeing what is made possible by the OP Stack.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/here-s-how-you-can-reproduce-op-mainnet-s-migration-to-bedrock"},"/blog/building-a-fault-proof-system-worthy-of-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Building a Fault Proof System worthy of the Superchain - Optimism","description":"An update on technical decentralization and the OP Stack's first Fault Proof System.","keywords":"","h1":["Building a Fault Proof System worthy of the Superchain"],"h2":["Progress on Technical Decentralization","To OP Goerli and Beyond!","Prioritizing decentralization and scalability","Setting the stage for validity proofs","A fault proof system for our Superchain future"],"h3":["Fault Proof Program (FPP)","Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM)","Dispute Game"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","July 24, 2023","Bedrock has shipped, the Superchain ecosystem is growing, and now developers at OP Labs, Base, and across the Optimism Collective broadly are laser-focused on decentralizing the OP Stack! I’m excited to share more about the design of the OP Stack’s first Fault Proof System, how it will allow the Collective to make significant progress towards technical decentralization, and the next-level customizability available for the Fault Proof System thanks to the OP Stack.","In February, I outlined the OP Stack and Optimism’s path to technical decentralization. The plan includes baseline decentralization milestones like Permissionless Output Proposals and Bridge Decentralization. These milestones were included in the plan so we could make progress on decentralization even if iterating on Fault Proofs took some time.","Now that Bedrock has shipped, we are really stoked to report that significant progress has been made on the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System. This means shipping Fault Proofs is the next major milestone to look forward to in the Optimism ecosystem!","Here’s a rundown of the components of the Fault Proof System:","The FPP, or \"op-program\" acts as a deterministic program that's seeded from data on L1. It fetches required data checks for any faults. It can also define the host that pre-fetches information.","The FPVM, aka \"Cannon,\" runs the op-program. Cannon is written in Go, and emulates a MIPS machine, which runs the L2 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) as defined by the op-program, while itself being provable in the L1 EVM. This level of abstraction allows the system to maintain a precise control and tracking of each instruction step. It can fetch necessary data (pre-images) or run with pre-loaded data.","A Dispute Game resolves disagreements over the output of the op-program. The aim is to narrow down the disagreement to the exact point in the instruction trace. The resolution of the dispute game relies on identifying the first uncontested claim, based on which the validity of the root claim can be determined.","The first Dispute Game that will be integrated to dispute traces generated by Cannon and the op-program is a Bisection game (but many other Dispute Game designs are possible!)","We’re eager to bring an alpha of the Fault Proof System to Testnet, so ecosystem developers can test and try to break the MVP, and start thinking about building alt-fault proofs or other modular components. 👀 👀 👀","That’s right! The Fault Proof System was designed to showcase the power of the OP Stack’s modularity. This way it’s easy for ecosystem builders to design custom OP Stack Fault Proof components, from proving schemes to virtual machines, and even unique dispute games. By modularizing the Fault Proof Program (FPP) and the Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM) it becomes possible to improve each component in parallel, enhancing system performance and innovation. We expect this to help lay the foundation for a vibrant ecosystem of open source EVM proving systems.","The Fault Proof System is key to enabling protocol decentralization. Technically, it will enable secure bridging without centralized fallback. Vitally, its open-source nature and standard, minimal implementation diff makes it easy for multiple implementations of the protocol. These multiple implementations enable security and are a requirement before reaching Stage 2 technical decentralization.","But beyond this, having multiple implementations maintained by distinct community members is critical for social decentralization. Social decentralization is an underrated, but vital strategy for any blockchain. The more clients, proving mechanisms, dispute games, and other infrastructure that are built and maintained by different contributors, the more decentralized the protocol. Making modularity a key part of the Fault Proof System design creates more opportunities for developers across the Collective to take part in creating and maintaining OP Mainnet and the Superchain.","Another benefit of the modular proof design is that it creates a clear path to add zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to the OP Stack. The separation of FPP and FPVM means that the same op-program can run in both an FPVM but also a ZKVM. This way as long as ZKP developers target a compatible VM specification, they don’t need to understand the inner workings of the FPP.","Similarly, developers optimizing the FPP don’t need to understand the inner workings of the ZKVM. This reduction in complexity and separation of concerns is key to the OP Stack’s rapid ZKP development. Follow this RFP for fun OP Stack ZKP developments! These OP Stack ZKPs will enable ZK-based validity proofs and power low latency bridges between chains. These bridges are critical to unlocking Superchain composability and therefore key to realizing the goal of enabling a unified and interconnected Superchain.","The OP Stack is the key to ensuring that Superchain infrastructure, including the Fault Proof System, is composable, versatile, and future-proof. The Fault Proof System represents a major step towards a more decentralized and efficient Superchain. This system will make it easier for developers to customize their work, and for users across the ecosystem to benefit from improved security and performance.","It’s never too early to start thinking about how you might contribute to the OP Stack and help secure the Superchain. The Optimism Ecosystem’s Contributions Dashboard is full of inspiration and guides for how to start contributing to the Collective.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/building-a-fault-proof-system-worthy-of-the-superchain"},"/blog/introducing-the-law-of-chains":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing the Law of Chains - Optimism","description":"The OP Stack was built to be the most forkable, modular scaling infrastructure out there. When we introduced it, we explained that it was our bet on the ingenuity","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing the Law of Chains"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","July 25, 2023","The OP Stack was built to be the most forkable, modular scaling infrastructure out there. When we introduced it, we explained that it was our bet on the ingenuity of the entire Ethereum community. We released it as an open source public good - one that could be a key lever for scaling Ethereum while preserving the open, neutral characteristic of its blockspace.","Almost a year later, our bet on permissionless innovation is paying off in spades: it feels like every other day, somebody is giving the OP Stack a new superpower, or using it to launch a new chain.","Today, we are proud to introduce the Law of Chains v0: the next step towards the Superchain future. The Law of Chains lays the foundation for defining an MVP of the Superchain.","Boundless blockspace for Ethereum was a critical step on the path to mass adoption. But proliferation begets fragmentation, and permissionless deployment introduces new challenges.","Today, each new OP Stack chain navigates its own frontier without a straightforward way to share standards and improvements.","Meanwhile, users and builders face an overwhelming challenge: individually evaluating numerous different chains on the basis of security, quality, and neutrality.","To realize the Superchain, we need to move from OP Stack chains as independent and disparate blockspace, to a unified collective of chains that uphold a shared commitment to open, decentralized blockspace. We need a world where problems only have to be solved once, improvements benefit everyone, and users aren’t overwhelmed.","The Law of Chains creates guiding principles for Optimism Governance and the Superchain. Optimism Governance moves from governing a single chain, to governing a standard shared by many chains, thus defining the properties that are required to be a part of the Superchain while prioritizing the protection of users as they traverse and transact with it.","First, the Law of Chains enumerates various categories of stakeholders across the ecosystem. Then, it defines the protections and expectations that should apply to those participants, and the values that should be upheld when making decisions which affect them. It's not a definitive voting process or procedural playbook for Optimism Governance, but an enduring neutrality framework to be upheld amid evolving specifics.","As an MIT-licensed public good, it is your right to use the OP Stack however you see fit. The Law of Chains will only apply to OP Chains that opt-in to become part of the Superchain, providing a value proposition for those who want to play the positive sum game.","We believe the Law of Chains will enable the Superchain to:","Ensure blockspace remains homogeneous, neutral and open: A commitment to the Law of Chains is a commitment to the protection of a chain’s users, developers, and other stakeholders. Chains large and small, if part of the Superchain, can credibly demonstrate the homogenous, neutral and open properties of their blockspace, backed by Optimism Governance.","Benefit from constant improvement: Shared upgrades mean that chains can always get the best tech, without having to worry about maintenance themselves.","Enable better, more available infrastructure: Because all chains in the Superchain are credibly committed to a standard, they can work together to ensure the availability and affordability of key services like indexing and sequencing.","V0 of the Law of Chains is now open for community feedback. Fundamentally, the Law of Chains is a social contract (not a legal one), so active community discussion is of the utmost importance. Please read more and join the conversation here in the forum–your feedback is both requested and welcome.","We’d like to express our sincere gratitude to Jesse Pollak, Rowan Stone, and the rest of the Base and Coinbase teams for their contributions to this initial draft, alongside Andrew Huang, Tyson Battistella, Jason Rosenthal, Scott Kominers, Eddy Lazzarin, and David Hoffman for the invaluable feedback and conversations throughout the drafting process.","After iterating on this draft with the community, we hope to formally introduce it, alongside the first version of a governance process for new chains to join the Superchain, in the next Season of governance.","And, as always,Stay Optimistic! ✨🔴","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-the-law-of-chains"},"/blog/the-future-of-optimism-governance":{"version":1,"title":"The Future of Optimism Governance - Optimism","description":"The Optimism Collective is governed by a two-house system. The Token House is made up of OP holders and their delegates, and the Citizens’ House","keywords":"","h1":["The Future of Optimism Governance"],"h2":["Governance Goals","Design Principles","Design Overview","Problem Space #1: Capture Resistance","Problem Space #2: Resource Allocation","Additional Notes","Key Milestones"],"h3":["1/ Hard powers","2/ Soft powers","Season 5 [2024]","Season 6 [2024]"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","July 19, 2023","The Optimism Collective is governed by a two-house system. The Token House is made up of OP holders and their delegates, and the Citizens’ House is a one-person-one-vote system based on reputation.","This two-house design is intended to help the Collective make good decisions and avoid common pitfalls in token-based governance systems. Tokenholders represent one constituency out of many, and are not always the right unilateral owners for decisions that don’t involve the economics of the system. Creating two distinct branches of governance with different membership criteria allows the Collective to match constituents’ incentives with different types of decisions. It also helps the Collective avoid concentration of power, enact safeguards via checks and balances, and evaluate decisions from broader perspectives.","This is not a new concept. Bi- or tri-cameral governance systems have existed for centuries. With a new iteration of a known pattern, Optimism aims to build a governance system that will stand the test of time and help the Collective flourish.","This post provides an overview of the goals, design principles, and problem spaces of Optimism Governance. It is not a commitment or blueprint for exactly how governance processes will be introduced and implemented: it’s highly likely the Collective will learn from initial experiments and make modifications to the processes outlined here. These “Problem Spaces” are intended as starting points for discussion.","There are two primary goals of Optimism’s governance system:","Capture resistance. Governance plays a key role in securing the anti-capture and censorship resistance of the Optimism protocol. Governance should (a) make it possible for chain or network operation to continue without reliance on any individual entity, and (b) prevent any one entity or small group of entities from being able to control or censor the protocol or its functions.","Resource allocation. Governance’s second primary responsibility is to allocate resources effectively to support the Collective’s vision and accrue sustainable value to the Optimism Collective. Vision & value may often be in conflict, and allocating resources effectively involves a blend of short- and long-term thinking. This includes allocation of both the token treasury and protocol revenue.","Design decisions for the Collective’s governance system should be made in line with three key principles:","Governance minimization. The set of governance responsibilities that are encoded onchain or formalized in voting processes should remain as minimal as possible. The Collective aims to reduce governance to its essence and to avoid introducing regulation where freedom can achieve the same result. This principle is key to encouraging permissionless innovation. In practice, this looks like a minimal set of (1) onchain governance processes to upgrade Optimism contracts and tune the economic parameters of the system, and (2) offchain social processes to maintain a healthy community.","Iteration. Optimism is decentralizing iteratively to increase the chances of building a healthy system that lasts for the long-term. This means the Foundation will play a role in establishing processes, help the Collective through its first few rapid feedback loops in improving those processes, then reduce its role over time. (This also means the design principles and goals outlined in this document may be invalidated or updated along the way.) This iteration gives the Collective a chance to learn how to make thoughtful decisions using an un-intuitive but essential loop: introduce a governance process that involves active participation, then gradually work to automate or minimize it over time. Governance’s responsibility then becomes to adjust the autopilot when necessary, not to keep two hands on the wheel.","Forking. The ability to fork and the ability to exit are critical to protect individual freedoms.  All of the core software and tooling required to run the Optimism network should be made open source, freely available, and easy to use such that a fork is always a viable alternative. This isn’t just about vibes: in crypto, where credible commitments not to extract are what makes decentralized platforms valuable, this is a competitive advantage. Participants will be more likely to join Optimism if they have the ability to make an alternative.","Balance. Influence in governance must extend beyond financial stake to value humanhood and intelligent life. The centralizing force of plutocratic token governance must be balanced with Citizenship. Giving voice and power to different constituents allows the Collective to match decisions with voters’ incentives, rather than building a solely plutocratic system. Checks and balances prevent capture.","Impact = profit. A key part of the Optimistic Vision is to ensure that every individual is rewarded in proportion to their positive impact to the Collective. We believe this to be the most important target in the pursuit of solving global coordination problems and creating a better future. Our economy is an expression of our collective needs, wants, and ethics. Optimism Governance is ultimately responsible for enacting this fairness ratio that is key to the Optimistic Vision.","The responsibilities of Optimism Governance can be categorized into one of the two primary goals of the governance system: Capture Resistance and Resource Allocation. Within each category, governance responsibilities are identified as (a) the exclusive responsibility of one or the other house, (b) a responsibility where one house drives proposals and the other house may veto, or (c) as a truly shared responsibility subject to approval by each house. This system is designed to help each house play to its strengths and avoid deadlock.","The Optimism Token House is made up of OP tokenholders and their delegates. Tokenholders and their delegates are expected to be rational economic actors interested in preserving or increasing the economic well-being of the Optimism Collective. Therefore, the Token House is responsible for decisions that affect business parameters of the system such as inflation or the variables that govern sequencer selection. Token voting is distributed widely and permissionlessly and helps represent the free market in the Collective’s decision making.","In contrast to the Token House, the Citizens’ House uses a one-person, one-vote system. Citizens are meant to represent individual human stakeholders of the Collective: builders, users, and community members who are aligned with the project’s values and are interested in the long-term benefit of the Collective. Therefore, the Citizens’ House is responsible for decisions that may require prioritizing long term growth ahead of other goals – decisions like allocating funding to public goods that support the Collective. In the long term, we can expect the Citizens’ House to expand to include the thousands or millions or billions of humans interacting with Optimism.","Governance responsibilities given to each house will change over time as the Collective iterates towards its long-term governance-minimized end state. This includes introducing highly manual governance responsibilities (e.g. inflation adjustments, or Superchain allowlists) that are intended to be replaced by automated smart defaults as the Collective learns how to govern these vectors appropriately. It may also include transitioning powers from the responsibility of the full governance body to a subset of governance participants who are empowered by their broader governance base.","In these early chapters of Collective governance, many of these iterations have been designed or implemented by the Optimism Foundation. Eventually this must transition to the responsibility of Collective governance itself. This meta-governance power marks the end of the Foundation’s stewardship of the evolution of Collective governance and entrusts the governance community with continued experimentation towards a healthy end-state for Optimism.","So: what does governance… well, govern?","Optimism Governance’s first responsibility is to ensure that no single party can unilaterally control, censor, halt, or otherwise extract rent from Optimism. A decentralized compute layer is hardly valuable if controlled by a centralized entity. Governance helps the Collective make decisions in the absence of any one person or organization that is “in charge.”","The responsibility to uphold capture resistance can be broken down into two broad categories:","hard powers: governance powers that are eventually encoded and executed onchain, and","soft powers: social norms the governance community upholds, not enforced onchain but by the community’s ability to fork.","Protocol Upgrades refer to the ability for governance to make changes to the OP Stack protocol itself. This is a crucial responsibility of governance that ultimately makes the community the steward of Optimism’s core protocol functionality.","Protocol upgrades will be approved by the Token House, subject to a Citizens’ House veto. The Token House is the primary approver because of its broad reach and likelihood of representing business interests that depend on the OP Stack’s functionality. The Citizens’ House veto power guards against capture of the Token House and increases the resilience of the overall system.","Today, protocol upgrades are approved by the Token House and executed manually by the Optimism Foundation. In the coming Seasons, the Collective may implement a Security Council responsible for executing upgrades following the will of governance. The Citizens’ House veto power comes online in Season 5 (H2 2023), when the Citizens’ House comes fully online. Eventually, execution of protocol upgrades will be fully onchain. On a far enough time horizon, we can expect protocol upgrades to become less and less common as the protocol nears feature completeness. We can look to protocols like Ethereum and Bitcoin as a model for what mature decentralized protocol upgrades look like.","Sequencer Selection is the ability to make choices about which parties may act as sequencers for OP Chains or in shared sequencing schemes.","This begins as an explicit governance power driven by the Token House, with Citizens’ House power to veto. Sequencers are important economic actors for OP Chains and eventually for the Superchain. The Token House is well-incentivized to make sure sequencer selection is fair and beneficial for the Collective. The Citizens’ House veto power guards against the capture of the Token House related to sequencer selection.","Today, OP Chains are sequenced by a handful of different entities. In Season 5, those sequencers will submit proposals to Optimism Governance to be formally included in the Superchain, officially bringing the hard power of sequencer selection into the hands of the Collective. More information about this governance process will be shared in the coming weeks.","Eventually, sequencer selection may be fully automated based on verifiable and pre-agreed upon processes, enabling the sequencer set to be curated and maintained without active governance intervention.","Citizenship Eligibility is the responsibility of governance to select new humans to participate in the Citizens’ House of Optimism Governance.","Citizenship Eligibility will be determined by the Citizens’ House; the Token House will have the power to veto. Assuming good long-term values alignment with the Collective, Citizens should be incentivized to grow a set of voters that make quality decisions about RetroPGF allocations. A Token House veto guards against capture of the Citizens’ House or moves to consolidate power.","To date, Citizenship expansion has been administered by the Foundation. In the future, the Foundation will propose an expansion algorithm that Citizens vote to approve. Ultimately, Citizens may govern a citizenship selection algorithm directly that runs across identity data in the Optimism AttestationStation. In its final minimized form, the Citizens’ House has established a battle-tested onchain selection process; updates to the contracts that govern selection can be made as necessary by the Citizens’ House.","Code of Conduct Enforcement is the responsibility of governance to uphold and enforce the Optimism Collective Code of Conduct.","Each house may govern the code of conduct for its own members. The best cultural and values-based enforcement for governance communities should come from within that specific community.","Today, CoC violations are processed with administration from the Foundation. In future Seasons, the community will iterate on this approach: Season 4 includes an RFP for Code of Conduct research, and Season 6 may introduce a new Council to replace the Foundation’s role in this process. As a soft power, Code of Conduct enforcement will not be implemented onchain. For example, if a Token House delegate were to violate the Code of Conduct, that delegate would not be prevented from voting by an update to Optimism’s voting contracts onchain. Rather, the community could enforce its rules and norms on the social layer by choosing to remove the participant from delegation frontends and UIs, or by informing the tokenholders who’ve delegated to the offending party of the breach in conduct.","Director Removal is the right of governance to remove a director of the Optimism Foundation.","Director Removals are approved by both the Token House and Citizens’ House. Stewards of the Optimism Foundation should be accountable to the entire community.","This right is enforced and upheld by the legal documents that underpin the Optimism Foundation’s commitment to the Collective. As Directors are not represented onchain, this responsibility does not have onchain enforceability.","The second primary responsibility of Optimism governance is to allocate the Collective’s resources to help it achieve its goals. This is a piece of essential governance that requires human intervention, especially in its early stages. Resource allocation in the Collective comes in three forms:","1/ Allocation of Protocol Revenue2/ OP Treasury Management3/ RetroPGF Funding","Allocation of Protocol Revenue is the responsibility of governance to determine how to direct surplus ETH generated by the Optimism protocol. Optimism generates revenue through transaction fees paid on OP Mainnet and other OP Chains. Part of these transaction fees is used to post data to Ethereum L1 and pay for other expenses associated with running the protocol, and the remainder of the fee is accumulated as surplus revenue that can be directed by the Collective for the benefit of the Collective. In the future, the sequencing and proving networks that help run the Optimism protocol may also provide sources of revenue for the Collective.","By default, surplus protocol revenue will be allocated to RetroPGF. The Token House may vote on proposals to divert a portion of the surplus protocol revenue for other Optimism Collective purposes as they see fit. These proposals will be subject to veto power by the Citizens’ House.","Protocol Revenue is a crucial lever in the Collective. In its early stages, the default allocation to RetroPGF lets the Collective reward projects that grow the Optimism ecosystem. As Optimism matures, the Token House is entrusted to propose deviations from this default for the health of the Optimism Collective. Citizens’ House veto powers help hold the Token House accountable and prevent short term optimization at the expense of long term sustainability.","In a future governance season, a proposal type will be introduced for proposing modifications to the allocation of surplus protocol revenue. These proposals may begin with certain safeguards, like a cap on possible allocations. Proposal powers for high-level budgeting decisions may additionally be delegated to elected representatives as the Token House sees fit. The long term minimized state of this governance responsibility could include some thoughtful automation to determine revenue allocations based on indicators of whether the Collective should be in a “growth” stage or “value” stage.","OP Treasury Allocation is the responsibility of governance to direct how the existing OP token treasury is allocated. This has several components:","The Governance Fund, which is directed by Token House governance.","The RetroPGF Fund, which is directed by Citizens’ House governance, subject to a Token House veto.","The Seed Fund and Unallocated portions of the token treasury, which are initially administered by the Foundation, and will eventually be directed jointly by both houses.","Foundation Budget Approvals, which are governed jointly by both houses.","Inflation adjustments, which are governed by the Token House, subject to a Citizens’ House veto.","This distributed ownership of the OP Treasury allows for flexibility and gives each house a clear mechanism to allocate tokens for the development of the Collective. Today, treasury allocations are administered by the Foundation, and will gradually move onchain as the governance system matures and becomes more resilient. In the long term, as most of the Treasury is circulating, this power will boil down to the governance of inflation, which can be automated to a thoughtful set of defaults based on the economic health of the Collective.","RetroPGF Grants are the responsibility of governance to allocate to projects that have provided public good to the Optimism Collective. These grants may refer to either (a) OP tokens from the RetroPGF Fund portion of the token treasury (see OP Treasury Allocation), or (b) Profits generated by the Optimism Protocol in ETH that governance has decided to allocate to RetroPGF (see Allocation of Protocol Revenue). Specifically, this power includes:","a. RetroPGF Scope: the ability of governance to update the scope, metrics, and impact evaluation criteria used in determining how RetroPGF Grants are allocated to projects. In line with the principle of governance minimization, this should be a soft power.b. Project Allocations: the ability of the Citizens’ House to make specific individual project-level decisions about how the RetroPGF Scope is applied to allocate grants. This is the corresponding hard power for RetroPGF.","Both components of RetroPGF Grants above are the responsibility of the Citizens’ House. Citizens are selected as individual humans who are interested in the long term health of the Optimism Collective, and RetroPGF is a long term investment in Optimism’s growth.","Today, the Foundation identifies RetroPGF scope and Citizens make Project Allocation decisions. Eventually, Citizens will govern RetroPGF scope themselves.","Altogether, this looks like the diagram below:","Incompleteness","The list above does not include all governance powers – it notably excludes governance responsibilities, especially social ones.","The list above is also not a commitment or blueprint for exactly how governance powers will be rolled out and implemented. It is highly likely that the Collective will learn from initial experiments towards this blueprint and may make modifications to the processes outlined here. These “Problem Spaces” are intended as starting points for discussion, not as a prescriptive roadmap.","Checks, balances, and vetos","This post also excludes crucial design details about veto power, approval and quorum thresholds, proposal defaults, and failure modes. In particular, it’s important to note that all veto powers are not created equal. A very high veto threshold and quorum create a higher bar for exercising veto power, where a simple majority could make for a relatively easy veto. These thresholds determine the balance of power in responsibilities shared between houses and must be considered carefully.","The Collective will apply the principle of iteration in introducing these checks, balances, and vetos. This allows time to experiment with the right settings and make sure both branches of governance are developing safely.","These details are incredibly important to the design of a well-functioning system, and members of the Collective are consulting with a set of experts, from crypto and beyond, to design a quality set of patterns to increase the chances of Optimism Governance’s success. If you’re interested in contributing to these efforts, you’re welcome to reach out to bobby@optimism.io or chime in on the governance forums.","Citizenship and capture","Since Citizens play a crucial role in the Optimism governance, it’s paramount that the Citizens’ House is qualified and capture-resistant. Several factors come into play here, including the ways identity and contribution history can help inform citizenship eligibility; public and private voting strategies to help prevent collusion and bribery; citizenship incentives; escape hatches and metagovernance in the event of capture; and the iterative path towards growing the set of Citizens and their responsibilities. These important topics will be discussed in greater detail in a future post.","Optimism Governance continues to make steady strides towards a robust and sustainable system. Here are some of the next milestones for the Collective in the coming quarters:","1. Sequencer Allowlist / Law of Chains","Season 5 will introduce the governance system’s power to welcome new Sequencers into the Superchain. More information about sequencer governance (and its relation to chain, user, and platform governance) will be shared in the coming weeks.","2. Joint-House voting","In Season 5, the Collective will bring the Citizens’ House fully online and execute its first set of joint-house votes. After executing three rounds of RetroPGF, this milestone will mark the next stage of maturity for the Citizens’ House as they participate in Optimism Governance beyond RetroPGF grant allocations.","3. Security Council v1","Season 5 will also include the Optimism Security Council. The Security Council is a set of community members tasked with executing protocol upgrades at the will of governance. This replaces the multisig wallet controlled by the Optimism Foundation and marks an important milestone in protocol decentralization.","1. Protocol Revenue Allocation","Season 6 will introduce the initial process for votes to allocate Protocol Revenue. It’s possible this process will include the introduction of a Treasury Council responsible for making high-level proposals to governance about how to allocate resources; any proposal for protocol revenue allocation will be submitted to the Token House for approval, and to the Citizens’ House for veto.","2. Onchain treasury execution","In Season 6, parts of the Optimism Treasury will move onchain. This means governance will be able to initiate transactions that move tokens from the OP Token Treasury entirely onchain. As noted above, this onchain execution will begin with an emergency safeguard that will be removed in future seasons.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-future-of-optimism-governance"},"/blog/using-onchain-reputation-data-for-testnet-funds-with-the-superchain-faucet":{"version":1,"title":"Using onchain reputation data for testnet funds with the Superchain Faucet - Optimism","description":"The Superchain Faucet will enable builders in the Optimism ecosystem to leverage onchain reputation data to to claim up to 20x the typical amount of testnet ETH.","keywords":"","h1":["Using onchain reputation data for testnet funds with the Superchain Faucet"],"h2":["What is the Superchain Faucet?","Using onchain identity to improve testnet token distribution","Start contributing to the OP Stack"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Zain Bacchus","August 1, 2023","Developers can use testnet faucets to receive free testnet ETH which can be used to interact with smart contracts on test networks like OP Goerli. However, most faucets don’t provide builders with enough ETH to test and iterate on a project from start to finish. The result is that developers spend extra time trying to find funds, or they visit faucets daily to get enough testnet tokens to build their product.","Luckily for builders in the Optimism ecosystem, we have a creative solution enabled by the growing amount of reputation available thanks to attestations on OP Mainnet, WorldID, and across the Optimism Collective.","We're excited to announce the launch of the Superchain Faucet, which will allow builders in the Optimism ecosystem to claim up to 1 testnet ETH per day on testnet OP Chains to help build products and tooling across the Superchain.","Traditionally, most faucets require social authentication and significantly limit the amount of testnet funds that can be obtained per day to prevent sybil-attacks. The Superchain faucet allows developers to authenticate via their onchain identity in addition to social authentication via GitHub. Developers that choose to authenticate via their onchain identity can claim 20 times more testnet ETH compared to traditional faucets.","The Faucet supports OP Goerli at the time of launch but is designed to extend to other OP Chains in the Superchain. This will include Base, ZORA NETWORK, PGN, and future Superchain partners.","The Superchain Faucet addresses the long-standing issue of inadequate distribution of testnet funds for developers—ensuring that builders have a place to go when building on the Superchain while ensuring that testnet funds are distributed fairly and efficiently.","By using onchain identity data associated with a builder, the Superchain Faucet can drip 20 times the amount of testnet tokens compared to traditional faucets —up to 1 ETH at a time.","To take advantage of this new process, builders can visit Faucet or get to the faucet via the account drop down menu once a wallet is connected at app.optimism.io.","The faucet currently supports authentication via your Optimist NFT. Support for WorldID will soon be added. As the amount of onchain identity data in the Superchain increases, more options for onchain identity verification should emerge.","If you don’t have an Optimist NFT yet, but want to try out the Superchain Faucet, you can get one by completing the respective Coinbase Wallet Quest or by being an active builder.","We are excited about this new way to engage with testnet funds and this practical new use case for onchain identity! You can learn more about how the Optimism Collective uses onchain identity by visiting our docs page.","With this launch, we’re alleviating a common difficulty that limits productivity of builders  contributing to the OP Stack and building across the Superchain.","If you’re new to onchain development and ready to start contributing, check out CryptoZombies new tutorial Optimism Unleashed. If you're already familiar with onchain development, check out the Optimism Ecosystem Contributions Dashboard for project ideas that the Optimism Collective is looking for. Happy building!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/using-onchain-reputation-data-for-testnet-funds-with-the-superchain-faucet"},"/blog/retropgf-round-3-applications-are-open":{"version":1,"title":"RetroPGF Round 3 Applications Are Open - Optimism","description":"Earlier this year, the Optimism Collective announced the third round of Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF)","keywords":"","h1":["RetroPGF Round 3 Applications Are Open"],"h2":["RetroPGF Funds Builders, Creators, Writers, Educators, and More","Build the change you want to see","Show Your Impact","Apply for RetroPGF 3"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","September 19, 2023","Earlier this year, the Optimism Collective announced the third round of Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF). As of today, applications for RetroPGF Round 3 are open! Round 3 will allocate 30 million OP to builders, artists, creators, and educators who have demonstrated their impact in building the Optimism Collective.","You can apply here through October 23rd.","Reach out in the #retropgf-discussion channel of the Optimism Discord with any questions.","The Optimism Collective is executing on the core values that brought us to crypto in the first place: creating a self-sustaining ecosystem, where rewards are redistributed to the people directly responsible for growing and scaling the technology and values that power it. We're accomplishing this by rewarding contributions to the greater good through Retroactive Public Goods Funding–the mechanism used to reward past demonstrable positive impact to the Optimism Collective.","As part of this RetroPGF application process, you’ll create an Optimist Profile. This Profile will evolve to reflect your contributions to the Collective and can be used for future rounds of RetroPGF.","Every type of contributor to the Optimism ecosystem is eligible for RetroPGF.","Whether you’re a developer working on an Ethereum execution client or an educator creating Optimism-inspired video content, if you’re providing impact, you’re eligible! RetroPGF is open to all Optimism artists, creators, writers, builders, and evangelists.","See the recipients of RetroPGF 2 to get a sense of what’s been rewarded in the past.","If your work has made an impact in any of the four categories below, you should submit an application for RetroPGF.","The Optimism Collective is on a mission to save the soul of crypto. By incentivizing the creation of the public goods this decentralized technology relies upon, we can ensure it has a sustainable future. Change the incentives and you change the world.","RetroPGF is already having a huge impact in the ecosystem and changing the way people think about public goods. Here are a few testimonials from recipients of RetroPGF Round 2:","“With RetroPGF we now know our work is important and has an impact.” - Nico Producto","“The impact of this RetroPGF round in Cryptoversidad was immense. If it wasn't for it, we wouldn't have been able to continue creating free educational content. We were able to keep building.” - Diego Mares, Cryptoversidad","“RetroPGF provides the missing piece of open source software. Although maintainers aren't in it for the fame or fortune, retroactive funding builds confidence and staves burnout.” - Davis Shaver","While any and all projects which supported the development and adoption of Optimism are encouraged to apply, there is no guarantee any given person or project will be chosen as a RetroPGF 3 recipient. That decision is ultimately up to the badgeholders of RetroPGF 3.","There are a few things you can do to make your RetroPGF 3 application as strong as possible:","Be articulate and comprehensive when describing your contributions.","Be specific when describing the impact you or your project created.","Provide metrics (both qualitative and quantitative) that demonstrate your impact (i.e. users, transactions, downloads, etc.).","See here for instructions on how to fill out your application.","Apply now to be considered eligible to receive some of the 30M OP to be allocated for RetroPGF 3!","The application window will close on October 23rd.","Head to the #retropgf-discussion channel of the Optimism Discord if you have any questions and subscribe to the RetroPGF newsletter to stay in the loop.","To celebrate the opening of applications for RetroPGF 3 please enjoy this commemorative NFT available to mint for subscribers to the Optimism Mirror newsletter.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/retropgf-round-3-applications-are-open"},"/blog/maximizing-fault-proof-modularity-with-a-composable-pre-image-oracle":{"version":1,"title":"Maximizing fault proof modularity with a composable pre-image oracle - Optimism","description":"This blog post explores the modular design of the OP Stack's Fault Proof System, featuring a deep dive into the system’s pre-image oracle.","keywords":"","h1":["Maximizing fault proof modularity with a composable pre-image oracle"],"h2":["Modularity and decoupling the Fault Proof System","Functional overview of the pre-image oracle","What’s special about the OP Stack’s pre-image oracle?","A composable pre-image oracle","How does this impact the Fault Proof System?"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","protolambda","August 23, 2023","The last update on technical decentralization and the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System shared that the system would showcase the full power of the OP Stack's modular architecture. This blog post explores this claim in more depth, with a deep dive into the elegant design of the system’s pre-image oracle as evidence.","The OP Stack’s modularity enabled the design of a decoupled Fault Proof System, enhancing its flexibility and adaptability. By decoupling the Fault Proof Program (FPP) from the Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM), each component can evolve and be optimized independently, without constraints imposed by the other. This separation not only streamlines development and debugging processes but also fortifies the reliability and robustness of both the FPP and FPVM.","This modularity also allows for the integration of sophisticated components. One such component is the pre-image oracle that will bring immense flexibility and programmability to the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System.","To understand the pre-image oracle, consider the challenge of a simple FP-VM: How can you consistently prove computation over various data? Proving computation becomes straightforward when narrowed down to one instruction via an interactive-bisection game: process one VM instruction from a pre-state to a post-state.","However, loading extensive L1 inputs and L2 pre-state into this VM isn't straightforward. Enter the pre-image oracle. It provides values upon program requests using keys. But it's more than a basic key-value store—it ensures only legitimate inputs are used, verifying the L2 state-transition based on L1 data.","This oracle makes retrieving inputs provable on-chain, akin to reading a file or accessing an API.","The pre-image oracle embodies \"statelessness\": verifying computation by presenting just-in-time essential data. Unlike stateless execution on L1, this method isn't hampered by network bandwidth. The interactive optimistic rollup approach changes the game; everything is efficiently managed onchain in the EVM.","Tiny IO Steps: The pre-image oracle simplifies proof by reducing interactions with the VM state. It efficiently loads data in byte-sized chunks, ensuring a single neat memory change per instruction.","Pre-image Hinting: The pre-image oracle can prepare these pre-images outside of the VM, where hints are provided just-in-time before pre-image requests, ensuring a seamless execution.","Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping a new dispute is simplified by ensuring the same dispute program is embedded into the initial VM state, dispute specifics are loaded through the oracle during execution.","Claim Verification: The oracle can also load the disputed claim into the VM, allowing the program to compare it against its computation results, rather than extracting the result.","Running Programs Outside of the VM: something truly unique about the OP Stack’s pre-image oracle is that it allows you to run the program without the VM. As long as the oracle is served by the host program, it can operate on any platform, reducing overhead and providing seamless debugging and testing.","The modular OP Stack can accommodate various types of FPVMs or state-transition programs. The beauty of the OP Stack’s pre-image oracle lies in its adaptability: it can be used across different instruction sets and different programs. Whether it’s a Go stack with op-node and op-geth, or a Rust stack with Magi and Reth, the same pre-image oracle fits all.","Moreover, this separation between VM and program allows for alternative VMs, like a RISC-V version of Cannon or even a ZK proof of MIPS. (!) Future pre-image verifications can be easily added without making drastic changes to the FPVM.","The pre-image oracle's adaptability ensures the FPVM and FPP remain straightforward, flexible, and efficient. By allowing various implementations of the same protocol, it acts as a safety net, securing the OP Stack.","Interested in Fault Proofs? Check out this article, which shares more details about the design of the complete OP Stack Fault Proof System, and this article, which digs into how the multi-proof design of the OP Stack.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/maximizing-fault-proof-modularity-with-a-composable-pre-image-oracle"},"/blog/welcoming-base":{"version":1,"title":"Welcoming Base - Optimism","description":"This month marked a momentous first for Ethereum: a publicly listed US company launched its very own OP Chain powered by Optimism","keywords":"","h1":["Welcoming Base"],"h2":["Based and Aligned","Setting a new standard","Protocol Management","Economics and Governance","Conclusion"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","August 24, 2023","This month marked a momentous first for Ethereum: a publicly listed US company launched its very own OP Chain powered by Optimism.","For the Optimism Collective, the launch of Base signifies much more than technological validation of the OP Stack.","Base represents:","The start of a long-term commitment to Optimism and the Superchain","The birth of a new economic model for the Optimism Collective.","Proof that a sustainable economic model and Open Source values don’t have to be at odds.","The Optimism Collective was born to dispel the myth that public goods cannot be profitable. The OP Stack is an MIT-licensed public good. Anyone can use or fork it however they see fit.","And yet, the benefits of a shared standard turn the incentive to fork into an incentive to coordinate, driving disparate chains to cohere into a collective network – the Superchain. By encoding a fee split into that shared standard, the original Optimistic Vision starts to emerge: sustainable funding for the open-source code that upholds an optimistic economy.","This is sustainability in action.","Let’s talk about the Base collaboration, the example it sets for the Collective, and what it means for the future of the Superchain.","Coinbase’s decision to build and incubate Base on the OP Stack was cause for palpable excitement. At the same time, it brought forth pressing questions:","How would introducing new chains shift the balance in Optimism’s economics?","How would OP Chains balance decentralization and neutrality with their own interests?","How could we remain unified in development efforts, and avoid fragmenting work?","We’d known that the day would come to transition from a single chain to a Superchain. But this made it real. Our journey to forge ahead with Base wasn't just about answering these questions; it was about setting a precedent.","Ultimately, we were able to chart the new waters of this first-of-its kind collaboration because we were fundamentally aligned with Base on three things:","If you want to go far, go together: The scalability solution which brings crypto to the masses will not be built by one person, team, or organization. It will be built, slowly but surely, by a global network of contributors.","Users first. From Day 1, Base was dedicated to operating in a way that prioritized their users–elevating them even above their own interests as a chain operator. Hence, Coinbase and Base’s commitment to the Law of Chains.","Decentralization matters. It was clear that Base was not here just to make another “L2 in name only” that was unilaterally controlled by a single party. They were here to put power in the hands of the people.","There are two main components to Optimism’s collaboration with Base:","Protocol Management: A shared commitment to the rules for upgrades and sequencing of OP Chains.","Economics and Governance: Terms of a fee split to the Collective, and a long-term token grant to Base.","Let’s dive into each.","Last month, the Optimism Foundation introduced the law Law of Chains: a proposed framework for how Optimism Governance can evolve from overseeing the singular OP Mainnet, to supervising multiple OP Chains, produced from the OP Stack (including Base) via governance of the core protocol.","As of now, Base's upgrade authority is shared via a 2/2 multisig between the Optimism Foundation and Base. This multisig will be used to respond to emergency scenarios, and to execute protocol upgrades based on Optimism Governance decisions.","That means that today, even before adoption of the Law of Chains, Base and OP Mainnet will share upgrades, so the chains’ blockspace remains compatible, homogenous, and eventually interoperable in a Superchain future.  How those upgrades evolve is up to Optimism Governance.","Should the Law of Chains be ratified, the next step is to transition this responsibility to execute upgrades for Base, OP Mainnet, and other OP Chains, to a decentralized Security Council. Like the current Base 2/2 multisig, the Security Council will execute upgrades at the direction of Optimism Governance. The Foundation’s goal is to submit a governance proposal to perform this transition in early 2024.","Optimism’s collaboration with Base is designed around principles of fairness, sustainability, mutual growth, and long term commitment. Here's how it's structured:","Fee split: Transaction proceeds from Base will be split and directed to the Collective through an onchain contract. Specifically, the greater of (a) 2.5% of Base's total sequencer revenue, or (b) 15% of Base’s net onchain sequencer revenue (L2 transaction revenue minus L1 data submission costs) will go to the Collective. Our vision is for this structure to be the blueprint for all Superchain members, reinforcing the sustainability of our shared infrastructure. We propose these terms serve as the benchmark for all future OP Chains.","Token Grant: To solidify our long-term alliance, the Optimism Foundation has provided Base the opportunity to earn up to approximately 118 million OP tokens over the next six years. To maintain balance, there's a cap on Base using this grant to vote or delegate more than 9% of the votable supply. This grant is meant to retroactively reward Base’s contributions thus far to scaling Ethereum and the OP Stack, ensure Base’s long term alignment and commitment to the ecosystem, and critically, give Base a meaningful voice in the system of Optimism Governance, to which they’ve entrusted the future of their chain.","This collaboration is not just a testament to the technical strength of the OP Stack–it’s the realization of what's possible when shared values and visions converge.","The future of the Superchain is not just in the code or economics, but in the people, contributors, and organizations that rally behind it. We’d like to thank Jesse Pollak, Rowan Stone, Brian Armstrong, and the rest of the Base and Coinbase teams for forging this path together.","The Superchain can unlock a sprawling constellation of aligned blockspace–funding the public infrastructure which powers it, and empowering a global onchain movement. The Collective’s future shines bright.","And, as always:","Stay Optimistic. 🔴🔵🟠🟢🪩🟡🟣⚪🟤✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/welcoming-base"},"/blog/social-decentralization-the-op-stack-s-fault-proof-virtual-machine":{"version":1,"title":"Social Decentralization & the OP Stack’s Fault Proof Virtual Machine - Optimism","description":"This blog post explores the principle of social decentralization, how L2 architecture allows Layer 2s to extend this principle to include proof diversity","keywords":"","h1":["Social Decentralization & the OP Stack’s Fault Proof Virtual Machine"],"h2":["Social Decentralization, inspired by Ethereum","A closer look at L2 architecture","Isolating proof system components to enable proof diversity","Functional Overview of the FPVM","FPVM to ZKVM","Opportunities for External Contribution"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","protolambda","September 25, 2023","In order to create the most robust and secure network of interoperable L2 chains, the Optimism Collective is pursuing decentralization across many different tracks.","The OP Stack’s forthcoming fault proof system will be a huge step forward for technical decentralization and the open source and modular design of the OP Stack is setting the stage for unprecedented social decentralization of an L2 ecosystem.","In this blog post, we’ll explore the principle of social decentralization, how L2 architecture allows Layer 2s to extend this principle to include proof diversity as well as client diversity, and how the Optimism Collective is building its fault proof system to leverage this architecture.","The Ethereum protocol benefits from social decentralization by enabling a broad range of contributors to build a robust network by creating optionality in the solutions. For node software, this means client diversity: the more client implementations, the less impact a single point of failure can have on the validator network.","Core devs in L1 describe this contribution model as the “bazaar”; noisy and seemingly chaotic, but immensely productive and energizing. With a radical open approach to protocol development, the broadest set of contributors can improve the protocol.","The Optimism Collective is uniquely positioned to implement and iterate on the way Ethereum approaches social decentralization. The OP Stack enables social decentralization, with open specifications and MIT licensed open source software, and the Optimism Collective iterates on it with the creation of the Superchain.","L1 Ethereum has open specifications, and a modular client architecture that separates the consensus and execution layers. The OP-Stack implements this same architecture for L2:","Consensus is backed by op-node and Magi, two clients that follow L1 and derive execution inputs.","Execution is backed by op-geth, op-erigon, and op-reth.","L2 architecture adds a new layer to this stack however: the proving layer. This is the layer that securely bridges the L2 outputs back into L1. Just as having multiple clients is best practice for securing consensus and execution on L1 and L2, a multi-proof approach for an L2’s proving layer ensures the best security.","Similar to a client-diverse validator-set coming to consensus, a quorum of onchain proofs can signal that the L2 state claim has been validated in different ways, which significantly derisks the chance that a bug causes a total failure.","There are three common types of proofs; attestations, fault proofs (aka fraud proofs), and ZK validity proofs. The latter two share a common pattern. They express the L2 state-transition in a synchronous form, and prove the execution of it when given L1 data and L2 pre-state as input.","Proof systems can be further split up into isolated components:","A “program” defines the synchronous L2 state-transition.","A “VM” runs and proves the program.","A “pre-image oracle” gives the L1 data and L2 pre-state as inputs.","Many ZK-proofs today still tightly couple these components, creating a ZK-EVM that operates on singular L1 transaction data. The OP Stack, however, decouples them in order to isolate complexity and enable client diversity that makes the total more robust.","Interactive fault proofs add a bisection-game to the VM trace to verify the proof onchain, while VM-based ZK-proofs arithmetize and fold the execution in a validity proof. (See the VM-based ZK proofs that Risc0 and O(1)-Labs are designing in response to Optimism’s ZK RFPs).","The program defines the actual state-transition as a “client,” and the input-fetching (L1 data and L2 pre-state) as “server.” Running stand-alone with server/client but no VM, the program is very similar to a regular blockchain node, and shares a lot of the code. For example, the Go op-program client is built by importing the derivation from op-node and EVM from op-geth, and the server fetches its data from L1 and L2 ethereum RPC.","The Fault Proof VM (FPVM) is one of the modules in the OP Stack’s fault proof stack.","The VM does not implement anything specific to Ethereum or L2, except for providing the right interfaces (most notably, the interface to the pre-image oracle). The Fault Proof Program (FPP) (client-side) that runs within the FPVM is the part that expresses the L2 state-transition.","Through this separation, the VM stays ultra-minimal: Ethereum protocol changes, like EVM op-code additions, do not affect the VM. Instead, when the protocol changes, the FPP can simply be updated to import the new state-transition components from the node software. Similar to playing a new version of a game on the same game console, the L1 proof system can be updated to prove a different program.","What the VM is tasked with is the lower-level instruction execution. The FPP needs to be emulated. The VM requirements are low: the program is synchronous, and all inputs are loaded through the same pre-image oracle, but all of this still has to be proven in the L1 EVM onchain!","To do this, only one instruction is proven at a time. The bisection game will narrow down the task of proving a full execution trace to just a single instruction.","Proving the instruction may look different for each FPVM, but generally it looks similar to Cannon, which proves the instruction as follows:","To execute the instruction, the VM emulates something akin to an instruction-cycle of a thread-context: the instruction is read from memory, interpreted, and the register-file and memory may change a little.","To support the pre-image oracle, and basic program runtime needs like memory-allocation, the execution also supports a subset of linux syscalls. Read/write syscalls allow interaction with the pre-image oracle: the program writes a hash as request for a pre-image, and then reads the value in small chunks at a time.","Cannon, the first FPVM, implements a MIPS VM this way. Please see the docs and cannon-specs for more information about the VM. The interface between FPVM and FP-program is standardized, and documented in the specs.","Fault proofs are not the only type of state-transition proof. ZK validity-proofs are an attractive option because of the potential for fast bridging (since there is no onchain challenge game for ZK validity-proofs, there is no dispute window). To support an advanced Ethereum stack and host different client implementations, we still need to decouple the VM and program.","This is the approach the ZK RFP projects are taking, to prove a minimal RISC-V (by Risc0) or MIPS (by O(1) Labs) VM that can host the same program as used in the fault proofs.","Supporting the ZK-VM does require small adaptions to make the pre-image oracle load the data non-interactively, but by generalizing the VM the ZK-proof is a lot more future-proof to OP Stack changes.","The OP Stack welcomes additional VM and program options, as well as additional independent proof systems, from attestations to ZK. Like client diversity, proof diversity is a collective effort!","Current ongoing complements to the OP Stack proving layer include:","A RISC-V FPVM “Asterisc” written in Go is in development by protolambda.","A rust FP-program, based on Magi and op-reth, is being built with contributors from Base and OP Labs.","A rust ZK-program, based on zeth, a ZK-reth fork, is being built by Risc0.","With the development of Cannon, the op-program, the bisection-game, the above, and the boundless ingenuity of the open source community, there will be many additional opportunities for contributing to the stack by testing implementations and participation in bug bounties! Anyone interested should bookmark Optimism’s Immunefi Bug Bounty page for new bounties related to the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System. 👀","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/social-decentralization-the-op-stack-s-fault-proof-virtual-machine"},"/blog/the-op-stack-s-fault-proof-system-is-live-on-op-goerli":{"version":1,"title":"The OP Stack’s Fault Proof System is live on OP Goerli - Optimism","description":"This post gives an overview of the OP Stack's first fault proof system, its components, and how they will work together to enhance decentralization in the Optimism","keywords":"","h1":["The OP Stack’s Fault Proof System is live on OP Goerli"],"h2":["System Overview","Advancing Decentralization","Help Test the Fault Proof System and Find Bugs"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","October 3, 2023","We are proud to share that fault proofs are now live on OP Goerli Testnet! This alpha release is the first fault proof system for the OP Stack. Its modular design lays the foundation for a multi-proof future, inclusive of ZK proofs, and significantly increases the opportunities for ecosystem contributors to build alternative fault proof components to secure the system.","The goal is to launch fault proofs in production soon, and community involvement in testing the system is critical to building a robust fault proof mechanism.","Read on for an overview of the fault proof system, and for more information on how you can help test the system—or skip right to our Immunefi bug bounty page, where we’ve added details on helping find bugs in the OP Stack’s fault proof system.","The Fault Proof System released in today’s alpha is comprised of three main components: a Fault Proof Program (FPP), a Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM), and a dispute game protocol. These components will work together to challenge malicious or faulty activity on the network to preserve trust and consistency within the system.","The OP Stack’s unique design allowed the decoupling of the FPP and FPVM. This approach paves the way for the development of multiple proof systems, unique dispute games, and a variety of FPVMs in the future.","Building with the OP Stack will eventually enable developers to custom-build a fault proof system comprised of any combination of these isolated components—including validity proofs, attestation proofs, or ZKVM. Dispute games in the dispute protocol can also be backed by multiple security mechanisms.","For a full technical walkthrough of the OP Stack’s first fault proof system, check out this video recorded by OP Labs engineer Clabby.","With the system live on OP Goerli Testnet, all OP Chains and OP Stack chains are one step closer to benefiting from the security provided by a robust fault proof system.","The system is designed to eventually enable secure bridging without central fallback. Plus, due to the OP Stack’s open source ethos and MIT license, its fault proof system paves the way for several protocol implementations. This multiplicity not only moves us closer to Stage 2 technical decentralization, but also serves as a foundation for strong social decentralization.","The more diverse a protocol’s contributors—from clients to proving mechanisms, dispute games, and other infrastructure—the more decentralized the protocol becomes. The modularity of the fault proof system creates a plethora of opportunities for developers within the Collective to engage in shaping and sustaining the OP Mainnet and the Superchain.","Everyone in the ecosystem can help ready the fault proof system for production by testing the system and reporting any bugs discovered through our regular Immunefi bug bounty program.","This fault proof system alpha is a major step towards a more decentralized and efficient Superchain, and contributors across the ecosystem will benefit from our Collective effort to test and improve it.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-op-stack-s-fault-proof-system-is-live-on-op-goerli"},"/blog/the-game-s-afoot-designing-modular-dispute-games-for-the-op-stack-s-fault-proof-system":{"version":1,"title":"The game’s afoot: designing modular dispute games for the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System - Optimism","description":"A deep dive into dispute games & the role they will play in fault detection in the OP Stack's first fault proof system.","keywords":"","h1":["The game’s afoot: designing modular dispute games for the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System"],"h2":["What is a dispute game?","Play the Alphabet Bisection Game","Help secure the OP Stack’s dispute protocol"],"h3":["Bisection Game","Claims","Positions","Chess Clocks","Moves","Instruction Step","Resolution"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","clabby","September 28, 2023","It’s not a coincidence that one of the most fun components in the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System (FPS) are its dispute games. Previous posts about the FPS have outlined how the OP Stack’s modularity made it possible to decouple the Fault Proof Program (FPP) from the Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM) to enable next-level composability and efficient parallelized upgrades to both components. The same is true, to an almost exponential degree, for dispute games.","This post explores the role dispute games will play in decentralized fault detection within the Superchain ecosystem, how the fault proof dispute game was built on top of the dispute protocol, and the possibilities that emerge thanks to the extensibility of the dispute protocol.","If you’re looking to nerd out on more granular details about dispute games, I shared a much longer version of this post on my personal blog a few weeks ago.","A dispute game is a core primitive to the dispute protocol. It models a simple state machine, and it is initialized with a 32 byte commitment to any piece of information of which the validity can be disputed. They contain a function to resolve this commitment to be true or false, which is left for the implementor of the primitive to define. The OP Stack’s first implementation of the dispute game, the FaultDisputeGame, is permissionless due to its resolution function being determined by the outcome of a fault proof program’s execution on top of an emulated VM.","Dispute games themselves rely on two fundamental properties:","Incentive Compatibility: The system penalizes false claims and rewards truthful ones to ensure fair participation.","Resolution: Each game has a mechanism to definitively validate or invalidate the root claim.","In the Dispute protocol, different types of dispute games can be created, managed, and upgraded through the DisputeGameFactory. This opens the door to innovative features, like aggregate proof systems and the ability to expand the protocol to allow for disputing things apart from the state of L2, such as a FaultDisputeGame geared towards on-chain binary verification.","This is a specific type of dispute game, and the first game built in the OP Stack’s dispute protocol. In this game, players go back and forth, dividing an execution trace until reaching individual steps. After bisection has reached commitments to the state at individual trace instructions, the FaultDisputeGame executes a single instruction step on chain using a generic VM. The VM’s state transition function, which we’ll call T, can be anything, so long as it adheres to the form T(s, i) -> s', where s = the agreed upon prestate, i = the state transition inputs, and s' = the post state.","For our first full implementation of the VM generic in the bisection game, we’ve implemented a single MIPS thread context on top of the EVM to execute single instructions within an execution trace generated by Cannon and the op-program.","Claims represent a commitment to the state of the backend VM at a given instruction. These can be true or false, with truthfulness determined after the resolution phase. If not countered, claims are assumed true.","Claims exist at positions in a binary tree. The position represents which instruction the claim is related to. Positions are generalized indices, which can be defined as 2^{depth} + index_at_depth.","Players have a time limit to make moves. The game is permissionless, allowing anyone to join. Each side starts with 3.5 days on their clock, totalling a 7-day game time. In the case that a new path is made or a claim is made at a position that has already received a claim, the grandparent’s clock is inherited.","Players bisect until claims commit to the state of just one VM instruction. Then they execute that instruction on-chain to verify or falsify claims. Moves can either be attacks (which challenge a parent claim) or defenses (agreements with a parent claim). A defense is made whenever a player agrees with the claim hash they’re observing (meaning the two parties’ state is the same at the given instruction), but disagrees with the final outcome they’re trying to push based on the observed claim’s relative agreement with the root claim.","At the leaf nodes of the position tree, each claim commits to the state at just one VM instruction. The only move left is to execute that VM instruction to prove or disprove parent claims.","If the instruction step confirms the expected post state, the claim stands uncountered. If there is an unexpected post state or exit code, the parent claim is countered.","The game may be resolved after chess clocks for all claims have run out, with a low-end of 3.5 days. Each claim within the game is the root of it’s own Sub Game. Sub games are DAGs with a depth of 1. All children (which are sub-game roots themselves) pointing to the root are counters to it, and the subgame may only be resolved if all of its child-subgames have been resolved as well. A subgame root can only be considered countered if one or more of its children are resolved and uncountered, and this property percolates upwards all the way to the root claim of the game.","An honest player’s presence, assuming all of its moves have been exhausted, will always result in the game resolving favorably for its view of the trace, whether the root claim is honest or dishonest. Dishonest claims can always be countered by any party, though there is always only one correct claim to be made as duplicates claim hashes at the same position in the same subgame are not allowed.","For anyone who is curious, there is also a visualization tool for a FaultDisputeGame over a mock execution trace that is only 16 instructions long. This simulation uses a separate VM than the MIPS thread context, the AlphabetVM, which simply returns the next letter of the alphabet when given a letter as input.","If you’re interested in exploring the rules of the game with a lighter backend, here’s how to play:","Clone the Optimism monorepo, install dependencies, and make the devnet allocations / cannon / op-program binaries.","Required Dependencies:","foundry","Golang toolchain","Docker","Run the alphabet game:","Navigate to https://disputify.optimism.io/ or run the visualization front-end locally by cloning https://github.com/clabby/dispute-viz and input the address of the FaultDisputeGame proxy deployed to your local devnet above.","In a bisection game, all of the mechanisms described above work together to create a system that rewards honest behavior and counters dishonest claims effectively.","There are many, many ways to build dispute games that accomplish the same goal. We hope that when the OP Stack’s FPS is deployed on OP Goerli, builders in our ecosystem will have fun and get creative in constructing their own dispute games. Each dispute game created can play a role in the social decentralization of the OP Stack, and provide ecosystem participants with options when it comes to how disputes are resolved for any given claim about a piece of information.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-game-s-afoot-designing-modular-dispute-games-for-the-op-stack-s-fault-proof-system"},"/blog/answering-the-call-how-risc-zero-and-o(1)-labs-are-bringing-zk-proofs-to-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Answering the call: How RISC Zero and O(1) Labs are bringing ZK proofs to the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"In Season 4 of Optimism Governance, the community rallied around Collective Intents, where teams work on tightly scoped, specific initiatives known as Missions","keywords":"","h1":["Answering the call: How RISC Zero and O(1) Labs are bringing ZK proofs to the OP Stack"],"h2":["cRUSTaceans, rejoice: RISC Zero is bringing Rust-based ZK validity proofs to the OP Stack","O(1) Labs brings the ZK tech powering Mina protocol to the OP Stack","unbothered. moisturized. happy. in our lane. heads down to OP Stack ZKPs."],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","November 1, 2023","In Season 4 of Optimism Governance, the community rallied around Collective Intents, where teams work on tightly scoped, specific initiatives known as Missions. As part of this process, the Optimism Foundation set forth Missions for critical areas of growth and development within the Collective.","A key part of building towards the Technical Decentralization Intent is implementing a Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) for the OP Stack. For OP Chains in the Superchain, this is an important ingredient to further secure and add low latency cross chain communication between L2 and L1, as well as directly between OP Chains. This system supports both high and low latency options, which is necessary for achieving full composability and unlocking new use cases, and contributing to overall scalability. A ZKP for a well-supported instruction set architecture (ISA) that can prove the OP Stack fault proof program acts as the foundation for a system that can prove any OP Stack-based blockchain.","The explosion of activity on L2s underscores how deeply crypto users value low fees and high performance, and two teams submitted approaches that stood out to help achieve this for users. As a result, proposals from RISC Zero and O(1) Labs were accepted to work on the Mission.","RISC Zero envisions a world where ZK Proofs are accessible to everyone, and developers can prove and verify any computation through RISC Zero’s general purpose ZK Virtual Machine. To realize this vision, the team is committed to an open source stack that removes barriers that once plagued ZK and always prioritizes hands-on engagement with ZKPs. At the heart of this is RISC-V zkVM, which enables developers to write their programs in native Rust and abstracts away the cryptographic complexities of ZKPs.","RISC Zero saw alignment with OP Stack’s commitment to a shared and open source future. ZKPs will enable the next paradigm of the OP Stack by creating a connected and highly interoperable Superchain. Withdrawals, bridging, and Superchain governance are all areas where RISC Zero sees their ZKPs dramatically improving the experience of users and developers.","RISC Zero is building a Rust-based ZK Validity Proof System for the OP Stack. To do this, they are combining the RISC-V zkVM with the Ethereum/Rust ecosystem through projects such as reth, revm, alloy, and op-reth. Their ZK Validity Proof System is being built on top of Zeth, a fully open source “type 0” zkEVM framework, which enables anyone to prove validity of Optimism and Ethereum blocks.","Support for OP Mainnet has already been added to Zeth. Currently RISC Zero is extending this to include the “L1 -> L2 derivation” process, which will allow Zeth to prove that new OP blocks are consistent with the OP transaction sequencer. Once that’s complete, additional features will be added to allow entire OP epochs to be “rolled up” into a single proof that can be verified on the L1 using RISC Zero’s existing support for onchain proof verification.","O(1) Lab aims to catalyze a new generation of applications powered by zero knowledge cryptography by creating the foundations and tools for developers to build ZK applications. This includes designing and implementing the zkApp model for the Mina protocol, the first ZK-native blockchain, o1js, a Typescript library and embedded DSL for zk-powered applications, and Kimchi+Pickles, a proof system and recursion library.","Now work on a MIPS zkVM will bring the power of zero-knowledge to the OP Stack. This is the first step on the road to eliminating the seven day withdrawal window, which improves the user experience and enhances the chain’s “trustlessness.” This work also brings the Mina Protocol and OP Stack closer together, opening a pathway for applications built on the OP Stack to interact with the Mina Protocol.","O(1)’s PLONKish proof system, Kimchi and the Pickles recursion layer, provide the base of the solution, a version of which has secured the Mina blockchain since 2021. The bulk of the work optimizes some low-level primitives for Ethereum, adding support for kzg-bn128 for efficient Ethereum verification, and then optimization and integration with the OP chain’s pre-image hash.","Both RISC Zero and O(1) Labs have committed to providing regular progress updates. The community can follow along on the Mission’s GitHub page and follow RISC Zero and O(1) Labs on Twitter. It is exciting to have two incredible teams with two unique approaches working towards achieving a Mission that will have a tremendous impact on the Optimism ecosystem.","If you’re eager for more info, RISC Zero and O(1) Labs will be leading a workshop on bringing ZK proofs to the OP Stack as a part of Optimism’s Onchain Summit at Devconnect in Istanbul! Follow us on Twitter for updates about Optimism’s Devconnect programming.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/answering-the-call-how-risc-zero-and-o(1)-labs-are-bringing-zk-proofs-to-the-op-stack"},"/blog/introducing-the-canyon-hardfork":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing the Canyon Hardfork - Optimism","description":"On Nov. 14 at 17:00 UTC, Superchain testnets will upgrade to Canyon! This blog post outlines all the changes coming to the Optimism ecosystem in the wake of this protocol","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing the Canyon Hardfork"],"h2":["Scope of upgrade","Node operators: upgrade your nodes!"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","November 7, 2023","Optimism is excited to announce its first post-Bedrock network upgrade, titled Canyon. Canyon will activate on testnets (OP Goerli, OP Sepolia, Base Goerli, Base Sepolia, PGN Sepolia, Zora Sepolia) on Tuesday November 14th at 17:00 UTC. This network upgrade was built and implemented in collaboration with Base.","Canyon has already been successfully activated on a devnet in coordination with Conduit and Base, and we are excited to bring it to testnet next week.","In order to be activated on OP Mainnet, Base, and other mainnets in the Superchain, the Canyon hardfork must successfully pass through the Optimism governance process. Stay tuned for future announcements to find out when the governance proposal to upgrade Superchain Mainnets to Canyon passes.","The Canyon upgrade includes Shanghai and Capella hardfork support and several minor bug fixes. Shanghai contains the following EIPS (EIP-3651: Warm COINBASE, EIP-3855: PUSH0 instruction, EIP-3860: Limit and meter initcode, EIP-4895: Beacon chain push withdrawals as operations, EIP-6049: Deprecate SELFDESTRUCT). Canyon also makes some OP Stack specific changes.","The upgrade will increase the EIP-1559 denominator from 50 to 250 in order to reduce how quickly the basefee rises when blocks are over the gas target. With EIP-1559, the basefee changes in proportion to how far the gas used is from the gas target. If there is more gas used than the target, the basefee increases, if there is less gas used than the target the basefee decreases. This upgrade reduces the rate of change of the basefee.","In addition, Canyon modifies the protocol to handle unclosed channels. Previously, only a single channel could be active at a time and if the channel was not closed, it would need to time out before progress could resume. Following the upgrade, the op-node will read the first channel that is ready.","A new field will be added to the deposit transaction receipt encoding. It modifies the encoding to fix a bug where the deposit transaction nonce was not in consensus encoding.","Finally, Canyon sets the create2Deployer bytecode (codehash is 0xb0550b5b431e30d38000efb7107aaa0ade03d48a7198a140edda9d27134468b2 at 0x13b0D85CcB8bf860b6b79AF3029fCA081AE9beF2 on all OP networks). This enables developers to have access to this commonly used contract on all OP networks, not just OP Mainnet.","Users should not be impacted by this testnet upgrade, aside from having access to the latest Ethereum mainnet features on all OP testnets.","Node operators will need to upgrade their nodes following the Canyon upgrade. Operators can follow the guide on this public notion doc to successfully upgrade their nodes.","Keep an eye out for OP Governance updates in the coming weeks for an announcement about the proposal to upgrade Superchain mainnets to Canyon.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-the-canyon-hardfork"},"/blog/announcing-we-the-art-a-creator-contest-for-artists-with":{"version":1,"title":"Announcing 'We ❤️ The Art': A Creator Contest for Artists With ❤️ - Optimism","description":"Thus far blockchain has been the site for exciting innovation in the realms of finance, governance, identity, and culture","keywords":"","h1":["Announcing 'We ❤️ The Art': A Creator Contest for Artists With ❤️"],"h2":["What is We ❤️ The Art?","What's In It for Creators?","How to Participate","Let’s Make Some Art (With Heart)"],"h3":["Prize Tiers","Contest Categories"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","November 8, 2023","Thus far blockchain has been the site for exciting innovation in the realms of finance, governance, identity, and culture. Recently there’s been a wave of migration of creator-focused projects like Decent, Sound, Manifold, and more to the Superchain with Zora and Base, which has provided creators with additional platforms to reach art lovers. With this influx of projects to L2, the barrier to entry for onchain creation is the lowest it’s ever been. In order to highlight and reward this burgeoning creative activity we’re thrilled to announce the We ❤️ The Art creator contest, which will allocate 1,200,000 OP to creators!","Think of it like American Idol for onchain art. We ❤️The Art is a creator contest with a 1,200,000 OP prize pool judged by a number of respected figures in the onchain creative space. It's a celebration of creative freedom, and an open invitation to creators worldwide to express themselves on the cutting edge of blockchains.","Similar to how achieving the Superchain vision will be accomplished through cooperation and coordination among many different stakeholders, W❤️TA is also an example of what’s possible when creative communities come together. This is similar to why Optimism was created to begin with: to build a fairer, more human-centric platform for coordination and to give back to the public goods which enable it.","Art is one of humanity’s earliest public goods, and so it’s only fitting that Optimism—with the invaluable help of our partners and collaborators—helps to enable and reward it.","Onchain creation unlocks unprecedented sovereignty over their works and community for the creator, facilitating a closer, richer connection between artist and patron. We're thrilled to host a creator contest which celebrates the new wave of creators and communities moving onchain.","Exposure, community, and rewards in the form of a piece of the 1,200,000 OP prize pool. Prizes will be split among four distinct places and categories, for up to 188 potential contest winners.","This is an OPportunity to have your work recognized by a panel of judges with deep knowledge of the space, gain exposure for your onchain works, and potentially be rewarded with Optimism's governance token.","The 1,200,000 OP prize pool is split evenly among four distinct categories, each with the same four prize tiers - resulting in 47 winners per category.","Please note that each winner will need to pass KYC in order to receive their prize.","1st tier: 50K OP prize (2 winners per category)","2nd tier: 20K OP prize (5 winners per category)","3rd tier: 7K OP prize (10 winners per category)","4th tier: 1K OP prize (30 winners per category)","A.I Art - Art created through generative AI tools like Stable Diffusion.","Generative Art - Art created end-to-end with code.","Music - Musical creations of any genre.","1of1s - An open creator category which includes anything not covered in the other three categories above.","Create a collection of onchain artwork and deploy it to OP Mainnet utilizing one of the NFT tools and/or marketplaces we’ve partnered with for the contest.🎨","Visit the contest site and submit your creation to any one of the four contest categories. 🖼️","Submission deadline: January 8th, 23:00 UTC","Judging period: Jan 9th to Jan 30th","Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges from the NFT space. 📋","Winners will be announced shortly after the judging period. 🏆","We ❤️ The Art is an opportunity to come together to celebrate the diverse talent and imagination of digital artists innovating onchain. Whether you're an experienced creator or someone who’s been waiting for that spark of inspiration, we invite all to be a part of this experience.","Good luck--we can't wait to see what you create onchain!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/announcing-we-the-art-a-creator-contest-for-artists-with"},"/blog/providing-easier-access-to-testnet-eth-across-the-superchain-with-the-superchain-faucet":{"version":1,"title":"Providing Easier Access to Testnet ETH Across the Superchain with the Superchain Faucet - Optimism","description":"Developers need access to testnet tokens so that they can properly deploy, test, and iterate on their contracts in testnet","keywords":"","h1":["Providing Easier Access to Testnet ETH Across the Superchain with the Superchain Faucet"],"h2":["Managing multiple faucets with Gelato Functions","Expanding onchain identity methods to include World ID and attestations","Block explorers to support developing on the Superchain","Start contributing to the Superchain"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Harry Markley","November 9, 2023","Developers need access to testnet tokens so that they can properly deploy, test, and iterate on their contracts in testnet. With this launch of the Superchain Faucet developers will now be able to access testnet ETH for any OP Chain including Base Sepolia, Lyra Sepolia, Mode Sepolia, OP Goerli, OP Sepolia, PGN Sepolia, and Zora Sepolia.","For each OP Chain, there is a separate faucet smart contract that needs to be funded with that chain’s testnet ETH. It quickly becomes a significant amount of maintenance to individually fund each of these contracts. However, with Gelato Functions the funding of each individual faucet is automated, using only one smart contract. With this configuration we only need to make sure one contract is funded with testnet ETH, and then that contract handles bridging the testnet ETH to each individual OP Chain test network supported by the Superchain Faucet. This allows the Superchain Faucet to scale to support many test networks, without increasing the amount of maintenance required to keep each faucet funded.","In addition to expanding the number of test networks supported, the Superchain Faucet now supports attestations and World ID. Alongside developers that hold an Optimist NFT, developers with a World ID or valid attestation using the Ethereum Attestation Service can receive larger drips of testnet ETH.","Attestations are digital signatures on a piece of structured information used to build more trust online and onchain. They’re made by anyone and can be made about anything. Users with Gitcoin Passport scores > 25 and Superchain Faucet attestations are eligible for larger drips.","World ID, from Worldcoin, is a digital identity protocol that lets you prove you are a unique and real person while remaining anonymous. World ID offers several proofs of personhood, but biometric in-person verification (via a device called the Orb) is the only supported method.","If you're building on multiple OP Chains, Once Upon's Superchain block explorer consolidates transaction data across all OP Chains, offering developers a unified view of all Superchain activity, including testnets.","Developers now have multiple block explorers to choose from when testing and building on the Superchain.","With this launch, we’re alleviating a common difficulty that limits the productivity of builders contributing across the Superchain.","You can start using the faucet to get testnet tokens for any OP Chain by visiting Optimism Console.","If you're new to onchain development check out Optimism Unleashed by CryptoZombies and Superchain Builder NFT by ThirdWeb. If you're already familiar with onchain development, check out the Optimism Ecosystem Contributions Dashboard for project ideas that the Optimism Collective is looking for. Happy building!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/providing-easier-access-to-testnet-eth-across-the-superchain-with-the-superchain-faucet"},"/blog/preparing-the-ecosystem-for-multiple-chains":{"version":1,"title":"Preparing the ecosystem for multiple chains - Optimism","description":"This blog post shares details about the first code changes that will make the Superchain real. The first establishes as protocol version system, and the second focuses","keywords":"","h1":["Preparing the ecosystem for multiple chains"],"h2":["Multichain prep work","Establishing protocol-version with Canyon","Key dates to watch for"],"h3":["Protocol-version","Multichain Contracts Upgrade"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","November 21, 2023","A lot of work is underway to make it possible to securely upgrade all OP Chains in unison, so all OP Chain operators can easily run compatible versions of software and benefit immediately from hard forks and security upgrades.","There are a series of projects and protocol upgrades that will make interoperability of OP Chains much more efficient. Importantly, the first of these projects establishes a protocol version system for node operators, and the second is a protocol upgrade that will be focused on updates to smart contracts.","These are the first code changes that will make the Superchain real, and it is exciting to share them! Read the full blog post for details on these projects and how they will rollout on OP Testnets and beyond.","The first project is focused on changes that will impact node operators and nodes, enshrining a protocol-version that means anyone using the OP Stack for their products can easily track whether their infrastructure is up to date & in sync with the latest official protocol version. It will maximize the efficiency of the how upgrades occur across the Superchain, and simplify how upgrades are managed.","It is important to note that the protocol-version system is an opt-in convenience. Anyone who runs a sequencer or verifier node can opt-in to this change, and all future Superchain upgrades will flow from this upgrade to operators that have opted-in.","OP Labs engineers have already begun work on the second component, which is simplifying multichain contract upgrades. Currently, all OP Chains have separate implementation contracts due to hardcoded chain-specific configurations in them. The multichain contract upgrade eliminates these hardcoded configurations, thus making it possible for Superchain partners to all share one set of implementation contracts, and perform multichain protocol upgrades in a single transaction.","These smart contract changes will need to go through the governance approval process, which will take place early next year.","Something very exciting is that the opt-in node upgrades were implemented as a part of the November 14 testnet upgrade to Canyon! This means that the Canyon upgrade took place as a unified upgrade for all operators who have opted-in.","Together, these two projects will enable seamless OP Chain upgrades and we are excited to bring them to a Superchain near you! As mentioned, the governance process to implement multichain contract upgrades will kick off in 2024, so be sure to follow @OptimismGov on X (formerly Twitter) to stay up to date!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/preparing-the-ecosystem-for-multiple-chains"},"/blog/op-testnets-are-migrating-from-op-goerli-to-op-sepolia":{"version":1,"title":"OP Testnets are migrating from OP Goerli to OP Sepolia. - Optimism","description":"Ethereum's Goerli testnet, and OP Goerli along with it, will be fully decommissioned in January 2024. Migrate to OP Sepolia for any testing and development needs!","keywords":"","h1":["OP Testnets are migrating from OP Goerli to OP Sepolia."],"h2":["How will this migration impact partners and users?","Do you need support while migrating to OP Sepolia?"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","November 27, 2023","Optimism is in the process of migrating testnets from OP Goerli to OP Sepolia. The Goerli testnet has been deprecated by the Ethereum community since January 2023, and it is only being maintained until the end of 2023.","OP Sepolia is the sustainable path forward, and we encourage all apps and developers to migrate to OP Sepolia for any testing and development needs.","Ethereum Goerli, and OP Goerli along with it, will be fully decommissioned in January 2024. When a testnet is deprecated - like Ropsten, Rinkeby, and Kovan were in the past - it loses parity with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), making it unsafe and inaccurate for testing apps and other web3 projects.","We are encouraging all our all developers and end users to migrate before January 2024 to ensure that your testnet app works as intended on OP Sepolia.","This is the network information to include:","Network Name - OP Sepolia","RPC URL - https://sepolia.optimism.io/","Chain ID - 11155420","Currency Symbol - SepoliaETH","Block Explorer URL - https://optimism-sepolia.blockscout.com/","Contract Addresses: https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/optimism/tree/develop/packages/contracts-bedrock/deployments/sepolia","End users looking to experiment in a testnet environment should begin to do so on OP Sepolia instead of OP Goerli. Testnet funds can be claimed through the Superchain faucet, up to 1 test ETH per day. The bridge supports Sepolia testnets as well. Metamask already supports OP Sepolia so it can be found in the drop down menu. If you need to add it as a custom network somewhere else, please use the network information included above.","If you’re having any trouble with this migration, you can reach out to us in the Developer Forum and we will provide support.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-testnets-are-migrating-from-op-goerli-to-op-sepolia"},"/blog/the-endgame-for-decentralization-in-the-op-ecosystem-is-stage-2":{"version":1,"title":"The Endgame for Decentralization in the OP Ecosystem is Stage 2 - Optimism","description":"This blog post shares more about how we are thinking about decentralization at OP Labs as we support the ecosystem engineers building out a fault proof system","keywords":"","h1":["The Endgame for Decentralization in the OP Ecosystem is Stage 2"],"h2":["Why is it so important to reach Stage 2?","Why is it taking so long for Optimism to reach Stage 1 decentralization?","All L2s should aim for Stage 2."],"h3":["First came Bedrock and the OP Stack","Next comes a multiproof ecosystem","Security council"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","December 21, 2023","A critical discussion on the path to blockchain maturity is how to decentralize, how much, and when. This blog post shares a bit more about how we are thinking about this process at OP Labs as we support the ecosystem engineers building out a fault proof system for the OP Stack and the Optimism Collective as it establishes its first security council.","In an insightful article on the Ethereum Magicians forum, Vitalik Buterin lays out the roadmap for achieving Stage 2 Decentralization, a critical milestone for any layer 2 network looking to decentralize. This post has informed much of the conversation around technical decentralization in the Optimism Collective over the last two years. We firmly believe all Layer 2 blockchains should prioritize reaching this stage of decentralization as swiftly (and safely!) as possible, to ensure a more robust, secure, and truly decentralized ecosystem.","To remind everyone what is required for rollups to reach Stage 2, here are the criteria outlined in Vitalik Buterin’s original post:","Requirements:","In the event that code does not have bugs, there must not be any group of actors that can, even unanimously, post a state root other than the output of the code.","This somewhat awkward phrasing (“IF the code does not have bugs, THEN no one can override it”) is meant to permit use of security councils in ways that are clearly limited to adjudicating undeniable bugs, such as the following:","The rollup uses two or more independent implementations of its state transition function (eg. two distinct fraud provers, two distinct validity provers, or one of each), and the security council can adjudicate only if they disagree - which would only happen if there is a bug.","If someone submits a transaction or series of transactions that contains two valid proofs for two distinct state roots after processing the same data (ie. “the prover disagrees with itself”), control temporarily turns over to the security council.","If no valid proof is submitted for >= 7 days (ie. “the prover is stuck”), control temporarily turns over to the security council.","Upgrades are allowed, but must have a delay of >= 30 days","In summary, to take off their “training wheels” and achieve Stage 2 decentralization, rollups must have a trustless fault proof system, multiple functioning proving mechanisms, and rollups that have a security council or a similar entity must meet specific criteria.","What Stage 2 does that Stage 1 does not is ensure there’s no one group of actors that can “even unanimously, post a state root other than the output of the code.” Stage 1 L2s still have some version of a multisig or security council that could hypothetically (although not without costs) alter a chain’s state root to censor or initiate invalid withdrawals. It’s not entirely trustless. Removing this ability further decentralizes networks and ensures users possess an unalienable ability to exit the system.","This type of flexibility is critical to the Superchain because it balances interoperability—everyone using the same fault proof will be on the same protocol version—without sacrificing user freedom and protections. The right to exit should always be preserved, and not impact the way a Chain or an app functions.","Projects might take a “depth first” approach while moving towards Stage 2: get to Stage 1 with a single fault proof as fast as possible, and then work out how to make a multiproof fault proof system to reach Stage 2 status. Optimism, by contrast, took a “breadth first” approach that aims to make a functional, fast-growing multiproof network. Ecosystem engineers are building the first implementation of the fault proof system in a way that enables that approach. Meanwhile, because this is all being built in the open, with an open source stack, other developers in the ecosystem were able to start building many other implementations in parallel with the work on the first fault proof implementation.","We know how important it is to get this right on the first try. Today, OP Stack engineers have laid the groundwork for rapid multiproof expansion, and they are working towards achieving Stage 1 status according to L2Beat’s risk analysis metrics, a respected standard in the industry. But Bedrock was built from the ground up with Stage 2 decentralization in mind. We are uninterested in reaching Stage 1 simply for the sake of saying we did so. From day one, it has been just one part of our pragmatic plan to reach Stage 2 as quickly and safely as possible.","Stage 2 is endgame. Here’s what that looks like in practice:","In order to prioritize achieving Stage 2, we knew we needed to design a codebase that would make it easier to get there. We needed the modularity introduced by the Bedrock upgrade to make sure that once a functioning, trustless fault proof system was designed for the OP Stack, ecosystem developers could leverage its modular superpowers to help us design not just one or two, but many, alternate proving mechanisms.","At the same time we needed to make sure that even unforeseeable technological developments would not make the OP Stack obsolete. The current design of the OP Stack ensures that developers can swap proving components to include ZK technology, something that once threatened the growth of Optimistic rollups. Chains in the Optimism ecosystem are not forever bound to using optimistic proving mechanisms. We expect they will be able to leverage advancements in ZK technology and the resurgence of plasma, or a combination of all three mechanisms, in their Chain’s fault proof system.","It took time to design the OP Stack and execute the Bedrock upgrade, but the result of this investment has put the entire ecosystem in a position to rapidly accelerate our development progress in the coming months and beyond. This means it was time well and strategically spent.","So far this approach has paid off tremendously. The evidence is in how quickly alternative clients have taken off since the Bedrock launch, and how many teams in the ecosystem are currently working on alternative fault proof implementations as well. In addition to OP Labs and all of the alternative client maintainers (Test in Prod, the reth team and Base, Nethermind, a16z crypto, and Kai Chen and the Hildr team), which are used as critical dependencies in the OP Stack, teams currently working on alternative fault proofs include the State Channels team, RISCZero, O(1) Labs, AltLayer, Protolambda (at OP Labs), and engineers Willem Olding and Eric Tu, along with geohotz and his initial work on Cannon.","Here’s what this is shaping up to look like:","The OP Stack is a triple threat. It is modular and open source, which means that the full power of the Stack can find its way into the hands of the third “threat,” its tremendously creative and brilliant developer community. It would take years for OP Labs engineers to develop, test, and implement the multiple proof schemes required for Stage 2 decentralization. By putting the best tools in the hands of the superstar core developers and engineers in our ecosystem, anyone with an interest in Optimism’s success can design the components that will help reach our goal.","To reach Stage 1 decentralization and progress to Stage 2, networks need something akin to a security council—a multisig with which to manage protocol upgrades that is maintained by a minimum of 8 independent individuals with a signing threshold of 75% or greater.","In the fall of 2023, rollout began in earnest to establish the Optimism ecosystem’s first security council, comprised of individuals outside of the Foundation. The first 14 members of the Optimism ecosystem’s security council were ratified by a governance vote in December 2023, and another governance vote on whether or not to share upgrade keys with the security council in an interim ‘Phase 0’ was also successful.","One of Optimism’s prized values is open source technology. Just as ecosystem engineers are building the MIT licensed open source OP Stack in the open, the security council will be built in the open, such as the public charter, an open source implementation, and transparent operations. This is in keeping with the two of the three guiding principles that have inspired the structure of the security council: transparency, and community.","The third principle, safety over liveness, informs the design the security council, and of security in the Optimism ecosystem overall. Prioritizing safety over liveness means it’s more important for the system to avoid errors and invalid states, especially ones that would result in a loss of funds, even if it results in temporarily halting operations.","That’s it. That’s the meme.","It’s not enough for L2s to reach Stage 1 and limit the use of training wheels, while still relying on a single proving mechanism to secure a nascent fault proof system. Further, a single fault proof system is only as good as the strength of the security council that can steward it. For the first phase, a 14-person security council has been ratified by Optimism Governance to govern the security of the Superchain, and a key goal in 2024 is to have this security council managing the upgrade keys of the ecosystem at the direction of Optimism Governance, and independently from the Optimism Foundation.","Much of the planning and development at OP Labs over the last year and a half has been about putting the entire Optimism ecosystem in a position where achieving Stage 2 decentralization is not only realistic, but within reach. We’re excited to make that journey next year, alongside everyone else in the Collective!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-endgame-for-decentralization-in-the-op-ecosystem-is-stage-2"},"/blog/preparing-optimism-for-the-superchain-future":{"version":1,"title":"Preparing Optimism for the Superchain future - Optimism","description":"In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, Optimism is pioneering a path towards a collaborative Superchain ecosystem—one where all chains are on a level playing field","keywords":"","h1":["Preparing Optimism for the Superchain future"],"h2":["Crafting a cooperative and expansive Superchain","We’re feeling optimistic about what’s next"],"h3":["Optimism vs. OP Mainnet","Optimism’s neutral stance towards OP Chains","Preparing the world for multiple chains"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","December 19, 2023","In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, Optimism is pioneering a path towards a collaborative Superchain ecosystem—one where all chains are on a level playing field, and where that which benefits one benefits all. The Collective focus is bringing users onchain, regardless of which OP Chain that is. As Optimism transitions into an open-source Superchain, dedicated to sustainably funding public goods, it's crucial to understand the changes and the principles guiding this transformation. This blog post will dive into what it means for the Collective to uphold chain neutrality as we work to cultivate a vibrant, successful Superchain ecosystem that benefits every stakeholder.","We’re excited to share how we’re thinking about key Superchain components, the future of Optimism Governance in line with the Law of Chains, and advancing technical capabilities to support a multi-chain structure—all while fostering an inclusive and thriving ecosystem. Let’s go!","OP Mainnet is the name of the original L2 chain that was deployed to Optimism, formerly known as “Optimism” itself. In the Superchain vision, OP Mainnet is one L2 chain among many, communicating seamlessly with chains like Base, Zora Network, PGN, Redstone, and many others. Optimism, meanwhile, is no single blockchain. It represents the ethos of the entire Superchain network and the Optimism Collective: a group of aligned ecosystem participants who believe that cooperation is the winning strategy, and that individuals should profit proportional to their impact. Optimism is the totality of the technology it runs on, the system it’s governed by, and the community that breathes life into it.","How should you think about OP Mainnet in the context of the Superchain?","As the first chain, OP Mainnet has fostered a burgeoning ecosystem of apps, users, and developers who call it their home, and OP Mainnet will continue to be maintained as neutral blockspace. The Collective will continue to support OP Mainnet, but we do expect its role over time to decrease — as apps on OP Mainnet become their own chains (or deploy to many) and the Optimism ecosystem unlocks improved interoperability. In reality, as the Superchain takes shape, it will be the true home of apps and developers in the ecosystem, so the ecosystem will begin to look dramatically different as we tackle this next leg of the scaling journey.","As the Superchain takes shape, our first priority is emphasizing cooperation, not competition, as a core tenant of the Superchain when it comes to OP Chains.","The Foundation’s focus is to encourage growth across the entire Superchain, ensuring a positive sum game for all. Here are some ways we—together with the broader Collective—are putting this into action:","The Law of Chains, a key governing document for the Superchain, was ratified by the Collective earlier this year. This means that—in addition to always staying on the latest and greatest tech—OP Chains which share upgrades with the Superchain are an explicitly acknowledged stakeholder. Optimism Governance will be responsible for upholding key protections articulated in that document, for Chain Governors, Users, and Service Providers alike. You can read more here.","The third round of Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) was expanded to include public goods on Base and other OP Chains. RetroPGF is about recognizing impact across the entire Superchain ecosystem, and ensuring those projects are rewarded appropriately for their impact. To get there, the Collective is running regular experiments to consistently improve RetroPGF, with the most recent round providing a lot of valuable learnings for future iterations.","Optimism Governance Intents have been updated to be inclusive of OP Chains, and the Collective is working to extend the grants program beyond OP Mainnet as well.","Finally, we’re laser-focused on growing the Superchain ecosystem with growth campaigns like We ❤️ the Art, that support all OP Chains, not just OP Mainnet.","Building together and helping each other is the ethos of the Optimism Collective and essential to the Superchain vision. Much of the work being done at the Foundation and across the Collective in the next governance cycle is about getting all OP Chains on even footing with OP Mainnet in terms of protections and benefits that are covered under the Law of Chains.","Finally, the Collective is working hard to make it possible to securely upgrade all OP Chains in unison, so all OP Chain operators can easily run compatible versions of software and benefit immediately from hard forks and security upgrades.","There are a couple of projects underway that will be shipped in a series of proposed protocol upgrades and governance votes, which aim to enable seamless OP Chain upgrades and represent the first code changes that make the Superchain real. For more details on this, check out OP Labs’ recent blog post on the subject.","The Superchain vision is expansive. If it is successful, it could shape the way we use the internet for decades to come. All of the steps outlined in this post are laying the foundation for that future. One small thing everyone can do to to make this period of transition smooth is to refer to the chain formerly known as “Optimism” as “OP Mainnet”—particularly if you maintain public-facing resources.","Beyond that, we encourage you to keep informed about all the changes by reading through the Collective’s Governance updates.","And, as always,Stay Optimistic! ✨🔴","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/preparing-optimism-for-the-superchain-future"},"/blog/open-sourcing-utilities-for-dapp-developers":{"version":1,"title":"Open Sourcing Utilities for dApp Developers - Optimism","description":"Introducing the Ecosystem Repository, a place where utilities & applications get built to interact with protocols in the Optimism ecosystem, and their infrastructure.","keywords":"","h1":["Open Sourcing Utilities for dApp Developers"],"h2":["What is the Ecosystem Repository?","Get started by building a bridge to the Superchain","One small commit for developers, one giant leap for the ecosystem"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Nicholas Italiano","January 24, 2024","A key goal to bringing more developers into the OP Stack developer community is to simplify and accelerate the development process for building on OP Chains. This necessitates an ecosystem rich in libraries and utilities, specifically designed for deploying applications on the OP Stack. To that end, today we are excited to announce the open sourcing of our Ecosystem Repository!","If the Optimism Repository is a place where the protocol and its infrastructure gets built, the Ecosystem Repository is a place where utilities, applications, and examples get built to interact with those protocols and their infrastructure.","The initial launch features an example of a bridge application, demonstrating how to bridge ETH and ERC-20 tokens listed in the Superchain Token List. This application provides a template for those constructing their own bridges, offering insights into how you can interact with the protocol. Additionally, the package released includes common utilities that are vital for developer interactions with L1 and L2. Notably, it encompasses tools for tracking network pairs and deployment addresses of smart contracts.","This launch is merely the start. We plan to continuously enrich the resources for application developers in the Superchain ecosystem.","We invite you to clone the Ecosystem Repository, whether you are a builder eager to contribute or are just interested in the latest developments in the Optimism Ecosystem. Your involvement is what will shape the future of the Collective.","If you are inspired by this release and have any ideas related to the OP Stack you would like to see open-sourced in the repo, feel free to leave an issue in GitHub. Happy building!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/open-sourcing-utilities-for-dapp-developers"},"/blog/a-very-onchain-summit-2023-devconnect-recap":{"version":1,"title":"A Very Onchain Summit: 2023 Devconnect Recap - Optimism","description":" This year at Devconnect in Istanbul, Turkey, the Optimism Collective hosted their first full day of talks and networking, aptly titled Onchain Summit: Superchain Edition","keywords":"","h1":["A Very Onchain Summit: 2023 Devconnect Recap"],"h2":["Envisioning the Superchain at Onchain Summit","The OP Stack’s Superpowers","A Growing Superchain Ecosystem","The Finale!"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","November 29, 2023","This year at Devconnect in Istanbul, Turkey, the Optimism Collective hosted their first full day of talks and networking, aptly titled Onchain Summit: Superchain Edition. To say it was successful would be an understatement: hundreds of folks from around the world and across the Optimism Ecosystem joined the event. In a dynamic series of talks, panels, and workshops, Optimists came together to learn about the current state of the Superchain ecosystem, and share their vision for its future.","The Collective’s presence at Devconnect didn’t end there. Representatives from both the Foundation and OP Labs delivered talks and participated in panels at other exciting Devconnect events including ETHGlobal’s Pragma, AltLayer’s Rollup Frontier Day, Gitcoin’s Schelling Point, and more.","One of the highlights of the week was the announcement of Redstone, Lattice’s plasma-inspired L2 for onchain games and ambitious applications, built with the OP Stack. The Collective is also welcoming the team at Lattice as core developers of the OP Stack!","The programming for Onchain Summit included three fascinating fireside chats, three illuminating talks, three informative panels, and five hands-on workshops.","To kick everything off in the morning, Optimism co-founder and the Foundation’s Chief Scientist Ben Jones spoke at a session called The Collective Becomes Self Aware. Here, he shared details about the RetroPGF, Law of Chains, and how they tie together for a vision of an “economically self-aware” Collective.","Next up, we were very fortunate to host special guest Vitalik Buterin at a fireside chat about all things Superchain and scaling Ethereum. OP Labs CEO and Optimism co-founder Karl Floersch asked the Ethereum founder questions on wide-ranging topics, from futuristic scaling solutions like plasma, to how to establish and maintain a strong core developer culture. This is an information-packed session that you don’t want to miss.","Vitalik Buterin wasn’t the only esteemed protocol founder to share some wisdom at Onchain Summit. OP Labs’ Head of Developer Relations Mattie Fairchild had a conversation with Lens Protocol and Aave founder Stani Kulechov about how the Superchain can enable the social layer of Web3.","There were a range of sessions that covered many of the innovations enabled by the modular OP Stack. Celo founder Marek Olszewski led a workshop on how his team at cLabs is transitioning Celo from an L1 to an L2 using the OP Stack; Test in Prod engineer Taem Park demonstrated how to sync OP Mainnet with alternative client op-erigon; and representatives from Risc Zero and O(1) Labs deliver a workshop that spotlights their unique approaches to the Foundation’s ZKP RFP.","Additionally, OP Labs’ very own Protolambda led a workshop on how to take the OP Stack fault proof system apart and put it back together to prove something new.","Check out Proto’s session here:","There were plenty of representatives from across the Superchain Ecosystem who joined Onchain Summit to share how their projects were leveraging the potential of the Superchain and supporting its growth.","Bodgan Habic, founder of Tenderly, and Igor Barinov, founder of Blockscout, delivered a presentation on how infrastructure providers and developer tooling can adapt to meet the needs of an ecosystem made up of an increasing number of diverse chains. Base engineer Lukas Rosario led a workshop that demonstrated how two new tools built by Base, op-viem and op-wagmi, can help developers build cross-chain apps on any OP Chain.","There was also a panel featuring representatives from projects that have received Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) from the Optimism Collective, and how that funding enabled their important work; builders from Mode, Base, and Manta Network spoke on a panel about their experience launching and running OP Chains, and speakers from Ankr, Caldera, Gelato, and Altlayer shared how rollups-as-a-service (RaaS) providers have emerged to address the surging demand for custom-built chains.","Finally, Remco Bloemen from the Worldcoin Foundation spoke about lessons learned from Worldcoin’s migration to OP Mainnet. Here’s the full video:","We are grateful to everyone who attending Onchain Summit. It was an amazing event that was captured the tremendous energy and momentum of the Superchain ecosystem in a bottle (conference centre!) for a brief moment. There’s no better note to end on than the performance that closed out Onchain Summit, a musical medley by Ben Jones and Web 3 musician Shaka.","Until next year! Stay Optimistic.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/a-very-onchain-summit-2023-devconnect-recap"},"/blog/improving-superchain-incident-response-capabilities":{"version":1,"title":"Improving Superchain Incident Response Capabilities - Optimism","description":"OP Labs is introducing a proposed protocol upgrade to bolster the ability to respond to security incidents in a coordinated manner across all OP Chains.","keywords":"","h1":["Improving Superchain Incident Response Capabilities"],"h2":["Why is this important?","Scope of upgrade","Working together to secure the Superchain"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","January 25, 2024","OP Labs is introducing a proposed protocol upgrade to bolster the ability to respond to security incidents in a coordinated manner across all OP Chains. This upgrade stems from insights gathered through comprehensive incident response drills and valuable input from industry experts, and will enhance the resilience of the Superchain once live.","An exciting aspect of this upgrade is the introduction of a new [SuperchainConfig] contract. This contract is currently minimalistic, but it can grow over time as new capabilities are added to the Superchain.","Notably, these enhanced features have been active on OP Sepolia since December 11, 2023, without any issues.","Securing a network as complex as the Superchain, with its many interconnected chains, poses unique challenges. This protocol upgrade is a direct response to these challenges. A critical aspect to consider is the shared implementation across all OP Chains where a single code bug could potentially affect every chain within the network.","The current incident response mechanism, which includes an onchain pause feature for ETH withdrawals, addresses possibly the most critical security concerns in the Optimism Protocol. The proposed upgrade takes this a step further. By introducing a Superchain-wide pause mechanism, we can enhance protection across multiple fronts, including the L1CrossDomainMessenger and withdrawals for ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens, which are additional security critical code paths that protect user assets.","This upgrade is not just about strengthening individual chains; it's about leveraging the collective security intelligence of the entire Superchain.","This is a security focused upgrade that pertains exclusively to the L1 smart contracts. It should not impact node or execution client software. Node operators should not be required to upgrade their nodes or take any action in response to this upgrade. Users similarly should not be impacted.","Building upon the existing network pause feature on OP Mainnet, the Improved Superchain Incident Response introduces a unified SuperchainConfig contract for the whole network, containing a “paused” variable. This will enable a more robust pause functionality which provides stronger security guarantees for protecting all ETH, ERC-20, and ERC-721 tokens stored in the standard bridges.","The Optimism Foundation multisig will have the authority to pause and unpause these withdrawals on any OP Chains that opt in. Pausing will be “all-or-nothing” — it will apply to all withdrawal transactions on any OP Chains that elect, in advance, to pause withdrawals in the event that OP Mainnet does. Since all OP Chains will run the same code, the ability to pause in unison is critical. A newly discovered vulnerabilities on one chain is likely to be duplicated on other chains. It is important to add that the Foundation will not have the ability to pause specific withdrawal transactions or tokens. Here’s a link to the results of a security audit of this proposed protocol upgrade by Trust Security.","We encourage you to review the full upgrade proposal, along with the audit and impact assessment, available in the Governance Proposal. Here’s a brief overview of the key technical changes:","Introduction of a new SuperchainConfig contract to enhance the existing pause mechanism, thereby offering stronger asset protection in the bridge. For more details, see the SuperchainConfig Specification.","Updates to the OptimismPortal and L1CrossDomainMessenger to address an issue where certain values would reset to defaults post-upgrade. Details of this can be found in the related PR. We are working on reflecting this change in our specifications.","The L1 OptimismMintableERC20TokenFactory is undergoing updates for:","Allowing token deployment with a custom decimal count (PR details to be added).","Ensuring distinct addresses for tokens with different properties across various OP Chains, using CREATE2 (PR details to be added).","Collaboration is key in integrating these improved incident response capabilities. We encourage OP Chain governors to start by writing a state diff-based multisig playbook and requesting a review from OP Labs. Beyond this, we strongly urge all OP Chains to engage with us actively to explore ways to leverage this new feature for enhancing the incident readiness of their individual chains.","We encourage open discussion from anyone in the Collective about this protocol upgrade in the governance forum. Your input will help keep the Superchain safe!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/improving-superchain-incident-response-capabilities"},"/blog/announcing-retropgf-round-3-recipients":{"version":1,"title":"Announcing RetroPGF Round 3 Recipients - Optimism","description":"501 builders, writers, creators, educators, and contributors from across the Optimism ecosystem have been allocated a portion of 30M OP","keywords":"","h1":["Announcing RetroPGF Round 3 Recipients"],"h2":["Round highlights","We're building a new economic system","Reflecting to build for the future, together","Next steps for Round 3 recipients","Get involved"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","January 11, 2024","501 builders, writers, creators, educators, and contributors from across the Optimism ecosystem have been allocated a portion of 30M OP! RetroPGF Round 3 rewarded contributors for the impact they provided to the Optimism Collective across four categories: OP Stack, Collective Governance, Developer Ecosystem, and End User Experience and Adoption. View the full list of awarded contributors here.","RetroPGF is an economic flywheel that supports positive impact to the Optimism Collective. Without public goods funding, core tools and infrastructure required to keep blockchains running and ecosystems thriving might not have the resources for ongoing operations, or building their vision in the first place.","Public goods builders and creators are beginning to rely on RetroPGF as an alternative to traditional, often inaccessible, funding sources. Rewards are determined by badgeholders, who review submissions and award projects that demonstrate their positive impact, whether they’re consistent contributors, or teams and individuals contributing to the Collective for the first time.","To date, RetroPGF has awarded 643 projects in categories that spanned infrastructure to education, governance to the OP Stack, and the developer ecosystem to the end user experience. Categories and rounds are iterative and evolving, but the focus on impact - whatever part of the ecosystem it benefits - remains constant.","Many of the top recipients of this round are familiar names that have played a significant role in sustaining and expanding the Optimism and Ethereum ecosystem.","RetroPGF also offered the opportunity to showcase the meaningful impact of projects across the ecosystem, from established developer tooling to new initiatives that started building for the community over the past year.","“The community values what we do. And if we continue to deliver value to the community it will find ways to reward us for it. So we decided to focus solely on producing public goods that are consistent with our self-defined mission to be an independent and impartial watchdog that provides on-chain transparency.” - L2Beat","“RetroPGF has made it possible to work on public goods without needing to convince people that it is valuable from the get go. Instead, I am able to work on what I think will provide the most value and get rewarded if others agree.” - Revoke.Cash","“Previously I loved working in the Optimism Collective, but constantly needed to think about how to resource projects. RetroPGF has given me the economic buffer I need to not only focus full time on Optimism, but to consider hiring people to work as an organization building useful RetroPGF projects.” - Michael Vander Meiden","“RetroPGF gave our team the ability to take ambitious bets on building governance software for the long term, without the need to go down the traditional fundraising path. This provides an economic model for our work that is strongly aligned with our users, who are also our stakeholders” - Agora","Optimism is building a new, self-sustaining economic system where contributors are continuing to apply and continuing to be awarded with RetroPGF. 19 projects have applied consistently over the three rounds of RetroPGF, receiving total distributions of over 5M OP. And over half of the projects that applied for round 2 also submitted their impact in the latest round.","With learnings from previous rounds, Optimism experiments with the scope, structure, and process of RetroPGF, aiming to provide the community with a self-sustaining, reliable grant source that public goods builders can depend on. To date, RetroPGF has been fully funded from the initial token budget allocations dedicated to supporting public goods. In future rounds, surplus protocol revenue will also be used to fund RetroPGF.","None of this would be possible without the badgeholders who dedicate their time and effort to evaluating projects and providing feedback that helps to improve the program incrementally over time.","This round was also supported by the teams building public goods infrastructure that enabled Round 3 to happen, specifically: OP Labs, Agora, West, OS Observer, Pairwise, GrowThePie, Retrolist.app, and RetroPGFhub.","Productive conversations between badgeholders, infrastructure builders, and engaged community members are critical components of each round, and these discussions shed light on areas of improvement and build on the experimental nature of the RetroPGF process. In addition to the feedback we’ve heard so far, badgeholders will participate in a retrospective to reflect on Round 3 and suggest improvements for the future. Subsequent rounds will include new developments based on what we’ve learned from this past cycle, progressively shifting RetroPGF into a truly community-driven system.","Congratulations to Round 3 recipients, and thank you for paving the way for our collective future through your impact.","RetroPGF 3 recipients will receive an email from retropgf@optimism.io with instructions about claiming OP token grants. After wallet addresses are confirmed and KYC/KYB has been approved, OP will be delivered to recipients over 90 days.","If you want to share your impact and RetroPGF result, check out this template to create your own custom design!","RetroPGF is a pillar of the Optimistic Vision, a never-ending cycle, an infinite game. If done right, RetroPGF will scale beyond the Collective to demonstrate a new type of global economy that rewards impact. Between then and now, there’s plenty to experiment with.","Optimism will run more rounds of RetroPGF in 2024. Stay tuned for details about future rounds, and in the meantime, keep building!","And, as always,","Stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/announcing-retropgf-round-3-recipients"},"/blog/fault-proof-deep-dive-part-1-mips-sol":{"version":1,"title":"Fault Proof Deep-Dive Part 1: MIPS.sol - Optimism","description":"Part one of the Fault Proof Deep-Dive Series with Coinbase explores the FPVM smart contract MIPS.sol and how it works within the OP Stack's Fault Proof System.","keywords":"","h1":["Fault Proof Deep-Dive Part 1: MIPS.sol"],"h2":["What is MIPS.sol?","Fault Proof Control Flow","Smart Contract Control Flow","MIPS.sol Contract State","Documentation For MIPS.sol"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Alexis Williams","February 15, 2024","The Fault Proof Deep-Dive Series is a collaboration between Coinbase’s Blockchain Security (BlockSec) team and OP Labs to provide in-depth information on all major components of Fault Proofs. By sharing this information, we hope to encourage others to learn more about the architecture and technical aspects of Fault Proofs. Together, we can move towards the decentralized future of OP Stack L2 blockchains.","In this blog post, we’ll be covering the Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM) smart contract MIPS.sol.","The MIPS.sol smart contract is an onchain implementation of a virtual machine (VM) that encompasses the 32-bit, Big-Endian, MIPS III Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). This smart contract is the counterpart to the off-chain MIPSEVM golang implementation of the same ISA. Together, the onchain and off-chain VM implementations make up Cannon, OP’s first FPVM.","Cannon is an instance of a FPVM, which is used as part of the Fault Dispute Game for optimistic rollup L2 blockchains that use the OP Stack. The dispute game itself is modular, allowing for any FPVM to be used; however, Cannon is currently the only FPVM implemented and consequently will be used in all disputes.","Taking a step back, let’s focus briefly on where the MIPS.sol contract resides in the Fault Proof process.","In the above diagram recreated from the Fault Proof Walkthrough video by Clabby, we can see that the MIPS.sol contract interacts with two other contracts: FaultDisputeGame.sol and PreimageOracle.sol. FaultDisputeGame.sol is the deployed instance of a Fault Dispute Game for an active dispute. PreimageOracle.sol is the deployed instance of a Pre-image Oracle that will store Pre-images for all Dispute Games that use the same FPVM. So, in our case, there is a single PreimageOracle.sol contract for all games that use MIPS.sol as the FPVM.","The MIPS.sol contract is called by a running instance of a dispute game, and is only called once a dispute game reaches a leaf node in the state transition tree that is currently being disputed. A leaf node represents a single MIPS instruction (in the case that we’re using Cannon as the FPVM) that can then be run on-chain. Given the pre state, which is the previously agreed-upon L2 state up until this instruction, and the instruction state to run in the MIPS.sol contract, the fault dispute game can determine the true post state. This true post state will then be used to resolve the fault dispute game by comparing the disputed post state at the leaf node with the post state proposed by the opponent in the dispute game instance.","There is a single entry point to the MIPS.sol smart contract: the step() function. This is the function that is called by the running dispute game, which will execute a single MIPS instruction onchain. At a high-level, the following operations will be performed:","The VM execution state data input is parsed and loaded into memory. This data is generated by the Cannon golang counterpart that the game participants run off-chain via the OP-Challenger.","The memory proof input is read and verified. This memory proof points to a location in memory where the next MIPS instruction should be loaded from and run.","The next MIPS instruction is executed. The majority of the logic in the MIPS.sol contract handles executing a MIPS instruction according to the MIPS III specification. When handling the MIPS instructions, the only instruction that does not follow a strict specification is the SYSCALL (system call) instruction. The behavior of system calls are unique to the operating system, and in the case of MIPS.sol, the system calls that can be performed are only a fraction of the total system calls. The primary purpose of the system calls are to handle reads from the PreimageOracle.sol contract and simulate writes to the contract.","The results of the instruction may be written back to a register or to memory. In the case of writing to memory, a second memory proof will have been provided as input by the dispute game. The second memory proof should coincide with the location in memory that is expected to be written to, and the MIPS.sol smart contract will use the new value and the memory proof to calculate the new memory merkle root.","Upon completion of the MIPS instruction, a state hash will be returned to the dispute game instance. The state hash is the keccak256 hash of the VM execution state where the first byte does not correspond to the hash but instead is overridden with a value to indicate the status of the VM. The dispute game will use the state hash and VM status to resolve the dispute.","As mentioned previously, the MIPS.sol contract interacts with two other smart contracts: FaultDisputeGame.sol and PreimageOracle.sol. The FaultDisputeGame.sol contract provides the current VM execution state, and up to two memory proofs. The PreimageOracle.sol contract provides Pre-images that can be used by MIPS.sol to help determine the true L2 state. The content derived in a Pre-image may include data from both L1 and L2, which can be block headers, transactions, receipts, contract state, and more.","Together, these two contracts provide all the relevant information necessary to execute a single MIPS instruction. The MIPS.sol contract does not store any information about an instruction execution in storage. This way, the contract can be used by any Fault Dispute Game without having to reset any values. Consequently, the MIPS.sol contract only ensures that the calculated merkle root from the provided memory proofs is equal to the merkle root in the VM execution state. Otherwise, it is up to the FaultDisputeGame.sol contract to ensure the correctness of the information provided and actions taken by a participant in the dispute game.","This concludes our deep-dive of the MIPS.sol smart contract. In addition to this blog post, Coinbase has created in-depth documentation that provides details on each function in the smart contract, lists the MIPS instructions supported by the FPVM, and more. Check it out at Fault Proofs - MIPS.sol | Optimism Docs.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/fault-proof-deep-dive-part-1-mips-sol"},"/blog/introducing-the-optimism-collective-s-security-council":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing the Optimism Collective’s Security Council - Optimism","description":"On February 9, the Collective marked the launch of its first Security Council with the execution of an onchain transaction establishing a 2/2 multisig that is authorized","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing the Optimism Collective’s Security Council"],"h2":["Values underpinning the creation of the Security Council","Community-informed design","What’s next?"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","February 12, 2024","On February 9, the Collective marked the launch of its first Security Council with the execution of an onchain transaction establishing a 2/2 multisig that is authorized to sign protocol upgrades for OP Mainnet. The two signers on the multisig are the Optimism Foundation and the Collective’s first Security Council.","This onchain milestone follows the successful ratification of the first set of members of the ecosystem’s Security Council in December 2023, and another successful governance vote on whether to update the security model for OP Mainnet.","The Optimism Collective is committed to advancing decentralization across multiple tracks at the same time: technical, social, and governance decentralization. In December, OP Labs outlined their aspirations for Optimism to reach Stage 1 decentralization and progress to Stage 2 (according to the roadmap outlined by Vitalik Buterin in 2022). At the Optimism Foundation, we can support this goal by supporting efforts to transition the management of protocol upgrades over to a Security Council.","To reach Stage 1 decentralization and progress to Stage 2, networks need something akin to a Security Council—a multisig with which to manage protocol upgrades—to enable incremental decentralization in parallel with efforts to reach other essential Stage 1 milestones, like establishing a multiproof network. This multisig needs to be maintained by a minimum of 8 independent individuals with a signing threshold of 75% or greater.","The values that guided the creation of the first implementation of Optimism’s first Security Council are the same values that inform the Collective’s approach to security in general across the ecosystem: transparency, safety over liveness, and community participation.","Just as ecosystem engineers are building the MIT licensed open source OP Stack in the open, the Security Council is being built in the open, with key documents such as the public charter, an open source implementation, and transparent operations open for public review.","Safety over liveness is something that informs security in the Optimism ecosystem overall. It means that for Optimism, it is more important for the system to avoid errors and invalid states, especially ones that would result in a loss of assets, even if it results in temporarily halting operations. See OP Labs’ recent blog post on Improved Superchain Incident Response capabilities that were introduced in a governance proposal, for an example of what this value looks like in practice. The newly empowered Security Council would be jointly responsible for executing the protocol upgrade that implements this proposal, if passed.","The Security Council’s accountability to Optimism Governance is fundamental, and community discussion is encouraged to continually help inform its operations.","It is important that the entire Optimism Collective has the opportunity to share feedback on the establishment of this mission-critical structure.","The Collective has relied on community members throughout the process to establish the first iteration of the Security Council. Community participation has been vital during the three rehearsals that have taken place to practice executing the onchain transaction that brings the Security Council online. These volunteers were rewarded over 11k OP during RetroPGF round 3 for supporting the Foundation in this work. The community has also provided feedback on governance proposals related to the establishment of the Security Council, and members have been instrumental in drafting and improving rehearsal process and runbooks for the Security Council.","Phase 0, completed today, establishes the first shared multisig between the Foundation and the Security Council for OP Mainnet. It marks the beginning of a process aimed at expanding across the Superchain and evolving into Phase 1. Phase 1 will see the Security Council become the sole actor responsible for signing upgrades to the protocol.","Catch up on the governance discussion around the Security Council on Optimism’s governance forum, or monitor progress on superchain-ops repo on GitHub. Remember—the end game for decentralization in the Optimism ecosystem is Stage 2 decentralization, according to Vitalik Buterin’s framework for scaling L2 rollups. For the Security Council, as with fault proofs, the Optimism Collective is heads down to Stage 2.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-the-optimism-collective-s-security-council"},"/blog/how-the-delta-upgrade-reduced-op-chain-fixed-costs-by-over-90":{"version":1,"title":"How the Delta Upgrade reduced OP Chain fixed costs by over 90% - Optimism","description":"This blog post shares how Test in Prod built the Delta protocol upgrade, which brought the feature Span Batches, and significant savings, to OP Chain mainnets.","keywords":"","h1":["How the Delta Upgrade reduced OP Chain fixed costs by over 90%"],"h2":["What is the Delta Upgrade?","Test in Prod’s first critical hardfork built as core developers","Impactful update with meaning"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Test in Prod","February 29, 2024","Last week, the Delta hardfork landed on OP Chain Mainnets, including OP Mainnet, Base, Zora Network, and more.","Based on our backtesting results, we expected the Delta upgrade to cut the fixed overhead for all OP Chains’ L1 fees by 6%~11% for performant chains and over 90% for less-active chains. We were able to complete even more optimizations to reduce the fixed onchain overhead for chain operators to run any standard OP Chain by over 90%. We’re happy to report that post-upgrade, these numbers have held true. Zora-sepolia offers a nice visualization of a 90% reduction in fixed onchain overhead costs. Here they are one week before and one week after the testnet upgrade in December 2023:","In practice, this reduction in fixed overhead costs has contributed to other benefits for OP Chain operators. In the example below, you can see that since span batches were introduced, Zora’s net onchain profit has increased significantly, and held consistently.","We expect this upgrade will make it much easier to adopt the OP Stack by alleviating fee burdens for all chain operators. Not only are the numbers impactful, but the journey to build Delta was meaningful as well. We’re excited to share a bit about that journey in this blog post!","Delta upgrade contained a single consensus feature, Span Batches—a new batching spec built by Test in Prod, leveraging initial designs by Protolambda. Span Batches minimize the v0 batch spec’s overhead by encoding consecutive L2 blocks into one batch. It allows OP Chains to reduce the amount of redundant content that L2s need to post to L1 on every L2 block, lowering the fixed overhead of data that needs to be posted for ALL OP chains.","Last week, Mode network shared a blog post detailing how the Span Batches feature in the Delta Upgrade impacted them directly. It’s worth a read.","Please refer to the Design Docs, Spec Docs, Governance Post, Github Issue Tracker, and Research Repository (Backtesting) for more details!","The Delta hardfork was a consensus-critical upgrade that required extremely delicate engineering and verifications, which makes the entire process a complex. Building this hardfork as a non-original author of the protocol made it even more challenging!","Building a protocol critical feature is not only about the team’s engineering abilities. It can only be done when everything makes sense—our understanding of historical contexts, support from the community & the original author, our team’s motivation to build, etc. Through the power of Optimism, we pulled it off, and it was a joyful experience. Here’s why:","Open-sourced specs & codes: All codes and specs are open to read & modify. It was easy to build on top of the existing codebase because all code was MIT-licensed, and reading the specs allowed us to easily understand the protocol details.","OP Labs & Foundation’s support: OP Stack’s codebase is extensive and sophisticated, but with the original author’s support, understanding & writing code becomes way easier. OP Labs & the Optimism Foundation helped us to build Delta successfully and reviewed everything thoroughly.","Rewarding system: While building the Delta upgrade, we were rewarded for our earlier efforts to build op-erigon through RetroPGF. We felt greatly valued by the Optimism community and badgeholders, which motivated us in our efforts to build another piece of critical infrastructure for the ecosystem!","The Collective’s prioritization of social decentralization: Everyone in the Collective was super cheerful for us to build and ship Delta, and supported us through the process. This was also highly motivating because we felt like we were a crucial part of the team, and that we are all heading toward the same goal together! It gave meaning to our hard work.","One of the reasons we joined Collective over a year ago is that we believed the Collective’s flywheel that allows such miracles repeatedly: devs who are willing to build the open internet can focus on the core protocol work and trust they will be rewarded for their efforts. We saw this miraculous flywheel come to fruition while building Delta.","The Delta hardfork reduced the size overheads of the v0 batch specs in a significant step for chain operators. It helps alleviate risks of launching new L2s with the OP Stack, and we hope it will ultimately make it easier to adopt the OP Stack—we are one step closer to the Superchain future!","The Delta hardfork shows that the Collective’s community flywheel works! The Collective’s technology is open for everyone to build & ship critical features. Along the way, there is the opportunity to be rewarded based on your work!","We’d like to thank OP Labs, the Foundation, and everyone in the Collective for building this fantastic technology together. There’s no reason not to stay optimistic 🔴✨","Interested in building a feature for the OP Stack, or becoming a core developer? Drop us a message!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/how-the-delta-upgrade-reduced-op-chain-fixed-costs-by-over-90"},"/blog/drop-4-create-together-benefit-together":{"version":1,"title":"Drop #4: Create together, benefit together - Optimism","description":"Today, Optimism is excited to announce Optimism Drop #4 (claim here), which gives 10,343,757.81 OP to 22,998 unique addresses","keywords":"","h1":["Drop #4: Create together, benefit together"],"h2":["Who’s eligible for Optimism Airdrop #4","Participation in Governance","What’s next?"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","February 20, 2024","⚠️ Stay safe: ⚠️ Only trust tweets from @Optimism or @OptimismGov. Double check the domain -- optimism.io or app.optimism.io.","Today, Optimism is excited to announce Optimism Drop #4 (claim here), which gives 10,343,757.81 OP to 22,998 unique addresses. This Airdrop is a ‘thank you’ to the artists, creators, and pioneers who have played a role in creating culture across the Superchain and across the crypto ecosystem as a whole. This is also Optimism’s first Airdrop across the Superchain, celebrating the growing network of OP Chains who are choosing to build together.","A snapshot of addresses for Optimism Airdrop #4 was taken on Jan 10, 2024. More detailed information on eligibility criteria is available in the documentation here.","The Superchain has become the home for creative expression — whether it’s on Zora, Base, Ethereum L1, or OP Mainnet. Every great society needs artists, and creative contributions play a vital role in shaping the story of the Optimism Collective: over 200,000 addresses have created NFT collections on the Superchain. Creators and artists are helping the Optimism Collective grow and thrive, while bringing creativity to the Superchain","Airdrop 4Airdrop 4 [CLAIMABLE] Available for claim by qualified addresses. ~22.9k unique addresses qualified for ~10.3m OP. Claim at app","community.optimism.io","Please stay mindful and only trust tweets from @Optimism or @OptimismGov. Double check the domain you’re interacting with -- optimism.io or app.optimism.io.","Airdrops use criteria to target constructive participation—ensuring that tokens go to contributors. Past airdrop eligibility criteria does not guarantee eligibility in future airdrops.","Good news! If you’ve received OP, you have the opportunity to have a voice in the most robust governance system in the ecosystem, and take a first step in shaping how the collective embraces artists. We hope you use this airdrop as a starter in building the foundation for your journey into governance. You can learn more about how governance works here, the Collective’s Vision and Governance processes here.","→ To delegate your tokens, head to https://vote.optimism.io/delegates.","If you missed out on Airdrop #4, don’t worry — there are more to come.  Optimism has committed to giving 19% of the total initial token supply to the community through Airdrops.  With the growing community of engaged users across the Superchain, there is plenty more to be given throughout the Superchain— roughly 560m OP remains for future airdrops!","Having multiple airdrops allows us to experiment & iterate on this ever-evolving mechanism in order to further facilitate positive-sum behavior in the ecosystem. It's never too late to participate!","And, as always,","Build together, and stay Optimistic! ✨🔴","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/drop-4-create-together-benefit-together"},"/blog/from-eip-to-ethereum-mainnet-the-collective-triumph-of-4844":{"version":1,"title":"From EIP to Ethereum mainnet: the collective triumph of 4844 - Optimism","description":"This blog post reflects on the journey from EIP-4844's inception to implementation, and shares insights into what this update means for the future of Ethereum.","keywords":"","h1":["From EIP to Ethereum mainnet: the collective triumph of 4844"],"h2":["A Brief History Ethereum Sharding","Building the upgrade & navigating challenges","Reflections and future ambitions in scaling"],"h3":["EIP-4844 authors and contributors"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","protolambda","March 13, 2024","This week, the Ethereum community will witness a significant milestone with the implementation of EIP-4844 on the Ethereum mainnet, marking the culmination of over two years of intensive research, development, and collaboration. This blog post reflects on the journey from its inception to implementation, and shares insights into what this means for the future of Ethereum.","Before 2018, community members harbored many wild ambitions for sharding. By 2019, the roadmap for Ethereum 2.0 included EWASM-based execution sharding, and a significant pivot occurred at Devcon Osaka, reducing the number of shards from 1024 to 64. This year also saw the beacon-chain design becoming leaner, moving away from proof-of-custody as a central component for sharding.","2020 was marked by the Eth1x core-dev summit in Paris, right before the global pandemic caused widespread chaos. During the pandemic, the Ethereum community focused on developing the beacon-chain and introduced the first designs for \"the Merge.\" Vitalik Buterin's \"rollup-centric roadmap\" post gained significant traction for scaling solutions, and the year ended with the successful launch of the proof of stake Beacon Chain.","In 2021, with the beacon-chain launched, attention shifted towards danksharding and data-availability sampling with KZG, spearheaded by Proto based on Dankrad Feist's work. Rollups started to significantly impact Layer 1 Ethereum, but the Merge took precedence over phase 1 development. The year also saw the Altair (Consensus Layer) and London (Execution Layer) hardforks, and the Merge design was solidified in October.","The year 2022 was pivotal, as the community focused on danksharding. Vitalik and Dankrad proposed a balanced split between the execution layer and consensus layer for this. At EthDenver, Proto led a hackathon team to draft and implement a proposal for EIP-4844, leading to significant contributions and milestones, including various prototypes. Mofi Taiwo from OP Labs, and Michael De Hoog and Roberto Bayardo from Coinbase contributed significantly to these prototypes. In September 2022, the Ethereum community celebrated the Merge, clearing the way for EIP-4844 to be considered for inclusion in core dev calls to close out the year.","In 2023, efforts concentrated on client interoperability of the EIP 4844 implementation, the KZG ceremony, and extensive testing through devnets, load tests, and shadow forks, preparing for scheduled testnet upgrades.","By 2024, the Ethereum community had rolled out testnets including Goerli, Sepolia, and Holesky, leading up to the Mainnet upgrade to 4844 on March 13, signifying a major milestone in Ethereum's ongoing evolution towards greater scalability and efficiency.","The journey to bring EIP-4844 to the Ethereum mainnet was nothing short of a Herculean task. Spanning over two years, this multi-disciplinary R&D effort aimed to scale Ethereum's throughput to unprecedented levels, tackling numerous challenges along the way. Here are just a few the core devs encountered:","Design and Prototype Complexity: Spearheaded by researchers, the initial phase involved grappling with the intricate design of EIP-4844, setting the stage for what was to come.","Multi-Client Interoperability: Implementers faced the daunting task of ensuring seamless operation across different Ethereum clients, addressing the network's inherent complexities.","Transaction-Pool Design: The Geth team took on the challenge of designing a transaction pool that could withstand DoS and load issues, a critical component for scalability.","Supporting New Cryptography: The implementation of KZG cryptography necessitated a dedicated team to conduct a special ceremony, ensuring the network's security and integrity.","Ensuring Network Robustness: From stress-testing for throughput to orchestrating devnets, testnets, and shadowforks, the EF Devops team played a pivotal role in ensuring the network's readiness for EIP-4844.","The Ethereum ecosystem has evolved dramatically in the years since the introduction of EIP-4844. From ambitious sharding proposals and the pivot towards a rollup-centric roadmap, the journey has been marked by significant milestones, including the launch of the proof-of-stake Beacon Chain and the pivotal Merge.","Looking to the future, the vision for full danksharding and beyond holds exciting possibilities. Some of these include planned incremental increases in blobs per block, the exploration of innovative data availability solutions like PeerDAS and full DAS, and parallel R&D efforts on key themes like MEV resistance, Verkle Trees, and network optimization. All of these signal a vibrant roadmap ahead.","The realization of EIP-4844 is a moment of celebration for the Ethereum community. As we reflect on this journey, we recognize the collective effort of core Ethereum developers and researchers. The path ahead is filled with opportunities and challenges, but if the story of EIP-4844 teaches us anything, it's that the Ethereum community is more than capable of turning visionary ideas into reality.","The core of the upgrade was meticulously crafted by a team of Ethereum Foundation researchers and developers. Vitalik Buterin (@vbuterin) and Dankrad Feist (@dankrad) were instrumental as core contributors to the full danksharding design, laying the groundwork for the upgrade. Diederik Loerakker (@protolambda) acted as a bridge from research to engineering, drafting the initial specifications and implementing an execution-layer prototype. George Kadianakis (@asn-d6) played a crucial role in stewarding the KZG cryptographic libraries towards adoption by client-implementers and supporting the KZG setup integration. Matt Garnett (@lightclient) and Mofi Taiwo (@Inphi) contributed through execution-layer prototyping, spec review, and cross-L1 interop testing. Finally, Ansgar Dietrichs (@adietrichs) offered valuable insights into fee-market improvements and specification feedback.","Beyond the core authors, the upgrade benefitted from a wide range of external contributions, each bringing a unique perspective and skillset. The Prysm team offered early consensus-layer support while EF Devops helped with network stress-testing and testnet development. Carl Beekhuizen and Trent Van Epps contributed to the KZG Ceremony, while Tim Beiko and Danny Ryan were pivotal in coordinating the development efforts and fostering a productive feedback loop between implementers and researchers. Contributions from Consensys R&D, spearheaded by Anton Nashatyrev, enriched the network modelling and the design of blob gossip. Input from various L1 client developers helped immensely with multi-client production implementation. Last but not least, Roberto Bayardo (@roberto_bayardo) played a significant role in execution-layer prototyping and providing feedback on specifications. This collaborative effort underscores the community’s dedication to improving the Ethereum ecosystem, demonstrating the power of collective action.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/from-eip-to-ethereum-mainnet-the-collective-triumph-of-4844"},"/blog/celebrating-superchain-creativity-announcing-the-winners-of-we-the-art":{"version":1,"title":"Celebrating Superchain Creativity: Announcing the Winners of \"We ❤️The Art\" - Optimism","description":"Amidst a whirlwind of creativity, We ❤️The Art has reached its conclusion, after seeing 7,000+ submissions seize this OPportunity to share their art","keywords":"","h1":["Celebrating Superchain Creativity: Announcing the Winners of \"We ❤️The Art\""],"h2":["Next steps for winners","Next steps for loving the art","Participation in Governance"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","March 11, 2024","Amidst a whirlwind of creativity, We ❤️The Art has reached its conclusion, after seeing 7,000+ submissions seize this OPportunity to share their art - we are thrilled to unveil the winners.","The contest witnessed an influx of brilliant onchain creators from around the globe, making it one of the largest globally-accessible art contests in history**.** It galvanized the superpower of blockchains as a global force, proving that onchain truly is for everyone.","We ❤️The Art started as an idea on how the Collective can band companies, judges, and artists alike to celebrate with one another. Like with the Superchain, we asked: how big can we go if we all go together?  The initiative led to many first time creators on the Superchain where we will continue to prove that this can be a home for creators, a place where new people can onboard with low fees and welcoming communities, and of course, we will continue to show that onchain really is the next online.","This contest had limited amounts of winners, but this is just the start of our creative journey together, a journey that you can help dictate. Optimism is not here to just change lives, it is here to upgrade the system, and the Collective will do so by working hand in hand with creators who are determined to do so.","Here is the full winners list.","As we celebrate the winners, we want to extend our gratitude to every creator who participated, shared their genius, and contributed to the vibrant tapestry of We ❤️The Art. Your passion, creativity and driving force is what drove the success of the contest.","Massive shoutout to our amazing Superchain partners Base and Zora, co-marketing partners, judges and the community supporting the contest.","Stay tuned for more highlights, spotlights on the winners, and upcoming campaigns. We ❤️The Art may be over, onchain creativity will continue to grow and we can’t wait to see what you create!","Winners will receive an email from wlta@optimism.io with instructions about their claiming OP prize. If you want to share your WLTA result, check out this template to create your own custom design!","We believe that artists have been told what to do for far too long, the Optimism Collective seeks to listen. We encourage people to explore Optimism Governance and help shape where the Collective goes in the realm of art next.","Good news! If you’ve received OP, you have the opportunity to have a voice in the most robust governance system in the ecosystem, and take a first step in shaping how the Collective embraces artists. We hope you use this as a starter in building the foundation for your journey into governance. You can learn more about the Collective’s Vision and how to begin participating in governance by delegating your OP.","And, as always,Stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/celebrating-superchain-creativity-announcing-the-winners-of-we-the-art"},"/blog/retropgf-3-learnings-reflections":{"version":1,"title":"RetroPGF 3: Learnings & Reflections - Optimism","description":"Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) is an economic flywheel that rewards positive impact to the Optimism Collective","keywords":"","h1":["RetroPGF 3: Learnings & Reflections"],"h2":["Key learnings from Retro Funding 3","Analyzing the results","Application Process","Collecting the right information","Evaluating Impact","Round Scope","What is a public good and can it be VC funded?","Voting design & behavior","Badgeholder Collaboration","Voting Infrastructure & Tooling","Key learnings"],"h3":["Bugs, errors & timeline","Application rule violations","Takeaways:","Voting Design","Quorum","Voting behavior","Scaling Impact Evaluation","Badgeholder Collaboration","Badgeholder workload & experience","Seven Teams built tooling or infrastructure for voting in RetroPGF 3","Performance"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","February 29, 2024","Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) is an economic flywheel that rewards positive impact to the Optimism Collective. Without public goods funding, core tools and infrastructure required to keep blockchains running and ecosystems thriving might not have the resources for ongoing operations, or building their vision in the first place. Optimism’s vision is to create a strong incentive for the creation of public goods, resulting in an ecosystem where collaboration becomes the winning strategy.","The Collective is running Retro Funding as an ongoing experiment where insights and learnings from each round inform the design of future experiments.","Below is a summary of the key design changes of RetroPGF 3, which were identified based on the feedback from RetroPGF 2.","Here are the key learnings from RetroPGF 3:","The broad round scope overwhelmed badgeholders and applicants.","The absence of standardized, verifiable, and comparable impact metrics, and the reliance on individual subjective review criteria, made it difficult to objectively measure the impact of applications.","The self-selection of applications to review by badgeholders did not ensure a fair review by a minimum number of badgeholders of each application.","The sheer volume of applications, combined with weak eligibility criteria, complicated the voting process for badgeholders. Lists were not effective in scaling the ability of badgeholders to accurately vote on more applications.","These learnings were derived from 300+ crowdsourced pieces of feedback, collected via a survey among badgeholders, the RetroPGF 3 feedback Gov Forum post, as well as the badgeholder Discord/Telegram channel and will inform the next iteration of Retro Funding.","Below we document these learnings in detail as part of a gradual process to open source Optimism governance design. This post is non-exhaustive and aims to focus on the core learnings and most popular requests.","1. Scale: RetroPGF 3 sets a unique precedent in terms of scale. The number of eligible applicants rose by 330% round over round, with the number of recipients increasing from 195 recipients in RetroPGF 2 to 501 recipients in RetroPGF 3. The amount of OP tokens given to builders within the Optimism Collective far exceeds any comparable grant program in crypto.","2. Low variance: The results of RetroPGF 3 do not reflect outsized impact well. The difference in rewards between a top 1% recipient vs a median recipient was about 6X (300K vs 45K).","3. Smaller teams, and individual applications, received an outsized reward compared to bigger teams. The top project - Protocol Guild - received 660K OP split across over 100 full-time contributors, which is about 6K per contributor. By comparison, there were 112 individual applicants for RetroPGF that received a combined 1.7M, or about 15K per application.","4. Rewarding Optimism specific contributions: The results lacked prioritization of builders that drive the adoption of Optimism. The focus has been to reward Ethereum public goods at large, with the top 30 recipients almost exclusively made up of public goods which are not specific to Optimism but power the Ethereum ecosystem at large.  By comparison, the top 20% of projects in terms of sequencer fee revenue contributions received only 5% of rewards. (See above the Retro Funding 3 OP Token Allocation among OP Mainnet applications)","For further detailed evaluation of the results, check out analyses of the results by Optimism Contributors and specifically Open Source Observers work, who provided insights and the above graphics for this section.","To participate in RetroPGF 3, projects and individuals were required to submit an application. This process has been simplified based on feedback from RetroPGF 2, where builders had to be nominated (including self-nomination) and submit an application to qualify.","The application process took place from Sept 19th - Oct 23rd 2023 and saw a total of 1594 applicants. Following the application process, a self-selected set of badgeholders reviewed applications that were reported for violating the RetroPGF application rules. The review process followed a jury-like design where badgeholders were randomly sorted into groups to vote on excluding applications from the round based on the application rules.  The application review process took place from Oct 24th - Nov 1st with 1,035 reported applications reviewed and 967 applicants excluded from the round.","The newly introduced application form resulted in a vast improvement in the quality of applications compared to previous rounds. Application content was more aligned with the voting process and featured external data sources, such as references to Github repos and onchain deployments, which has been used to power analytics tooling such as OpenSource Observer. The quality of the application flow received positive feedback:","“It's a very smooth process!”","“I mean this form is pretty neat, the best submission form I have seen in any grant program” - Eduardo","“I just created a profile for the DoD on the RetroPGF-3 website and experienced no technical issues. It's a very smooth process!” - Afri","Still, the application form had room for improvement. Users experienced a number of issues, including the input of inaccurate impact metrics and  grant amounts on a handful of applications due to a bug in dealing with European decimal points. A number of these errors persisted in the final applications, as applications were editable during the application period, but could not be changed after. Extending the application period, from 2 weeks (in RetroPGF 2) to 4 weeks in RetroPGF 3, had minimal impact, as the vast majority of users submitted their application close to the deadline.","In comparison to RetroPGF 2, which excluded a total of 2 applications from the round based on technicalities, RetroPGF 3 dealt with an overwhelming amount of spam and application rule violations, with 967 applications excluded. This was likely related to the application process starting shortly after Optimism Airdrop #3, resulting in a large influx of airdrop farmers. In addition to excluding spam, many badgeholders have voiced feedback that the application process should be improved to protect against low quality submissions and that there should be stronger eligibility criteria. Badgeholders rated the overall quality of eligible projects and their applications as 6.9 out of 10 points on average.","“There is no “skin in the game” for spammers. The cost of submitting a spam application is very low, and as we all saw, this can cause a LOT of work for reviewers.” - Michael Vandermeiden","“still feel like there a decent amount of candidates that aren't spam, but shouldn't be listed. I'm if the opinion that if a badgeholder is presented with a candidate, they should already have a clear argument for prior impact” - Brian Lehrer","“Many projects applied for Retro Funding but didn’t make a tangible impact on Optimism collective since RPGF2. It’s okay not to apply if you haven’t made an impact. Applying and pretending to have an impact is NOT okay.” - Rev","The information requested from applicants did not include the reporting of venture funding, which has received significant pushback from badgeholders and the broader community.","“I find the fact that VC funding info is not requested but then donations and grants info are requested really bad.” - Lefteris","“In the future I think projects need to be required to disclose their funding sources.” - ZachXBT","“It’s crucial to disclose private/VC funding in RPGF applications for fairness.” - Rev","Further, the application process missed an effective categorization scheme. Applicants could select one or multiple categories of impact, based on the round scope. The multi-selection of categories made filtering functionality in the voting applications unviable.","“This is probably one of the largest and most important problems to solve. How can a very large list of projects be categorized such that a voter can select just categories in which they have expertise and not be overwhelmed.” - Tam","Due to self-reported impact metrics, applications saw a lack of verifiable impact claims and the use of vanity metrics. Metrics were not standardized, which made comparisons among projects hard. The majority of referenced data sources were links to Etherscan, Github, Dune Analytics, Twitter and Google docs.","“I’d like to see better impact reporting by applicants. Not sure if that’s an addition to the form or just guidance/template but I was influenced a lot by looking at Carl’s spreadsheet of onchain transactions and Github metrics.” - Chris Carella","“Projects can choose to miss lead badge holders. This was shown, at least by one particular project in which the only presented revenue that had been already handed to them, but decided to hide the data of committed OP they would be receiving after a one-year lock.” - LauNaMu","While the application form has been a vast improvement to round 2 and fulfilled its core goals for Round 3, further improvements should be made to leverage reliable data on impact and power standardized impact metrics.","There should be stronger eligibility criteria to participate in RetroPGF and the application review process needs to be improved to reliably enforce these criteria.","Optimism badgeholders should have an opportunity to provide feedback on the application form before it’s finalized. This allows the team to react to emerging feedback, such as the request for VC funding to be disclosed, while possibly slowing down the iteration cycle.","The multi-selection of impact categories had a negative impact on applicant discovery and added difficulty to the voting process, categorization should be improved to aid the discovery and voting process.","The application window can be shortened, as deadlines are the real driver of submissions.","Voting took place from November 6th - December 7th 2023 and featured a total of 145 badgeholders and 643 applicants. As was done in previous RetroPGF rounds, badgeholders were provided with a Badgeholder manual which outlined rules and guidelines for the voting process. Included in the manual were guidelines on how to apply the principle of “impact = profit”, an overview of the voting design and its implications, as well as relevant references to the Code of Conduct.","Following through on feedback and learnings from RetroPGF 2, badgeholders were provided with a clearer role definition, in which they were asked to make holistic judgements in applying “impact = profit”, rather than expressing their personal preferences for a particular applicant. This additional context was positively received by badgeholders, especially first-time voters.","“The Badgeholder manual was a great reference, but too static for the dynamic nature of the voting process.” - Amer","“Overall well laid out and all very useful information.” - Amy","“I believe clearer guidelines for badgeholders could streamline the process. PS: The badgeholder manual was immensely helpful to me in this round!” - Joao Kurry","“...as a new badgeholder I felt very welcomed, the onboarding process was smooth, roles and obligations are clear, the gov team is always ready to address any question.” - Willian","The badgeholder manual included an Impact Evaluation Framework, created by LauNaMu in collaboration with the Optimism Foundation, which aimed at providing mental models and definitions for impact evaluation (a goal of round 3). It outlines audiences, definitions, and metrics on impact for each of the four categories of scope. The framework has shown useful to support badgeholders in building a deeper intuition on scope, impact and useful metrics, while it functioned more as a tool for highly committed badgeholders to design their own framework, rather than being directly applicable to reviewing projects. You can find a retrospective on the Impact Evaluation Framework here.","“The Category Frameworks were somewhat helpful. I think the content could be more succinct. The keywords and metric garden were good examples. I used them to create a list of potential impact metrics I should be looking for. “ Amy","“I know the intention was to give everyone wide berth to design a methodology. That was actually a great way to get a lot of smart people to experiment with different solutions. Though it took some time for me personally, doing this for the first time, to build my methodology and then tweak it as I had new insights.” Tam","The badgeholder manual and Impact Evaluation Framework provided guidance for evaluating impact, but did not provide frameworks directly applicable in voting. Badgeholders voiced feedback that impact should be more closely defined to be applicable in voting:","“I do wish that the Profit = Impact framework is better explained and explicitly enforced” - Alex","“There's a big amount of confusion on what \"impact\" means, and it's really varying across the board on how people are interpreting it. I understand why Optimism may want to leave this open, but I feel like without taking a more opinionated stance on this, there will be constantly infighting on what it really means to drive impact.” - Brian","“Positive impact is yet another vague term” - Lefteris","RetroPGF 3 featured a broad scope made up of four categories: OP Stack, Collective Governance, Developer Ecosystem and End User Experience & Adoption. The scope did not specify a time period for which impact should be rewarded, and left it to badgeholders to reward impact within a selected timeframe. This broad scope resulted in a lack of clarity regarding eligibility for some of the applicants and made it difficult to promote the program to relevant builders and to drive the creation of relevant contributions to Optimism.","Common feedback has been to tighten the scope, either around common attributes of applicants (such as separating rounds for individuals and projects) or common contribution types (such as separate rounds for developer tooling and education). A universal demand has been to reduce the number of applicants and introduce rounds with a more focused scope.","“It feels chaotic with all these different types of projects in a single round.”","“In the future having more small rounds might make sense. I am kinda dreading going over such a huge corpus of projects and know there is no feasible way to really give them all a fair shake.” - Ricmo","“The biggest piece of feedback from the last round was that the volume of projects applying was overwhelming, but somehow this round we ended up with 6 times the amount of projects, so it feels like that piece of feedback wasn’t heard. Imo there needs to be some kind of barrier to entry for applicants, and not put the responsibility entirely on badge holders to review such an insane amount of projects, most of which are out of scope.” - Katie","“The sheer volume of applications that needed to be processed by each badgeholder was overwhelming.“ - Mitch","“I find it pretty reassuring that others are struggling a bit with the number of projects, was worried that I was missing a trick somewhere!” - MinimalGravitas","“I started going through the projects (there are so many...) but I'm far behind.” - Joav","“in general I felt like my attention was stretched very thin.” - Brian","“Smaller periodic capped rounds makes a lot of sense, it would make it a lot easier to measure relative impact” - Nick","“Agreed here, I think more focused & defined rounds with smaller amounts of OP (and a better built in screening process) would be a great experiment for RPGF.” - Matt","There has been a broad discussion about the role of venture funding in RetroPGF. Viewpoints ranged from the belief that VC funded projects should be excluded from RetroPGF to VC funding having no relevance to the evaluation process. This debate was far reaching across the Ethereum Community, with many different perspectives and topics of discussion. Please refer to this summary of the different viewpoints on VC funding and the Optimism Foundation’s perspective.","This discussion highlighted that there has been a lack of communication of the intentions of Optimism’s RetroPGF to the broader Ethereum community. Often, RetroPGF is understood as a charity, which takes care of projects in need. In stark contrast, the intention behind RetroPGF has always been to create a new economic system, in which there is an incentive for providing impact to the Optimism Collective.","Beyond VC funding, a very popular debate has been the definition of “public goods” and what it should or shouldn’t include.","“There was some stark discussion on what constitutes public good, and I truly believe that trying to form a definition suitable for all citizens would lead to our downfall. Our biggest power is diversity in our background, person, and professional, and I would like to keep the stage open for everyone to share their definition.” - OP User","“While the idea of impact = profit is great, I think making an impact, or being a positive for the ecosystem, does not necessarily mean it’s a public good.” - Wesley","“Retroactive Public Goods Funding is a well-meaning label, but in practice it has been woefully misunderstood. “Public goods” is especially misleading, since it causes people to think only of pure public goods and miss the majority of what the program is trying to [reward].” - Spencer","“Concerns around widely used Optimism applications being mostly left out of the round feel legitimate when reading the actual descriptions (e.g. \"onboarding new users\"), but clash with people's intuitive understanding of \"public goods\".” - Tim Beiko","This has been a hotly debated topic in all three rounds of RetroPGF. It is questionable if the debate of what constitutes a public good actually advances the goals of RetroPGF, or if it is more religious in nature. An outcome from this debate in RetroPGF 1 was the establishment of impact = profit, the principle that the value a contributor has created for the Optimism Collective should equal the value a contributor has extracted from the Optimism Collective. In round 3, guidelines have further emphasized that the goal of RetroPGF is to reward impact and fill the gap between a contributor's impact and profit. The economics definition of pure public goods (e.g. non-rivalrous, non-exclusionary) does not apply to a large set of highly impactful contributions to Optimism and the Ethereum ecosystem. For example: hackathons, applications that drive Optimism sequencer revenue, free services that are only available to a subset of users & builders, any hosted service, etc. may all provide positive impact to the Collective, even if they do not fit within the traditional economics definition of a pure public good.","Instead of exploring the characterization of the individual goods and services and the definition of “public goods”, our focus should be to closely define the outcomes (i.e. impact) we want to incentivize. Over-applying the classical economic definition of public goods may prevent us from rewarding important contributions to Optimism. One of the more applicable outcomes discussed by badgeholders is the incentivization of open source software, either by providing their creators with outsized rewards or by exclusively rewarding software with an open source license.","“If it's a closed source freemium product that will cease to exist once it's company dies it's not a public good” - Lefteris","“...if the product is closed source, and I would urge badgeholders to vote 0 on applications that made it to the voting phase” - Willian","“I’ve been pretty clear that I prioritised bootstrapped teams, providing genuine open source public goods, over accelerated, funded teams that can entrench a product or service before introducing fees or withdrawing.” - Nickbtts","The broad scope and high number of applicants had a significant negative impact on the round.","Impact was not defined in such a way that it can be directly applied in voting, adding difficulty to the work of badgeholders.","Discussions on the definition of public goods do not directly support the Collective in defining the types of impact it wants to reward.","The Collective did not provide sufficient clarity on the goals of RetroPGF, which made constructive discussions within the wider Ethereum community difficult.","RetroPGF 3 voting design calculated individual projects' rewards using the median with a minimum quorum requirement of 17 badgeholder votes, an iteration based on the learnings of RetroPGF 2, which leveraged the mean of badgeholder votes. While an improvement to round 2, the implications of this design were quite counterintuitive, compared to voting designs which are more common. Badgeholders also flagged that there’s more room for research and iteration of this voting design.","“I think median actually fixes a lot of flaws from the first round. Median seems like a much better solution for: a. preventing collusion (need much more voters to impact results) b. allowing badgeholders to vote based on area of expertise (projects not penalized for being on fewer ballots) both a. and b. are extremely important as we try to scale up this process” - Michael Vandermeiden","“I am super curious about a variety of maths being run over the dataset. It feels like median isn’t necessarily the exact correct approach. Even if not changed for this round, seeing a variety of outcomes could help influence future rounds. :)” - Richard","“…I agree that median is probably not the best choice and is quite counterintuitive” - Krzysztof Urbański","The quorum heavily impacted both the badgeholder and applicant experience. Applicants were in fear of not meeting the quorum and reached out to badgeholders en masse to maximize their chances of success. A small unrepresentative poll showed that each badgeholder received more than 15 DMs from applicants. This created a dynamic which was perceived more like a popularity contest, than an exercise in objectively evaluating the past contributions of each applicant:","“Projects not making (or not likely to make) quorum are incentivized to promote to every badgeholder so they can get any RPGF. Projects likely to make quorum are incentivized to not promote or only promote to badgeholders who \"love\" their project, e.g. people already impacted directly (or observe impact) from their project, so they maximize RPGF.” - abcoathup","“Some applicants may even have gotten the impression that desperation and shilling was necessary to make quorum; my own impression is that the rapid increase in ‘ballots’ on the last days of voting had more to do with the fact that many badgeholders had until then been busy working in offline spreadsheets and simply didn’t use the voting software until very late in the process.” - joanbp","“Now, RPGF feels skewed and personally, a bit like a popularity contest.” - 0xzenodotus","“I don't think groups should be advertising their \"impact\" because then it is a game where the best advertisers win.” - lightclient","Making data-informed voting decisions was difficult due to the breadth of projects’ impact (a result of the wide scope), as well as a lack of comparable metrics and contributions (a result of the application process). Combined with the number of applications, this led to a cognitive overload and in what some framed as a “spray and pray” approach to voting. A low accuracy judgment on a large number of applicants was preferred to making a high accuracy judgment on a small number. Creating simple qualitative evaluation frameworks has been a common way to approach this goal of judging a large number of applications.","“comparing aragon with department of decentralization - impossible “ - Krz","“Citizen House needs to vote in specific, objective qualifying criteria. Not important to get every project - more important to capture most valuable projects with minimizing overhead for badgeholders.” - Polynya","“The sheer volume of applications that needed to be processed by each badgeholder was overwhelming. While I could have focused on just my area of expertise I think its a responsiblity to provide judgement on as many projects as possible.” - Mitch","“Spray and pray is a natural reaction to cognitive overload and limited bandwidth. However, our focus shouldn't be solely on creating more efficient tools for spraying. A new feature like a CSV upload button would make the work go faster, but it still encourages us to spray. What we actually need are better ways of designing, iterating, and submitting complete voting strategies.” - Carl","Badgeholders could self-select which applications to vote on. This resulted in selection bias, in which some badgeholders selected applications which they were already familiar with, and thought positively of, while not voting on applications which they were not familiar with or thought negatively of. The self-selection method does not guarantee that each application is receiving a review from a minimum number of badgeholders, making it less likely for an unknown applicant to meet quorum.","In its third iteration, RetroPGF still relies on manual human review of individual applications.","It’s questionable how accurate and efficient RetroPGF can become in rewarding impact, if its allocation decisions rely on individuals selecting which applications to vote on and then subjectively evaluating their impact. Core to improving Retro Funding is the advancement of reliable measurement of impact:","“Fundamentally, this requires a shift from vibes-driven to data-driven [rewards]. Data is critical for badgeholders to transition from working at the middle of the grants funnel (i.e., reviewing individual projects) to working mostly at the top and bottom of the funnel (i.e., deciding what forms of impact matter most and reviewing the distribution formula).” - Carl","RetroPGF 3 has made significant advancements towards data driven decisions in the category of open-source contributions and onchain deployments. OpenSource Observer demonstrated how existing data can be used to create “impact vectors”, a quantitative impact metric measured over a discrete period of time, to enable badgeholders to express their preferences for the types of impact that should be rewarded, rather than evaluating the impact of individual applicants.","While a vast improvement to RetroPGF 2, the implications of the voting algorithm were difficult to understand and leave room for further research and improvement","The quorum requirement had a negative effect on the applicant and badgeholder experience, transforming the process into what some perceived as a popularity contest.","The broad scope of projects and lack of comparable metrics made data-informed voting decisions difficult. Despite the challenges, there was a movement towards more data-driven decisions in evaluating open-source contributions and on-chain deployments.","The self-selection of applications to review by badgeholders does not ensure a fair review by a minimum number of badgeholders for each application.","One of the main experiments within RetroPGF 3 was the introduction of Lists, which allowed badgeholders to share their proposed votes on a number of applications with others. The goal of Lists was to allow badgeholders to focus on evaluating applications within their area of expertise and leverage the evaluation from other badgeholders. Thus the individual workload would be reduced.","Lists provided value to badgeholders in allowing for the curation and discovery of relevant applicants but lacked overall effectiveness in driving specialized applicant evaluation.","Badgeholders have voiced that the lack of requirements to create a List and missing curation made this tool less effective and possibly harmful to the overall process.","“There’s no level of expertise required to make a list, so we’re seeing a large amount of lists that include low impact projects which then highlights them to other badge holders.” - Katie","“Lists are counter productive. I feel that lists almost certainly lead to group think, winner-take-all, and allow badgeholders to be lazy” - tjayrush","“I wish more badgeholders would have made lists that reflected their personal expertise and careful judgement, taking the full complexity of our task into consideration. There were a couple of lists of this kind, and I found them useful.” - joanbp","“okaish with this, I think my main suggestion is to make them editable, at least at the UI/UX level. It was also mentioned as causing bias, but I don’t have a strong opinion on it; If each badgeholder does their job, it shouldn’t be a concern.” - Joxes","“List: I highly recommend keeping them. The only suggestion is to make the amount of $OP optional. If possible, provide an option to sort the list according to priority. This feedback is not only mine; I had a chat with other badgeholders, and they share similar thoughts.” - OPUser","“I found Lists hepful for discovery, but counter-productive for allocations. Moving forward, if we’d keep the Lists, let’s focus on impact analysis & comments” - Rev","The majority of the top 20 Lists, categorized by the number of events triggered by badgeholders, did not include a clear rationale for the allocation of OP or references to used frameworks.","Badgeholders were allowed to include their own projects within their list, while it was recommended to disclose this conflict of interest in the List description. A handful of cases could be observed where this ruleset was abused to promote one’s own application.","A dilemma which became apparent in the List creation process is that badgeholders who are experts within a particular field usually also work in this field and are associated with one or multiple applications. If we expect the number of badgeholders to increase, and RetroPGF to reward more impact, we should expect more badgeholders to work on projects that are part of RetroPGF. To ensure an unbiased process, more research into collusion and bribery resistance is crucial.","One of the goals of round 3, based on feedback from RetroPGF 2, has been to support badgeholders to more effectively collaborate. Feedback has shown that the facilitation of async coordination among badgeholders needs to be improved. Specifically, badgeholders demanded more effective methods to share knowledge with each other:","“ Each badgeholder is “on their own” in the sense that I can’t really see what other badgeholders are thinking” - tjayrush","“Badgeholders need a better way to unify their knowledge and research. In RPGF3, knowledge sharing happened through a variety of chats, X, blogs, etc. But during a review of applications, there was no way to learn “what do badgeholders know about this application?” - Michael Vandermeiden","“It become a bit hard to keep up with the announcements, important dates and links between all the other chatter in telegram. Maybe a separate announcement channel would be helpful” - Manasi","“Telegram was too chaotic with that many people.” - Amer","“Maybe it makes sense to have some sort of in-line forum on each profile page? So that the badgeholders can raise concerns and the project owner can dispute them? With some sort of curation to concisify the convo if the signal to noise becomes lousy.” - Ricmo","Multiple calls took place to facilitate open discussions, as well as workshops to dive deeper into impact evaluation. These activities received a mixed sentiment of feedback. It is important to note that different people process data differently so striking a balance here is key.","“Way too many pointless zoom meetings. Admin should focus on written and off-line organization a la the badgeholder manual.” (Anon)","“I found the office hours really helpful. In terms of workshops, I’m not sure if it was just the dynamics of my group, but I left the Impact Evaluation Workshop with more questions than answers.” - Amy","Survey responses have shown that the median badgeholder spent 16 hours participating in RetroPGF 3, with some spending significantly more time.This time investment was largely the result of the time intensive and manual labor of making subjective judgements on the impact of a large number of applicants.","“However, I can say for myself that I have spent hundreds of hours (yes, literally) on RPGF3 since I got my badge - learning about Optimism and RPGF, reviewing, categorizing and prioritizing applications, researching, making lists, participating in workshops and meetings, discussing and giving feedback, voting, etc.” - Joanbp","“There is WAY too much work to be a “good” badgeholder. I’ve felt guilty since the start because I don’t have the time to do what I feel like I’m supposed to do” - tjayrush","“Being a badgeholder is quite a bit of work these days 😅” - Ethernaut","“Weird af. But being a badgeholder is not simple. It's actually a lot of work. Many many more hours of work than initially advertised. At least for me. And I see more people put in a lot of hours here.” - Lefteris","While very labor intensive, badgeholders rated their overall experience to 7.6/10 points on average. This high rating is likely a result of a sense of purpose and community in participating in the single biggest Ethereum public goods Retro Funding experiment, rather than excitement about reviewing a large pool of applications.","Some badgeholders went above and beyond in their work to ensure the round was successful. While this commitment may be one of the most positive signals coming out of the round, it is not a sustainable approach to future iterations of RetroPGF.","Lists were valuable for curating applications but lacked creation requirements and were not effective in driving specialized evaluations.","Badgeholders expressed a need for better asynchronous collaboration tools and clearer communication channels. The current methods, including various chats and forums, were insufficient for effective knowledge sharing and coordination.","The workload of individual badgeholders is unsustainable and needs to be reduced","In RetroPGF 2, badgeholders had very minimal voting tooling, including a form with 195 applicants to allocate votes to. One of the goals of RetroPGF 3, based on feedback and learnings from RetroPGF 2, has been to create tooling that improves the RetroPGF system for all types of participants.","Community-built tooling in RetroPGF 3 demonstrated how an open collaborative environment can build products that support experimentation and address user needs. Badgeholders were equipped with two frontends they could leverage to review applications, use Lists, and submit their votes: vote.optimism.io built by Agora and round3.opimism.io built by West. These frontends were built via a Foundation Mission, which outlined requirements, specifications and designs for the voting functionality.","Community-built tools like Pairwise and retrolist.app allowed badgeholders to create Lists.  OpenSource Observer made analytics about open source projects easily accessible. RetroPGFhub.com and GrowThePie allowed for better discoverability of applications as well as providing additional data about projects.","The backend infrastructure to collect votes, as well as an API to query relevant data was built by Agora to be used by two frontends. Agora supported builders by extending access to the API, which was used by 8 unique clients. While Agora was up 99.65% of the time, users experienced severely degraded performance for 5-6 hours during the last day of voting. You can find Agora’s retrospective on RetroPGF 3 here.","“Both Apps seemed to have a hard time with the load as they experienced really bad downtime and lists, projects dissapearing/ not being available during critical moments of the voting process.” - Mitch","“Voting app had a lot of technical difficulties. I understand that they are still figuring out how to scale and handle load, but would love to see improvements in the next round”","Popular feature requests included the ability to import votes via CSV, better discoverability and filter functionality as well as more functionality for knowledge sharing among badgeholders.","“Extremely unfortunate that there was no way to import CSV so it had to all be added back to the interface manually. :/” - Amy","“I used West’s voting platform 4, and overall I found it quite intuitive and easy to use. For the next round of RPGF it would be good to add a) functionality for editing, forking, removing lists, and b) ballot import/export functionality to support the people working offline with spreadsheets - this would also be useful at times when the servers are experiencing overload.” - Joanbp","“We should have the option to write notes on applications for ourselves (i.e. non public). And e.g. have buttons to indicate if we want to vote for them or not (“Yes”, “No”, “Maybe” or blank), and then use that to filter applications.” - CheekyGorilla","“it would be great if there was a \"hide from view\" for projects that i have looked at and evaluated as not a candidate / that i will not be allocating towards / voting to” - Jenny","“I have a few pieces of feedback I shared with the agora team before voting started that I think could make it better-have the ability to mark a project as seen or “don’t put in ballot” option-have the ability to allocate percentages as well as dollar amount-get rid of the lists function” - Katie","“I lost my list several times (and even when restored, I lost some of my work). At many times Agora was so slow that it was unuseable. This not only was a frustrating and painful experience, it was draining and took away time that I could have used to better vote.” - Amer","Pairwise, which received a mission grant from the Token House, was created to allow badgeholders to easily create Lists by comparing a number of applications within a specific category, leveraging a pairwise comparison method. Feedback from badgeholders showed that Pairwise was useful for discovery of relevant applications but was less popular when it came to iterating on votes. 27 badgeholders have connected their wallet to Pairwise, and 5 badgeholders have used Pairwise to create Lists. You can find Pairwise’s Retrospective here.","“On kickoff day, I was initially excited about Pairwise's List creator due to its apparent ease of use. However, after dedicating over 50 hours to evaluating various projects and lists, I have decided to take a more oldschool way. I found that the pairwise list is somewhat lacks convincing depth….” - thesleeper","“Use of Pairwise: I think this application as a discoverer fulfills its function, it is excellent, but I would not reference the resulting amounts in any way, only percentages, as a starting point.” - Joxes","“I probably put about two hours into using the app. I found it helpful for discovery / curation but not for coming up with a voting strategy.” - Carl","Open Source Observer, which received a builder grant,  allowed badgeholders to view top level metrics of applicants Github, NPM packages and onchain contracts. Further, OS Observer provided an export of relevant data via CSV, to allow badgeholders to leverage data in their voting. While OS Observer’s approach is promising, it saw limited usage by badgeholders.","“excellent for tracking repositories, recommended and I hope it continues like this and better for the next round.” - Joxes","Work on West’s voting interface (round3.optimism.io) has been continued and open sourced as EasyRetroPGF by Gitcoin. Allowing other communities to experiment with Retroactive Funding.","The infrastructure and tools provided to badgeholders has significantly improved. An experimental approach to tooling, with iterations based on badgeholder feedback, has emerged.","The infrastructure, upon which many applications and tooling relied, saw significant downtime and degraded performance.","The voting application(s) can be further improved to support the reviewer experience.","While each round provides a lot of learnings, we want to prioritize specific areas which have received the most attention from badgeholders.","These learnings will inform the next iterations of Retroactive Public Goods Funding. To stay in touch with the evolution of Retro Funding you can follow updates and discussions in the Optimism Governance forum.","Once more we improved Retro Funding based on past learnings, rewarded the builders, researchers and educators who are at the heart of Optimism and learned a ton to improve the next iteration. Together we will summon Ether’s Phoenix 🕊️.","And, as always,","Stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/retropgf-3-learnings-reflections"},"/blog/build-faster-build-together-introducing-the-superchain-developer-console":{"version":1,"title":"Build faster, build together: Introducing the Superchain Developer Console - Optimism","description":"A one-stop shop for aggregated tools and promotions, the Optimism Collective’s new Superchain Developer Console makes it easier than ever for developers to build and grow","keywords":"","h1":["Build faster, build together: Introducing the Superchain Developer Console"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","March 22, 2024","A one-stop shop for aggregated tools and promotions, the Optimism Collective’s new Superchain Developer Console makes it easier than ever for developers to build and grow their businesses across the Superchain.","The Superchain Dev Console makes it as easy, and accessible to launch your app on the Superchain. Whether you’re deploying across Ethereum, Base, Fraxtel, Mode, OP Mainnet, Redstone, Lisk, or Zora, there’s no shortage of scaling solutions for developers to choose from, but choosing which tools to leverage can be cumbersome.","The Superchain Dev Console aggregates tools and special deals to accelerate development and lower developer overhead. The Superchain is powered by the OP Stack, but also by the Collective’s robust ecosystem of community, tooling, and infrastructure options.","This one-stop shop gives developers access to testnet faucets on any OP Chain, funded paymasters, customized app feedback, access to high-signal support channels, and promotions on common infrastructure, quickstart guides, and distribution opportunities.","In the next phase of the Superchain Dev Console you’ll have access to the deployment rebate offer. This will make deploying on the Superchain free!","Sign up for the Superchain Dev Console to stay up to date on the latest offers.","At launch, we’ve partnered with Alchemy, Gelato, QuickNode, and ThirdWeb to offer infrastructure savings and support. All of these resources are presented in one easy to browse platform, removing friction and making it easy for developers to identify and access the tools they need to build amazing user experiences.","Overtime, we envision the platform becoming a critical tool where developers can quickly deploy contracts, manage their applications, and set up various services without a steep learning curve making it easy to launch apps on the Superchain.","Get started building today!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/build-faster-build-together-introducing-the-superchain-developer-console"},"/blog/open-source-and-feature-complete-fault-proofs-bring-permissionless-validation-to-the-op-sepolia-testnet":{"version":1,"title":"Open-source and feature-complete fault proofs bring permissionless validation to the OP Sepolia testnet - Optimism","description":"Feature-complete fault proofs are live on OP Sepolia! This milestone testnet release lays the foundation for a \"multi-proof nirvana\" and Stage 2 Superchain.","keywords":"","h1":["Open-source and feature-complete fault proofs bring permissionless validation to the OP Sepolia testnet"],"h2":["Permissionless proofs on OP Sepolia","Next stop: multi-proof nirvana","Breaking changes in the OP Sepolia release","Heads down to fault proofs on Superchain mainnets"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","March 19, 2024","The feature-complete OP Stack fault proof system landed today on OP Sepolia, the primary testnet for OP Mainnet. This fault proof protocol supports an incentive-compatible bonding mechanism and permissionless validation that allows anyone to participate in the system without an allowlist.","While every developer who contributed to this release is proud of this milestone, ecosystem engineers are already looking ahead to achieving “multi-proof nirvana” that will allow Optimism to reach Stage 2 decentralization. Keep reading to learn more about how this release lays the foundation for a Stage 2 Superchain.","Today’s testnet launch introduces a feature-complete fault proof protocol that supports permissionless validation. This means that withdrawals of ETH and ERC-20 tokens from OP Stack Chains can be initiated without involvement from any trusted third party. It also means that invalid withdrawals can be challenged and removed by any user that wants to participate in the protocol.","Permissionless validation isn’t the only thing being introduced in this release. This launch also includes a framework for fault proofs for the OP Stack that means additional proof systems, like Asterisc, can easily slot into existing smart contracts. Additional proofs can act as safety nets that catch bugs in other proofs, which ultimately opens the door to Stage 2 decentralization— a complete reliance on the fault proof system with no backup security council. If this upgrade is accepted for inclusion into the OP Stack by Optimism Governance, Optimism will be uniquely positioned in the race to multi-proof capabilities and Stage 2 decentralization.","Obviously, like the journey towards achieving Stage 2 decentralization, all of the features of this fault proof system will be much more meaningful when they go into production on Superchain mainnets. Even so, this testnet launch is a critical step in the process of shipping a fault proof system to the OP Stack.","The ultimate ambition of the OP Stack’s fault proof system extends beyond the implementation of fault proofs on testnet or mainnet; it aims for a “multi-proof nirvana” that can end the reliance that L2s today have on security councils or multisigs. When there are more proof systems in place that can back one another up, the OP Stack can begin to trust its proofs completely, without the need for a security council acting as a safety net.","With a feature-complete fault proof system live on OP Sepolia, significant progress has been made on the first proof scheme for the OP Stack. Yet the open source nature of the system means that a number of other proving mechanisms have been in development at the same time, including by teams like State Channels, RISCZero, O(1) Labs, AltLayer, Protolambda (at OP Labs), Test in Prod, and engineers Willem Olding and Eric Tu.","For a refresher, here are some of the proof schemes currently in development:","The modular and open source OP Stack launched with the Bedrock upgrade made all of this parallel development possible, and when the fault proof system progresses to Superchain mainnets, these alternate implementations will help to ensure the Superchain can be an entirely trustless system.","Since significant changes are being made to withdrawals in order to implement permissionless output proposals on testnet, some breaking changes impacting bridges, CEXs, and custom withdrawal solutions will be introduced with today’s upgrade.","Developers whose products fall into one of these categories can visit the Optimism Developer Docs to learn about these changes, how to handle them, and how to get additional support.","The OP Stack’s fault proof system has been a long time coming, but the time invested in the design of this modular, open-source system will pay off immensely when ecosystem engineers are able to fast-follow the launch of the OP Stack’s fault proof system on Superchain mainnets with the deployment of alternative proof schemes to secure the network.","Developers shipped the MVP of OP Stack’s fault proof system in October 2023; the feature-complete version of the system arrived on OP Sepolia today. Next up is bringing fault proof to Superchain mainnets. Stay tuned for more launch updates.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/open-source-and-feature-complete-fault-proofs-bring-permissionless-validation-to-the-op-sepolia-testnet"},"/blog/incentivizing-honesty-and-participation-in-the-op-stack-s-fault-proof-system":{"version":1,"title":"Incentivizing honesty and participation in the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System - Optimism","description":"This blog post explores the theory behind how bonds are incorporated into the OP Stack's Fault Dispute Game to incentivize both participation and honest behavior.","keywords":"","h1":["Incentivizing honesty and participation in the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System"],"h2":["Bond Incentives","Bond Design Considerations"],"h3":["Isolation of Under-Collateralization Impact","Separating Subgame Outcomes from Collateralization","Integrating Bonds into the Fault Dispute Game","Big Bonds ™"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Mofi Taiwo","March 6, 2024","In the OP Stack's Fault Proof System, dispute games are a pivotal mechanism for decentralized fault detection, leveraging the system's modular architecture to enhance composability and enable parallel upgrades. These games, fundamental to the dispute protocol, offer a structured approach to validating information through incentive compatibility and resolution mechanisms, promoting fairness and accuracy.","There are two incentives that dispute games should provide:","Make it worthwhile to act honestly","Make it worthwhile to participate","Honest behavior is necessary to prevent invalid results, which in the case of the OP Stack, means preventing invalid withdrawals from the bridge. However, this incentive isn't sufficient. We still need to encourage honest players to actually participate. This is where bonds come in.","Bonds serve to encapsulate the cost associated with making claims, an essential aspect of dispute games. The costliness of claims stems from several factors. First, dishonest claims necessitate additional time and effort from honest players in the game. Since it's not immediately evident which claims are honest, all claims must be bonded, deterring frivolous claims. Next, there's a need for a reward system to incentivize honest players to challenge a claim. The value of this reward pool is borne by the claim-making process.","While the intrinsic cost of these components remains constant, the value of a bond is subject to fluctuation due to changing gas fees. Therefore, it's critical to promote fairness, ensuring that participation costs are consistent for all players. If dishonest players can outspend honest ones, the system becomes skewed, allowing dishonest claims to go uncontested. This is particularly problematic in a scenario where the cost for honest players is significantly higher than it is for dishonest ones, creating a major disincentive for honest participation. This issue is what we refer to as the collateralization problem.","Moreover, it's in the best interest of the game to minimize the bonding requirement. By doing so, we widen the pool of potential honest players possessing the necessary capital to participate.","There are a couple things we keep in mind when exploring bond designs. Doing this limits our search space to designs that are compatible with the fault dispute game (FDG) mechanics.","Under-collateralization must remain confined to the individual claim it pertains to and should not cascade into other subgames. To be explicit, bond collateralization should be an isolated act, separate from any team-based considerations.","Rationale: In the revised resolution protocol and challenger ruleset for the OP Stack Fault Dispute Game (FDG), there exists an incentive to support an \"invalid path\" with the objective of penalizing freeloading participants. This incentive should persist irrespective of whether the parent or grandparent claims are adequately collateralized. Consequently, any bond design must preclude the collective or team-wise nature of collateralization. In essence, bond collateralization should be localized to the specific subgame it is associated with.","As a follow up to the above constraint, claims that are under-collateralized should not alter the results of a resolved subgame. The penalty for under-collateralization should be restricted to bond incentives (including bond payout forfeiture).","Rationale: By confining the consequences of under-collateralization to bond payouts, we ensure that the fundamental dynamics of the Fault Dispute Game remain unaffected. This maintains the incentive structures that encourage honest behavior while still penalizing dishonest or under-capitalized players. This also retains the simplicity of resolution - ensuring that the protocol remains sound with the addition of bonds.","The above considerations help ensure that our bond design doesn't break the mechanics of the dispute game. By keeping these design goals in mind, we simplify the analysis of the dispute game. This also lets us make changes to the bond design without re-auditing the entire dispute game. Effectively, bonds becomes a \"mod\" added to the dispute game that creates financial incentives to participate.","There are two areas bonds come into play in the FDG:","Moves","Subgame resolution","Participation in the FDG requires a bond. Specifically, moves now require bonded claims. There is a minimum bond requirement to make a move. However, the exact amount required can be abstracted away from the core FDG.","During subgame resolution, if a subgame root resolves incorrectly, then its bond is distributed to the leftmost claimant that countered it. At maximum game depth, where a claimant counters a bonded claim by calling step(), the bond is instead distributed to the account that successfully called step().","As such, the only problem the OP Stack’s bond design needs to solve is figuring out the minimum bond requirement to move in the FDG:","The initial bond design we’ll be adding to the FDG is Big Bonds ™. This is essentially a large ETH-denominated bond requirement for all moves in the dispute game. The bond pricing depends on two factors; the gas needed to counter the claim it’s attached to, and the claim’s depth.","The bond is priced according to gas to guarantee that an honest player's rewards cover the cost of gas used in the game. The gas pricing incorporates a fixed base fee, typically significantly larger than the average base fee, to account for potential increases. This base fee multiplier serves as a deterrent against spam claims.","Moves at the maximum game depth are the most costly, as they may require interaction with the VM and potentially the PreimageOracle. Therefore, gas-priced bonds at MAX_DEPTH - 1 are significantly cheaper than their counterparts at MAX_DEPTH. An attacker could exploit this disparity to outspend honest players by creating false claims at MAX_DEPTH-1. To counteract this, bonds are scaled by a factor based on the claim's depth to smoothen the substantial increase in the gas-priced bond at MAX_DEPTH. This approach helps to minimize the financial gain for players making claims at MAX_DEPTH-1.","The scaling factor x can be calculated using the following formula:","By applying this scaling factor to a gas-priced bond at depth d, the gas-pricing is computed as i * x^d.","Considering these factors, if g equals 200M gas, i is 400K, and the game depth is 73, then the bond required for a root claim is 0.08 ETH at a 200gwei base fee.","Big Bonds™ is a straightforward design that isn't highly capital efficient. Nonetheless, its goal is to generate incentives that guarantee accurate game resolution. The modularity of the Fault Dispute Game allows for a later, safe upgrade to an improved bond design.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/incentivizing-honesty-and-participation-in-the-op-stack-s-fault-proof-system"},"/blog/fault-proof-deep-dive-part-2-cannon":{"version":1,"title":"Fault Proof Deep-Dive Part 2: Cannon - Optimism","description":"Part two of the Fault Proof Deep-Dive Series with Coinbase concludes the overview of Cannon, the OP Stack’s first Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM)","keywords":"","h1":["Fault Proof Deep-Dive Part 2: Cannon"],"h2":["What is Cannon?","Fault Proof Control Flow","Cannon Component Overview","Documentation For Cannon"],"h3":["ELF Loader","Memory and State Management","MIPSEVM","Witness Proof Generation"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Alexis Williams","April 9, 2024","The Fault Proof Deep-Dive Series is a collaboration between Coinbase’s Blockchain Security (BlockSec) team and OP Labs to provide in-depth information on all major components of Fault Proofs. By sharing this information, we hope to encourage others to learn more about the architecture and technical aspects of Fault Proofs. Together, we can move towards the decentralized future of OP Stack L2 blockchains.","In this blog post, we’ll be covering the offchain Cannon Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM) implementation. Note that both the onchain and offchain FPVM implementations together make Cannon. However, we will delineate the two by having Cannon refer to only the offchain implementation for this blog post.","In the previous blog post, we introduced MIPS.sol, the onchain FPVM. Cannon is the offchain counterpart to MIPS.sol, written in Golang. However, unlike MIPS.sol, the offchain Cannon implementation is responsible for far more steps in a dispute game. Additionally, Cannon is the sole FPVM used for Fault Dispute Games in the OP Stack.","Once again, let’s review the Fault Proof process to understand where Cannon resides.","In the above diagram recreated from the Fault Proof Walkthrough video by Clabby, we can see that Cannon interacts with OP-Challenger and OP-Program. OP-Challenger is the component that handles initiating challenges and interacting with a dispute game, and OP-Program handles the derivation of L2 output from L1 inputs. However, the diagram is a simplification of the interactions between OP-Challenger, Cannon, and OP-Program.","During the course of an active dispute game, the bisection game will move from pivoting over L2 output roots to state witness hashes. Cannon is responsible for generating state witness hashes, which are the commitment to the results of the MIPS instructions’ computation within the FPVM. Cannon will only be run once the dispute game reaches that point. This portion of the bisection game is known as the execution trace. Up until this point, OP-Challenger has been consulting OP-Node for state output roots, and has not made use of OP-Program or Cannon. However, once it is time to run Cannon for the dispute game, the already compiled OP-Program will be loaded into the VM in Cannon which will then begin to run MIPS instructions.","During the execution trace portion of the bisection game, Cannon will run many MIPS instructions, and initially will provide state witness hashes to OP-Challenger. Eventually, a single MIPS instruction will be identified as the root of disagreement between participants in the active dispute. Now, Cannon will generate the witness proof, which contains all the information required to run the MIPS instruction onchain in MIPS.sol. The definitive post-state of the MIPS instruction will then be used to resolve the fault dispute game.","Cannon is made up of several Golang files, which together have much more functionality than the onchain MIPS.sol. This is necessary, as Cannon is responsible for more parts of the dispute game than MIPS.sol. These Golang files can be grouped by core components of Cannon that they implement, which include: the Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) loader, memory and state management, MIPSEVM, and witness proof generation.","OP-Program is the code that will be compiled into an ELF file which in turn contains MIPS instructions to run within Cannon. In order to get the contents of the ELF file into Cannon to run, it needs to be loaded into the MIPSEVM. This process involves iterating over the ELF headers to determine all of the programs that need to be loaded into the 32-bit memory space, locating the initial values for the Program Counter (PC) and NextPC, instantiating the stack, heap, and data segment pointers in memory, and patching out any incompatible functions. Patching out an incompatible function simply writes over the first instructions within a function with a return back to the original pointer, and then a no-operation (NOP). Patching the binary loaded into the MIPSEVM is important as the FPVM is unable to perform many system calls, and does not support features such as concurrency.","Cannon stores and maintains the entire 32-bit memory address space available to the MIPSEVM. There is no restriction on the size of memory stored offchain, but for MIPS.sol it is infeasible to store the entire 32-bit memory address space. Therefore, memory is stored in a binary Merkle tree data structure within Cannon. To the MIPSEVM, this data structure is abstracted away through the use of GetMemory(), ReadMemoryRange(), and SetMemory() functions. When it is time to generate the witness proof, Cannon will encode up to two memory Merkle proofs for MIPS.sol to use when running a MIPS instruction.","Within Cannon is the MIPSEVM, which implements the 32-bit, Big-Endian, MIPS III Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). Unlike MIPS.sol, the MIPSEVM will run many MIPS instructions, and is also responsible for tracking memory access which will be used to encode the second memory proof. However, both the offchain and onchain VM implementations must produce exactly the same results given the same instruction, memory, and register state. This is critical to ensuring that the expected post-state from the MIPSEVM is the same as the actual post-state generated by MIPS.sol, which will be used to resolve the dispute game.","Once a single MIPS instruction has been identified as the root of disagreement between participants in a fault dispute game, Cannon will generate the witness proof so that the same instruction can be run onchain in MIPS.sol. Encoded in the witness proof is the following information: the VM execution state, the memory proof for the address of the instruction to run, and an additional memory proof required only for load, store, or certain system call instructions. Additionally, should the MIPS instruction need a Pre-image, Cannon will also communicate a Pre-image key and offset to OP-Challenger so that it can be posted onchain to PreimageOracle.sol.","This concludes our deep-dive of Cannon. In addition to this blog post, Coinbase has created in-depth documentation that provides more details on each of the components that make up Cannon. Check it out at Fault Proof VM - Cannon | Optimism Docs, and if you’re interested in Optimism’s official technical specification of Cannon, you can view that at Cannon Technical Specification.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/fault-proof-deep-dive-part-2-cannon"},"/blog/welcoming-world-chain-to-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Welcoming World Chain to the Superchain - Optimism","description":"Last year, Worldcoin Foundation committed to the Superchain vision for a more secure, decentralized, and equitable internet.","keywords":"","h1":["Welcoming World Chain to the Superchain"],"h2":["The Superchain: A Sustainable Economic Model","Proving Humanness Onchain"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","April 17, 2024","Last year, Worldcoin Foundation committed to the Superchain vision for a more secure, decentralized, and equitable internet. As one of its earliest proponents, Worldcoin saw the Superchain’s potential to grow as a network of L2s that share security, a communication layer, and an open-source tech stack. The Worldcoin protocol migrated to OP Mainnet about nine months ago, and today World App is becoming its largest and fastest growing application by transaction volume, and has onboarded over 10 million people to the blockchain, globally.","Now, as the largest application on OP Mainnet, Worldcoin is graduating to its own dedicated network. Today, the core contributors to the Worldcoin protocol are introducing World Chain: a new blockchain built on the OP Stack and designed to bring all humans onchain. World Chain marks a major milestone for both the Worldcoin protocol and the Optimism Collective.","One of the main challenges in crypto today is that many transactions are made by bots, leading to congested networks and high fees which ultimately stifle the industry’s potential. World Chain aims to solve this by prioritizing transactions made by verified humans using World ID. Prioritizing verified humans over bots on the open and permissionless chain will help increase capacity so that people can join at scale and enjoy fast, inexpensive, and reliable transactions.","Initiatives like this are fast tracked by the OP Stack, and demonstrate the Superchain’s many launchpads for ambitious builders with bold ideas.","Projects like Worldcoin leverage the OP Stack to build on a shared standard blockchain software, and reap the benefits of scalability and low fees from building on the OP Stack. Optimism’s ecosystem gets a share of the revenue generated by chains, including World Chain, and that revenue goes back to funding open source development and other improvements to the network, benefitting builders and users alike. This economic model gives the Superchain the super power to scale Ethereum’s tech, via the OP Stack, and its values as a self-sustaining network.","By joining the Superchain, World Chain also benefits by being able to interact with other chains like Base, Mode, OP Mainnet, and Zora. Developers supporting Worldcoin continue to contribute directly to the Ethereum network, and collaborate with the Superchain ecosystem on shared infrastructure. Following the lead of early OP Chains, World Chain also plans to actively participate in Optimism’s governance.","The heart of Worldcoin’s vision is to bring all humans onchain. Optimism has collaborated with Worldcoin’s core contributors to put new digital identity tools into practice, allowing developers to use their World ID to access funds on the Superchain faucet.","The Optimism Collective envisions a future where the digital identity ecosystem expands, enabling people to signal their contributions to governance, DeFi, social media, gaming and beyond. Together, Optimism and Worldcoin are committed to a scalable, inclusive future that unlocks onchain identity and builds a more equitable digital economy for all.","World Chain is expected to launch later this summer. In the meantime, learn more about Optimism’s vision and the Superchain here.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/welcoming-world-chain-to-the-superchain"},"/blog/850m-op-dedicated-to-the-evolution-of-retro-funding":{"version":1,"title":"850M OP Dedicated to the Evolution of Retro Funding - Optimism","description":"At its core, Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) embodies a vision of collaboration and collective success. In order to scale the Superchain","keywords":"","h1":["850M OP Dedicated to the Evolution of Retro Funding"],"h2":["New era for Retro Funding","Who is eligible for Retro Funding?","Get inspired to build","Building a fair internet"],"h3":["Retro Funding 4: Onchain Builders","Retro Funding 5: OP Stack","Retro Funding 6: Governance","Retro Funding 7: Dev Tooling"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","March 26, 2024","At its core, Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) embodies a vision of collaboration and collective success. In order to scale the Superchain, impactful work needs to be rewarded. By rewarding contributions that span across the Superchain and the Collective as a whole, we encourage developers, businesses, creators, and educators to continue making contributions towards building a fair, and open internet.","Retro Funding is not merely a charitable endeavor; it's building an impact system where contributions are valued and rewarded.","The Collective has allocated 850M OP to Retro Funding, which goes towards rewarding onchain impact across Optimism, and the Superchain. For clarity, 850M OP is the total amount allocated to Retro Funding from the initial token supply.  Stay tuned, we'll announce allocation details closer to each upcoming round!","As the next iteration of Retro Funding, we're excited to announce a new era of clarity. By delineating specific categories of contributions, we're creating a framework that makes it easier to understand what impact will be rewarded, thus fostering a more purposeful and targeted approach to development.","So, what exactly does this change entail? Retro Funding will now operate through specifically targeted, and categorized rounds and we will continue to iterate as we gather more and more learnings. Below you’ll find an overview of Retro rounds planned for 2024. More details will follow for each specific round!","Each round will focus on distinct category-specific contributions, providing clarity and direction for anyone seeking to make an impact. Whether it's enhancing scalability, improving security, or fostering community engagement, contributors will know exactly what type of impact is being rewarded, and when.","This category will reward onchain builders who contribute to the success of Optimism. This round seeks to expand the reach and impact of the network by rewarding those building across the Superchain, increasing demand for blockspace, and driving value to the Collective. This includes builders who bring new users to the Superchain, drive network effects and protocol usage.","Submit your application: May 2024","The OP Stack is the heart of Optimism, and the Superchain. Contributions to the OP Stack and improvements to the foundational elements of Optimism's infrastructure will be rewarded in this round. From protocol enhancements to optimization initiatives, this round focuses on strengthening the core components that underpin the Optimism platform. Some examples of recent contributions to the OP stack have brought huge value to Optimism EIP-4844,  Span Batches, fault proof alpha, and development and maintenance of client implementations like op-reth, op-nethermind, and op-erigon.","Submit your application: August 2024","Improving the capture resistance and resource allocation of Optimism Governance is the primary objective of this category. By incentivizing contributions that enhance governance tools, mechanisms, and processes, Retro Funding aims to foster a more robust and resilient governance framework within the ecosystem.","This round will focus on rewarding key governance infrastructure that enables continued decentralization, as well as research and analytics tools that provide valuable insights into governance design.","Supporting Optimism builders with developer tooling is the focus of this category. From SDKs to testing frameworks, contributions that streamline the development process and empower builders will be rewarded, ensuring a more efficient and productive development environment.","Submit your application: October 2024","Retro Funding rewards a diverse set of categories across protocol and infrastructure development, end user experiences, adoption, governance improvements, and work towards improving the OP Stack.","Every Base project is eligible for Retro Funding, every Mode project is eligible for Retro Funding, every Zora project is eligible for Retro Funding, every Farcaster project is eligible for Retro Funding, every sound.xyz project is eligible for Retro Funding, every OP Chain is eligible for Retro Funding, everyone, anywhere putting the work in to improve Optimism is eligible for Retro Funding.","This network of contributors will continue to grow as more chains join the Superchain! Remember, contributing to the Superchain gives you and your users access to airdrops, and Retro Funding.","Knowing where to start building can be overwhelming. Don’t worry though, we have you covered! Head over to the Builder Ideas to see a curated list of Collective aligned project ideas, ranging from developer tooling to protocol experiments, and much more! These ideas have no guaranteed rewards, however by building them you may have a positive impact you can use to apply for Reto Funding.","Choose an idea from the list, build it, create impact, and you might get rewarded via Retro Funding for your impact!","If you are looking for a grant, you can find available grants here.","In essence, Retro Funding is not just about rewarding contributions—it's about building a fair, and more inclusive internet for all. Retro Funding is building an impact system, not a charity.","You can find more about the design decisions behind the next iteration of Retroactive Public Goods Funding, and share your thoughts and impressions, on the governance forum.","With four defined rounds in 2024, Retro Funding sets the stage for a more focused and impactful approach to incentivizing contributions. By aligning contributions with the broader goals of the ecosystem and providing clarity and transparency, we are empowering builders to shape the future of Optimism and drive meaningful change in the digital landscape. Together, let's build an impact-driven system where everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the design of the new internet.","And, as always,Stay Optimistic! 🔴✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/850m-op-dedicated-to-the-evolution-of-retro-funding"},"/blog/redstone-mainnet-is-live-featuring-plasma-mode":{"version":1,"title":"Redstone Mainnet is Live, Featuring Plasma Mode - Optimism","description":"For the past month, Lattice has prepared for the public launch of Redstone with its Race to Mainnet, inviting several game developers to build and playtest on the network","keywords":"","h1":["Redstone Mainnet is Live, Featuring Plasma Mode"],"h2":["Redstone, the first OP Stack Chain featuring Plasma Mode","A win for core development","Plasma: We’re so back"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 1, 2024","For the past month, Lattice has prepared for the public launch of Redstone with its Race to Mainnet, inviting several game developers to build and playtest on the network.","Today, Redstone Mainnet is officially live and part of the Superchain, making it easy for anyone to build and deploy onchain games and autonomous worlds.","This is the culmination of a year-long development process to build a chain that would support autonomous worlds and MUD applications.","Joining the Superchain means that Redstone will enjoy the benefits of scalability and low fees, while contributing revenue back to the Optimism Collective to power open source development and a self-sustaining ecosystem. Developers building on Redstone will also be eligible for Retro Funding and can easily interact with other chains like Base, Mode, OP Mainnet and Zora.","Not only is this an exciting moment for the growth of the Superchain; it also marks the first deployment of Plasma Mode, an alternative data availability protocol (altDA) and a key feature for the OP Stack developed jointly by Lattice and OP Labs.","Historically, OP Stack Chains have relied on the Ethereum Mainnet for data availability. Now with Plasma Mode, anyone can deploy an OP Stack Chain with the data availability layer of their choosing, greatly reducing transaction costs while maintaining security.","For developers, Plasma Mode unlocks high-throughput applications with no need for a new programming language. It’s useful for a variety of onchain applications, including games which require speed and scalability.","Lattice is a core developer of the OP Stack and is closely aligned with Optimism and its vision for the Superchain, a growing network of L2s that share security, a communication layer, and an open source tech stack.","Lattice built Redstone and Plasma Mode after realizing that applications built with MUD, its Retro-Funded engine for onchain applications, would struggle to scale if deployed on traditional L2s, which are not optimized for the data usage and throughput required for most applications.","During the Race to Mainnet, Lattice collaborated with their launch teams to battle-test everything from user onboarding to UX to indexing to uptime.","Now, Plasma Mode is ready to be tested out by other OP Stack Chains – a win for core development and the Optimism Collective.","Late last year Vitalik wrote about why the time is right to re-explore Plasma design as a means to simplify the developer experience. OP Labs and Lattice had already seen the vision, and took it to heart by building out Plasma Mode and preparing it for Redstone and other OP Stack Chains.","As gaming continues to be an important onramp for blockchain developers and end-users alike, we see Redstone as a key part of the Superchain and Plasma Mode as a significant new feature.","To find out more about Redstone and the games it supports, check out their community site.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/redstone-mainnet-is-live-featuring-plasma-mode"},"/blog/minting-nfts-from-ethereum-or-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"Minting NFTs from Ethereum or OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"This guest post from Kiwi News discusses how to tap into Ethereum liquidity by making NFT minting available both on L1 and L2.","keywords":"","h1":["Minting NFTs from Ethereum or OP Mainnet"],"h2":["Technical details","Conclusion"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Tim Daubenschütz","April 16, 2024","Ethereum Mainnet still has the most ETH liquidity - as of writing, about 100X more than OP. At the same time, we all want users to engage with L2 smart contracts so they don’t pay a $50 gas fee for every simple action.","So, how could we tap into Mainnet liquidity while using L2 contracts to mint the NFT?","We faced exactly this dilemma with our project - Kiwi News. It’s a Hacker News-like link aggregator focused on crypto tech, products & culture content.","Kiwi is both an app and a protocol built on an algorithm similar to Farcaster's (it's called \"set reconciliation\"). This means that everyone can fork the Kiwi network and run their own app, accessing our content with different algorithms, moderation, and so on.","But to actually use the app for upvoting, submitting links, and commenting, our users must first buy our NFT. Just like you need to pay gas to send an Ethereum transaction or you have to pay when creating a Farcaster account on Kiwi News, you need to mint an OP NFT to engage.","But we actually didn’t start our NFT sale on OP Mainnet. Our NFT was first only available on Ethereum, but as it turned out, during the $PEPE mania, it cost $19 to mint our $15 NFT. So we decided to move to OP Mainnet.","And it did seem like a win-win: Our users paid less, and we earned the same amount and could technically even increase prices.","But we quickly learned that most people - even long-time Ethereum users - didn’t have money bridged to OP Mainnet. Of course, they could go to a bridge, but taking them off our website meant an overall lower sales conversion. And as the old distribution mantra says, you must “fish where the fish are.”","So, we decided to solve this problem by making our NFT minting available both on L1 and L2.","Here’s the issue: Our NFT contract is on L2, and only there is Zora’s mintWithRewards(...) function, which is callable to mint the NFT. Yet, a new Kiwi News user may only have funds on the Ethereum Mainnet.","If they have funds on the OP Mainnet, then that's great; they can just directly buy and mint the NFT.","However, if they have funds on the Ethereum Mainnet, we’ll have to get them to bridge these funds to the OP Mainnet first and, ideally, buy the NFT during the bridging process.","Now, under no circumstances would we want the user to sign multiple transactions, as this would lead to higher churn rates and it would make the overall process more cumbersome. Having to confirm multiple transactions in a row means a higher chance of things going wrong, which is why we started looking into ways to combine bridging and buying the NFT atomically.","So, let's dive into actual code now.","First of all, you have to understand that the Optimism system has APIs both on L1 and L2. You can, for example, call a contract on L2 to withdraw your funds into L1. Or you can call a function on L1 to deposit directly to the L2.","These interfaces are particularly useful in our case as the OptimismPortal (Etherscan, Source code) on Ethereum Mainnet has a function called OptimismPortal.depositTransaction(...):","Notice how depositTransaction(...)'s arguments seem similar to the naming of a regular Ethereum transaction? There’s the address to, the uint256 value, and a bytes memory data encoding the function call details. uint64 gasLimit is, no surprises here either, defining the maximum gas that transaction can use and bool isCreation whether bytes memory data shall create a new contract.","depositTransaction(...) 's arguments are similar because internally, during the bridging process, the OP mainnet node will send a transaction on the OP Mainnet with the respective parameters when the L1 caller’s bridging process succeeds.","This is particularly useful for us when wanting to both mint the NFT using Zora’s mintWithRewards(...) function on OP mainnet, but also allowing users to call this function from Ethereum mainnet without separate bridging and minting transactions.","So, let’s actually dive deeply into the code here. Below is the interface for our NFT collection contract on OP mainnet deployed via Zora:","The function requires an address recipient, the receiver of the NFT, a uint256 quantity to define how many NTFs should be minted, a string calldata comment for onchain comments and an address mintReferral to credit a referrer for recommending the mint.","So, assuming we take on the job of a front-end engineer tasked with building an NFT mint button that works both on OP mainnet and ETH mainnet, here's a step-by-step process on what we'd have to compute:","Check the user's ETH balance on OP Mainnet. If the user can afford to mint the NFT, prompt the user to call mintWithRewards(...) directly on Optimism.","If the user doesn't have enough ETH on OP Mainnet, check the user's Ethereum Mainnet balance. If the user cannot afford to buy the NFT on ETH mainnet, inform the user about it; otherwise, continue with step 3.","Now that we know that the user is going to mint the NFT from the ETH mainnet via the OptimismPortal, we'll have to prepare two ETH calls. One is for calling depositTransaction(...) on L1, and one is for calling mintWithRewards(...) on L2. We’ll pass the second call meant to be executed on the OP mainnet into depositTransaction(...)'s bytes memory data. Here’s how we do that:","3.1. We build the function call data for mintWithRewards(...) by collecting the inputs for the mintWithRewards(...) function on L2. We use ethers's interface.encodeFunctionData(name, [...inputs]) to package the call as a hex string.","3.2. For depositTransaction(...), we then select the function call's target as address to and we set uint256 value to the value of ETH we want to pass on to address to. As for uint64 gasLimit, we are supposed to simulate the cost of the ETH call on Optimism with the user's balance. However, the user's ETH balance is insufficient, remember? So any estimateGas call with the OP mainnet provider and the user's address will error.","Hence, we suggest discovering a static guestimate by, e.g., calling the mintWithRewards(...) function manually and use this value in the code.","As for the other arguments, bool isCreation is false and bytes memory data finally contains the call data generated in step 3.1.","3.3. Importantly, we'll have to deposit at least the amount of uint256 value or more as msg.value to the L1 call. This ensures that some Ether is being deposited into Optimism and made available for the mintWithRewards(...) call. We do this by setting msg.value to the value of price.","3.4. Finally, having all arguments assembled, we prompt the user to sign this transaction for the Ethereum mainnet.","And that's it! That’s what you have to do if you want to atomically mint an NFT on Optimism while provisioning the call directly from Ethereum mainnet.","While the code snippets aren’t exactly the production code that we use in Kiwi News, they’re very close to the code that we’ve open-sourced. You can find the full preparation sequence and more on our GitHub. And you can actually try this out directly by going to our NFT minting page.","Now, surely, using the OptimismPortal’s depositTransaction(...) function isn’t the only option for going from L1 to L2. At this point, there are many exchanges offering similar services, too. However, a specialty of the OP Portal is that it preserves the msg.sender of that address which signed and sent the transaction on ETH mainnet. This can be particularly important when your dapp relies on that address having to be legitimate.","When migrating our NFT from Ethereum to OP Mainnet, we needed a way to tap into L1 liquidity while still allowing all our users to mint it from OP Mainnet as well.","The OptimismPortal provides a convenient functionality to both bridge funds and execute an ETH call in a single atomic transaction, enabling a high chance of success when a user sends the call.","We detailed our React.js code, which checks both Ethereum and L2 balances to provide the right call for each user. If a user doesn’t have OP ETH, they get directly onboarded by bridging through the Portal.","In the future, we’re looking forward to more such exciting technical opportunities. For example, we’d love to be able to atomically tap into the liquidity of the Base chain with a similar Portal transaction as to make our code more easily callable for all Ethereum users.","We hope you’ve found this post helpful in your work. At Kiwi News, we’re always working towards serving the ecosystem with as much utility as we can—be that with the latest news, blog posts, or GitHub repositories. We would love to have you on board as a reader! Check us out at https://kiwinews.xyz.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/minting-nfts-from-ethereum-or-op-mainnet"},"/blog/permissionless-fault-proofs-and-stage-1-arrive-to-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Permissionless Fault Proofs and Stage 1 Arrive to the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"Governance-approved, permissionless fault proofs are live on OP Mainnet, and with them the OP Stack arrives at Stage 1. This is a monumental milestone for the Superchain","keywords":"","h1":["Permissionless Fault Proofs and Stage 1 Arrive to the OP Stack"],"h2":["Next stop: Stage 2"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","June 10, 2024","Governance-approved, permissionless fault proofs are live on OP Mainnet, and with them the OP Stack arrives at Stage 1. This is a monumental milestone for the Superchain, and soon more OP Stack Chains will upgrade to include this functionality, starting with Base, Metal, Mode, and Zora.","The permissionless Fault Proof System enables withdrawals of ETH and ERC-20 tokens from OP Mainnet to be initiated without involvement from any trusted third parties. It also means that invalid withdrawals can be challenged and removed by any user that wants to participate in the protocol. While participation in the Fault Proof System is permissionless, the Optimism Security Council retains the power to intervene and revert the system back to a permissioned state in the event of a failure in the system. Having this fallback is part of a responsible and safe rollout of the Fault Proof System, and we believe the Security Council meets the well-formed, industry-standard definition of Stage 1 from L2Beat.","However, the OP Stack does not arrive at Stage 1 with the implementation of fault proofs alone. Additional safeguards explicitly targeted at the system ensure the Security Council can act swiftly and effectively in the event of a bug. In the event that safeguards are activated, withdrawals will be reset, necessitating the reproving of all pending withdrawals. Security is the first consideration for everything built into the OP Stack, and these efforts, in conjunction with the fault proofs work, bring the OP Stack to Stage 1 capabilities.","In 2022, Vitalik outlined a framework for how L2s could slowly remove their training wheels and move towards full decentralization. It’s common for L2 projects to launch early, at various stages of development, and kickstart  an ecosystem before the security model is fully permissionless. As projects progress, they can take off their training wheels and advance from Stage 0, to Stage 1, to eventually Stage 2 decentralization.","Now that we’re confident in the Stage 1 security model, and the Security Council’s ability to keep the system secure in all events has been thoroughly reviewed by core dev teams and some of the ecosystem’s most respected and diligent security auditors, working towards Stage 2 is the next step. Next up: the audit of the Dispute Game itself, taking place in July.","But looking ahead, we must progress beyond Stage 1.","L2s launch at various stages of development, and it’s common for these projects to build their ecosystem and strengthen their code in tandem. As projects mature, so does their code, and their progress towards decentralization also evolves. The safety measures or “training wheels” that were in place in the early stages are no longer necessary.","Launching fault proofs on OP Mainnet, extending the functionality to other OP Stack Chains in the Superchain ecosystem, and achieving Stage 1 decentralization are important milestones – but the endgame is Stage 2 decentralization.","Today’s Fault Proof System lays the groundwork for achieving “multi-proof nirvana” – like the OP Stack itself, it is open-source and modular by design. This framework aims to enable the OP Stack to support multiple proof systems, including zero knowledge proofs, alongside the current system, Cannon. Productionizing redundant proving schemes to secure withdrawals from OP Stack Chains back to Ethereum enables limiting the Security Council's role to only choosing between proofs in the event that they disagree.","The Fault Proof System was built and tested by core development teams from across the Superchain, like OP Labs, Base, and Sunnyside Labs. This collaborative approach has made this launch possible. The fault proof proposal was also approved by Optimism's Token House and Citizens' House, passing Optimism governance's two-step approval process.","In the coming months, we seek to roll out additional proof systems, including Asterisc and Kona, on testnet. Proving out the reliability and robustness of these redundant proof schemes will help the Superchain reach Stage 2 decentralization.","We’re celebrating the launch of fault proofs, and the OP Stack’s arrival at Stage 1, and feeling optimistic about the Superchain’s path towards realizing a fully decentralized future.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/permissionless-fault-proofs-and-stage-1-arrive-to-the-op-stack"},"/blog/initial-findings-from-the-fault-proof-program-sherlock-audit":{"version":1,"title":"Initial findings from the fault proof program Sherlock audit - Optimism","description":"With the Sherlock audit contest completed, fault proofs are one step closer to OP Mainnet! This post covers initial contest results and next steps.","keywords":"","h1":["Initial findings from the fault proof program Sherlock audit"],"h2":["Audit status update","A special thank you","Next Steps"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","April 26, 2024","Our Sherlock audit contest has entered the escalation period and fault proofs are officially one step closer to OP Mainnet! In the meantime, we wanted to share some information about the initial contest results and next steps on our path to Stage 1.","On March 27, we began a Sherlock audit contest for the proposed OP Stack fault proof system. This contest focused primarily on (1) the key safety mechanisms that allow the Optimism Security Council to recover from errors in the fault proof system, and (2) the points where the fault proof is being integrated into existing contracts.","We’re happy to report that no critical vulnerabilities that would be able to bypass the safety mechanisms were reported during the audit. We plan to publish a complete audit recap once the escalation period has ended and final issue severity/validity determinations are made by Sherlock.","We also want to give a special thank you to the team at Offchain Labs for reporting two issues in the [FaultDisputeGame] contract prior to the start of the Sherlock audit contest. Both issues concerned an error where the FaultDisputeGame contract did not correctly implement the specification for the \"chess clock\" logic used during game resolution.","Let’s take a brief look at the underlying bug:","Our fault proof system pits two “teams” against one another — the defending team (which agrees with the original claim) and the attacking team (which disagrees with the original claim). Each team is given a “chess clock” of sorts that keeps track of the amount of time that the team has to participate in the game. The bug reported by Offchain Labs demonstrated that an error in the chess clock logic meant that a claim could be resolved when one team ran out of time even if the other team still had time left on their clock. This meant that the opposing team wouldn’t be given a chance to respond even though they still should’ve had plenty of time to do so.","The impact of this bug is that a team could incorrectly “win” the FaultDisputeGame contract and prove that an invalid claim was valid or that a valid claim was invalid. Although this bug would have been detected and caught by the safety nets in place for the current fault proof system, it would have forced the Optimism Security Council to temporarily pause withdrawals while the bug was being fixed, likely creating headaches for users of the OP Stack.","These issues were fixed as part of PR #10148 in the Optimism monorepo. Offchain Labs additionally reported a duplicate of an existing public report that can be found here on GitHub and was fixed in PR #10248. We greatly appreciate that Offchain Labs was willing to take a look at our proof system.","Fixes for all issues reported during the Sherlock audit have been merged into the develop branch of the Optimism monorepo and have been deployed to the OP Sepolia testnet as of today.","We plan to follow this post with a complete recap of the issues reported during the audit after the escalation period comes to a close. Stay tuned as we get closer to making a governance proposal for the inclusion of these changes on OP Mainnet!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/initial-findings-from-the-fault-proof-program-sherlock-audit"},"/blog/welcoming-l3s-to-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Welcoming L3s to the Superchain - Optimism","description":"The Optimism Collective holds a shared, long-standing commitment to scaling Ethereum. From our technology stack to our values structure, it’s core to everything we do","keywords":"","h1":["Welcoming L3s to the Superchain"],"h2":["Launching Custom Gas Tokens to Fuel L3s","Plasma Mode","L3s and the Superchain Future"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 8, 2024","The Optimism Collective holds a shared, long-standing commitment to scaling Ethereum. From our technology stack to our values structure, it’s core to everything we do. The OP Stack, the open standard codebase that powers development on the Superchain, isn’t limited to L2 chain deployers and app builders; it can also be leveraged by an ecosystem of L3s.","Our vision and the definition of the Superchain is expanding as a network of chains that share an open-source tech stack and contribute revenue to the Optimism Collective. We’re excited to share that those who build an L3 with the OP Stack can also join the Superchain. Like L2s, L3s can join the Superchain by building on the OP Stack and contributing a portion of their revenue back to the Collective. Chains that have committed to the Superchain not only have access to a values-aligned network of builders, but they’re also able to tap into a wide variety of benefits, including eligibility for Retro Funding, Airdrops, and Superchain developer grant programs. Although they are part of the Superchain, these chains deviate from standard configurations of the OP Stack, which will have an impact on how we can roll out features like interoperability to them. We will share more in the near future–but in the meantime, there has been a significant desire for L3s to want to build on OP Stack, and we want to embrace their enthusiasm for joining the ever-growing Superchain ecosystem.","As the Optimism ecosystem grows, so does the demand for flexible, customizable tech. Scalability is about making blockchain technology more accessible to more builders and consumers. If developers can build scalable applications, they can reach more users without excessively increasing their costs or needing to multiply their resources.","L3s can provide application developers and those who want to deploy their own blockchain with a new, more cost-effective way to build within the Superchain ecosystem. We’re already seeing this trend with Base, which has rapidly expanded support for L3s building on top of it.","Now, the entire Superchain ecosystem can benefit from Optimism’s commitment to the burgeoning L3 ecosystem, with even more developers able to leverage the power of the OP Stack. Today, we’re sharing how we’re supporting L3s.","One of the most highly requested features for L3s are custom gas tokens. This feature is in final development stages and will be rolled out soon.","Custom gas tokens are compelling because they allow developers to use an L2 token as the native gas token for an L3. Projects that have built communities around their existing L2 native token can now evolve their community into a thriving L3 ecosystem utilizing their token as the gas token. This also lowers onboarding costs for new users - rather than needing to onramp by performing an expensive L1 transaction depositing gas tokens into the L2, on-ramping to an L3 can be as simple as performing a cheap L2 deposit transaction into the L3.","Data availability (DA) layer optionality is another key building block for developers spinning up low-cost chains.","Even when using alternative DA layers, OP Stack chains must still post both data commitments and output roots to their settlement layer. Because L3s only have to submit transactions to L2 – this can be cheaper than having to submit to Ethereum Mainnet – the costs to submit data commitments and output roots can be reduced. This means that the fixed overhead cost to operate an L3 can be less than the fixed overhead cost to operate an L2.","Low overhead costs give L3 teams an even more accessible option for deploying on the OP Stack.","Just last week, Lattice launched Redstone, the first OP Stack Chain with Plasma Mode, an alternative data availability protocol (altDA) and a key feature for the OP Stack. The goal of Plasma Mode is to allow anyone to deploy an OP Stack Chain with the data availability layer of their choosing, sustainably reducing transaction costs while minimizing security tradeoffs. And for developers, Plasma Mode unlocks high-throughput applications with no need for a new programming language.","Plasma Mode development continues, with a focus on integrating multiple data availability layers. We expect L3s to experiment heavily with Plasma Mode.","Looking ahead, this opens a framework for L3 developers to participate in the Superchain ecosystem by helping to shape the future of scalability, while benefiting from the contributions of other builders as well.","We see L3s as an important part of making the Superchain accessible to development teams with varying needs and resources. Supporting key features that empower developers to spin up L3s is an important part of our roadmap.","For developers building on the OP Stack, it’s choose your own adventure: deploy your dapp on an OP Stack Chain, launch your own dedicated L2 or L3 network, or work with an infrastructure partner, or RaaS provider to build your blockchain.","The Superchain is home to a deep well of resources for Web3 developers of all stripes, and we’re excited to welcome L3s into the fold.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/welcoming-l3s-to-the-superchain"},"/blog/the-fault-proof-system-is-available-for-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"The Fault Proof System is available for the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"This post outlines the key features and benefits of fault proofs, details its rollout plan, and offers a glimpse of what's next on the path of technical decentralization.","keywords":"","h1":["The Fault Proof System is available for the OP Stack"],"h2":["The Fault Proof System for securing withdrawals","Forward to Stage 2: Shipping alternate fault proofs","Responsible rollout","Breaking changes to withdrawal flow"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","June 10, 2024","OP Labs is helping the Optimism Collective advance towards technical decentralization as detailed in our long-term decentralization strategy. We've recently updated on our progress on baseline decentralization and are excited to announce another major milestone – governance-approved, permissionless fault proofs are live on OP Mainnet. This advancement helps bring the OP Stack to Stage 1 decentralization and takes a substantial step towards reaching Stage 2.","The feature-complete Fault Proof System enhances the security of bridged ETH and ERC-20 tokens with features paving the way for full decentralization.","Improved trust model","The permissionless Fault Proof System enables users to withdraw ETH and ERC-20 tokens from L2 to L1 without the need to involve any trusted third party like the sequencer or any other centralized infrastructure.","This means withdrawals no longer depend on the privileged proposer role posting an output root. Instead, anyone can now publish an output proposal via the fault dispute system. An output proposal makes a claim about the state of L2. Once finalized, this claim can then be used to facilitate withdrawals without any privileged actions, assuming the Security Council override.","Anyone can contribute to security","Invalid proposals can be challenged and removed by any user that wants to participate in the protocol.","Dispute games provide a mechanism that determines the validity of output proposals. Anyone can challenge the validity of an output proposal by participating in its associated dispute game. Each action requires a bond in ETH to be placed and dishonest bonds are paid out to cover the honest bonders’ gas costs.","Security Council as a safety net","As outlined in Vitalik Buterin's vision, of a rollup decentralization path, there can exist temporary training wheels, a safety mechanism which can override the Fault Proof System in case of emergency. This led to the launch of the permissionless Fault Proof System, with Optimism Collective's Security Council acting as a fallback. With a signing threshold of 75% it can intervene during failures in the Fault Proof System or manual upgrades.","The system reduces the trust assumption and paves the way for full decentralization. The OP Labs team’s roadmap aims for Stage 2 decentralization for the OP Stack, removing training wheels when the technology is proven secure.","Modular design for multi-proof nirvana","The modular nature of the Fault Proof System enables the integration of additional proving mechanisms, building a solid basis for a future multi-proof system. Thanks to a smart contract framework included in this upgrade, additional proof systems can be added easily.","Working in unison, these proofs will provide an enhanced layer of security when in production. This will further reduce trust assumptions in later upgrades as the OP Stack moves towards achieving Stage 2 decentralization.","The ultimate goal of the OP Stack's Fault Proof System is a multi-proof nirvana that will eliminate the dependency of L2s on training wheels. As more proof systems are established to support each other, the OP Stack can fully trust its proofs, with the Security Council needed only in case of disagreement among proofs.","With the first Fault Proof System in production, we anticipate more alternate versions of fault proofs shortly. Given the open-source nature of the OP Stack, several other proving mechanisms are concurrently being developed by teams such as State Channels, RISCZero, O(1) Labs, AltLayer, Sunnyside Labs, and individuals like Andreas Bigger, Ben Clabby, Proto Lambda (at OP Labs), and Chainsafe engineers Willem Olding and Eric Tu.","The design philosophy of the OP Stack has always prioritized fundamental safety mechanisms. Each component undergoes rigorous security checks before being added to the OP Stack. This is why we’ve been rolling out fault proofs incrementally, including a lot of internal deployments, the public Fault Proof Alpha release, and upgrading OP Sepolia. Additionally, OP Labs ran a Sherlock bug hunt contest focused on the safety nets and overrides — the components of the Fault Proof System for which safety is of existential importance.","To maintain the safety of the current Fault Proof System, we have included a number of explicit fallback mechanisms that the Security Council can easily activate in the event of component failure — particularly, the ability for the Security Council to pause withdrawals or fall back to a permissioned dispute game. A new Deputy Guardian role was introduced for rapid response to incidents by the Foundation. However, the Guardian, held by the Security Council, can remove this role if needed, so the ultimate authority now lies with the more decentralized Security Council. This ensures that security response protocols can be executed with minimal effort and maximal impact, as quickly as possible, while ultimate control over the Guardian function lives with the Security Council.","The Fault Proof System is complex, and establishing confidence in the code's correctness will take time. Launching with limited training wheels in production is a necessary step for ensuring code quality before removing safeguards. As part of our proactive approach to this challenge, we've updated our bug bounty program, recognizing the value of collective effort in identifying and reporting potential issues.","Since significant changes are being made to withdrawals in order to implement permissionless fault proofs on OP Mainnet, some breaking changes impacting bridges, CEXs, and custom withdrawal solutions are introduced with the upgrade. Visit the Optimism Developer Docs to learn about these changes, how to handle them, and how to get additional support.","Now that the permissionless Fault Proof System is live on OP Mainnet, the next step is to bring fault proofs to Superchain mainnets. Base, Metal, Mode, Zora, and other OP Stack chains will also eventually upgrade to include this functionality. Stay tuned for more updates!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-fault-proof-system-is-available-for-the-op-stack"},"/blog/unpacking-progress-in-baseline-decentralization":{"version":1,"title":"Unpacking progress in baseline decentralization - Optimism","description":"This post details the latest baseline decentralization upgrades - including permissionless output proposals, bridge improvements, and permissioned roles updates","keywords":"","h1":["Unpacking progress in baseline decentralization"],"h2":["Baseline decentralization at a glance","Continuing the journey to technical decentralization"],"h3":["Permissionless output proposals","Bridge improvements","Security Council overrides"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","June 3, 2024","Engineers at OP Labs and core developers across the Optimism Collective are continuing on a secure and pragmatic path to tech decentralization. During the Keys in Mordor summit, the team identified several protocol upgrades to help advance the OP Stack along the decentralization spectrum. These upgrades are coined as 'baseline decentralization' and the teams have worked towards them over the past year. Significant progress has been made, and we're eager to share the updates that bring us closer to a more decentralized future.","Baseline decentralization is a project that primarily consists of two key components. The first one is the implementation of permissionless output proposals, allowing users to withdraw without relying on the sequencer or any other centralized infrastructure. The second one involves changes to the bridge, specifically protocol upgrades that decentralize custody of the bridge upgrade keys and enable permissionless output proposals.","Permissionless output proposals (PoPs) allow users to withdraw assets from L2 to L1 without relying on the sequencer or any other centralized infrastructure, permissionlessly. However, the Security Council will still have override capabilities in order to handle bugs, including the ability to revert to permissioned output proposals in the worst case scenario.","Prior to PoPs, output proposals were provided by the L2OutputOracle contract, which was restricted to authorized entities and could only be published by a dedicated address. With PoPs, anyone can create an output proposals by interacting with the DisputeGameFactory contract. To propose an output means to create and participate in a dispute game. An output proposal makes a claim about the state of L2. Once finalized, this claim can then be used to facilitate withdrawals. With PoPs, there can be multiple output proposals, each corresponding to distinct dispute games, made by anyone. The dispute game determines the validity of output proposals. To discourage invalid output proposals, an output must be bonded such that the proposer is only refunded if the proposal is deemed valid. Anyone can challenge the validity of an output proposal by participating in its associated dispute game, with the proposal bond as the reward if successful.","PoPs will be forwards-compatible with future dispute protocols, including potentially ones based on zero-knowledge proofs. The DisputeGameFactory can work with multiple types of games, only requiring that the game exposes a simple interface (IDisputeGame) to communicate the game status, metadata and outcome. The current implementation (FaultDisputeGame) uses an interactive fault proof mechanism, but in the future a ZK-based implementation could be used.","The existing architecture of the bridge included two-step withdrawals, message replayability, 1:1 mapping between domains, single storage proof, similar code paths on L1 and L2, and compatibility with ETH, ERC20, and ERC721 tokens.","The OptimismPortal bridge contract is upgraded to utilize dispute games. Users will still need to confirm the inclusion of withdrawals in an output root through the proveWithdrawalTransaction function. However, users will now need to prove their withdrawals against proposals stored in the DisputeGameFactory instead of the L2OutputOracle contract.","The process of finalizing withdrawals in the upgraded OptimismPortal is similar to the current bridging process. First, a withdrawal is proven to the OptimismPortal contract by showing that it is included within a proposal about the state of the L2 (and therefore also associating it with a dispute game). A withdrawal becomes finalized as long as it has waited for a certain amount of time and the associated dispute game resolves in favor of the output proposal.","The following diagram summarizes the withdraw finalization delay.","From a user perspective, the changes enable them to submit a claim to L1 that they can withdraw, and a modular proving system can dispute or validate that claim. A claim is valid if there is no dispute through the fault proof window, or, potentially in the future, instant validation when the OP Stack has validity proofs. The process of submitting a claim requires a bond, meaning the proposals are staked. Users can retrieve this bond after the finalization period, provided the claim is determined to be valid. In other words, the claim has not been challenged or has been provably attested.","The introduced changes bring certain improvements to the bridge. However, it's not completely decentralized as there exist certain privileged actions that the Security Council is able to perform.","The Security Council can act when there's a critical issue in the dispute system, such as an invalid game result. Namely, the ability to blacklist dispute games, and revert output proposals to require a permissioned dispute game, where only a permissioned set of actors will have the ability to participate in dispute games.","As part of decentralizing the Security Council, a new Deputy Guardian role was introduced for rapid response to incidents by the Foundation. However, the Guardian, held by the Security Council, can remove this role if needed, so the ultimate authority now lies with the more decentralized Security Council.","Bridge improvements and permissionless output proposals are already live on the OP Sepolia testnet and are pending governance approval to be shipped to OP Mainnet, along with an upgrade of Fault Proofs. The changes introduced in this baseline decentralization stream reflect our strategic approach and ongoing efforts towards achieving our long-term tech decentralization roadmap.","Stay tuned for more updates on our journey towards a more decentralized future!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/unpacking-progress-in-baseline-decentralization"},"/blog/building-a-unified-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Building a unified Superchain - Optimism","description":"Optimism began with a single chain – an L2 called OP Mainnet – a single team, and a single dream: to scale Ethereum","keywords":"","h1":["Building a unified Superchain"],"h2":["Growing the Superchain with clarity and confidence","Making the Superchain interoperable","Advancing tech decentralization","Forging a superior infrastructure"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","August 5, 2024","Optimism began with a single chain – an L2 called OP Mainnet – a single team, and a single dream: to scale Ethereum. Watching Optimism grow is perhaps the greatest privilege: today, we are lucky to count dozens of values-aligned organizations as members of the Optimism Collective. Over 20 OP Stack Chains have committed to joining the Superchain vision, each contributing revenue towards the Collective’s shared initiatives. With over 39% of all L2 transactions in July, the Superchain is making significant progress toward a future where an abundance of blockchain infrastructure can support internet-level usage.","From its inception, the Superchain was envisioned as a unified, cohesive network of chains. But what does this really mean? As Ethereum goes “multi-chain,” new challenges emerge, and it’s the Superchain’s mission to solve them.","Let’s talk about some of those challenges, and the upcoming steps to ensure that we scale together, not apart.","The modular, open source nature of the OP Stack allows developers to customize their chain to suit their specific needs. Permissionless innovation is a superpower of the OP Stack, but it also introduces heterogeneity risk: different OP Stack configurations result in different security models, operation costs, and more. It's crucial for users and developers to understand these differences, so that they can make secure and informed decisions across the Superchain.","This year, we are doubling down on ensuring that tradeoffs made across the Superchain are as accessible, transparent, and reliable as possible. In particular, we are introducing the Superchain Registry – an information hub providing thorough actionable information for every chain in the Superchain. The Superchain Registry will provide a source of truth for the configuration, security, and policy choices made across the Superchain, making it easier to discover, assess, and utilize different chains.","In tandem, we’ll introduce Blockspace Charters–a powerful new framework which gives Optimism Governance the tools to make informed decisions about protocol upgrades, taking into account the potential differences between different kinds of chains, and grouping similar chains together.","The Superchain Registry will make it dead-simple for users and developers to know which chains are suitable for them. Blockspace Charters will allow Optimism Governance to implement protocol upgrades which apply specifically to chains that share a certain configuration, leveraging their specific security/cost tradeoffs for maximum benefit.","The story doesn’t end there. Being able to group different types of chains together, and guaranteeing their uniformity with shared upgrades, sets the stage for realizing another key piece of our vision for the Superchain.","As the number of chains increases, composability between applications is reduced. Moving assets between chains quickly and safely can be challenging; users need to find a bridge application, hope it works, and then potentially wait for lengthy time periods before assets are received on the other side. Beyond asset bridging, it’s incredibly difficult to build apps which coordinate across multiple networks, especially when they need to communicate quickly and securely.","In the Optimistic future, we envision a unified Superchain with both the scalability of parallel chains and the composability of a single blockchain. To accomplish this, we're building a native Interoperability standard which allows fault proofs over multiple chains at once. This facilitates secure, rapid cross-chain communication – significantly enhancing economic efficiency and unlocking new multi-chain application use cases – without introducing fundamentally new security assumptions.","To support this, we are enhancing the overall multi-chain development experience by designing a set of tools to empower app developers to deploy efficiently using native Interop. We will introduce a comprehensive multi-chain dev environment with the abstractions and reference implementations that developers need to get started building interoperable apps.","We are also developing frameworks for asynchronous communication to simplify the use of Interop capabilities and integrate relayers, intents, and more.","Earlier this summer, we launched permissionless fault proofs on OP Mainnet, bringing the OP Stack to Stage 1 decentralization. Currently, other OP Stack chains are upgrading to include the fault proof functionality. By adhering to the OP Stack standard configuration, these chains can seamlessly benefit from upgrades, which brings them closer to native Interoperability, unlock the network effect, and move them towards true decentralization.","Furthering decentralization, we aim to build redundancy in our Fault Proof System by adding a second proof system. It will consist of a new open-source, Rust-based Fault Proof Program Kona and a new Fault Proof Virtual Machine Asterisc, built by OP Stack core contributors – the OP Labs team, the Reth team at Paradigm, and Sunnyside Labs.","By ensuring a certain level of homogeneity among all chains and enhancing composability with a native Interoperability standard, we are paving the way for a scalable decentralized compute platform. These efforts aim to ensure that the users, developers, and assets move seamlessly and securely across the Superchain, bringing us closer to our vision of a decentralized internet built on superior infrastructure.","We have many other features, improvements, and tools in the pipeline, but these are some of the big rocks you'll see moving.","Stay tuned, and, as always--","Stay Optimistic!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/building-a-unified-superchain"},"/blog/solving-interoperability-for-the-superchain-and-beyond":{"version":1,"title":"Solving Interoperability for the Superchain and beyond - Optimism","description":"This blog post details our approach to unifying the Superchain by bringing native Interoperability to the OP Stack and enhancing UX across the Ethereum ecosystem","keywords":"","h1":["Solving Interoperability for the Superchain and beyond"],"h2":["Multi-chain hurdles","Unlocking the largest network effect","A universal standard for interoperability","Roadmap to an interoperable Superchain","Enhancing Ethereum UX: Protocol and app layer Interop synergy","Fueling the Superchain growth"],"h3":["Milestone 1: Devnet launch","Milestone 2: Testnet launch","Milestone 3: Native Interop on mainnet","Facilitating horizontal scalability"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","August 12, 2024","As blockchain technology becomes more widely adopted, bolstering the overall user experience is needed to support and accelerate this growth. Ethereum should evolve to a point where users can focus on their tasks without worrying about which chain they are on. When using a web2 application, users don't think about which cloud provider they are using; they just use the app. This approach enables scalability to billions of people worldwide.","The Superchain needs to feel like one chain. The aim is to build a unified Superchain where users, assets, and developers move seamlessly across the network and beyond. By bringing native Interoperability to the OP Stack and leveraging the use of open source standard interfaces, UX in the Ethereum ecosystem can become more intuitive and secure.","Currently, chains in the Superchain have to rely on L1 Ethereum to securely communicate with each other and move assets and data between them, which is expensive and slow. This leads to the fragmentation of assets, users, and developers, scattering growth opportunities across disparate chains. This siloed ecosystem hinders accessibility and innovation for all participants.","From the developer perspective, they experience the \"cold start\" problem of scaling and growing their chain, managing costly multi-chain infrastructure. They also struggle to create smooth app UX due to complex network switching functionalities. Poor UX and high costs create barriers that significantly hinder the overall app adoption rate.","If chains were cities, today, they would have unpaved roads between them – making it difficult for everyone to exchange goods and drive growth.","Just as highways facilitated the transportation of goods and led to rapid advancements for the cities, similarly, native Interoperability will allow each chain in the Superchain to tap into the unified resources and grow exponentially.","Interoperability will make assets and users fungible and portable, meaning they will be accessible from anywhere in the Superchain through apps that integrate the feature. Interoperability will unify assets and data in the Superchain, providing developers with a seamless way to solve for the existing fragmentation.","With Interoperability on mainnet next year, data and assets will move between chains without needing to go through L1. This is a stepping stone towards horizontally scaling Ethereum and unlocking a massive network effect. As developers get familiar with native Interoperability, this feature will likely open up new use cases that will further fuel the Superchain network effect.","Existing messaging and intent protocols can use native Interop to improve the economics, latency, and security for Superchain-related routes, such as sending data between OP Mainnet and Mode.","A multi-chain structure of the Superchain requires advanced technical capabilities to ensure a secure communication layer within the platform. This layer will comprise the message passing protocol, the Superchain token standard, interop fault proof, and a set of interoperable chains.","The message passing protocol allows creating and sending cross-chain messages. A total of two events are required to complete a cross chain message – an initiating transaction on the source chain and executing transaction on the destination chain.","The SuperchainERC20 is a universal token standard for the OP Stack – a minimal extension to the ERC20 standard that enables cross chain portability and fungibility across the Superchain. Without a standardized security model, bridged assets may not be fungible with each other. SuperchainERC20 builds on top of the message passing protocol as the most trust minimized bridging solution, and is the universal token standard for the OP Stack.","The interop fault proof is a shared proof system for chains in the Superchain. The security of the chains are tied together, a fundamental property to support fungible assets throughout the Superchain.","The interoperable chain set comprises chains with configured “dependencies” – other chains they read data from. As an example, OP Mainnet reads data from Mode and Base. Mode reads data from Base and OP Mainnet. Base reads data from OP Mainnet and Mode. Together, these three chains form an interoperable chain set.","Interop is being built in the public: you can dive deeper into tech details in the Specs and join our discussion.","The following outlines the path towards bringing native Interoperability to the OP Stack.","The devnet for the message passing protocol is preparing for its upcoming launch. Once it's live, you’ll be able to spin up the devnet with Interop enabled and see how it works. Updates will be shipped to the devnet iteratively, and feedback is welcome throughout the process.","Upon completion of the devnet phase, the initial interop chain set is expected to be defined. Following this, the testnet for the message passing protocol and token standard will be launched. Tools will also be provided to enable app developers to use Interop for moving assets and messages between interoperable chains. Existing intent and messaging protocols are encouraged to integrate native Interop to facilitate app dev experimentation.","The anticipated mainnet launch will enable developers and users to access Superchain assets and apps within the interoperable chain set in less than 2 seconds, within a single block. Intent and messaging protocols will update to use native Interop to provide a single interface to move assets on the Superchain and broader Ethereum.","In the long run, the focus will be on enabling broad scalability by designing horizontally scalable modular smart contract systems and using zk-proofs to relax dependency set constraints in the future with continuous real-time proving. The goal is to replace blockspace scarcity with abundance, providing app devs with a myriad of opportunities to build and drive innovation.","The tech vision focuses on solving interoperability not only for the Superchain but also for broader Ethereum to ensure a consistent user experience across different ecosystems. This will be achieved by building a native protocol layer for Interoperability within the Superchain and leveraging the use of open-source standard interfaces like ERC-7683 to enable app layer Interop.","Solving interoperability this way enables token transfers across all ecosystems but with lower slippage, faster latency, and more security within the Superchain. We're not just connecting the Superchain – we're unlocking true interoperability within the entire Ethereum ecosystem. This approach creates a more connected, efficient, and user-friendly blockchain landscape where assets and information can flow freely between different networks.","The implementation of native Interoperability across the Superchain will bring transformative benefits for all network participants. Chain operators will benefit from getting access to shared users, assets, and devs. Benefits also include shared upgrades, improvements, and products that boost security and cost-efficiency. Devs will have access to various tools to facilitate seamless and secure cross-chain interactions. Users will say goodbye to bridging and network switching, and focus on exploring hundreds of apps available in the Superchain.","Stay tuned for more updates on Interop and our ongoing progress!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/solving-interoperability-for-the-superchain-and-beyond"},"/blog/how-(and-why)-the-superchain-drives-fees-to-the-optimism-collective":{"version":1,"title":"How (and why) the Superchain drives fees to the Optimism Collective - Optimism","description":"The Superchain is pioneering a new, shared approach to scaling Ethereum’s tech and values in a sustainable way that benefits all builders.","keywords":"","h1":["How (and why) the Superchain drives fees to the Optimism Collective"],"h2":["Where do sequencer fees go?","Shared commitments, shared benefits"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","August 26, 2024","The Superchain is pioneering a new, shared approach to scaling Ethereum’s tech and values in a sustainable way that benefits all builders.","The definition of the Superchain is simple: a network of blockchains built on a common standard codebase that share security, governance, and values. The Superchain is a positive-sum network; the success of any single chain benefits all chains in the ecosystem.","Today, every OP Chain in the Superchain operates under a standardized revenue sharing model, ensuring all chains contribute fairly and equitably, with no exceptions or special treatment. According to the Standard Rollup Charter, each chain commits a portion of their revenue back to the Optimism Collective through a fee split that is adhered to across the network. The fee split is calculated as the greater of either 2.5% of chain revenue or 15% of onchain profit, defined as fee revenue minus L1 gas fees.","To date, the Optimism Collective has generated over 14,000 ETH in revenue, and that number continues to grow as the Superchain gets bigger. Anyone can track the latest contribution data here. Over the coming months, more surfaces across the industry will show the Superchain as an aggregate as opposed to standalone chains, as we begin laying the foundation for our upcoming interoperability work.","By maintaining this uniform revenue sharing system, the Superchain upholds its commitment to decentralization and collective growth, ensuring that the contributions from each chain fuel the perpetual funding of public goods and ecosystem development. Together, OP Chains in the Superchain ecosystem have the power to support and sustain the Collective and grow Ethereum to internet-level scale.","The OP Stack is an MIT-licensed public good to the core. Anyone in the world can clone, fork, or deploy it, free of charge, and without permission. So why do chains like Base, Mode, Worldcoin, Zora, and all others in the Superchain choose to contribute shared revenue? The answer lies in the network structure designed to benefit the entire Collective, so that they want to opt in to access shared governance, shared upgrades and security, and ecosystem funding.","Let’s break down how the Superchain revenue sharing model works and support the Collective as a whole.","The most impactful thing that the Optimism Collective can do is to create a self-sufficient, self-sustaining economic model – a flywheel – that scales Ethereum and the open web.","The sequencer revenue collected from OP Chains flows back to the Optimism Collective to grow the Superchain. This revenue is currently not allocated for any specific programs, because initiatives like Retro Funding and the Collective’s grants programs are currently well set-up to deliver tokens to builders who create impact and adoption. In the future, Optimism Governance will determine how the revenue contributions from the Superchain’s OP Chains are used. All together, these programs are designed to create a powerful flywheel that sustains and grows the Superchain economy.","Already, Optimism Governance has given millions of OP back to developers. Whether you’re thinking of launching an app on a chain, or deciding to build your own chain, all OP Chains in the Superchain - and the developers that build on top of them - are eligible to apply for multiple grants programs designed to reward impactful contributions across the Collective.","Demand to join the Superchain has never been higher, and that’s because projects have a lot to gain. Each team is building a part of something bigger than any individual project, and the success of any one chain benefits all. The combined engineering efforts of Superchain teams have allowed Optimism to outpace the competition and propel the OP Stack forward.","Shared upgrades and a shared standard mean improvements impact everyone in the Superchain. The Optimistic vision is a unified Superchain with both the scalability of parallel chains and the composability of a single blockchain. Native Interoperability coming to the Superchain can bring transformative benefits for all network participants, including shared upgrades and products that enhance security and efficiency.","Together, we can scale and decentralize more quickly and sustainably than if we do it alone. We’re grateful for all of the contributors who’ve shared our vision thus far, and look forward to growing the Superchain for years to come.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/how-(and-why)-the-superchain-drives-fees-to-the-optimism-collective"},"/blog/welcoming-unichain-to-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Welcoming Unichain to the Superchain - Optimism","description":" Uniswap Labs, Uniswap Foundation, and Optimism are excited to announce the launch of Unichain, an L2 purpose-built for DeFi, exclusively on the OP Stack – now live","keywords":"","h1":["Welcoming Unichain to the Superchain"],"h2":["Unichain, powered by the OP Stack","The Superchain gains another unicorn","Building together to grow the Superchain"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","October 10, 2024","Uniswap Labs, Uniswap Foundation, and Optimism are excited to announce the launch of Unichain, an L2 purpose-built for DeFi, exclusively on the OP Stack – now live on testnet.","Optimism’s mission has always been to scale Ethereum, and a critical component of that effort has been continuing to expand the Superchain. With nearly half of all L2 transactions now powered by Optimism’s OP Stack, it has clearly emerged as the leading shared standard for scaling Ethereum.","As part of the Superchain, Unichain joins a network of the most prominent blockchains all built on a common standard codebase that share security, governance, and values. Like all OP Chains in the Superchain, Unichain will contribute the greater of 2.5% of chain profit or 15% of chain revenue back to the Optimism Collective.","Unichain will also participate in Optimism Governance, and support core development that will benefit all developers on the OP Stack. Unichain developers will benefit from access to incentives like Retro Funding, a reward mechanism that drives the growth of the Optimism ecosystem.","Together, we’ll shape the future of the Optimism Collective. Together, we’ll scale Ethereum.","Uniswap Labs skyrocketed to DeFi dominance over the past several years, but wanted to scale Ethereum further with more blockspace, faster speeds, and lower gas fees. In order to meet the sophisticated demands of today’s always-on DeFi ecosystem, Uniswap Labs began to explore the potential for launching an L2.","Powering nearly half of all L2 transactions on Ethereum, the OP Stack is the most trusted codebase for chain developers. Its battle-tested, open-source technology, paired with the Superchain’s network effects, governance and interop roadmap, made Optimism the ideal place for Uniswap Labs to build for the future, where abundant blockspace powers a better internet.","Unichain opens the door for DeFi developers of all types to bring their applications onchain with new features and tooling.  This paves the way for Unichain to support use cases like prediction markets, borrowing and lending, real-world assets, and consumer financial apps.","Unichain prioritizes the needs of DeFi users from day one, and the Superchain is a ready-made home for DeFi applications of all types.","Unichain is part of the Superchain’s path to interoperability, and will support ERC20s that are Superchain interop compatible.","When Superchain interop goes live, data and assets will move between OP Chains without needing to go through L1, unifying liquidity and helping developers solve for existing fragmentation. This stepping stone towards horizontally scaling Ethereum will unlock a new network effect for all Superchain participants.","Unichain will be the first OP Stack L2 to launch with 1-second block times. Uniswap Labs is also working with Flashbots to develop a new TEE-based block builder that reduces Unichain confirmation times from 1 second to 250 milliseconds. This massive UX improvement will provide Unichain users with experiences that feel instant. Over time, these reduced block times will be available across the Superchain - a request we’ve heard from developers across the ecosystem, and an experience that will benefit all OP Chains.","This system follows the rules of priority ordering, helping applications internalize MEV and protect users. Finally, it will help pave the way to sequencer hardening to protect against extraction of MEV.","Coinbase, Sony, Worldcoin, and Uniswap all have chosen Optimism as their home, leveraging the OP Stack for their blockchains. This makes the OP Stack the most commonly adopted shared standard for scaling Ethereum. All of these teams are building on the Superchain for its shared standards and values, and for the opportunity to contribute to a Collective powering an internet built by all, and owned by all. It’s a positive-sum ecosystem, where the success of one chain benefits everyone.","We’re thrilled to welcome Unichain to the Superchain ecosystem to work together in decentralizing the global finance system.","To learn more about Unichain, visit unichain.org.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/welcoming-unichain-to-the-superchain"},"/blog/welcoming-ink-to-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Welcoming Ink to the Superchain - Optimism","description":"Today we’re excited to welcome Kraken to the Superchain with Ink: a blockchain powered by the OP Stack.","keywords":"","h1":["Welcoming Ink to the Superchain"],"h2":["Ink: an onramp to the onchain future","Inking the Superchain future together","What’s Next for Ink and the Superchain"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","October 24, 2024","Today we’re excited to welcome Kraken to the Superchain with Ink: a blockchain powered by the OP Stack.","Ink offers secure and seamless access to compelling, streamlined DeFi experiences for an ever-growing community of crypto users.","With 10 million users in 180+ countries, Kraken is one of the world’s largest digital asset exchanges and most respected brands in crypto. Ink’s commitment to the Superchain is a big win for the entire ecosystem.","Rather than compete or create fragmentation with a siloed network, Kraken decided to release Ink on the Superchain: a positive-sum ecosystem powered by Optimism’s open-source tech stack and unified by a global vision to scale Ethereum.","With the Superchain, the success of any single chain benefits all involved, and Ink will be an important contributor and beneficiary of this positive-sum network. Like all teams in the Superchain, Ink will share a percentage of its revenue with the Optimism Collective, participate in Optimism governance, and support core development of the OP Stack.","Kraken came to the Superchain with a vision to bring global users onchain. They saw an opportunity to facilitate new applications across DeFi where simplicity, community, and innovation align.","Launching with 1-second block times, Ink will support use cases like DEXs, lending, perps, yield protocols and more; making it accessible for crypto-native and crypto-curious participants to explore a range of onchain applications.","Ink developers will receive robust support and resources giving them the opportunity to connect with 10+ million users.","“An L2 is only as good as the value it brings to users, and that value is created by a thriving ecosystem of developers,” said Andrew Koller, Founder of Ink. “As part of the Superchain, Ink is laying the groundwork for an interoperable and pluralistic onchain ecosystem that will attract developers and make Ink the ideal platform for the next generation of DeFi applications and protocols.”","Teams like Coinbase, Sony, World, Uniswap, and Kraken have all chosen to build with Optimism’s OP Stack, and make the Superchain their home. The Superchain ecosystem is now composed of 30+ chains built on a common standard codebase that share security, governance, and values.","Today, the Superchain sees over 7 million daily transactions, and nearly half of all Ethereum L2 transactions are happening on the OP Stack. Activity is consistently increasing, and soon we believe a vast majority of L2 transactions will take place on the OP Stack.","Together, the Superchain’s flywheel will bring Ethereum to internet-level scale.","Ink is part of the Superchain’s path to interoperability and, like other Superchain builders, will support SuperchainERC20 at launch.","SuperchainERC20 is a universal token configuration for the OP Stack; a minimal extension to the ERC20 standard that enables cross chain portability and fungibility. With this standardized security model, all assets are fungible with each other across all interop-compatible OP Chains.","When Superchain interop is fully live, Ink will benefit from the ability to seamlessly interact with other OP Chains, including Base, OP Mainnet, Soneium, Unichain, and World Chain. Interop will reduce fragmentation and provide builders and users alike with the best onchain UX.","In the coming weeks, Ink’s testnet will open with a series of AMAs, live demos, and contests onboarding developers to the network. Developers are also invited to meet the Ink team at DevCon in November.","Ink’s mainnet launch is planned for early 2025.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/welcoming-ink-to-the-superchain"},"/blog/our-shared-optimism":{"version":1,"title":"Our shared Optimism - Optimism","description":"Optimism started as a project with a single L2 chain and the goal to scale Ethereum — both its technology and its values. The blockchain industry has evolved","keywords":"","h1":["Our shared Optimism"],"h2":["Foundation for a new frontier","From one chain to the Superchain","Shared standards, shared language"],"h3":["Optimism","The Superchain","OP Stack","OP Mainnet","Optimism Governance","Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding)"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","October 21, 2024","Optimism started as a project with a single L2 chain and the goal to scale Ethereum — both its technology and its values. The blockchain industry has evolved, and so has Optimism’s approach.","Reaching the full potential of Ethereum requires a network of chains: all working together, built on a shared standard that enables interoperability and realizes the benefits of network effects. To achieve internet scale for Ethereum, one chain alone is not enough.","This vision comes to life through the Superchain - a network of Optimism-governed blockchains built on a common standard codebase that also shares security and values.","That means that, now, Optimism is so much more than its initial single chain, OP Mainnet. It’s the foundation of the Superchain, supporting a robust community of Ethereum-aligned builders including Coinbase, Uniswap, World, Sony, and more. It’s unlocking the potential of shared infrastructure to build the Internet of the future.","Today, the Superchain is the platform that can build the next iteration of the open and equitable internet for all. From its inception, the Superchain was envisioned as a unified, interoperable network of chains. Making the Superchain vision a reality has been a central focus of development across the Optimism Collective ever since.","What makes this vision and this ecosystem truly unique, is its ability to bring together teams that would traditionally be seen as competitive. In the Superchain, we’re playing a positive-sum game; when any chain succeeds, the entire Collective benefits together. In a space rife with fragmentation, projects building on the Superchain are actively working together to make the onchain experience more connected for developers and more seamless for users across the Superchain, and beyond.","The Superchain ecosystem creates a flywheel of sustainable growth and development,  benefiting the entire Collective. Optimism’s role is to provide the technology stack and governance system to empower the Superchain and its builders.","With almost 30 OP Chains in the Superchain ecosystem and nearly half of all L2 transactions taking place on the OP Stack, our community is bigger than ever.","We want to take the opportunity to reintroduce the key pillars of the Optimism Collective. These individual components work together to build the foundation that powers the Superchain and the flywheel that propels our efforts to build the next iteration of an open, equitable internet and a self-sustaining community.","Optimism started as a single L2 chain with a goal to scale Ethereum's technology and values. Optimism is no longer a single chain. Now, it represents the Superchain, building a unified network of blockchains all powered by the open-source OP Stack.","The Superchain is a network of OP-governed blockchains built on a common standard codebase that shares security, governance, and values. Every OP Chain in the Superchain is built using the OP Stack and governed by the Optimism Collective. With this structure, each chain adheres to shared standards and principles, shared updates and security, and access to grants and airdrops across the ecosystem. Each OP Chain in the Superchain contributes the same percentage of protocol fees back to the Optimism Collective, and together OP Chains in the Superchain Ecosystem have the power to grow Ethereum to an internet-level scale. The Superchain is a positive-sum network; the success of any single chain benefits all chains in the ecosystem.","The OP Stack is an open source, MIT-licensed technology stack for deploying scalable blockchain infrastructure. As an Ethereum-aligned scaling solution, the OP Stack emphasizes parallel development, openness, and transparency. The modular codebase powers the Superchain and all OP Chains.","OP Chains are blockchains that are built on the OP Stack. While the OP Stack is open source and freely available for anyone to use and fork, OP Chains in the Superchain ecosystem use standard configurations of the OP Stack.","OP Mainnet is one of many OP Chains in the Superchain, providing neutral blockspace and a home for OP Governance. Like with other OP Chains, developers building on OP Mainnet are eligible for Retro Funding and grants from the Governance Fund to support their projects.","While Optimism and OP Mainnet used to be synonymous, Optimism has evolved to be so much more than a single chain. Optimism is the home of the Superchain. OP Mainnet is a single OP Chain in the Superchain.","Optimism Governance is a decentralized, two-house system that supports the growth of the Superchain and sustains the Optimism Collective over the long term. Governance ensures that protocol development continues to happen in the best interest of the Superchain, that contributors are incentivized to build open source infrastructure, and that the Collective can organize to respond to changing environments.","Retro Funding is a reward mechanism that drives the growth of the Optimism ecosystem.","By rewarding positive impact to the Collective, developers, businesses, creators, and educators are incentivized to continue making open sourced and impactful contributions to the Superchain. Retro Funding is not a charitable endeavor; it's an economic model where contributions that benefit the Collective are valued and rewarded. Retro Funding powers the positive-sum effort of building a fair and open internet and incentivizes contributors to continue building for the common good.","A shared language helps bring the benefits and the power of the Superchain to life. We’re building the future of crypto and the internet alongside an ever-growing community of builders, chain operators, and users, we’ve never felt more optimistic.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/our-shared-optimism"},"/blog/welcoming-soneium-to-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Welcoming Soneium to the Superchain - Optimism","description":"Today we are excited to welcome Soneium to the Superchain.  Soneium, by Sony Block Solutions Labs, is building an Ethereum Layer 2 using the OP Stack","keywords":"","h1":["Welcoming Soneium to the Superchain"],"h2":["Hands-On Access to Soneium Testnet","Soneium and the Superchain Future"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","August 23, 2024","Today we are excited to welcome Soneium to the Superchain.","Soneium, by Sony Block Solutions Labs, is building an Ethereum Layer 2 using the OP Stack, designed to be a versatile, general-purpose blockchain, that empowers developers, creators and communities, and connects blockchain technology to everyday consumer applications in entertainment, gaming, and finance. It’s an exciting moment in the growth of Optimism and the evolution of the Superchain. By collaborating with this joint venture including Sony Group, one of the most recognizable brands in the world, Soneium and the Superchain are accelerating blockchain adoption like never before.","Soneium is planned to be a public, general-purpose network aimed at bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 by nurturing creativity and openness.","By joining the Superchain, Soneium will become part of a network of chains that share a common codebase in the OP Stack and contribute revenue back to the Optimism Collective. That revenue fuels the sustainable development and growth of the entire Superchain ecosystem.","We’re excited that Soneium plans to find their home with the Superchain, building alongside some of the most innovative projects and skilled developers in the space. The Collective is mission-aligned to create efficient and accessible Ethereum-powered ecosystems to welcome the next wave of users. The Superchain is how we build and grow together.","Soneium’s testnet will go live soon, providing developers hands-on access to an environment closely mirroring mainnet conditions. Soneium will support advanced smart contracts alongside scalable infrastructure for high-volume applications. Developers will also benefit from extensive documentation, third-party tools, and dedicated support channels.","Developers are invited to learn more about building on Soneium here.","By committing to the Superchain, Soneium will join a group of values-aligned builders who are committed to scaling Ethereum together, with each team building towards something bigger than any one of them alone.","Startale will also transition its Astar zkEVM to the Soneium L2 chain, tapping into the strength of both ecosystems and the OP Stack to drive forward their vision. Astar Network’s community will play an important role in accelerating Soneium’s early adoption, and benefit from access to new applications on the network.","“Sony Block Solutions Labs, the joint venture between Sony Group and Startale chose to build with Optimism for its world-class tech, strong builder community, and thriving ecosystem,” shared Sota Watanabe, CEO at Startale and Director of Sony Block Solutions Labs. “We believe in Optimism’s vision for the Superchain and look forward to supporting it through governance and core development. Together, we will create the foundation that makes Web3 accessible to the masses.”","Superchain participants are united by the OP Stack, all benefiting greatly from this open source technology. Shared upgrades and a shared standard mean improvements made by each impact all.","By building on the OP Stack, Soneium benefits from scalability, composability, and low fees. Optimism’s ecosystem gets a share of network revenue generated by Soneium, and that revenue goes back to funding open source development and other ecosystem upgrades, benefitting builders and users alike. This economic model gives the Superchain the super power to scale Ethereum’s tech, via the OP Stack, and its values as a self-sustaining network.","As Optimism rolls out native interoperability for the Superchain, Soneium will be able to seamlessly interact with other OP Chains.","As we provide the infrastructure to fuel Soneium’s momentous blockchain launch, we look forward to working closely with their team to achieve our shared vision for the Superchain’s future.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/welcoming-soneium-to-the-superchain"},"/blog/building-the-future-of-ethereum-the-superchain-and-native-interoperability":{"version":1,"title":"Building the Future of Ethereum: the Superchain and Native Interoperability - Optimism","description":"At Optimism, our mission is to build an internet that benefits all, owned by all. We are working to scale Ethereum and empower developers and users worldwide","keywords":"","h1":["Building the Future of Ethereum: the Superchain and Native Interoperability"],"h2":["Overcoming the Hurdles of Multi-Chain Ecosystems","What We’re Enabling: User Journeys for 2025","The Road Ahead: Scaling the Superchain"],"h3":["Superchain Standards for Interoperability","Driving Adoption and Growth","1) Chain Operators Scaling with Interoperability","2) OP Stack Developers Building Faster and More Efficiently","3) A Streamlined Experience for App Devs","4) Consumers Migrate their Assets and Activity"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","November 21, 2024","At Optimism, our mission is to build an internet that benefits all, owned by all. We are working to scale Ethereum and empower developers and users worldwide. At the heart of our vision is the Superchain—a unified network of interconnected chains that allows users and developers to interact seamlessly, just as they would with any web2 application. The goal is to make Ethereum feel like a single, scalable platform capable of supporting billions of users and millions of developers.","Interoperability is the key to achieving this vision, and it’s the central focus of the Optimism Collective’s roadmap for 2025. Our unified objective for 2025 is:","a set of interoperable Stage 1 chains doing $250m per month in cross-chain asset transfers.","By making it easier for chains to communicate and share users, data, and assets, interoperability will unlock the full potential of the Superchain. The Collective’s contributors, teams, and growth programs will be focused on driving the development and adoption of interoperability in 2025.","Today, Ethereum and other blockchain ecosystems suffer from fragmentation. To transfer assets or data between chains, users must rely on Layer 1 Ethereum, which is costly and slow. This creates significant friction for both developers and users. Developers face the \"cold start\" problem of managing complex, costly multi-chain infrastructures, while users experience a fragmented and confusing interface.","Think of it this way: if today’s chains were cities, they exist with unpaved roads between them. This makes it difficult to exchange goods and limits growth opportunities. But just as highways transformed cities, native interoperability will enable smooth, efficient communication between chains, paving the way for the Superchain’s success.","With Superchain interoperability, assets and data will become fungible and portable across chains. This means application developers can create applications that tap into the resources of the entire Superchain. And it means chain deployers can tap into a rich set of Superchain network effects immediately upon launch. The result will be a unified, scalable ecosystem that unlocks new use cases and drives innovation.","To make interoperability work, we're introducing a set of technical standards and protocols that ensure secure, efficient cross-chain communication. Key components include:","Message Passing Protocol: This enables secure cross-chain messages, allowing data and transactions to flow freely within the Superchain.","ERC 7802: A standard token bridging interface that aims to proliferate and simplify crosschain token transfers as demonstrated by SuperchainERC20 tokens.","Interop Fault Proof: A security layer that ties the security of chains together, without introducing fundamentally new assumptions or trusted parties.","These standards will lay the foundation for a more integrated Superchain, where each chain can scale independently but still contribute to the collective success of the network. Optimism will also continue to support Ethereum-wide interoperability standards like EIP 7683, to ensure that UX throughout the L2 Ecosystem improves in tandem with the Superchain.","To support the overall focus on delivering interoperability, the Collective’s growth mechanisms will focus on the following key areas:","Increase overall Superchain users and economic activity.","Support developer tooling and drive adoption of interop standards.","Drive developer adoption and consumer usage of interoperable applications.","The Collective’s focus on interoperability allows us to align behind a set of shared measurements for success. Token allocation programs, Retro Funding, grants, airdrops, and growth campaigns can experiment with different tactics to drive the ecosystem outcomes we’re aligned behind. For more information on success metrics and the various programs across the Collective, see the Season 7 Intent Overview.","In Season 7, the Grants Council will determine the best way to make grants in support of the Superchain’s success. The Foundation will continue to allocate tokens from the Partner and Seed funds to support projects bootstrapping and growing the Superchain. As always, tokens that are circulating and that have been committed are shared publicly and updated on a monthly basis.","As we focus on interoperability in 2025, the ultimate goal is to provide tangible value for developers, users, and platforms. By enabling smoother, more efficient cross-chain communication, we’re solving key pain points that will unlock a range of new possibilities for the Ethereum ecosystem. Here’s a glimpse into how this will play out for different types of builders and users:","Problem: Chain Operators must build ecosystems of developers, assets, and activity from scratch, due to siloing in independent hubs.","What We’re Enabling: Chain Operators can confidently opt into Optimism and the Superchain’s decentralized governance model, enabling a clear process to reach Stage 1 decentralization. Shared security and standardization enables seamless interoperability, unlocking interconnectivity between economic hubs. Chain Operators can easily deploy an interop testnet through a reference Superchain tutorial. As developers deploy interoperable tokens through standards like SuperchainERC20, Chains will grow from their own unique customer experience, without fragmentation of builders or assets. This leads to a more secure and scalable platform that eventually eclipses the TVL and transaction volume of competing ecosystems.","Problem: Developers contributing to the OP Stack risk spending more time building tooling and infrastructure than actually building protocol features themselves.","What We’re Enabling: A protocol developer can now benefit from fast feedback loops (CI & PR reviews) and an easier development environment, without needing to fork the monorepo or develop complex tooling just to build protocol features. By reducing the time spent on setting up development infrastructure, they can focus on the core protocol functionality itself. This streamlined process allows for faster iteration on protocol features and improvements, ultimately speeding up the development lifecycle and accelerating the Collective’s contributions to the OP Stack.","Problem: New developers spend more time setting up test environments and tooling than building the apps themselves.","What We’re Enabling: A developer can quickly get started on the Superchain, with the same seamless development experience from local development on Supersim to mainnet. This consistency reduces friction and enables faster deployment, allowing them to build and deploy cross-chain applications with minimal setup. The ability to build interoperable applications on the Superchain accelerates asset bootstrapping and user adoption. This drives a more rewarding platform and a best in class developer experience with fast experimentation cycles.","Problem: Users seeking faster finality and snappy user experience prefer platforms outside of the Superchain for their transactions.","What We’re Enabling: Users initially hesitant to move assets to the Superchain will experience the speed and efficiency of transactions across the network via confirmations as fast as sub-second. With seamless cross-chain transactions, they find the economic opportunity and user experience compelling enough to migrate assets from other ecosystems. The ease of moving assets across chains without compromising on capital efficiency makes the Superchain an attractive place.","In the coming years, we expect the Superchain to scale from a handful of interconnected chains to hundreds or even thousands. Interoperability will make every chain in the Superchain feel like part of a cohesive, unified ecosystem, with fast, cheap transactions and a seamless user experience.","We are laying the groundwork for a truly scalable, sustainable Ethereum ecosystem that can support the needs of developers and users worldwide.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/building-the-future-of-ethereum-the-superchain-and-native-interoperability"},"/blog/retro-funding-2025":{"version":1,"title":"Retro Funding 2025 - Optimism","description":"As we step into 2025, we continue to summon Ether's Phoenix through the evolution of Retroactive Public Goods Funding. This post outlines our plan to improve the","keywords":"","h1":["Retro Funding 2025"],"h2":["TLDR","Building the Impact Oracle","Scope of rewards"],"h3":["Where we are today","The Impact Chain - A framework for realizing impact = profit","Accuracy","Consistency","Impact measurement capability","Supporting the Intent","Retro Funding in H1 2025","Retro Funding in H2 2025","Ethers’ Phoenix or bust"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","November 21, 2024","As we step into 2025, we continue to summon Ether's Phoenix through the evolution of Retroactive Public Goods Funding. This post outlines our plan to improve the Retro Funding mechanism, as well as the proposed scope of contributions Retro Funding will reward in 2025, with the end goal of more effectively and accurately rewarding those creating the impact on the Superchain.","Learnings from 2024: While Retroactive Public Goods Funding rewarded hundreds of builders in 2024, the program still has room to improve in accuracy and reliability, ensuring builders are rewarded fairly and continuously for their impact.","Shifting to Continuous Rewards: The program will transition from annual rounds to ongoing impact evaluation and regular rewards throughout the year, offering builders greater consistency and predictability.","Metrics-Driven, Human-Guided Evaluations: Combining onchain metrics with human expertise will create a more accurate evaluation system, while still allowing voters with relevant expertise to express qualitative feedback.","Scope in 2025: This year, Retro Funding will focus on Dev Tooling (developer tools like libraries and debuggers), Onchain Builders (projects driving cross-chain activity), and OP Stack Contributions (with a focus on Ethereum Core Development). Details on these programs will be published in January.","Vision for Ethers’ Phoenix: The end goal of Retro Funding remains to create an economy that fairly rewards impact across the entire value chain, addressing common market failures, and making the production of public goods as profitable as building closed-source software.","Retroactive Public Goods Funding is the economic engine of the Optimism Collective. It rewards the impact contributors have on the Collective, in order to realize Optimism’s guiding principle of “impact = profit”: the idea that positive impact to the Collective should result in a reward to the individual. With 850M OP dedicated to Retro Funding, it’s one of the most ambitious initiatives to date aimed at re-envisioning how to better align incentives to impact.","Since measuring and defining impact is complex and hard, Retro Funding runs as an iterative experiment in which insights and learnings from each round inform the design of future experiments. In 2024, we made significant improvements to our approach to experimentation, which generated insightful learnings across the 3 Retro Rounds conducted.","In 2024, Retro Funding rewarded over 400 builders with 20m OP across 3 retro rounds. While we have made promising progress on measuring impact, the program still fails to reliably support important contributions to Optimism. Furthermore, we lack sufficient evidence that rewards have caused significant ecosystem growth.","Key builders have repeatedly highlighted that Retro Funding is not reliable enough to drive their contributions to Optimism, as they have no way of knowing how impact is measured, and when upcoming rounds will take place.","Taem from Sunnyside Labs (formerly Test in Prod), the first external OP Stack core development team, shared that: “I’m not convinced the current allocation mechanism can accurately measure the impact of technical contributions. I believe it's going to be improved because the core contributors are very serious about making it better.”","tmm from Wevm, which creates developer tools, such as Wagmi and Viem, that are beloved by onchain builders, mentioned: “Right now we can’t solely rely on Retro Funding to reward our contributions to Optimism. It happens too infrequently and there isn't enough predictability with reward amounts.”","Trent from Protocol Guild, a collective of Ethereum Core Developers, and the top recipient of Retro Funding across all rounds to date, stated: “While we've been a top recipient in past rounds, the unique large-scale nature of our mechanism still means it is not being rewarded proportional to the impact provided. The eligibility of rounds and allocation processes can still use a lot of improvement.”","WagmiAlexander from Velodrome, one of the most successful DeFi Protocols on the Superchain, highlighted: “High quality projects drive outsized impact, but the allocations to date don’t reflect that. As of right now, for application builders across the Superchain, Retro Funding is not seen as a significant factor.”","In its current form, Retro Funding rounds have room to improve in accelerating the Superchain’s growth. The program’s opportunities can be narrowed down to three buckets:","Alignment: Retro Funding lacks a structured framework to ensure that rewards reflect the value of impactful contributions, limiting its ability to truly operationalize the principle of \"impact = profit.\"","Accuracy: Retro rounds can improve in their ability to reward impact accurately and proportionally. This has been a point of reflection on Retro Funding 5 & 6 with allocations showcasing very low variance of reward amounts.","Consistency: Rounds for a given scope have taken place once per year, with big changes in scope and eligibility. The rules of the game have constantly evolved, making it hard for builders to rely on the program.","Based on what Optimism has learned about Retro Funding in 2024, the program will evolve in 2025 to focus on measurement-driven impact analysis, consistent rewards, and a comprehensive framework to evaluate which public goods the mechanism can support.","Optimism is the Superchain, a network of L2 chains, known as OP Chains, which share security, a communication layer, and an open-source technology stack. At the heart of the Superchain is the blockspace it provides to builders and consumers.","Optimism is built on impact=profit — the principle that positive impact to the Collective should be rewarded with profit to the individual — but thus far, Retro Funding has failed to translate this principle into tactical mechanisms within the program. The Impact Chain aims at addressing this problem, providing a framework for how the Collective will achieve impact = profit over time.","The Impact Chain is a dependency graph which maps out all contributions across the Superchain: from the protocol’s foundation  (such as Ethereum software, the OP Stack and more) to contributions that drive Superchain blockspace consumption (such as onchain contracts, developer tooling, and more).","In the table below you can see the key components of the Impact Chain and how they each relate to Superchain blockspace:","Although these key components frame the Impact Chain as a linear graph, in reality, it is a complex interdependent graph in which multiple components have the same dependencies across the stack.","Market Failures","The Impact Chain may suffer from market failures, where the market fails to effectively allocate goods and services (e.g. the allocation is not Pareto efficient), leading to a loss of economic value. Market failures include monopolization, negative externalities, information asymmetry, and especially, the production and maintenance of public goods.","In well-functioning markets, impactful builders are naturally rewarded (realizing impact = profit). This is not the case when there is a market failure. Retro Funding's job is to correct possible market failures by providing reliable rewards to impactful builders in otherwise unprofitable markets.","Bootstrapping markets","In addition to correcting failures within existing markets, Retro Funding aims to catalyze net new markets as well. Retro Funding plans to achieve this by identifying economic goals, and rewarding the impact of progress towards these goals. This capability will be particularly useful to bootstrap new markets, especially in kickstarting new features corresponding to technical innovation, such as interop.","The endgame","Our endgame is to get Retroactive Public Goods Funding to a state in which it is capable of  monitoring the whole impact chain and intervening in order to correct market failures and bootstrap new markets, while accurately rewarding impact to realize impact = profit; this state is what we refer to as Ethers’ Phoenix.","To realize the vision of impact = profit, Retro Funding needs to accurately measure impact.","In 2024, we have radically increased our advancement on how to measure impact by shipping experiments on metrics-based impact evaluation and expert-based impact evaluation.","Moving forward we hope to combine the best parts of what humans and data are good at, capturing both qualitative and quantitative aspects of impact.","Metrics-driven, human in the loop","This approach leverages data’s systematic reach with human intuition’s nuanced adjustments. Metrics establish a quantitative foundation, ensuring that projects are assessed objectively and fairly, while human input adds layers of qualitative nuance, including quality, innovation, and momentum. An iterative feedback loop lets us adjust metrics based on the insights of humans with domain-specific knowledge. This process is similar to RLHF (Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback) in machine learning, but with an emphasis on retaining clear, interpretable inputs for human adjustments.","Process Overview:","Retro round goals: Each retro round establishes one or multiple measurable goals within its specific domain.","Evaluation algorithm: Metrics-based evaluations generate initial token allocation proposals within each domain. Humans with domain-specific knowledge review allocations, fine-tune the metrics, and choose the best allocations.","Iterative Refinement: Continuous backtesting helps align metrics with desired outcomes, improving the model over time. Iteration cycles are significantly reduced, allowing us to learn at an accelerated pace.","Retro Rounds Goals","Each retro round establishes one or multiple measurable goals within its specific domain. These goals should drive the system towards impact = profit. In a subsequent step, an evaluation algorithm is selected to achieve this goal.","Evaluation Algorithm","The evaluation algorithm defines the measurement of impact for a given retro round.","Today, Retro Funding leverages an evaluation algorithm which solely relies on the input of a number of badgeholders to evaluate impact.","evaluationAlgorithm(project)=median(badgeholder1Assesment,badgeholder2Assesment,....)","In the future, a number of metrics will be used to evaluate impact.","evaluationAlgorithm(project)=weight∗impactMetric1+weight∗impactMetric2","Humans with domain-specific knowledge provide qualitative nuance to measurements by rating allocations, providing qualitative input and feedback. Based on this input, metrics are continuously refined to achieve accuracy.","Principles for metrics:","Evolutionary: As a measure becomes a target (Goodhart’s law), metrics need to continuously evolve to stay good measurements of impact.","Robust: As metrics become a target, they are subject to attacks such as manipulation. The metrics design needs to focus on robustness to minimize the effectiveness of attacks.","Reproducible: To enable performance measurement of an evaluation algorithm, impact metrics need to be reproducible over time. Data points which are not continuously generated over time will limit the ability to backtest evaluation algorithms.","While we use objective metrics as a basis for evaluating impact, it is critical that we reinforce the notion that these evaluation algorithms are inherently subjective. Over time we can encode this subjectivity into the system by introducing multiple competing impact evaluation algorithms, each based on different value systems. These value systems may fundamentally conflict, but embracing diversity is key to cultivating a decentralized & creative ecosystem.","Iterative Refinement:","After the conclusion of a relevant timeframe, we measure how the evaluation algorithm performed at achieving its goal and can validate or falsify hypotheses.","Pioneering the metrics-driven model with humans in the loop pushes us into a new territory. While Retro Funding 4: Onchain Builders provided valuable insights in this area, there’s a range of topics to explore, from the governance mechanisms of the evaluation algorithm to the datasets which enable measurement.","In the spirit of experimentation, we want to continuously validate that this model delivers desired outcomes. Here are the results we aim to achieve in order to confirm that metrics-driven, humans in the loop results in higher accuracy impact measurement:","Satisfaction with allocations: Badgeholders, and other stakeholders, will rate their satisfaction with allocations consistently higher compared to 2024.","Acceleration: The evaluation algorithm will be consistently improved upon at a much faster rate than the previously-used purely human evaluation paradigm.","Iterative Refinement: At the end of the Governance Season, we will observe significant progress in the quality of evaluation algorithms of specific domains.","In 2024, rounds took place once per year per category, with the detailed scope and eligibility announced shortly before the round. The initially announced round titles and vague description preemptively set expectations for many builders which the program did not fulfill. This led to frustration for many builders, who were expecting to be rewarded, and found out shortly before the round took place that they were not eligible to participate.","To address these shortcomings**,** Retro Funding will no longer reward impact within annual  domain-specific rounds. Instead, Retro Funding will run as a continuous reward mechanism, with a regular cadence of impact measurement and reward distribution.","Ongoing Retro Funding","Metrics-driven impact evaluation enables the ability to continuously reward impact because it reduces the operational lift of measuring impact within a given time period.","This enables some exciting new upgrades to the builder experience:","Consistent scope & eligibility: While badgeholders will have the ability to update the details of impact evaluation, the scope of a domain specific program will not change within a Governance Season. Our aim should be to maintain a consistent scope over an extended time period, while keeping the flexibility to support changes in the Collective’s roadmap and goals (Intents) in the short-term. More on this within the “scope” section below.","Predictable rewards: By using a set of metrics, we can provide builders with insights on how their impact is measured and rewarded. This allows builders to form a much more interactive relationship with the system, understanding the causal relationship between their actions, the resulting outcomes and their rewards.","Rolling application windows: Builders can join the program at regular intervals, reducing the “all or nothing” nature of applying to a round.","Regular rewards: Builders receive rewards on regular shorter timeframes (quarterly, monthly, weekly).","Retro Funding Missions","Thus far, builders were faced with different token allocation programs across the Optimism Token House, Citizens’ House and Foundation, making it difficult to discover opportunities. To improve consistency across Collective token allocation, Retro Funding will become part of the larger Missions framework. While Retro Funding continues to pursue the impact = profit vision, this alignment will ensure cohesive operations across all token allocation programs.","The following are considerations to decide on the program domains and scope for 2025:","Impact measurement capability: What impact can we measure today?","Supporting the Intent: Which programs can advance the Collective’s 2025 Intent?","Value Chain applied: where can we observe market failures, or the opportunity to bootstrap activity?","Since we’ve learned that metrics-based evaluation is more accurate and effective, let’s start with understanding what impact we can measure today. Our capabilities are largely dependent on the data coverage within relevant domains.","Over the past year the Optimism Foundation has partnered with Open Source Observer (OSO), an open source data pipeline to power the insights behind Retro Funding. Open Source Observer runs open data infrastructure as a public good. To date, OSO processes over 100TB from 12+ data providers to produce 1000+ data models maintained by 80+ contributors in a growing data collective community.","Today’s data coverage includes GitHub data, onchain activity, project artifacts, reputation from sources like Farcaster, ENS, and Gitcoin, and package dependencies (More details here).","There are several areas where we are missing sufficient data coverage today. These include network service dependencies (RPC node providers, indexers, etc), offchain user analytics, individual and team impact within a project, and market data for various services.","In 2025, Optimism is focused on our Collective Intent to achieve “A set of stage 1 chains doing $250m per month in cross-chain asset transfers”. You can find out more about this intent in our [blog post] or [forum post]. This is a step in the journey to realize the [Superchain product vision] published last month. This focus for the Collective in 2025 can also add focus to the scope of Retro Funding in 2025.","The following programs are planned for H1 2025:","Retro Funding: Dev Tooling will reward toolchain software, such as compilers, libraries and debuggers, that support builders in developing onchain applications and adopting interoperability on the Superchain.","The Dev Tooling round originally planned as \"Retro Funding 7: Dev Tooling\" in 2024, will be folded into the ongoing rewards for Dev Tooling throughout 2025.","Retro Funding: Onchain Builders will reward projects that grow the Superchain economy and drive cross-chain asset transfers enabled by interop across eligible OP Chains.","These programs will allow the Collective to double down on metrics-based impact evaluation, help support the Collective’s strategic priorities, and continue to address market failures across the Optimism and broader crypto ecosystems.","In the second half of the year, the Foundation is likely to propose the continuous execution and iteration of the Dev Tooling and Onchain Builder programs. In addition, the Foundation plans to propose an OP Stack program, starting with a limited scope around supporting Ethereum Core Development. Optimism will work with builders in the community to develop a structure that relies on consistent measurement-based evaluation to reward core developers’ impact. Ethereum Core Development has already made significant progress within this area by implementing self-governance of reward allocation among core developers with Protocol Guild.","What about other contributions to Optimism?","Retroactive Public Goods Funding is increasing its focus in order to improve the core reward mechanism, make the program more reliable and trustworthy for builders, and address the market failures most important to Optimism and Ethereum’s success.","Ultimately, Retro Funding aims to expand to all layers of the impact chain as measurement capabilities improve, and as the world moves onchain.","Retro Funding is far from the only token allocation program within the Optimism Collective. To learn about other opportunities, see the grant overview.","The goal for Retroactive Public Goods Funding remains to achieve the axiom of impact = profit, a world in which every contributor to Optimism is fairly rewarded for their impact. An economy where building public goods can be as rewarding as building closed-source software. A fork of capitalism, that embraces collaboration and market forces.","We have never felt more confident in this vision.","Stay Optimistic!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/retro-funding-2025"},"/blog/setting-out-for-a-cross-chain-future-moving-data-across-blockchains":{"version":1,"title":"Setting out for a cross-chain future: Moving data across blockchains - Optimism","description":"This blog post shares how the Wonderland team builds tools to make data interoperable across the Superchain and Ethereum ecosystem.","keywords":"","h1":["Setting out for a cross-chain future: Moving data across blockchains"],"h2":[],"h3":["Isolated environments = liquidity fragmentation","The future is cross-chain","A success case: Bridged USDC Standard for the OP Stack","Interoperable tokens for Ethereum","What’s next: What is Wonderland working on?","Building Interop together"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Wonderland","December 10, 2024","Moving data between chains continues to be a significant pain point for developers and users alike, with high fees, long waiting times, and the headache of fragmented liquidity. We want to create experiences that just work – where deploying across multiple chains feels as simple as working within a single, unified environment.","Assets are scattered across different networks that can't natively communicate with one another. We need to unify and standardize the liquidity layer to make data interoperable. Our goal is to make users' and developers' lives easier; they shouldn’t have to think about which network to use – just like nobody thinks about TCP or UDP when browsing the internet. Interoperability promises to break these silos, enabling chains to work together rather than in isolation 🤝.","To truly address these challenges, we need solutions that unify assets across chains. This is where developing standards for the Superchain Interop and broader Ethereum comes into play.","The Wonderland team has been working towards a cross-chain future by developing tools and standards to make data interoperable, not only within the Superchain but also across broader ecosystems.","Wonderland has deep experience in this topic, having co-authored xERC20, which established a standard for sovereign bridged tokens. This standard allows tokens to move across chains via multiple bridge listings. Building on this foundation, the team helped design and fully implement SuperchainERC20, a cross-chain token interface for tokens to move around the Superchain.","To future-proof these cross-chain interactions, Wonderland alongside Uniswap Labs and OP Labs proposed the ERC-7802 . This standard addresses the chaos often associated with existing bridging mechanisms by introducing a unified token bridging interface for cross-chain minting and burning.","ERC-7802 is designed to work alongside xERC20, enabling the crafting, deploying, and movement of data across chains with a single interface. Instead of replacing xERC20, ERC-7802 and the xERC20 can be implemented together, allowing cross-chain interactions without friction for both existing and new tokens.","Assets were not originally designed for the cross-chain world, and upgrading systems in production is especially challenging in permissionless environments. Enabling existing assets to comply with interoperability standards is complex. However, we aim to ensure any migration is as smooth as possible by pursuing targeted solutions – such as unifying L1 liquidity and providing opt-in user migration options. This approach preserves user flexibility while ensuring fluid upgrades in specific scenarios, allowing existing dapps to operate unaffected as core contracts are adapted for interoperability.","USDC liquidity fragmentation has been a significant challenge, with multiple versions of USDC existing across different chains – such as native USDC, bridged USDC, and others. This fragmentation has complicated liquidity management and data movement across chains. To address this issue, Wonderland introduced opUSDC, a solution designed to streamline USDC deployment across OP Chains. It focuses on minimizing asset divergence by enabling a fluent upgrade from bridged USDC to native USDC.","The immediate benefit of interoperability protocols is the uniform security of tokens that adopt them. As long as this protocols remain secure as the state transition functions they employ, tokens can move freely across chains without needing third-party bridges or liquidity providers. However, this process unfolds in two key stages:","Tokens for Intra-Clusters: Like what we and other projects are doing, where tokens adhere to an interop-bridge model within a shared ecosystem.","Tokens for Inter-Clusters: The natural Ethereum endgame is a future model that makes it easy to move tokens to potentially any rollup under the same standards and consistency.","Vitalik’s concept of radical token bridges illustrates how a rollup-like design can serve as a multi-canonical bridge architecture for any token. For everything else, intents plus clearing layer can help. While current cross-chain token frameworks partially fulfill this vision, there is ample opportunity for generalized standards that can ultimately make Ethereum more interoperable.","We see ERC-7802 as a significant step in achieving this vision of interoperable tokens for Ethereum. We are currently gathering community feedback and working on improving and finalizing this standard.","If you’re interested in contributing or providing insights, check out the proposed ERC-7802 and share your thoughts! We’re eager to incorporate community ideas to make this protocol even stronger.","Right now, the main focus is on addressing one of the biggest challenges with interoperable ETH: making withdrawals without liquidity restrictions. Currently, each chain retains its own liquidity, creating a mismatch between its existing ETH and what is actually available for withdrawals. To solve this, Wonderland is building the ETH Shared Lockbox, a singleton contract that will store the entire ETH liquidity, secured by the Superchain’s shared-proof architecture.","Many community members have been eager to start building on top of the cross-chain message features. That’s why, in addition to Supersim, Wonderland spun up the Interop Mock System. This system is designed to simulate and test cross-chain communication, ensuring everything works smoothly before full deployment. It allows developers to experiment with test networks like OP Sepolia and Unichain Testnet, using custom contracts and backend services to simulate the role of the sequencer and pre-deployed contracts.","Interoperability is essential for Ethereum to truly thrive. Our aim is to consolidate fragmented assets into a unified pool that works across ecosystems, allowing smart contracts and dapps to interact fluidly.","Interoperable data are the foundation of this vision. By standardizing the way assets move and interact across chains, we can eliminate fragmentation and create an ecosystem where building for one blockchain means building for all.","Interop is the path forward, and we're excited to keep pushing the boundaries. That’s why the Wonderland team has committed to being core developers for the Optimism Collective, a long-term partnership aimed at making interop a reality. Many other improvements in the pipeline, each focused on making cross-chain interactions as painless as possible. Rest assured – those will be unveiled when the time is right!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/setting-out-for-a-cross-chain-future-moving-data-across-blockchains"},"/blog/inside-the-eif-ethereum-community-unites-for-an-interoperable-future":{"version":1,"title":"Inside the EIF: Ethereum community unites for an interoperable future - Optimism","description":"A milestone event took place during this year's Devcon – the Ethereum Interop Forum (EIF). This gathering brought together key players from across the Ethereum ecosystem","keywords":"","h1":["Inside the EIF: Ethereum community unites for an interoperable future"],"h2":["The power of collaboration","Setting shared goals","The path forward"],"h3":["ERC-7785: Onchain configurations for standardizing chain information","ERC-7828: Chain-specific addresses for simplifying user experience"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","December 16, 2024","A milestone event took place during this year's Devcon – the Ethereum Interop Forum (EIF). This gathering brought together key players from across the Ethereum ecosystem who set aside competition to focus on a shared mission: making Ethereum truly interoperable.","While Ethereum competes with other ecosystems, focusing solely on outperforming competitors misses the bigger picture. Competition is healthy and natural, but right now we need to direct more of that competitive energy on creating meaningful value for users.","The participants of the EIF admitted that the true challenge – and opportunity – lies in delivering solutions that outperform both traditional financial systems like SEPA and wire transfers and existing blockchain alternatives. The goal is to deliver a World Computer that is simpler to use, faster and cheaper, and truly global in reach. This realization has sparked a powerful collaborative movement within the Ethereum community.","The collaborative and human-coordination spirit is fundamental to the Ethereum community's ability to bring diverse stakeholders together to work towards common goals. During the EIF, the community established a clear, user-centric goal: enabling asset transfers between any 2 chains in less than 3 blocks.","To put this in perspective, this means transfers would take no more than 36 seconds between the Ethereum L1 and L2s, and 6 seconds at most between L2s like OP Mainnet and Unichain.","This isn't just an arbitrary target – it's a commitment to developing shared standards that allow us to scale at capacity. To achieve this, the Ethereum Foundation, participating L2s, and wallet providers identified two key focus areas for H1 2025 that don't require major protocol changes:","Onchain configurations","Chain-specific addresses","Putting L2 chain configs onchain would create a standardized way to verify that a transaction was included in L2. The solution lies in moving the chain parameters currently hosted on chainlist.org directly onto L1. Because onchain configs include chain IDs and network parameters that light clients require for verification, wallets would be able to utilize chain configs alongside a light client to verify fund transfers, without relying on intermediaries.","Storing L2 chain configurations onchain provides several benefits:","It enables a more standardized user experience for sending transactions across the Ethereum ecosystem.","It improves wallet security by reducing reliance on infrastructure companies for transaction verification and information.","It allows for chains to bootstrap themselves more quickly by permissionlessly adding themselves to the onchain registry.","It eliminates intermediaries in defining the canonical definition of the chain.","User experience currently varies significantly across different chains and wallets. At EIF, participants discussed the need for users to transact on Ethereum simply, without having to think about which chain they're on. Chain-specific addresses offer one solution to this challenge.","Vitalik Buterin provided valuable insights on this topic in his recent overview of wallet improvements, focusing on enhancing cross-chain transaction UX. One key proposal is the implementation of chain-specific addresses in a user-friendly format. For example, an address could look like this:","0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045@optimism.eth","In a scenario where users want to deposit into a protocol, they are provided with an address in the above-presented format. They simply paste it into their wallet's \"to\" field and click \"send.\" Now that the wallet knows what chain the user wants to go to, the wallet handles all cross-chain complexity, ensuring assets arrive on the intended chain. This means users can transfer assets without switching networks or using bridges.","The Ethereum Foundation is taking the lead in coordinating interoperability efforts throughout 2025, but success depends on continued collaboration across the ecosystem. Please see the simplified roadmap for a high-level view on the proposed plan for Ethereum-wide interoperability. We're already seeing progress with several ERCs and proposals in development, including:","ERC-7785 for onchain configs","ERC-7828 for chain-specific addresses","ERC-7683 for cross-chain intents","ERC-7802 for cross-chain token interface","RIP-7755 for cross-chain calls","The future of Ethereum interoperability isn't just about technical solutions – it's about our community's ability to work together. By combining our expertise and resources, we can create the seamless, user-friendly experience that will drive Ethereum forward.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/inside-the-eif-ethereum-community-unites-for-an-interoperable-future"},"/blog/interoperable-superchain-assets-are-here-with-usdt0-leading-the-way":{"version":1,"title":"Interoperable Superchain assets are here, with USDT0 leading the way - Optimism","description":"Stablecoins are vital for onchain finance, and the Superchain is quickly becoming an important ecosystem for stablecoin users and asset issuers","keywords":"","h1":["Interoperable Superchain assets are here, with USDT0 leading the way"],"h2":["The Superchain is built for interoperable assets to thrive","The network effect of the Superchain is taking shape"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","March 27, 2025","Stablecoins are vital for onchain finance, and the Superchain is quickly becoming an important ecosystem for stablecoin users and asset issuers.","Leading this charge is USDT0, the omnichain version of USDT that is natively compatible across chains while remaining backed 1:1 by USDT on Ethereum. USDT0 is now live on OP Mainnet and Ink with more chains to come – enabling fast, secure, and cost-efficient cross-chain transfers across the Superchain. By bringing Tether’s USDT to widely adopted chains, USDT0 expands the reach of the world’s leading stablecoin across one of the world’s fastest-growing onchain ecosystems.","This is just the start. USDT0 will soon expand to additional chains, tapping into the Superchain’s growing distribution network. We're delighted that asset issuers are tokenizing on the Superchain to benefit from access to users and developers, and USDT0’s native omnichain liquidity layer will accelerate growth across multiple sectors.","The Superchain is rapidly emerging as a safe, secure, and interconnected network for liquidity, applications, and users. Today, OP Chains represent half of all Ethereum L2 transactions, with 30+ world-class chains including Base, Ink, Mode, OP Mainnet, Soneium, Swell, Unichain, World Chain, and Zora, all aligned through shared security, standards, and incentives.","As Superchain interoperability rolls out, assets like USDT0 will tap into native Superchain interop, allowing for frictionless movement between OP Chains, with 1-block finality, zero slippage, and a unified security model. This creates the ideal foundation for DeFi growth, where capital can move freely, applications can scale, and users can transact without barriers.","USDT0 is one of the first to deploy an interop-ready stablecoin to the Superchain, and we’re pushing the industry past fragmented cross-chain liquidity towards a more unified, native liquidity layer.","As our roadmap for Superchain interop comes to life, asset issuers have an unparalleled opportunity to reach more and more developers and end-users across a scalable, multichain ecosystem.","Deploying interop-ready assets isn’t just about launching a token—it’s about positioning for the future of onchain liquidity. With USDT0 now live, we anticipate more top-tier assets, applications, and partners will quickly join the Superchain, accelerating its evolution into the most interconnected ecosystem for decentralized finance.","Now is the time to build. Learn how to launch interop-ready assets on the Superchain.","Disclaimer: USDT0 is not developed by OP Labs or The Optimism Foundation.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/interoperable-superchain-assets-are-here-with-usdt0-leading-the-way"},"/blog/optimism-2024-year-in-review":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism: 2024 year in review - Optimism","description":"There is never a dull year in the Ethereum ecosystem. As we begin 2025, we want to take the opportunity to look back at the progress that has been made across Optimism","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism: 2024 year in review"],"h2":["Optimism is Ethereum","The Superchain’s remarkable growth","Scaling Ethereum with the OP Stack","Collaborative growth","Looking ahead to 2025"],"h3":["Fault proofs & Stage 1 decentralization","Advancements in Interoperability","More from core contributors","Governance milestones","Retro Funding: Rewarding builders for positive impact","Rewarding users onchain","Driving user engagement"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","January 6, 2025","There is never a dull year in the Ethereum ecosystem. As we begin 2025, we want to take the opportunity to look back at the progress that has been made across Optimism and beyond. From the many upgrades to the OP Stack, to partnerships and collaborations that were formed, to the millions in OP rewards and everything in between, the growth of the Superchain has been nothing short of exciting. 2024 has been a pivotal year in shaping the future of Ethereum and the user-owned internet – yet the work continues.","Optimism remains firmly committed to its mission of building the user-owned internet, with Ethereum at its core. What began as OP Mainnet – a single L2 chain designed to scale Ethereum's technology and values – has evolved into something far greater. Optimism is now home to the Superchain, a network of blockchains built on a shared standard codebase called the OP Stack. Together, these OP Chains are working to scale Ethereum.","In 2024, the Superchain ecosystem expanded beyond its wildest dreams. The Superchain isn’t just growing; it’s thriving. More people are using it, more apps are launching, and the ecosystem is becoming more sustainable with every passing day:","30+ OP Chains, with major players like Kraken (Ink), Sony (Soneium), Uniswap (Unichain), and World (World Chain) joining the ecosystem, alongside early pioneers like Base, Metal, Mode, and Zora.","Nearly 50% of all L2 transactions on Ethereum are now powered by the Superchain ecosystem, demonstrating its ability to handle internet-scale usage.","Total value locked in apps grew from $1.4B in December 2023 to $4.8B in December 2024.","319 apps are live on the Superchain, with 145 of them launched in 2024 alone.","Daily transactions skyrocketed from 650K in December 2023 to 11.1M in December 2024 – a staggering 1600% increase.","The OP Stack – the MIT-licensed, open-source development stack behind the Superchain ecosystem – made significant progress in 2024 through the dedication of its core contributors.","The year marked the launch of permissionless fault proofs, paving the way for OP Stack Chains to achieve Stage 1 decentralization. OP Mainnet successfully reached this milestone, while contributors began working to support multiple proofs and Stage 2 decentralization:","Kona, a new Rust-based fault proof system is live on OP Sepolia, driven by the OP Labs team, the Reth team at Ithaca, and Sunnyside Labs.","Succinct Labs released op-succinct, a ZK-powered validity rollup framework based on the OP Stack and Kona.","RISC Zero released Kailua, a hybrid ZK-fault proof system also based on Kailua.","Superchain and Ethereum-wide interoperability became a core focus in 2024. The vision for Superchain Interop materialized through Devnet Stable and the updated Dev Console, which provided developers with essential tools like Supersim, the SuperchainERC20 starter kit, and a multi-chain faucet to start experimenting with Superchain Interop from day one.","On the Ethereum-wide interop front, Optimism has emerged as a key driver in fostering community collaboration. At the Ethereum Interop Forum, the entire Ethereum community united to establish a shared goal and align on the next steps to make Ethereum truly interoperable. Optimism strengthened its commitment to ERC-7683 to deliver a unified Ethereum UX, while also developing ERC-7802 for cross-chain token interfaces.","The OP Stack contributors shipped numerous impactful features in 2024, benefitting not only the Superchain, but Ethereum:","After two years of R&D efforts, EIP-4844 delivered significant cost reductions for all L2s, with gas fees dropping more than 10x.","Sunnyside Labs shipped span batches which cut overhead for running OP Chains by 90%, enhancing affordability and efficiency.","RIP-7212 became available on the Superchain, delivering native passkey verification at lower cost – enabling developers to build smoother smart wallet experiences without the constraints of scale and cost.","Superchain incident response capabilities received upgrades to leverage the collective security intelligence of the entire Superchain.","Dev Console launched as a one-stop shop for developers building on the Superchain.","The Superchain Registry and Blockspace Charters were introduced to provide transparency and clarity for the ecosystem.","The Optimism Collective continues to pioneer sustainable scaling for Ethereum while working together to create an internet that benefits all, and is owned by all. Optimism Governance supports the growth of the Superchain and sustains the Optimism Collective over the long term.","Governance ensures that protocol development continues to happen in the best interest of the Superchain, that contributors are incentivized to build open source infrastructure, and that the Collective can reach its goals. Throughout the year:","Governance passed 9 protocol upgrades, including the crucial fault proofs upgrade.","The delegated supply of OP grew from 74M to 105M OP.","23M OP was dedicated to builders by the Grants Council to fuel ecosystem growth.","In 2024, the Collective launched its first Security Council, marking a significant step toward decentralization. OP Governance also moved to onchain treasury execution, advancing its progressive decentralization.","The year saw the establishment of a Standard Blockspace Charter and a shared upgrade system for the Superchain, and welcomed the first batch of OP Chains to the Chain Delegation Program.","By year's end, the Collective united around a core pillar of the Superchain product vision for 2025: Interoperability. This intent aligns all contributors toward a common goal: making the Superchain truly interoperable.","Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) is the Optimism Collective's impact-based reward mechanism that recognizes meaningful contributions on the Superchain. In 2024, Retro Funding distributed 20.4M OP through 3 rounds to 374 projects. Recipients included onchain builders deploying contracts to the Superchain, core contributors to Ethereum and the OP Stack, and developers of open source tooling and governance infrastructure.","Optimism remains committed to funding public goods that empower the entire Ethereum ecosystem. Through Retro Funding, we've become one of the largest supporters of Protocol Guild – a collective of L1 core developers – and other L1 client and infrastructure teams. In Round 5 alone, 3.1M OP was allocated to Ethereum core contributors. Additionally, the round included rewards to projects that are open source – a testament to our support of open source technology.","2024 was a crucial year for Retro Funding experimentation, which yielded valuable insights for the ecosystem. In 2025, the program will provide builders with more consistent support by transitioning from annual rounds to a continuous impact evaluation with regular rewards.","The Optimism Collective rewards users who create meaningful impact. In 2024, a total of over 20M OP was dedicated to reward more than 76K unique addresses through two airdrops.","Airdrop #4 recognized artists, creators, and pioneers who helped shape culture across the Superchain and the broader crypto ecosystem. Airdrop #5 celebrated power users who actively engaged with apps across the Superchain ecosystem. Over 550M OP remains dedicated for future airdrops to reward users who create meaningful impact.","Curious about your personal on-chain activity? Dive into the community-built REWIND app for a detailed look at your Superchain journey throughout 2024.","During 2024, the Superchain ecosystem launched four major initiatives to boost user engagement and activity, with more than 3.3M OP tokens distributed to winners.","SuperFest showcased cutting-edge DeFi apps on the Superchain, encouraging users to explore and engage with these innovative platforms.","The SUNNYs celebrated exceptional contributions from onchain artists, developers, and community builders across the Superchain ecosystem.","Superhack brought developers onchain to build the future of the internet and experiment with tooling and ecosystems across the Superchain.","We Love The Art celebrated the diverse talent and imagination of digital artists innovating onchain.","With 2024 behind us, the Collective enters 2025 with relentless optimism. The focus for the year ahead is clear: Interoperability. By uniting the Collective around a shared objective, we’re bringing the Superchain closer to its ultimate goal – a seamless, scalable platform capable of supporting billions of users and developers.","Our priorities for 2025 are simple: cement the Superchain as the best place for DeFi, make it the easiest, more rewarding place to build and bootstrap applications with thoughtful developer tooling, and unite Ethereum through Superchain Interop and beyond.","The path ahead promises even more transformative progress as we build the future of Ethereum together. Here’s to another year of growth, collaboration, and optimism!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-2024-year-in-review"},"/blog/why-the-future-runs-on-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Why the Future Runs on the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"The OP Stack is becoming the standard. Standards win because they compound. More OP Stack chains mean more experiments, faster iteration, and unstoppable momentum.","keywords":"","h1":["Why the Future Runs on the OP Stack"],"h2":[],"h3":["Nerdsniped on the Superchain? Come help build it."],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 7, 2025","The OP Stack is becoming the standard. Standards win because they compound. More OP Stack chains mean more experiments, faster iteration, and unstoppable momentum. The OP Stack powers more L2 transactions than any other framework - 69.9% of all L2 transaction fees are on the Superchain, as is 49% of L2 TVL. From Base, Unichain, and World Chain to Soneium, OP Mainnet, Celo, and Ink, the most serious teams are building on Optimism’s open and modular stack. Together, they are laying the foundation for the Superchain by contributing a portion of their revenue to the Optimism Collective and helping grow a thriving ecosystem of builders.","The OP Stack was built to support innovation. It gives teams the flexibility to try new proof systems, customize data availability, and explore alternative approaches to governance and economics. That openness is by design. We believe the fastest way to innovate is by building in the open, making our work free to use, fork, and improve. As a result, we are seeing an incredible range of teams use the OP Stack in different ways—from consumer-focused apps to ZK research to institutional infrastructure. Through the over 850 million OP tokens allocated towards ecosystem support through Retro Funding, the Optimism Collective has supported teams like O(1), Risc0, and Succinct to bring that vision closer to reality. Because of efforts like these, the OP Stack became ZK-ready in early 2023. Although these systems are still maturing, they are already pushing the possibilities of the OP Stack in exciting directions.","Today, Conduit is introducing a new path for teams to launch OP Stack chains that connect to the AggLayer. It confirms what we’re already seeing today: The OP Stack is becoming the default foundation for new chains, regardless of the ecosystem’s go-to-market approach. While these new models may appeal to teams looking to experiment with new architectures, the Superchain remains focused on building Stage 1 rollups with shared upgrades, credible neutrality, and interoperability. As innovation with the OP Stack continues across the ecosystem, we look forward to upstreaming the most promising advances, like ZK proofs, into the Superchain over time.","The Superchain remains the most credible and battle-tested path for teams building serious, long-term chain solutions. At the same time, continued open experimentation across the OP Stack strengthens the broader ecosystem. Together, this creates a powerful dynamic that is driving the OP Stack to become the shared standard for scaling Ethereum.","While the OP Stack has made it easier than ever to launch new chains, we agree with what many in the ecosystem are saying — the real opportunity right now is not just more chains, but more great apps. Beyond just more ways to launch an OP Stack chain, we’re excited for apps that use crypto as a tool to solve real-world problems, not just apps built for crypto. With native interoperability, shared liquidity, and seamless user experiences across chains, the Superchain will unlock new kinds of applications that simply aren't possible anywhere else.","That’s where we believe the next wave of value will come from, and we’re focused on supporting the people who are ready to innovate.","Retro Funding Onchain Builders rewards projects that drive cross-chain asset transfers, enabled through interop, by growing the Superchain across eligible OP Chains. Dev Tooling rewards toolchain software, such as compilers, libraries and debuggers, that support builders in developing onchain applications on the Superchain.","Build interoperable apps on Superchain devnet","Velodrome becoming a Superchain app","Building a Superchain app? Apply for a grant to cover your audit","Throughout the summer, we’ll unveil new Superchain native apps, showcase the interop set in action, and launch new rewards opportunities for developers. The pace of innovation is accelerating, and the Superchain is where it’s all coming together.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/why-the-future-runs-on-the-op-stack"},"/blog/optimism-brings-ethereum-s-pectra-upgrade-to-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism Brings Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade to the Superchain - Optimism","description":"Optimism core developers at OP Labs successfully activated the Isthmus hardfork today, bringing key features from Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade to the OP Stack","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Brings Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade to the Superchain"],"h2":["Pectra’s big unlocks for the Superchain","Ethereum’s Superchain: Looking ahead to further scale"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 9, 2025","Optimism core developers at OP Labs successfully activated the Isthmus hardfork today, bringing key features from Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade to the OP Stack and the Superchain. The upgrade comes just two days after Pectra went live on Ethereum, making the Superchain the first L2 ecosystem to support Pectra.","Included in this upgrade is Base, Ink, OP Mainnet, Soneium, Unichain, and several other OP Stack chains. The Superchain powered nearly 70% of all L2 activity in April (measured by transaction fees), and every OP Chain in the Superchain contributes revenue back to the Optimism Collective in exchange for shared governance, security and upgrades - Pectra being a prime example.","The OP Stack has become a standard for L2 infrastructure, supporting 12.3 million daily transactions in April. Its open source, MIT-licensed architecture supports innovation and flexibility, and allows for shared upgrades to quickly activate across a vast and growing ecosystem of chains.","The OP Stack’s core design principles prioritize EVM equivalence and minimal code difference from Ethereum L1 execution clients, enabling Optimism to easily upstream new features and functionality released on L1. The stack stays almost identical to Ethereum, so every core upgrade flows straight into the Superchain, not months later.","Only with the OP Stack can L2 developers and users now immediately benefit from Ethereum’s improvements, just 48 hours after launch.","Blockchains are growing, and with greater adoption comes scaling issues and high transaction costs. Thanks to Pectra, OP Stack chains benefit from blob scaling and decreased fees. Pectra’s EIP-7702 brings account abstraction to life with significant UX improvements, benefitting users as adoption continues to accelerate.","It’s not just L2 chains that benefit from Pectra: 7702 in particular is a big unlock for Superchain apps, too. Smart wallet functionality is now available for all existing app users, simplifying multichain transactions and essentially creating a one-click trading experience. We expect DeFi apps across the Superchain to quickly adopt this, driving more activity by removing friction.","While Pectra introduced significant improvements to the Ethereum network, there’s more work to be done. Scalability remains Ethereum’s most critical challenge, and L2s fundamentally need more scale. With current growth trajectories, even with Pectra’s 2x blob increase, L2s need a 5-8x increase in blob capacity for blobs to remain uncongested. Developers at OP Labs have proposed a solution through Blob-Parameter Only (BPO) forks.","We’re excited to further tackle this challenge through the upcoming Fusaka upgrade. Optimism has dedicated engineering resources to support PeerDAS, with the goal of driving stronger network reliability and scalability.","We continue to proudly support Ethereum as it evolves, and we’re building Ethereum’s Superchain to scale with it.","Join us in building with the OP Stack as part of the Superchain:","Deploy a chain or app","Build interoperable apps on Superchain devnet","Apply for Retroactive Public Goods Funding: Onchain Builders","Apply for a grant to cover your Superchain app audit","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-brings-ethereum-s-pectra-upgrade-to-the-superchain"},"/blog/metrics-to-be-optimistic-about-in-2025":{"version":1,"title":"Metrics To Be Optimistic About in 2025 - Optimism","description":"Like any business, the Superchain needs clear success metrics to evaluate performance and guide strategic decisions.","keywords":"","h1":["Metrics To Be Optimistic About in 2025"],"h2":["Why Metrics Matter","Metrics That Matter","Measuring Demand","Onchain Signals","Comparing to the Market","More Metrics To Be Optimistic About"],"h3":["Choosing The Right Metrics","What is Success for the Superchain?","Superchain Metrics Summary Table","Transaction Fees Paid","Revenue","Value Onchain","Network Usage & Infrastructure","User Experience (UX)","Market Share"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Michael Silberling","June 5, 2025","Like any business, the Superchain needs clear success metrics to evaluate performance and guide strategic decisions.","Defining success in crypto is challenging. There’s constant debate over the “best” metric, often because people are optimizing for different goals, values, or timeframes. This disconnect creates confusion and makes it easy for metrics to be misunderstood, or even misleading.","This post offers a perspective on measuring success, which can serve as a shared baseline for the Superchain ecosystem, the Optimism Collective, and the broader Ethereum community to align on and build from.","A metric only matters because of what it is trying to measure. We start from an end goal, and then work backward to find the best way to measure it today. As the world changes, we need to keep asking ourselves: Does this metric still measure the outcome(s) we care about?","For example, active addresses (wallets) may have once been a good proxy for active users on Ethereum. But once people realized they could farm airdrops by creating many real-looking wallets, the metric lost its value, even though the definition didn’t change.","The metrics that matter are the ones that reflect reality.","Success looks different across different industries. A store might focus on sales, a social platform on engagement, and an exchange on trading volume. In each case, the outcome defines which metrics matter. The same is true for blockchain ecosystems.","For the Superchain, we can define success as: “Demand for Superchain blockspace”","Blockspace is the resource that blockchains produce. If the Superchain and its member chains offer the most attractive blockspace in the world (best user experience, best apps, most secure), there should be clear demand and willingness to pay for it.","We’ll start with a few key metrics that focus on:","How we measure current demand.","Attributes that may drive future demand.","Metric","What It Measures","Why It Matters","Real Economic Value (REV)","Fees paid by users to transact(txn fees + out-of-protocol tips)","Captures users’ willingness to pay for onchain activity","Collective Revenue","ETH earned by the Optimism Collective","Revenue can be directed by governance to support ecosystem growth","Total Value Locked (TVL)","Tokens locked in DeFi protocols and other apps","Supply side of the DeFi ecosystem","Gas Used per Second","Average compute consumed onchain","Measures throughput and execution load","Median Transaction Fee","Typical cost for a user to transact","Lower fees reduce friction and may unlock broader usage","Market Share","Superchain’s share of activity vs. the broader crypto industry","Tracks relative performance against L2s or the broader market","Metric: Real Economic Value (REV)","Definition: The total fees paid to execute a transaction onchain. This includes both the traditional gas fees required for inclusion onchain and additional fees paid to transaction execution services (e.g., Jito, Flashbots, Timeboost).","Calculation: Gas Fees + Out-of-Protocol Tips","Why it matters:","REV is a topline metric that “measures the monetary demand to transact onchain” (Blockworks).","It’s used as a proxy for users’ willingness to pay, capturing all transaction fees to better reflect real demand (excludes app-level fees like DEX swap costs).","Metric: Estimated Optimism Collective Revenue (Collective Revenue)","Definition: The amount of ETH expected to be earned by the Optimism Collective from revenue sharing.","Calculation: For each chain, take the greater of (a) 2.5% of Chain Revenue or (b) 15% of Net Onchain Profit. OP Mainnet contributes 100% of Net Onchain Profit.","This is what the Optimism Collective earns by operating the Superchain, which can be directed by governance to support ecosystem growth.","See How (and why) the Superchain drives fees to the Optimism Collective (Optimism blog, Aug 2024)","Metric: Total Value Locked (TVL)","Definition: “Value of all coins held in smart contracts of the protocol” (Defillama).","Calculation: The sum of all USD value of assets locked in applications, as reported by DefiLlama.","TVL can be priced in USD or a crypto asset like ETH, but both are subject to price volatility. USD is often used because it’s easier to interpret and consistent across the broader crypto ecosystem.","Why it Matters: TVL represents the supply side of onchain economic activity for use in protocols such as Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) and lending markets. Strong TVL in the right places may enable greater onchain demand.","How to Measure Growth, Net TVL Flows: Because TVL is influenced by market fluctuations, it can be misleading when trying to measure true growth or user behavior. Net TVL Flows can adjust for this by tracking the net change in token balances, valued at current prices.","Metric: Gas Used per Second (gas/s)","Definition: “Gas refers to the unit that measures the amount of computational effort required to execute specific operations on Ethereum” (ethereum.org). Gas Used is tracked as an average rate per second for simplicity.","Why it Matters: Gas, sometimes referred to as blockspace, is the limited resource that blockchains provide. Gas used shows how much of that resource is actually being consumed.","Caution: Gas is only comparable across chains that use Ethereum-equivalent gas units.","Metric: Median Transaction Fee (USD)","Definition: The median gas fee paid to submit a transaction, expressed in USD for simplicity and easier comparison across ecosystems.","Calculation: Median of all transaction fees over a period of time, marked at the USD price at the time of the transaction.","Why it Matters: This metric serves as a proxy for the cost to transact. Lower median fees enable broader usage by reducing friction, lowering breakeven costs, and unlocking use cases that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive.","Definition: The Superchain’s share of a market segment for any measure (e.g., L2s, total crypto).","Calculation: Superchain Metric Value / Total Market Metric Value","Why it Matters: Market share helps isolate whether growth is driven by the Superchain itself, or is simply part of a broader market trend. A rising share signals outperformance, while a declining share suggests that other ecosystems are growing faster.","Above are a few core metrics that are easily measurable today. But over time, the industry should push toward metrics that better reflect real performance, ecosystem sustainability, user experience, developer engagement, and the value of high-quality blockspace. The Data Glossary will be updated over time as new metrics emerge and definitions evolve.","Tracking the right metrics is a shared challenge, and opportunity, for the entire Superchain ecosystem.See Optimism Data and Dashboards","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/metrics-to-be-optimistic-about-in-2025"},"/blog/superstacks-a-new-approach-to-rewards-on-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"SuperStacks: A New Approach to Rewards on the Superchain - Optimism","description":"With many chains building as one, a new network structure is emerging to solve fragmentation in Ethereum. This network is modular, interoperable, and composable","keywords":"","h1":["SuperStacks: A New Approach to Rewards on the Superchain"],"h2":["An experiment in Superchain-wide incentives","Boosting Superchain Growth"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","April 16, 2025","With many chains building as one, a new network structure is emerging to solve fragmentation in Ethereum. This network is modular, interoperable, and composable by default. We call it the Superchain: and it changes everything.","However, infrastructure alone is not enough. We need new ways to reward those who participate in this shared network. Systems that recognize contribution not to a single app or chain, but to the whole.","The Superchain is about building for the long haul, and experimenting, iterating, and learning along the way. That’s why we’re introducing SuperStacks: a pilot points program testing a more proactive and intentional approach to ecosystem rewards that moves beyond traditionally siloed incentives.","SuperStacks aims to reward behavior around interoperable assets and applications that work seamlessly across multiple chains. The program is specifically designed to prepare the ecosystem for the upcoming interoperability launch by accelerating development of apps and use cases that will thrive in an interoperable Superchain. It will generate insights that help evolve this program into a long-term engine for ecosystem growth.","SuperStacks is an experiment in refining incentive design across the Superchain. The pilot will run from April 16 to June 30, 2025 and reward DeFi users with points for participating in liquidity pools focused on interoperable assets. Participants can earn points based on factors like liquidity provisioned, duration of participation, and other criteria designed to encourage sustained engagement.","The SuperStacks pilot was designed with several key concepts in mind: to create a program that feels familiar to DeFi users, establishes a unified source of truth for Superchain opportunities, and includes purpose-built incentives to support Superchain interoperability. The goal is to introduce a scalable campaign that can evolve based on direct community feedback.","The program will start with a set of designated pools across trusted protocols in the Superchain and will grow and change to include many others throughout. A list of participating pools and rewards structures is available on the SuperStacks program website.","The program’s Superchain-wide focus also creates unique opportunities for participating protocols and chains to supplement the base incentives with their own supplementary rewards for the same pools - multiplying the benefits for users while maintaining a unified, coordinated approach.","SuperStacks is designed to support long-term growth, but it’s still an experiment. Participation does not guarantee future rewards beyond the ability to earn points. Earning points does not guarantee earning OP tokens or any other reward. The program’s design, eligibility criteria and rewards structure will likely evolve over time based on collected data and community feedback.","By testing this incentive model in a measured, transparent way, we’re excited to explore what’s possible with a thoughtfully designed points program. This pilot gives us a unique chance to learn, adapt and ultimately build a more sustainable, aligned incentive program–one that can grow along the Superchain and help shape the future of onchain participation.","SuperStacks is just the beginning. The pilot builds on everything we’ve learned from previous airdrops and other rewards programs, and starts building something even better. By mobilizing proactive, targeted incentives that support the kinds of liquidity and participation that will matter most when Superchain interoperability is fully live, SuperStacks lays the groundwork for a thriving, connected ecosystem.","If this program is successful, it could become a foundation for a long-term incentive program across the Superchain – helping applications grow, users stay engaged, and chains benefit from shared network effects. This experiment will help determine how to direct incentives effectively in the long run. We’re excited to learn, improve, and build toward a resilient, high-impact Superchain. Check out full program details and participating protocols here.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/superstacks-a-new-approach-to-rewards-on-the-superchain"},"/blog/peerdas-devnet-7-updates":{"version":1,"title":"PeerDAS-devnet-7 Updates - Optimism","description":"We recently ran PeerDAS through its paces on a modified peerdas-devnet-7 testnet (big thanks to EthPandaOps for leading the spec work!). This devnet was run by Sunnyside","keywords":"","h1":["PeerDAS-devnet-7 Updates"],"h2":["TL;DR: We hit 50 blobs, but found the ceiling","Environment configuration","Key findings","Lodestar performance in context","The path forward"],"h3":["Blob throughput","Consensus delays","Supernode stability"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Sanjana Mehta","June 6, 2025","We recently ran PeerDAS through its paces on a modified peerdas-devnet-7 testnet (big thanks to EthPandaOps for leading the spec work!). This devnet was run by Sunnyside Labs, a core development team in the Optimism Collective, to benchmark how well different combinations of execution and consensus layer clients handle blob throughput under stress.","As we build the Superchain, we need data availability that's both reliable and affordable. Every additional blob we can fit in a block brings down the cost of posting L2 data to Ethereum. It’s a win for everyone - users pay less, developers tap into shared liquidity and cross chain distribution, and data heavy applications (like onchain games) can scale without blowing up costs. More activity on the L2 will also drive more transaction fees back to Ethereum, reinforcing its security by providing validators with more earning potential.","This is why we're stress testing blob throughput across the entire client matrix. Benchmarking every consensus/execution pair under controlled conditions helps us surface hidden bottlenecks early and measure the current performance ceiling. It also allows us to stay committed to preserving Ethereum’s stability and performance and ensures that increasing blob capacity does not come at the cost of network health. Our aim is to collaborate with core devs and client teams to turn promising peaks into sustained performance.","In this post, we’ll walk through our benchmark results, highlight the wins, and dig into the stability challenges we uncovered along the way.","If you’d like to back‑read the series, check out previous Sunnyside Labs reports below:","04/15","04/08","04/01","We ran this devnet with 60 nodes to understand how well the network holds up as blob throughput increases. We reached nearly 50 blobs/block consistently with a diverse mix of EL/CL combinations. Beyond this threshold, we started seeing network strain: consensus delays piled up, blob fetching became unreliable, and some supernodes began failing. The pattern was clear with consensus clients struggling with block import delays and missing attestation windows, making it harder for the network to maintain pace under high load.","This round expanded our setup from 36 to 60 nodes (33 supernodes, 27 full nodes). Each node ran with 4 vCPUs and 8 GB RAM. We tested all major EL/CL combinations using Spamoor to gradually increase blobs per block. Unlike earlier rounds, we didn’t reset the chain between stages and instead continuously ramped up blob load to stress test failure point.","componentversionconsensus layeralpha releases built for devnet‑7 specexecution layeralpha releases compiled with getBlobsV2 enablednetworkmodified peerdas‑devnet‑7, 60 nodes, 8 validators, 12 s slotshardware4 vCPU / 8 GiB RAM per node digitalocean instancesloadspamoor blob generator, monotonically increasing load (no forced resets)","component","version","consensus layer","alpha releases built for devnet‑7 spec","execution layer","alpha releases compiled with getBlobsV2 enabled","network","modified peerdas‑devnet‑7, 60 nodes, 8 validators, 12 s slots","hardware","4 vCPU / 8 GiB RAM per node digitalocean instances","load","spamoor blob generator, monotonically increasing load (no forced resets)","note: We ran this test from May 17 – 19, 2025. All clients shared identical peer limits and gossip configs. Logs and metrics were piped to a shared Grafana + Prometheus setup.","We ran two parallel devnets with identical topo­logy to spot run‑to‑run variance. Spamoor started at 1 blob / block and added one blob every ten minutes. This allowed us to test network and client behavior under cumulative pressure, capturing the effect of long-term strain on consensus sync, blob propagation, and execution fetch reliability.","Network blob throughput peaked around 50 blobs per block. Previous runs saw only specific client pairs like lighthouse/besu and lighthouse/geth reach 43–50 blobs per block; other combinations typically stalled out between 18–35 blobs before becoming unstable. This time, we were able to reach close to 50 blobs per block consistently, even with a diverse mix of execution and consensus clients (we will continue investigating if this can be attributed to distributed blob building, which was part of the devnet 7 spec).","However, pushing beyond 50 blobs led to performance degradation with slot misses and chain resets, preventing sustained higher throughput. The repeated spike-and-drop pattern we observed suggests that 50 blobs per block represents our current network ceiling under these conditions.","The chart plots a 10‑minute rolling average of blob count per block for nethermind. The peak marks the highest sustainable throughput before spamoor had to reset.","As blob load increased, consensus delays stacked up: blocks arrived late, imports lagged, and attestations missed their windows. These compounding delays led to missed slots and reduced overall network participation.","We measured three types of delays that became problematic:","Block arrival latency: How long blocks took to reach nodes","Block import delays: Processing time (validating and executing a newly arrived block) once blocks arrived","Attestation timing issues: Missing the window for proper attestations","To reliably exceed the 50 blob threshold, clients must minimize consensus delays and optimize each stage of block processing.","Latency due to block arrival. As the blob count increases, we can notice an increase in block arrival latency.","Delay from block imports. As the blob count increases, we can notice an increase in block import latency.","Delay in attestable slot start time. As the blob count increases, we can notice a delay in when the slot’s attestable time window begins.","At peak blob counts, we also observed signs of consensus instability like minor re-orgs, inconsistent attestations, and occasional head divergence signaling a strained CL. As a result, some test runs saw sustained throughput capped at around 25–35 blobs per block, well below the peak capacity observed in isolated bursts.","Chain reorgs increased with increased blob count.","Attestation agreement: For a given slot, what beacon block roots had attestations against them. As the blob count increases, we notice that the attestations drop.","Blob fetching from execution clients degraded noticeably at high blob counts, adding pressure on consensus clients trying to verify and attest blocks. This created a feedback loop where consensus delays made execution layer performance worse, which in turn made consensus delays even more pronounced.","Rate of blobs fetched from the EL worsens as load increases","Supernodes performance degraded at blob count peaks. The crashes only occurred on supernodes when blobs per block hit the 50 blob/block levels, pointing to a reproducible performance weakness under high blob pressure. Lodestar supernodes were the first to fail in our devnet. Their sync process proved unstable under stress, frequently dropping out and falling behind other client implementations (more on this in the next section).","These results highlight a need for more fault-tolerant architecture and improved recovery mechanisms, especially for supernodes operating in high-throughput environments.","Block height progression under load. Smooth lines show normal nodes advancing steadily, whereas staircase-shaped lines show Lodestar supernodes stalling and then catching up. This pattern indicates Lodestar supernodes fell behind during peak blob periods and only recovered in bursts after failure.","Supernodes failing to progress once blob count peaks","Under moderate load (up to approximately 35 blobs per block), Lodestar maintained comparable performance to other consensus clients. As blob throughput increased beyond this threshold, we observed some stability challenges that offer important learning opportunities for high-throughput scenarios.","Lodestar supernodes showed higher CPU usage, particularly during recovery phases, suggesting intensive catch-up processes.","Average CPU usage of supernodes by consensus client.","We also observed elevated RAM consumption alongside spiked inbound network usage, indicating opportunities for optimizing blob and sidecar propagation efficiency.","Average RAM usage of supernodes by consensus client","Average network inbound of supernodes by consensus client","Sidecar column processing also showed longer verification times, which likely contributed to sync issues. The full runtime of data column sidecar gossip verification was consistently higher for Lodestar nodes across our test.","Full runtime of data column sidecars gossip verification per node/client type","The ChainSafe team has already opened a PR to improve batch verification of DataColumnSidecars, which we expect will lead to a performance boost: https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/pull/7910.","Why this matters: These findings aren't about declaring winners and losers; they're about identifying specific optimization opportunities. Every client implementation faces unique challenges at scale, and understanding these patterns helps the entire ecosystem improve.","Sunnyside’s peerdas-devnet-7 testing confirms that we can approach 50 blobs per block, but reaching and exceeding this threshold reliably will require focused optimizations across clients and network infrastructure. Current bottlenecks include cumulative consensus delays, execution layer fetch lag, and insufficient supernode robustness, all of which must be addressed to ensure stability at scale.","Bottlenecks to investigate:","Consensus layer delays that compound under sustained high load","Execution layer fetch lag that creates cascading performance issues","Supernode robustness under peak throughput conditions","We'll dive deeper into whether (and how) distributed blob building contributed to lifting performance across all client pairs and what this means for sustainable blob throughput. We’ll also analyze why some runs saw sustained throughput capped well below peak capacity and determine whether this was due to network limits, client specific issues, or our load generator configuration.","The ceiling is clearer now - we're approaching a 48-50 blob target and believe we'll be well-positioned for future improvements based on these findings. The Superchain needs predictable, high-throughput data availability, and each step forward in blob performance directly benefits our users and developers.","Until next time! Onwards to cheaper blobs for all ✨","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/peerdas-devnet-7-updates"},"/blog/governance-in-season-8-the-next-phase":{"version":1,"title":"Governance in Season 8: The Next Phase - Optimism","description":"Just over three years ago, the Optimism Collective embarked on a large-scale experiment in decentralized governance. From the beginning, we’ve been committed to taking","keywords":"","h1":["Governance in Season 8: The Next Phase"],"h2":["The Purpose of Optimism Governance","Stakeholder Voting","A Public Definition of Citizenship","This is still a two-house governance system","Governance Minimized Decision Making","Decentralization Without Introducing Platform Risk","Optimistic About the Next Phase ✨"],"h3":["Optimistic Approvals","Dynamic Vetos","Active Voting"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","June 12, 2025","Just over three years ago, the Optimism Collective embarked on a large-scale experiment in decentralized governance. From the beginning, we’ve been committed to taking “an agile approach to governance—relentlessly iterating until we establish a system which can stand the test of time.” As we experiment, we learn more about the balance of power and other dynamics within our system, an iterative process that allows the Collective to mature and evolve (see Working Constitution).","Systems that are rigidly defined and slow to change struggle to adapt to changing conditions and often stagnate, losing to faster competitors or failing to innovate. Instead, Optimism governance strives to self-destruct, repeatedly, allowing the Collective to adapt, innovate, and continuously evolve as an agile governance system built to last.","Just as we periodically update the OP Stack to ensure the Superchain benefits from the latest and greatest technology, it’s time to update the governance system so that the Collective benefits from best-in-class decision making protocols. We’re excited to introduce several important governance updates that leverage time-tested concepts from traditional political science and corporate governance, combined with three years of cutting edge, practical learnings. Thanks to all of our governance participants for your willingness to experiment and iterate, without which the next phase of Optimism Governance would not be possible.","Over the past three years, Optimism governance has evolved from a group of tokenholders bootstrapping OP Mainnet to a large scale Collective collaboratively executing on the Superchain Vision. During this period, through many conversations with governance participants and major partners, we’ve refined our understanding of the role Optimism governance plays in this vision.","💡 The purpose of Optimism governance is to reduce platform risk for the Collective's stakeholders.","Platform risk is the risk to a business or user that a platform they depend on changes against their interests. It is a common risk of Web 2 platforms and is a key consideration for the largest partners building on the OP Stack.","So how does Optimism governance reduce this risk for businesses and end-users of the Superchain?","Platform risk exists largely due to a lack of accountability. Corporate governance models are primarily accountable to the largest financial interests. Decisions that disadvantage businesses or users are often made in the name of “maximizing shareholder value.” Once platforms achieve market dominance (or monopoly), it is very difficult for businesses or users to actually exit from those platforms as their leverage is limited and viable alternatives may not exist.","Below, we outline an update to Optimism Governance aimed at further reducing platform risk for the major stakeholders of the Superchain. This update includes several core concepts:","Stakeholder Voting: Empowering the stakeholders of the Collective ensures governance is accountable, and not just to financial interests","A Public Definition of Citizenship: Stakeholder voting relies on a verifiable, objective, and scalable definition of Citizenship - a major milestone towards decentralization","Governance Minimized Decision Making: Optimistic approvals allow us to lower the barriers to participation for important stakeholders while maintaining accountability","Season 8 takes steps to ensure governance is accountable to all major stakeholders of the Collective, not just financial ones (a key weakness of traditional corporate and crypto governance models). The goal is to reduce the platform risk that any one stakeholder dominates decision making at the expense of others.","How do we define being a stakeholder of the Collective?","Stakeholders contribute to shared resources and are directly impacted by governance decisions. Specifically, they are directly affected by protocol upgrades, contribute to the Collective treasury, and/or bear the cost of Collective economic decisions.","This is consistent with Elinor Ostrom’s framework for Governing the Commons which suggests that “Individuals or groups who have a legitimate interest or claim in the use, management, and sustainability of a common-pool resource” should be the ones to govern those resources.","This definition allows us to identify four key stakeholder groups to which the platform should be accountable:","Tokenholders: Tokenholders share directly in the cost of economic decisions.","Please note that tokenholders are distinct from “delegates” as delegates may accumulate voting power without any direct tokenholdings or skin-in-the-game. The system should continue to increase the presence of tokenholders (self-delegated) and reduce the presence of non-or-low tokenholder delegates. In Season 8, we will run several experiments aimed at shifting voting power towards direct tokenholders.","End-users: End-users contribute revenue to the Collective by paying gas fees on the Superchain. They are affected by protocol changes that impact transaction costs, user experience, security, and application availability. Their representation in governance ensures the Superchain remains optimized for those who use it daily.","Apps: Applications running on the Superchain contribute Collective revenue in the form of gas fees on their smart contract transactions. They have built their business on the Superchain's reliability, performance, and feature set. Their participation ensures Collective decisions support the interests of the ecosystem's application layer.","Chains: Superchain members contribute a share of their revenue to the Collective. They are fundamentally dependent on protocol changes, as their entire infrastructure relies on the core protocol's security, performance, and other features. Their participation ensures protocol development aligns with the needs of the diverse chains that make up the Superchain ecosystem.","⚠️ The key stakeholders of the Collective are the parties to which governance should be accountable (expressed via voting rights). That does not mean these are the only stakeholders that have influence within the governance system.","For example, the Core Development Program is enormously influential to the development of the Superchain. This influence is expressed by authoring protocol upgrade proposals, rather than voting on them. The voting process exists to create accountability for the core development program.","Contributors that are actively creating impact for the Superchain will still be eligible for Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) and other incentive programs.","Identifying the above stakeholder groups, allows us to arrive at a public definition of Citizenship, a major milestones in our path towards decentralization!","Over the course of the past three years, we’ve experimented with many different models of Citizenship. We’d like to thank all Citizens and Guest Voters who participated in these experiments throughout previous Seasons. The invaluable learnings from these experiments have enabled us to establish a transparent, public definition of Citizenship. This milestone is particularly significant as it creates objective criteria that can be verified onchain and ultimately maintained by governance itself—representing a crucial advancement in our journey toward decentralization!","In Season 8, the Citizens’ House will be sub-divided into three categories:","❗️ Citizenship remains an experiment and, as always, Citizenship in one Season does not guarantee Citizenship in future Seasons.","End-users: Engaged Superchain end-users that meet a specific threshold of sustained activity on the Superchain and have a valid proof-of-personhood (Passport or World Id). Up to 1000 Citizens may register in this category. See here for more details.","Based on learnings in Round 6 (see here), we have moved away from evaluating users based on abstract “values”, and instead define the category based on the quantifiable stake they have in the continued success of the Superchain. Therefore, this group may include users of the Superchain that could be considered mercenary. If the group becomes overly skewed towards specific sub-populations, strategies may be taken to form a more representative set of users in future Seasons.","Existing Citizens are most likely to fall into this sub-category of the Citizens House. However, if they do not meet the required activity threshold, they will not continue to be Citizens in Season 8.","Apps: Top Superchain applications based on the gas usage of their smart contracts in the past Season. A minimum of 100 apps will be eligible in this category. See here for more details.","Unlike in past experiments, builders of developer and other kinds of tooling are not included in this definition. Onchain apps are contributing to Collective resources and dependent on the protocol in a direct way that other types of builders are not.","However, builders that don’t meet this definition but still contribute meaningfully to the Collective, may be rewarded with Retro Funding in the OP Token, enabling them to use their voting power in the Token House.","Chains: Top chains based on the revenue contribution made to the Collective from revenue share in the past Season. A minimum of 15 chains will be eligible in this category. See here for more details.","Both apps and chains are eligible to become Citizens, voting in the interests of the organization. In Season 7, we were surprised to see indications that team members of organizations and onchain apps used their votes to represent their own interests rather than the organization’s interests. To avoid any ambiguity, In Season 8, apps and chains will be able to vote on behalf of their organization in the Citizens’ House. If an organization qualifies as both an app and a chain, they will be classified as a chain (will not be represented in both groups).","While this is a departure from the assumption that Citizens are humans, it remains true to the original principle of 1-member, 1-vote.","Tokenholders will continue to be represented as a key stakeholder group via a token-weighted voting model in the Token House. Just as the Token House will continue to operate as usual, so will the Citizens’ House. The only difference is that the Citizens’ House will now be subdivided into three stakeholder groups.","Importantly, this sub-division isn’t about reducing any one stakeholder’s power— quite the opposite! It’s about representing all impacted stakeholders in a balanced way. This design is informed by academic research (e.g., Steinsson 2025, Bueno de Mesquita 2024, Smith and Hall 2022, Landemore 2020, Hirschman 1972), and conversations with experts and practitioners in political science and corporate governance.","While membership in the Token House and Citizens’ House can overlap, each House is designed to balance power in different ways. The Citizens’ House uses a ‘1 member, 1 vote’ model, which gives greater relative influence to the mid- and long-tail participants compared to the Token House’s token-weighted voting.","As with everything, this is an experiment, and over the next few seasons, the Foundation will continue to iterate on the specifics of implementation (definitions, voting thresholds, overlap, etc.) based on practical learnings.","In order for all stakeholders to hold the system accountable, we need to reduce the burden of participating in governance. Participating in governance should not require spending hours reading forum posts and navigating complex bureaucracy. Being a governance participant should not be a full time, or part time, job. Instead, Optimism governance should be easy enough to interact with that even our busiest stakeholders can provide high leverage inputs as needed.","Stakeholders want the platform to make decisions they are aligned with but that doesn’t necessitate that they participate in making those decisions themselves","Nobody should have to be a politician to participate and all stakeholders should be able to ensure the system reflects the values that are most important to them.","Optimism has never taken a one-size-fits-all approach to governance. Instead, we approach each governance question as a decision module with unique properties.","Each decision module is designed with the following principles in mind:","Minimize governance overhead: Stakeholders should only be asked to actively make a decision when their buy-in is essential to implementation. In all other cases, they should be able to disagree with a decision but will not be asked to make the decision themselves.","Optimize for expertise: When a decision does need to be actively made, the most knowledgeable parties should be entrusted with making those decisions.","Maximize accountability: Those impacted by a decision should be able to veto or override a decision that directly impacts them.","This means many decision modules will leverage optimistic approvals. Optimistic approval assumes a vote is passed unless stakeholders explicitly reject it. Optimistic approvals lower platform risk in three major ways:","They reduce the burden of participation for busy, but high context, stakeholders","They ensure accountability by allowing stakeholders to reject a decision they disagree with","They increase the operational efficiency of the Collective, increasing our ability to remain competitive","Here is how this approach will be implemented in Season 8:","Resource Allocation Modules (Mission Budgets)","Who proposes? The Budget Board will be entrusted to propose budgets for token allocations. Given their expertise (or the accuracy of the infrastructure they bootstrap for the Collective), the Collective can defer to their decisions. However, each stakeholder group will retain a veto if they believe budget proposals unfairly disadvantage their stakeholder group.","Who approves? Nobody, it’s optistimically approved!","Who can veto? Any of the four stakeholder groups represented in the Token House and Citizens' House may veto a decision they’re impacted by if they believe a proposal unfairly disadvantage their stakeholder group.","Full details here","Protocol Upgrade Modules","Please note this new process will go into effect on August 1st","Who proposes? Core Devs","Who approves? Approval of Protocol Upgrades will be delegated to an independent Developer Advisory Board, which acts on behalf of both the Token House and the Citizens’ House. The Developer Advisory Board will vote on all protocol upgrades (or veto maintenance upgrades) based on technical merit (see here for our learnings on technical expert voters here.)","Who can veto? Any of the four stakeholder groups represented in the Token House and Citizens’ House may veto a DAB approval if they believe a proposal unfairly disadvantage their stakeholder group.","Economic Decision Modules","Modules B, C, D, and E (treasury management and economic parameters) will be the focus on Seasons 10 & 11","Joint House optimistic approvals will leverage dynamic veto thresholds, in which thresholds are adjusted lower as consensus among stakeholders increases. This is a mechanism to reduce gridlock, creating bridging incentives for stakeholder groups to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes rather than act unilaterally. If a proposal is veto’d, it will proceed to an appeals process. Full details here.","The following decisions will continue to require active approval, as they require a high level of buy-in among participants for implementation:","Collective Intent Ratification (Token House and Citizens’ House)","Elections (Token House and/or Citizens’ House)","DAO Operating Budget (Token House)","Council and Board Budgets (Token House)","Full details about optimistic approvals, dynamic vetos, and the appeals process, can be found here.","As the Collective decentralizes, we must consider that there are ways to decentralize that actually increase platform risk. We remain committed to decentralization in so much as it also reduces platform risk. Accordingly, we’ve updated our thinking on our decentralization milestones to reflect this very important nuance.","✳️ For example: Consider a GitHub repository where push access is open to all. This is decentralized, but has extremely high platform risk.Now consider a Github repository where push access is limited to a small, group of core development maintainers, and contributions are publicly managed through pull requests. This isn’t as centralized as a private repo owned by one devco, which would present platform risk. However, it is less decentralized than a completely open repo. The repo described introduces decentralization without also introducing platform risk, which is the Collective’s goal.","With this in mind, we will continue to make progress towards a refined set of Decentralization Milestones in S8.","Season 8 introduces a momentous update to the Collective’s governance system, reflecting a new level of maturity. This update refines involvement for those most impacted by governance decisions, shifts the focus from short-term incentives to long-term sustainability, and minimizes the governance surface area while making progress towards decentralization in so much as it reduces platform risk.","The goal has always been to create a governance model designed for a new internet; now we understand that means lowering platform risk by creating accountability where corporate governance models have failed to do so.","We could have only arrived at this stage of maturity with the help of all the contributors that dared to experiment with us over the past three years. As always, we will move forward as a Collective. Here’s to the next phase ✨","Want to dive deeper?","Check out the full Guide to Season 8, Operating Manual, and our FAQ on Citizenship.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/governance-in-season-8-the-next-phase"},"/blog/optimism-extends-2-million-bug-bounty-program-to-protocol-upgrades-ahead-of-superchain-interop":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism Extends $2 Million Bug Bounty Program to Protocol Upgrades Ahead of Superchain Interop - Optimism","description":"Optimism is extending its $2 million bug bounty program to cover proposed protocol upgrades before they ever go into production, as OP Stack core developers prepare to","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Extends $2 Million Bug Bounty Program to Protocol Upgrades Ahead of Superchain Interop"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","June 20, 2025","Optimism is extending its $2 million bug bounty program to cover proposed protocol upgrades before they ever go into production, as OP Stack core developers prepare to roll out native interoperability to the Superchain. The proposed Upgrade 16 to the OP Stack is now live as the first upgrade proposal covered under the bounty program.","In a first for Optimism and the industry, this bug bounty now includes calldata for protocol upgrades. Frequent unaudited administrative transactions have long been a security gap in crypto protocols, and including calldata in scope for this bounty helps further strengthen Optimism’s security positioning.","Optimism has paid out $2.6 million in bug bounties since 2022 (second only to Polygon on the current Immunefi leaderboard), including a past $2 million bounty to the software engineer saurik.","Powered by Optimism’s OP Stack, the Superchain is designed to support multiple Ethereum L2 networks with shared governance, upgrades and security. As of June 2025, three of the top five Ethereum Layer 2s are on the Superchain, accounting for over $16 billion in total value secured. As part of Optimism-governed blockspace, these chains and their users benefit from regular protocol upgrades that help maintain peak performance.","Developers perform upgrades to the Superchain network every few months. A robust security approach requires a combination of skilled engineering, internal testing, third-party auditing and external bug bounties. As core developers prepare for Superchain-native interop, these added layers of protection become even more crucial.","“All Superchain upgrades are put through an intensive process of testing and security reviews, and bug bounties provide an extra line of defense against any potential threats,” said Matt Solomon, Head of Protocol Security at OP Labs, a core developer of the OP Stack. “At this critical juncture for the Superchain, we welcome other developers and security reviewers to dive into the code and help ensure it’s the best it can be.”","Superchain Upgrade 16 introduces:","Interop-Ready smart contracts: Interoperability is critical to realizing the Superchain as a unified network of OP Chains. This upgrade begins the rollout of foundational interoperability features by updating the OptimismPortal to handle future cross-chain messaging safely and extensibly. This upgrade does not turn on interop yet.","Max gas limit increase: Update to MAX_GAS_LIMIT from 200m to 500m gas after improvements to OP Stack infrastructure and the Cannon proof system.","Stage 1 updates: Modifications to meet L2Beat's updated Stage 1 requirements from January 2025, including the removal of DeputyGuardianModule and updates to DeputyPauseModule.","With Superchain Upgrade 16 now published, fresh code awaits and bounty hunters are invited to dive in.","Terms and conditions apply. See Immunefi for details.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-extends-2-million-bug-bounty-program-to-protocol-upgrades-ahead-of-superchain-interop"},"/blog/using-threat-modelling-as-a-strategic-development-tool":{"version":1,"title":"Using Threat Modelling as a Strategic Development Tool - Optimism","description":"Security roles in crypto need steady, methodical work. Figuring out the safety of a complex protocol is genuinely challenging, and effective threat modelling is a","keywords":"","h1":["Using Threat Modelling as a Strategic Development Tool"],"h2":["How Threat Modelling Fits Into a Security Strategy","Brainstorming the outcomes","Building a tree of outcomes","Working out event likelihoods","How to avoid disaster","Conclusion"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Alberto Cuesta Cañada","July 8, 2025","Security roles in crypto need steady, methodical work. Figuring out the safety of a complex protocol is genuinely challenging, and effective threat modelling is a structured way to spot weak points early so you can fix them. It's a straightforward process that taps into what engineers and business folks know about risks and priorities to create a clear path toward a stronger product.","At OP Labs we have a large security team. Even with all our expertise, we don't always have a gut feeling about where to focus our security efforts. Threat modelling guides us and builds confidence in our releases.","In this article, I'll show you how we do threat modelling, so that you can also acquire confidence that you are addressing the right security gaps.","This process is designed to be accessible and engaging, especially if you enjoy learning new approaches and building skills. Let's begin.","Let’s introduce a basic security model so that we know where threat modelling fits.","As we code a feature, we add layers of security measures. The most basic of these is full coverage unit testing. When you do unit testing there is the temptation to test only the happy path in which every actor does everything that is expected of them. That is testing that your code does what it should and we think of it as the important part.","When you unit test for full coverage, though, you are also testing that the feature doesn’t do what it shouldn’t do. You are checking that when some actor does something wrong, there is a controlled and expected outcome.","Often, during testing, you will identify that there is the risk that actors will do something unexpected, and you want to limit the damage of their actions to themselves, other actors, or your feature itself.","This process of controlling the unexpected is critical to securing an application. It is nearly impossible to know everything that can go wrong with a product, but by reducing the space for unexpected outcomes we greatly reduce the risk.","After unit testing, we regularly layer on more security measures. We do fuzz testing, symbolic execution, formal verification, audits, contests and bug bounties. All of these aim to discover new ways in which your feature would have an unexpected outcome.","But how do you know which security measures do you need? How do you know that you have enough of them? How do you know that they cover the right components? How do you know if you need to build a custom security measure?","The answer to that is threat modelling. That is how we feel assured that we have applied enough security measures in the right spots to reach the level of confidence that we need.","The best way to start threat modelling is by thinking what are the worse outcomes that could happen to the protocol. This is a list that often lives rent-free in the head of everyone working close to crypto security.","When I was working at Yield Protocol, our main concern was having the user assets stolen, but we also fretted about us dropping them in some unrecoverable location while transferring them from the user, and a number of other nasty outcomes.","Now at OP Labs, we worry first about the assets in the bridge, then the chains stalling for extended periods of time, and then other minor unpleasant outcomes.","Any list of negative outcomes is easily ranked from the worst outcome in descending order of damage, once you take the time to write everything down. Then you will start your threat modelling with the scariest outcomes, as they are the most likely to produce urgent mitigations to execute.","Let’s build a threat model from scratch. First a small one and then a more complex one. There are many ways of building these, but in this article we will follow the very simple process we use at OP Labs.","Our threat models are trees. In each root node you have an outcome we want to prevent. Things like our bridge being drained or a chain halting long enough for our users to notice.","Stemming from each outcome we include all the events that could cause it. These are often component failures within the system, but they can also be external requirements of any nature.","In the following example for a very simple onchain permissionless exchange we have an outcome that we want to avoid, which is a pool being drained of its assets. We have arbitrarily divided the code on each pool in two components that are a payout function and a transfer function, as we understand that any of these two components failing could lead to the pools being drained.","This is an arbitrary division, but that will do. Any partitioning of complex systems into simpler ones will help you in finding where the risk is, as long as the leaves don’t overlap. You should lean on the engineers that built the feature, which usually can explain it in terms of isolated components.","There are some missing components which we could have included as well. What if there is a bug in the underlying blockchain software? Feel free to include anything that you feel is relevant, later on you’ll find out if it is important.","To continue, let’s build a more complex tree. In this one we have an onchain tokenized vault that uses an external oracle to calculate the value of its assets, and we have decided that we should look into this component in more detail.","This one is more complex, but it is built in the same top-down approach, until we feel that we have gone down enough into specific components. Note that we can describe two components that would have to fail simultaneously for a higher level component to fail. This is common when some security features have already been implemented.","This tree can be read from the leaves as a cascade of component failures and external events that lead to an outcome that can be perceived by the users. The tree should be reasonably readable and descriptive. It should be easy to understand what is going on, and abstractions should not be abused.","For example you could say that a failure in the data processing under the external oracle would lead to the external oracle feeding incorrect data to the payout function, which could lead to the pools being drained.","In the example above if our math module fails, the invariant module would also need to fail in order for the payout function to misbehave.","You can build the tree in the upwards direction as well. You can take any isolated component and investigate what would happen if it fails. This component failure could cause failures of larger systems until it is noticed by the user, which is when you have reached an outcome. If there is a security measure that should catch this cascade of failures, add it as a node and assume that it also fails.","Whichever direction you build your tree from, and however you split your product into systems and components, you will end with a number of trees. For each tree you will have an outcome that you want to avoid, and a hierarchy of components whose failure would cause the outcome.","It can be the case that the same components and sub-trees are repeated if they lead to different outcomes. In those cases, we focus on the most severe outcome. Let’s see how to assess that.","At OP Labs we use four levels of likelihood for each event:","Certain to happen very soon (purple)","Very likely to happen within one year (red)","Might happen within two years (yellow)","Unlikely to happen for several years (green)","It is difficult to have any certainty when assigning a likelihood to an outcome, but its often easier to reason about how much we understand the logic of a smaller component. The experts responsible for each part of a system can be pretty good at assigning likelihoods of failure to smaller components as long as it's made clear that being more or less right is enough.","The likelihoods are combined up the nodes of the tree to reach to the likelihood of the outcome. The likelihood of a node with two leaves of different likelihood takes the most likely of them if combined with the default OR, and the least likely of them if combined with an AND.","In the tree below, even if second-level nodes was purple, it was AND'd with a yellow node, so their combined likelihood is yellow, and overruled by the red coming from the third-level nodes. The outcome at the root will be at least red (very likely within one year).","Now that we know how individual component failures lead to undesirable outcomes, we can focus on those and come up with mitigations.","In our example, let's imagine that we are happy if the vaults are not drained during the first year, because we know that by then we will have worked out a long-term plan. We need then to target those leaves with a likelihood of red or purple, of which we have two.","Let's say we ask the developers how to be safer, and they suggest implementing checksums for the red leaf, and formal verification for the purple leaf.","However, we know that the purple leaf is AND'd with a yellow leaf, so we don't need that mitigation. It seems that if we implement checksums we will reach the desired level of risk. This is the resulting tree:","This process can be repeated until we have a work plan to reduce the risk of each outcome to the desired level of risk.","At OP Labs we have used variations of this threat modelling system for several releases already. After each threat modelling exercise we would identify components with an unacceptable risk and we would implement mitigations addressing those specific components.","We are using this process now for interop, which is possibly our most complex release ever. This threat modelling allows us to tap into the expertise of individual engineers working on their individual components to know where we stand down to the smallest components, and chart a path for a safe release.","We identified many distinct outcomes to avoid, and their combined threat trees had more than a hundred nodes. To bring down the likelihood any of those outcomes happening, we are implementing dozens of mitigations.","Using the process described in this article, you should be able to increase the certainty that you are working on the right things to release software safely, and that is good for all of us.","At OP Labs, we are hiring individuals ready to work at the bleeding edge of technology and security. If you want to work with a world-class team on world-class projects, get in touch!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/using-threat-modelling-as-a-strategic-development-tool"},"/blog/peerdas-and-a-48-blob-target-in-2025":{"version":1,"title":"PeerDAS and a 48 blob target in 2025 - Optimism","description":"This post kicks off a multi-part series on PeerDAS. Over the coming weeks we’ll publish performance deep dives for every major consensus layer /execution layer (el/cl)","keywords":"","h1":["PeerDAS and a 48 blob target in 2025"],"h2":["What do nodes do today?","How does PeerDAS change things?","How does this impact different stakeholders?","Scaling Ethereum, together"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Sanjana Mehta","May 13, 2025","This post kicks off a multi-part series on PeerDAS. Over the coming weeks we’ll publish performance deep dives for every major consensus layer /execution layer (el/cl) client pair, surfacing how each stack performs in preparation for the upcoming Fusaka upgrade.","The Ethereum Foundation recently outlined its priorities for the next 12 months: scale L1, scale blobs, and improve UX. This matters because rollups, Ethereum's primary scaling solution, depend on Ethereum for data availability. With more than $37B secured on rollups, our next phase of scale hinges on abundant, low cost blobspace to sustain user activity. This is where PeerDAS comes in, enabling Ethereum to process eight times more data without sacrificing security or decentralization.","Today, Ethereum nodes handle blob data availability by downloading all blob data included in each block - currently up to 6 blobs - and custodying it for 4,096 epochs (~18 days). While this ensures strong data availability guarantees, it imposes clear scalability limits: more blobs mean more storage, which demands increasingly powerful nodes. PeerDAS (EIP-7594) marks a step in the direction of danksharding, a fundamental shift in how Ethereum handles data: rather than downloading all blob data, nodes will shard the responsibility for blob custody.","By building on existing infrastructure and bandwidth requirements with battle-tested networking components, PeerDAS enables Ethereum to scale to at least 48 blob target per block, unlocking an 8x increase in blob capacity and raising throughput from ~220 to ~3,500 UOPS (user operations per second) without compromising Ethereum’s security guarantees. This means lower costs, better user experience, and a stronger ecosystem. Additionally, increased L2 activity would translate into more overall fees on L1, bolstering Ethereum’s security model by boosting validator revenues and reinforcing network security.","Simply put, scaling L2 via PeerDAS strengthens Ethereum's L1.","In this article, we'll explore how PeerDAS works and how it impacts different ecosystem stakeholders - from node operators and rollups to app developers and users. We'll also share how OP Labs is collaborating with Sunnyside Labs, Base, and Soneium to accelerate the launch of PeerDAS in the upcoming Fusaka upgrade, targeted for later this year.","With Pectra now live, each block has a blob target of 6 and blob limit of 9. Each blob can hold up to 128KB of data. When considering only the blob data payload (excluding additional data such as kzg_commitment or kzg_proof), since all nodes custody all blobs, all nodes will be required to store 128 kB x 6 = 768 kB of data per block.","Nodes need to custody all blob data included in each block for 4,096 epochs (~18 days)","In this section, we'll discuss how PeerDAS works at a high level. For a deeper look into the technical architecture, we highly recommend this post. Manu’s PeerDAS from scratch makes for an excellent read too!","With PeerDAS, the blob size is doubled using erasure coding, i.e. we split blobs into 64 columns and perform erasure coding to extend to 128 columns. Each full node downloads and verifies a small, randomly assigned portion of the data. At a network level (at time of writing, that’s more than 9,600 validating full nodes). This provides a very high degree of certainty that the full dataset is available. By sampling rather than fully downloading blobs, Ethereum can achieve an eightfold boost in blob capacity without increasing node storage and bandwidth requirements.","Most validating nodes will be required to custody and serve 8 columns (more on this later). Considering only the blob data payload (excluding other data such as kzg_commitment or kzg_proof), we can define the following:","Each node custodies 8 data columns","48 blobs per block target","Each cell holds 2 kB of data","This means all validating nodes will be required to store 8 x 48 x 2 kB = 768 kB of blob data per block (which you’ll notice is the same as the current storage requirements at 6 blobs/block!)","We split blobs into 64 columns and perform erasure coding to extend to 128 columns.","By distributing responsibility across the network and relying on sampling over full custody, Ethereum scales efficiently without sacrificing decentralization or security.","Both the execution and consensus layer clients will see updates to support PeerDAS. These include changes to blob gossiping, subnet sampling, validator custodying and cell validation logic.","Node operators: Instead of seeing entire blobs being fetched, your nodes will subscribe to gossip subnets for assigned data slices and respond to sampling requests from peers. You’ll configure custody parameters and deploy updated software, but the day‑to‑day hardware requirements remain within your existing capacity. Higher blob throughput will also result in higher fee payouts (more blobs means more blob gas and commitment transactions, which means more fees/revenues for the validator operators).","A few things to note:","Non validating nodes will handle at least 4 data columns","Nodes with at least one attached validator handle a minimum of 8 data columns","For each additional 32 ETH staked, nodes store an extra data column","Nodes staking ≥ 1,824 ETH (57 validators) handle at least 64 columns, enabling reconstruction of the whole set","Nodes staking ≥ 3,872 ETH (121 validators) must handle all 128 columns and are called supernodes","Solo stakers: PeerDAS ensures that solo staking remains accessible, enabling solo stakers to secure Ethereum using affordable home setups or cloud VMs. Your nodes will only download a fraction of each blob’s data, performing light proof checks, thus keeping CPU and bandwidth requirements within the current recommendations.","Rollups: Rollups immediately benefit from PeerDAS. At a 48-blob target, rollups gain nearly 3,300 UOPS worth of additional data availability capacity. This allows rollups to increase gas throughput, reduce fees for their users, and confidently explore newer, more gas intensive applications.","End users and app developers: Lower data availability costs directly translate to reduced fees for end users and an improved user experience. App developers can count on higher gas throughput in their rollups, resulting in faster and more responsive decentralized applications.","Optimism remains deeply committed to Ethereum’s long term success. Reaching the 48 blob target is not a given, but teams across the ecosystem have been working hard towards it. Over the coming weeks, we plan to publish detailed insights from Sunnyside Labs' PeerDAS devnets, showcasing performance benchmarks, progress, and key challenges as we approach the ambitious 48 blob target.","Stay tuned - together, we’re taking Ethereum to everyone.","We’re hiring! If you're passionate about scaling Ethereum, advancing the Superchain, and building open, decentralized infrastructure for the world, check out our open roles. We'd love to hear from you.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/peerdas-and-a-48-blob-target-in-2025"},"/blog/end-to-end-multichain-testing-with-relayer-sol":{"version":1,"title":"End-to-End Multichain Testing with Relayer.sol - Optimism","description":"Relayer.sol brings first class multichain end-to-end testing to your Forge testing setup. By inheriting from the abstract Relayer test helper, your tests can spin up fork","keywords":"","h1":["End-to-End Multichain Testing with Relayer.sol"],"h2":["Why you need a relayer in your tests","Project Setup","Writing a Test That Crosses Chains","Advanced Patterns","Common Pitfalls","Putting it all together","Further Reading"],"h3":["1. Add the interop lib","2. Launch Supersim and point Foundry at it","Step 1: Forking networks","Step 2: Recording logs automatically","Step 3: Emitting an interop message","Step 4: Relaying inside the test","Step 5: Asserting State","Granular Relaying","Promise testing (experimental)"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Faina Shalts","June 18, 2025","Relayer.sol brings first class multichain end-to-end testing to your Forge testing setup. By inheriting from the abstract Relayer test helper, your tests can spin up forks of multiple networks, emit real L2ToL2CrossDomainMessenger events, and relay them inside the same forge test process — no external relayer or scripting glue required. In this post you’ll learn how to:","Wire up forked RPC URLs from running Supersim endpoints","Deploy and exercise contracts on several chains","Relay every message (or just a subset) with a single call","Assert state changes on the destination chain just like any other unit test","Superchain Interop promises to change the paradigms of decentralized application development. This exciting improvement will allow for low-latency, seamless message-passing and asset bridging between chains in the Superchain interop set. As you seek to build for this future, you’ll need to level up your crosschain testing workflow.","The Superchain’s interop workflow is event-driven: a contract calls sendMessage() on the L2ToL2CrossDomainMessenger, the messenger emits SentMessage, and an offchain relayer picks that event up and submits an executing transaction to the destination chain - only then does the payload run.","Relayer.sol embeds that relayer logic directly in Forge, eliminating flaky sleeps or manual cast commands you’d otherwise try in local CI runs.","Relayer.sol turns cross-chain testing from “run two disjointed test suites and hope the bridge works” to “prove, inside Forge, that the message really executes on chain B.” It removes external dependencies, cuts boilerplate, and brings your test environment closer to mainnet reality.","Relayer.sol significantly simplifies crosschain testing flows","Relayer.sol lives under src/test/Relayer.sol in the repo https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/interop-lib.","Install Supersim","Start a vanilla Superchain","Supersim boots three local anvil nodes, pre-deploys the Superchain interop contracts, and exposes JSON-RPC endpoints:","Chain","ID","RPC URL","L1(mainnet)","900","http://127.0.0.1:8545","L2-A","901","http://127.0.0.1:9545","L2-B","902","http://127.0.0.1:9546","For more information about Supersim and the various ways you can customize your local development workflow, check out the Supersim documentation.","Tell Foundry about these RPCs in foundry.toml","Need devnet? Skip Supersim if you’d like to try out the interop devnet, or graduate your project from local development to devnet by changing your foundry.toml to point to these devnet endpoints (see documentation for the most up to date endpoints):","Below is a stripped-down version of the reference CrossChainIncrementer.t.sol test:","Let’s unpack what’s happening here.","vm.createFork clones remote state; vm.selectFork switches the active fork. Keep the returned IDs. You’ll need them whenever you jump between chains.","The Relayer constructor call vm.recordLogs() means every emitted event is captured. You don’t need to sprinkle this in yourself; just inherit the helper!","L2ToL2CrossDomainMessenger.sendMessage gives you replay protection and domain binding out of the box. Use it exactly as you will onchain.","relayAllMessages() pulls the buffer via vm.getRecordedLogs() , filters for SentMessage, and re-executes each on the correct destination fork.","Need more control? Pass a slice of vm.log[] to relayMessages() and decide which events get relayed.","Once the relay is done, swap to the destination fork (vm.selectFork(\"l2a\") again) and assert like any other unit test. Because everything ran synchronously in-process there are no race conditions or polling loops.","💡To see this test pattern in action, take a look here!","Sometimes you only want to relay a subset of events. Because the SentMessage log does not embed the origin chain, you must pass the sourceChainId that produced those logs.","This functionality is particularly useful when you need to cache the recorded logs for something beyond relaying. Because vm.getRecordedLogs() consumes the buffer, you can grab it once, store it, run custom assertions/decoding/fuzzing on the raw events, and then feed the same slice (or a filtered sub-slice) into relayMessages(). This lets you relay the items you care about, re-relay the same message to test replay protection paths, or keep the logs around for coverage metrics - all without losing data or requiring an extra onchain emit.","The interop library also exposes a Promise primitive to guarantee delivery semantics; early test suites live in Promise.t.sol. Expect the helper to gain first-class Promise utilities soon!","Missing predeploys: running against a local node without the messenger will revert. Stick to Supersim and the devnets!","Log buffer consumption: vm.getRecordedLogs() consumes the buffer each call. Cache it if you need multiple passes.","With less than 40 lines of boilerplate, you now have realistic, deterministic multichain tests that run in seconds:","Under the hood, Forge:","Forks both L2s on supersim","Executes your source chain transaction","Replays the log on the destination fork","Asserts post-conditions","…All without leaving the EVM or depending on external infrastructure. That’s the power of Relayer.sol. Give it a spin, break some messages, and watch your crosschain logic harden before it ever hits production. Happy testing!","Interop message-passing overview Optimism Docs","Manual cast relaying tutorial Optimism Docs","pyk’s multi-chain Forge guide Pyk.sh","Full recordLogs / getRecordedLogs cheatcodes Foundry Book","Superchain devnet tooling docs Optimism Docs","Supersim docs & CLI reference Optimism Docs","Supersim GitHub README GitHub","In crypto, and in OP Labs, we have a job like no other. The stakes are immense and so is the complexity of what we are trying to do. However, sometimes, simple processes can make all the difference and allow us to reach further.","At OP Labs, we are hiring individuals ready to work at the bleeding edge of technology and security. If you want to work on a world-class team on world-class projects, get in touch!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/end-to-end-multichain-testing-with-relayer-sol"},"/blog/introducing-the-kona-node-a-rust-powered-leap-for-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing the Kona-Node: A Rust-Powered Leap for the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"Today marks a thrilling milestone for the OP Stack ecosystem: the first public release of kona-node, our modular, high-performance rollup node built entirely in Rust.","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing the Kona-Node: A Rust-Powered Leap for the OP Stack"],"h2":["What is the Kona Node?","How Does It Differ from op-node?","Running Kona-Node: Dive into Our Verbose Docs","Composability as a First Class Citizen","Why This Matters"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Andreas Bigger","August 1, 2025","Today marks a thrilling milestone for the OP Stack ecosystem: the first public release of kona-node, our modular, high-performance rollup node built entirely in Rust. If you're building scalable Layer 2 solutions on Ethereum, this is your cue to get excited.","In this post, we'll break down what makes kona-node special, how it compares to the reference op-node, and how you can start using it yourself.","Drawing from our docs at https://rollup.yoga, kona-node is a spec-compliant implementation of an OP Stack rollup node. It's part of the broader Kona suite, which includes low-level types, portable no_std components, and services optimized for security and performance.","Key highlights for kona-node include Rust's inherent memory safety, minimal resource footprint, and support for multiple proof backends like FPVM, SP1, Risc0, and more. This design emphasizes customizability through composable crates, making it extensible for diverse verifiable environments.","With just ~8K lines of code, kona-node delivers robust functionality, including fault proof capabilities. For context, the full Kona client clocks in at ~3K LoC, showcasing our focus on lean, efficient engineering.","While op-node (the original Go-based implementation) has been a reliable workhorse for Optimism's rollups, kona-node brings a fresh perspective, leveraging open source Rust crates.","The kona-node implementation repurposes the same no_std rust crates used for the kona-proof - a Rust fault proof implementation. This includes many other foundational crates as well including protocol types, rollup configurations as part of the Superchain registry, and hardforks.","Design-wise, kona-node adopts an actor-based architecture via the RollupNodeService trait, enabling message-passing concurrency with actors like DerivationActor (for L2 payload derivation) and EngineActor (for execution layer interactions). This modular setup enhances composability and extensibility, contrasting with op-node's centralized event system structure.","The result is better developer legibility, resource efficiency, and quick integration of new features.","Getting started is straightforward, thanks to detailed documentation at https://rollup.yoga. Our guides are packed with step-by-step instructions, covering everything from setup to advanced configurations.","Launch the node for the Base chain:","Install via Cargo:","For deeper customization, check the flags for L2 chain IDs, P2P networking, or supervisor integration. Our docs include troubleshooting tips and best practices to ensure a smooth run.","Below is a screenshot of https://node.rollup.yoga, where we are running a live kona-node against OP Sepolia with op-reth. Go visit the site and see for yourself!","kona-node's composability shines through its modular crates, such as kona-derive for derivation pipelines and extensible traits for integrating components like data sources and attribute builders. These allow seamless extension for custom rollups or provers (e.g., FPVM, SP1, Risc0).","Here's an example using kona-derive, demonstrating how to compose a DerivationPipeline using the PipelineBuilder for L2 input derivation from L1 data:","The next snippet shows a simplified example of implementing the RollupNodeService trait for a custom validator node, based on the kona-node-service’s API. This demonstrates composing custom actors and pipelines:","Since the node wiring and execution logic is already abstracted away, only the actor builders need to be defined. That way, the trait itself will use its abstractions to spin up the node.","With kona-node, we're pushing the OP Stack toward greater decentralization and efficiency. Further, since the rust crates are modular and published, they can be composed however users like. There’s no restriction on how to extend the rollup node yourself. Use, adapt, improve the kona-node however you wish - as a library or an application.","Ready to try it? Head to https://rollup.yoga, run a node yourself, and come contribute to the kona repository!","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-the-kona-node-a-rust-powered-leap-for-the-op-stack"},"/blog/lessons-in-causality-measuring-impact-in-the-superchain-ecosystem":{"version":1,"title":"Lessons in Causality: Measuring Impact in the Superchain Ecosystem - Optimism","description":"We all love a good story, especially in crypto, where rapid change and open data make it easy to find patterns and draw conclusions.","keywords":"","h1":["Lessons in Causality: Measuring Impact in the Superchain Ecosystem"],"h2":["Measuring Impact Is Hard","A Practical Framework for Causal Thinking","Observations from the Superchain Ecosystem","Final Words"],"h3":["Why Observational Data Alone Can Be Misleading","Causal Questions are Everywhere in the Superchain Ecosystem","Define the Objective and Measurement Upfront","When Randomization Isn’t an Option","OP Reward Program Exploratory Analysis","Airdrop Retention via Regression Discontinuity","Measuring Retro Funding Impact with Synthetic Control"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Chuxin Huang","July 28, 2025","We all love a good story, especially in crypto, where rapid change and open data make it easy to find patterns and draw conclusions. An incentive program launches, and new addresses follow. A protocol upgrade goes live, and usage spikes. It’s tempting to attribute any shift in key metrics to the most visible intervention. But without a structured approach to measurement, these assumptions are fragile at best and misleading at worst.","These aren’t just academic questions, they go to the heart of how we allocate resources, design incentives, and evaluate outcomes. Getting these answers right is critical for the long-term success of the Collective, to ensure we’re rewarding the right builders and supporting contributions that drive sustainable ecosystem growth.","In a space as complex and fast-moving as crypto, correlation is often mistaken for causation.  As Randall Munroe humorously captures in one of his xkcd comics, it’s easy to see patterns in data and assume they’re meaningful, even when they’re just coincidences.","Source: https://xkcd.com/925/","At the Optimism Collective, we take a deliberately experimental and causal mindset. We design measurement systems and run experiments to go beyond surface metrics so that we can iterate faster, make better decisions, and build what truly works.","Imagine giving apples to elite athletes before an event, seeing they run fast and then concluding the apple made them so. But they were probably already fast to begin with. Without a proper counterfactual (what would’ve happened without the apple), we risk mistaking correlation for causation.","The same thing happens in crypto.","Take the example of an incentive targeting users based on their gas fee spending. In this simplified scenario, the x-axis represents gas fees paid, and the y-axis represents user retention. Suppose eligibility is based on crossing a certain gas fee threshold (in reality, criteria are often more complex). The goal is to evaluate whether receiving the incentive improves retention.","Note: This data is for illustrative purpose only","At first glance, it might look like users who spend more on gas also stick around longer, suggesting the incentive is working. But that relationship can be misleading. Those who cross the threshold are likely already more engaged and would’ve stuck around even without the incentive.","That’s selection bias: we’re comparing fundamentally different groups. The incentive may appear effective, but the observed impact could be entirely driven by pre-existing differences, not the program itself.","While regression algorithms are great at identifying correlations and predicting growth trends, understanding why something happened is much harder. Yet causal questions are everywhere in the Superchain ecosystem. Here are a few examples:","Category","Example Question","Protocol Design","Did cheaper transaction fees lead to more users and onchain activity?","Retro Funding","What impact did Retro Funding have on developer activity, onchain contributions, or TVL?","Airdrops","Did airdrop recipients show higher retention than non-recipients?","Growth Campaigns","Did a campaign increase TVL, or would it have grown anyway?","Governance","Does deliberation lead to more informed or less polarized decision-making?","While measuring causal impact is difficult, it’s a challenge worth tackling, and many other domains, from public policy that used randomized evaluation to save taxpayers millions of dollars, to tech companies that built non-experimental causal inference tools to measure the benefit of new tools, have faced and overcome.","We don’t need to start from scratch. We can draw from proven methods and real-world examples to build smarter, more accountable systems. To do that, we need a shared way of thinking about causality that’s both practical and accessible.","Measuring impact in open systems is difficult, but it becomes a bit easier when we approach it with the right mindset. Below is a practical framework for thinking causally, even when we can’t run perfect experiments.","Before anything, we should ask ourselves: “What’s the decision this is meant to inform?” This idea comes from the Experimentation Prioritization Framework at Optimism, which recommends focusing on experiments (or measurements) that directly inform actionable decisions.","Just as important is being explicit about how we’ll measure success. What metric(s) matter most for the outcome we care about—retention, growth, revenue, decentralization? Are we optimizing for a short-term spike, or long-term sustainability? Having a clear, shared definition upfront ensures our analysis aligns with what really matters.","It’s tempting to define measurement after an initiative is already live. Doing so opens the door to cherry-picking metrics or rationalizing outcomes after the fact. Instead, we should treat measurement design as part of the initiative itself: planned early, tightly aligned with the decision at hand, and baked into execution from the start.","We can use the decision tree below to ensure our research topic and measurement efforts are actually useful.","Source: How We Experiment: Principles for Designing Experiments","In a perfect world, we’d run randomized experiments to cleanly isolate the effect of any intervention where possible. However, that’s rarely feasible in reality. Programs like airdrops, Retro Funding, liquidity mining and new feature launches affect the whole ecosystem at once, making it hard to create clean control groups.","Still, we can learn from structured observation. Methods like regression discontinuity or synthetic control help estimate impact when randomness isn’t possible. Even non-causal tools like descriptive trends, network analysis, sentiment tracking, and simulation can offer valuable insight when interpreted carefully.","The key is to choose the right method for the question, and to stay honest about what we can (and can’t) conclude.","There are many causal inference methods out there, each suited to different data and decision contexts. To help decide what approach to use, the chart below (while not exhaustive) outlines different analytical methods based on two factors:","(1) strength of causal inference, and (2) data requirements.","Here’s a quick guide to what these methods mean:","Method","Description","Pros","Cons","Exploratory Analysis","Trend analysis, dashboards, before/after metrics","Useful for hypothesis generation and identifying potential signals","Doesn’t control for confounding variables—cannot establish causality","Regression Discontinuity (RDD)","Compares outcomes just above and below a threshold","Can approximate causal inference if threshold is sharp and other factors are smooth across it","Requires a clearly defined threshold and enough data around it","Synthetic Control","Constructs a counterfactual using a weighted combination of similar entities not exposed to the treatment","Useful when randomized experiments aren’t possible; can model complex interventions","Requires many comparable control entities and strong assumptions","Randomized Experiments (A/B Testing)","Randomly assigns treatment to users or entities to isolate impact","Gold standard for causal inference; ensures differences are due to the intervention","Can be expensive, slow, or infeasible in some contexts","In the next section, we’ll walk through a few case studies from the Superchain ecosystem of applying different methods to asset impact and uncover insights.","While not every initiative is launched with experimental design in mind, we can still learn from them using thoughtful analytical approaches. Below are a few examples within the Superchain ecosystem where we’ve tried to better understand real impact, despite imperfect setups.","Example","Type of Analysis","OP Reward Program Exploratory Analysis","Observational","Exploratory and longitudinal analysis","Airdrop Retention Analysis","Quasi-experimental","Retro Funding Impact Measurement","We will explain each of them in more detail below.","We evaluated the effectiveness of OP reward programs across 3 seasons in OP Rewards Analytics Update. These programs varied in design, objective, and protocol, so instead of aiming for a unified causal estimate, we took an exploratory approach, analyzing performance during the incentive period and in the 30 days after program end. The goal was to identify and compare in terms of retention, usage and potential strategic tradeoffs across implementations. It’s important to note, however, that we cannot attribute the observed increases in TVL or usage solely to the reward program.","To overcome the issue of confounding and to estimate the effect on addresses receiving airdrop 5 on subsequent retention, we used a regression discontinuity design to understand effectiveness of an intervention around an arbitrary threshold / boundary—in this case, addresses just above or below the 50 OP threshold.","The results suggest that receiving the airdrop led to a 4.2 percentage point (pp) increase in 30-day retention and a 2.8pp increase in 60-day retention, compared to similar addresses that did not receive the airdrop.","Source: Did OP Airdrop 5 Increase User Retention Rates? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis","Open Source Observer (OSO) used synthetic control to estimate what would have happened to rewarded projects had they not received funding. By constructing a weighted composite of similar projects from peer ecosystems, we could use a counterfactual to compare actual outcomes against, offering a read on program effectiveness, despite the lack of randomization.","Source: Early experiments with synthetic controls and causal inference & Github","The Optimism Collective should continue to apply these approaches across ecosystem programs, from incentive design to governance to developer funding. What makes crypto especially powerful is the ability to test and learn in real time. With massive amounts of public onchain data, we have a unique opportunity to study human behavior, coordination, incentive response and governance at scale, much like how big data transformed the way we understand and build for the internet today.","It's an ongoing process of iteration and learning, and each step brings us closer to developing a more robust and systematic approach to understanding what truly drives impact.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/lessons-in-causality-measuring-impact-in-the-superchain-ecosystem"},"/blog/optimism-partners-with-flashbots":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism Partners with Flashbots to Accelerate Sequencing for Every OP Stack Chain  - Optimism","description":"Optimism and Flashbots are partnering to bring fast, configurable, verifiable sequencing to the Superchain, powered by the team that built Ethereum’s sequencing pipeline.","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Partners with Flashbots to Accelerate Sequencing for Every OP Stack Chain"],"h2":["Giving OP Stack builders a competitive edge","Bringing sequencing innovation to the OP Stack","What’s New: Configurable sequencing as a platform feature","What’s next for sequencing on the OP Stack"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","August 21, 2025","Optimism and Flashbots are partnering to bring fast, configurable, verifiable sequencing to the Superchain, powered by the team that built Ethereum’s sequencing pipeline. For OP Stack builders, this partnership means strong differentiation through sequencer innovation, capturing more of the value they create, and innovating cheaper and faster than ever before.","As of August 2025, the Superchain drives over 60% of all Ethereum L2 transaction activity, with Base, Unichain, World Chain, Ink, and Soneium all building on the OP Stack. Now, the OP Stack becomes even more performant and customizable with support from Flashbots, the top sequencing R&D company since 2020 and the inventor of projects like mev-boost, BuilderNet, and Flashblocks.","In 2025, the most successful chains make sequencing a central part of their product strategy. For businesses looking to launch a chain today, there are three reasons sequencing matters:","It’s become a main vector of differentiation, affecting everything from user latency, execution fairness, scalability, programmability, and more.","It allows chains to maximize revenue from sequencing and keep it in their own ecosystem, while providing a strong experience for users and external builders.","Doing all of this with a trusted partner and proven plug-and-play components greatly lowers costs and accelerates speed to market.","Here are some examples of how existing players are using the sequencer to innovate on core areas of their product:","A chain specializing in DeFi trading might optimize for very low latency, guarantee fair trade execution, and give cancel priority for market maker orders.","A stablecoin payments chain could guarantee instant sub-cent transfers at scale, while checking for compliance or streaming subscription payments via sequencer cron jobs.","An established fintech company can bring their own users onchain and expand globally, without giving up value to another chain.","Until today, only some of the biggest chains had the power to build these features. Optimism’s partnership with Flashbots pushes the limits of what the OP Stack can do, while making these innovations a standard option for OP Stack builders, unlocking many new opportunities.","Flashbots is the undisputed leader in this space, with a track record of building open, production-grade sequencing infrastructure for Ethereum since 2020.","On Ethereum L1, Flashbots’ innovations have transformed block production at scale. Today, over 90% of Ethereum blocks are built through MEV‑Boost, creating a competitive, transparent market for blockspace that processes billions of dollars in daily volume and mitigates harmful frontrunning. They are building 45% of Ethereum blocks through BuilderNet, a decentralized block building network that runs on TEEs and shares MEV with the community.","Beyond L1, Flashbots has already delivered major sequencing innovations to OP Stack chains:","Flashblocks – 200ms confirmation times for users, live on Base and Unichain today with OP Mainnet following soon.","Rollup-Boost – A modular, open interface for third-party builders, powering Unichain’s Verifiable Priority Ordering and World Chain’s Priority Blockspace for Humans, among others.","Verifiable block building – TEEs, a technology Flashbots pioneered in crypto, provide Unichain users cryptographically-backed guarantees around how their transactions are processed, giving unprecedented levels of market transparency.","Now, that same battle-tested tech is available to any builder on the OP Stack, providing more scalability, customization, and programmability to the Superchain than any other option in the market.","Optimism and Flashbots are making sequencing a first-class feature that any builder can tap into. Among the first features released will be:","Fully customizable block building  – From instant settlement for payments to encrypted ordering for sensitive trades and compliance checks, everything will be programmable with just a few lines of code.","Capture MEV value responsibly – Auctioning blockspace intelligently so MEV profits stay in-ecosystem, funding growth or reducing fees for users.","Scale without spam – Maximize the efficiency of your blockspace by mitigating harmful onchain searching, lowering fees for regular users.","This gives chains the tools to innovate on user experience and monetize their blockspace responsibly, while moving faster than their competition.","Starting soon, Optimism and Flashbots will work together to roll out Flashblocks to OP Mainnet and remaining chains, establishing near-instant 200ms block times across the Superchain.","For builders on the OP Stack, these benefits will gradually roll out over the coming months.","If you’re thinking about launching a new chain, learn more about how the unique customizability of the OP Stack can accelerate your vision.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-partners-with-flashbots"},"/blog/ronin-is-coming-home-to-ethereum-with-optimism-s-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Ronin is Coming Home to Ethereum with Optimism’s OP Stack  - Optimism","description":"Ronin is coming home to Ethereum, and Optimism is making it possible. ","keywords":"","h1":["Ronin is Coming Home to Ethereum with Optimism’s OP Stack"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","September 9, 2025","Ronin is coming home to Ethereum, and Optimism is making it possible.","Last month, Ronin shared plans to migrate to a Layer 2 chain, with a vision to become Ethereum’s gamification engine. After considering four proposals, the Ronin Validator community ultimately voted to adopt Optimism’s OP Stack. We couldn’t be more excited to build together with Ronin and welcome their community to the Superchain.","Optimism is the best ecosystem for ambitious teams looking to build production-ready chains on Ethereum. The OP Stack delivers fast, cheap, and scaled blockspace, empowering projects like Ronin to focus on delivering the best products and experiences to their users. Optimism is the backbone of Ethereum’s rollup ecosystem, driving 71% of all L2 transaction fees year-to-date. With unmatched adoption, reliability, and scale, the OP Stack is the default choice for mission-critical infrastructure.","We invited Ronin to build its L2 on Optimism’s OP Stack along with a deeply integrated team of technical collaborators:","Eigen Layer offers unparalleled scale for millions of gamers, supporting up to 1M TPS via Eigen DA.","Boundless provides capital efficiency, with fast withdrawals and cost-effective scaling through ZK proving.","Conduit offers custom, high-availability sequencing with the highest uptime and performance across the OP Stack. Conduit OP Stack chains have delivered 100% uptime in the past 2 years.","Flashbots provides 200ms block times, only available on the OP Stack, and with a roadmap to continue to drive this time down to <100ms.","The OP Stack is trusted by world-class developers at Base, Ink, Unichain, World Chain, Soneium, Celo, and many others; all with their own unique communities, customization needs and technical requirements. By building with Optimism, Ronin will be closer than ever to innovation happening on Ethereum and across the OP Stack.","Ronin and its ecosystem will benefit from:","Proven Scale: Optimism has demonstrated the ability to scale live chains, and continues to improve scaling with partners like Base.","Player UX: With fast block times and support for customization, Optimism ensures strong UX for players across the Ronin ecosystem.","Real-World Performance: The OP Stack offers fast withdrawals, strong TPS, and a clear path to Stage 1 decentralization.","Migration Support: Optimism’s battle-tested playbook and deep technical expertise will help Ronin quickly and safely migrate to an L2.","Ecosystem Support: Ronin will benefit from Optimism’s partnerships and integrations, along with milestone-based incentives to drive growth.","Superchain Collaboration: Ronin users, creators, and builders will tap into the Superchain’s powerful network effects and shared innovation across the OP Stack.","Optimism gives chains the ability to customize features to their unique needs, while benefitting from shared security, upgrades and innovations across the OP Stack. For Ronin, this flexibility means their L2 will launch with $RON as a custom gas token, utilize EigenDA for data availability, and have a clear path towards full ZK validity proofs with Boundless.","Along with our technical collaborators, Optimism will partner with Ronin every step of the way, accelerating their vision to become Ethereum’s gamification engine. Over the coming weeks and months, we look forward to working closely with the Ronin team, getting to know the Ronin community better, and spearheading their L2 migration with all of the features needed to make this a pivotal moment for Web3 gaming and Ethereum adoption.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/ronin-is-coming-home-to-ethereum-with-optimism-s-op-stack"},"/blog/tech-debt-understanding-its-business-impact":{"version":1,"title":"Tech Debt: Understanding its Business Impact - Optimism","description":"Technical debt has become a catchall term for engineering challenges, often cited as a blocker without clear articulation of its actual impact.","keywords":"","h1":["Tech Debt: Understanding its Business Impact"],"h2":["Accidental Complexity","Routine and Deferred Maintenance","Poor Usability as Tech Debt","Bugs and Incident Response","Dead Code","Lack of Testing","Slow Feedback Loops","Conclusion"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Adrian Sutton","August 28, 2025","Technical debt has become a catchall term for engineering challenges, often cited as a blocker without clear articulation of its actual impact. For teams building critical infrastructure at scale, this vague framing fails to capture the nuanced ways that different forms of debt affect our ability to deliver value effectively.","At OP Labs, we've found that moving beyond generic complaints about \"tech debt\" to identifying specific business costs creates more productive conversations. When we can quantify how particular implementation choices slow development velocity, increase bug rates, or consume maintenance resources, we enable better prioritization decisions across product and engineering teams.","This precision matters because not all technical debt carries the same cost. Some represents calculated trade-offs that allowed us to ship important features earlier, while other forms silently drain resources without delivering corresponding value. The distinction affects both how we communicate about these challenges and how we approach resolving them.","This article explores the different categories of tech debt we've encountered, their varied impacts on development velocity, and strategies for managing them responsibly. By understanding these patterns, we can make more informed decisions that maximize our ability to ship faster, better software while maintaining the reliability our users expect.","Every system contains essential complexity—the inherent difficulty of the problems we're solving. At OP Labs, this includes cryptography and advanced mathematics that justify our business value. However, accidental complexity often creeps in alongside it.","Accidental complexity makes our systems harder to reason about, test, and modify. When code becomes unnecessarily intricate, our development velocity decreases while bug rates increase. This has concrete business costs: longer development cycles, more resources spent on fixes, and potential incidents requiring emergency response.","When addressing accidental complexity, we should resist the temptation of complete rewrites. Existing code embodies hard-won lessons that can be lost in rewrites, which themselves become forms of tech debt by blocking progress. Incremental simplification, while sometimes slower on the calendar, carries lower risk and allows us to continue delivering value in parallel.","Routine maintenance—updating dependencies, incorporating upstream changes, testing backups—is necessary to prevent code rot. We can reduce these costs through automation and tooling investments, as we've done successfully with projects like op-workbench.","Deferring maintenance creates a calculated risk. While it may free resources in the short term, the cost of delay can compound. When we postponed expanding Cannon to support Go 1.23, for example, we experienced cascading delays in incorporating upstream changes and faced larger, riskier reviews.","This is analogous to deferring car maintenance—skipping an oil change might work out, but risks a far more expensive engine failure. Short deferrals to avoid interrupting current work are reasonable; longer ones often become false economies.","Sometimes what we label \"tech debt\" represents deliberate decisions to limit features or polish to meet delivery deadlines. This creates ongoing costs, particularly when we use our own software. A prime example is our inability to deploy new chains with correctly configured permissionless fault proofs—a scope reduction that helped us ship earlier but now costs significant time when creating devnets.","While perfect usability might delay shipping, the accumulated costs of poor usability eventually exceed what it would have cost to address initially. These decisions require careful product consideration, weighing short-term delivery needs against long-term efficiency. We need to clearly communicate the business impact of these tradeoffs to make informed prioritization decisions.","The direct costs of fixing bugs and responding to incidents are obvious but substantial. More importantly, they represent interruptions to planned work that disrupt flow and delay value delivery.","Investments in testing (especially early in development), monitoring, and incident response tools can significantly reduce these costs. We should track alert patterns and allocate capacity for reliability improvements, with an expectation that on-call engineers will address the root causes of alerts rather than just responding to symptoms.","Feature toggles, deprecated functionality, and unused features accumulate as \"dead code\" that provides no value but still requires maintenance. This includes configuration complexity around features that were shipped but never gained traction.","We need disciplined processes to remove feature toggles after deployment stabilizes and to sunset features that don't deliver their expected value. Working with product teams to make these decisions helps prevent paying ongoing costs for code that no longer benefits the business.","Code without sufficient automated testing represents one of the costliest forms of tech debt. Our derivation pipeline exemplifies this challenge—we restrict the reviewer pool because of the consensus-critical nature of the code, but this human-dependent process is both inefficient and error-prone.","More comprehensive automated testing would simultaneously increase confidence and broaden the pool of developers who can safely contribute. Ultimately, every bug and incident represents a missing test that could have caught the issue earlier.","Developer productivity hinges on rapid feedback. The longer developers wait to learn if their changes are correct, the more time they waste pursuing incorrect paths and the more expensive fixes become.","Feedback loops span everything from compiler run times to test execution to our overall development process. Shortening these loops—through test optimization, working in smaller increments, and shifting validation earlier in the process—is the single most effective way to improve productivity.","Understanding tech debt through its specific business impacts enables better decision-making about what to address and when. By categorizing issues more precisely than simply \"tech debt,\" we can communicate their costs effectively and prioritize solutions that maximize our ability to deliver value.","The goal isn't to eliminate all tech debt—some calculated trade-offs are necessary—but to make those decisions with full awareness of their long-term consequences. By systematically addressing the most impactful forms of tech debt, we can maintain development velocity while building systems that remain maintainable, reliable, and adaptable to changing requirements.","At OP Labs, we're continually refining our approach to these challenges, balancing technical excellence with pragmatic delivery. We're looking for engineers who share our commitment to sustainable development practices—people who can identify when quick solutions make sense and when investment in infrastructure will yield compounding returns. If you're passionate about building critical systems that can evolve gracefully over time, we'd love to hear from you.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/tech-debt-understanding-its-business-impact"},"/blog/flashblocks-deep-dive-250ms-preconfirmations-on-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"Flashblocks: Deep Dive - 250ms preconfirmations on OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"Onchain applications live and die by their user experience. If transactions feel slow or unpredictable, the promise of Ethereum scalability falls flat. ","keywords":"","h1":["Flashblocks: Deep Dive - 250ms preconfirmations on OP Mainnet"],"h2":["How Flashblocks Work","Optimism’s Infrastructure Setup","Reliability and Safety","Performance Enhancements","Measured Impact","Conclusion","Bringing faster UX to the Superchain"],"h3":["Core Components","Control Plane","Data Plane"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Yashvardhan Kukreja","September 29, 2025","Onchain applications live and die by their user experience. If transactions feel slow or unpredictable, the promise of Ethereum scalability falls flat. This is where Flashblocks come in, a streaming block-construction layer built by Flashbots and now deployed to Optimism’s OP Mainnet. Instead of waiting for the standard 2-second block time, Flashblocks break blocks into smaller chunks and emit them every 250 milliseconds. This creates a flow of preconfirmations - strong signals that a transaction will be included - giving users and apps near-instant feedback.","Why does this matter? Because user experience wins. When transactions feel instant, applications become more engaging and trustworthy. DeFi traders can react quickly, games can update responsively, and social apps feel snappy.","In this post, we’ll walk through how Flashblocks work, our infrastructure setup, the reliability and safety guardrails we added, and the performance improvements we implemented to make them production-ready.","At its core, Flashblocks reimagine how transactions flow through OP Mainnet. In the traditional model, the sequencer builds a single block every 2 seconds. Until that block is produced, users don’t know if their transaction will be included.","Flashblocks break this waiting game by introducing streaming block construction. Instead of holding everything back until the block is finalized, these logical sub-blocks are emitted every 250ms. Each Flashblock contains a portion of the transactions that will eventually be part of the canonical block. Other nodes can start executing these transactions immediately, and users see their actions reflected almost instantly.","The final block is still produced every 2 seconds, complete with the correct state root and all consensus guarantees. Flashblocks don’t replace finality - they layer a UX-level preconfirmation system on top of it.","Introducing Flashblocks required carefully designing an infrastructure that could handle streaming blocks without breaking protocol correctness. The goals were clear:","Near-instant UX without protocol changes: Keep the underlying contracts untouched","Safety by construction: Always validate against a canonical builder (geth)","Leader-aware propagation: Only the active sequencer can emit Flashblocks","Stable developer surface: Expose Flashblocks through standard JSON-RPC","To achieve this, several components were introduced or adapted:","op-node (consensus client): Unmodified. Issues Engine API calls and remains unaware of Flashblocks.","op-geth (execution client): Acts as the canonical builder and validation fallback","op-rbuilder (modified reth based execution client): Builds canonical blocks and emits Flashblocks at a 250ms cadence","rollup-boost: Mediates between op-node and the execution clients, validating op-rbuilder outputs against op-geth and selecting the trusted source","op-conductor: Manages sequencer orchestration, ensuring that only the current leader forwards Flashblocks","flashblocks-websocket-proxy: Provides a stable WebSocket endpoint by listening to all conductors but forwarding only the leader’s stream","Flashblocks-aware RPC node: Subscribes to the proxy and augments eth_getBlockByNumber(\"pending\") with sub-block updates","Deployment is controlled through three modes in rollup-boost:","Off: No Flashblocks. All engine calls are forwarded to only op-geth.","Dry Run: Shadow validation. Engine calls forwarded to both op-rbuilder and op-geth but only op-geth’s payloads are accepted. Divergences are logged for analysis.","On: Production mode. op-rbuilder treated as the primary block builder where its payloads are used and cross-checked against op-geth, with automatic fallback if needed.","Once Flashblocks are active, the data flow looks like this:","op-rbuilder emits Flashblocks at 250ms intervals (note that the interval is configurable)","rollup-boost filters out stale / re-orged Flashblocks listened from op-rbuilder and forwards the remaining ones. Validates the payloads returned by op-rbuilder against op-geth","op-conductor listens to the Flashblocks from rollup-boost and forwards them further only if its sequencer is leader.","flashblocks-websocket-proxy aggregates Flashblocks from leader streams and exposes a single stable endpoint","RPC nodes consume the stream and update the pending block view every 250ms","This architecture ensures Flashblocks can be safely streamed without exposing users to conflicting or stale data.","Fast confirmations are only useful if they are trustworthy. A preconfirmation that disappears later would destroy user confidence. This is tackled with several guardrails.","Re-org SafetyOne challenge is preventing Flashblocks from “leaking” after they’ve been realised to have stale payload_ids or to be re-orged out. To solve this, rollup-boost tracks payload IDs tied to each Flashblock. If a Flashblock belongs to a block (payload) that has already been invalidated, it is discarded before reaching clients. This guarantees that users never see phantom preconfirmations.","Leader-Aware ForwardingSince multiple sequencers exist, only one can be the leader at any time. op-conductor enforces this by forwarding Flashblocks only when its sequencer holds leadership. If leadership changes, the newly setup leader starts generating and forwarding Flashblocks while the previous one stops. This helps tackle split-brain scenarios where multiple op-rbuilders (hence, rollup-boost) might emit Flashblocks despite their non-leader status.","Validation and FallbackTo have additional confidence in block building, op-rbuilder generated payload must be cross-checked against op-geth. If it diverges or lags beyond a threshold, rollup-boost immediately switches payloads back to op-geth. Users still see reliable block data, just without Flashblocks until the builder recovers.","Operational HardeningFinally, the system was built to resist operational failures and DoS attacks. Flashblocks proxies are horizontally scaled and rate-limited. Provider-specific proxies (for QuickNode, Ankr, etc.) require API keys, isolating tenants and preventing noisy neighbors from overwhelming the system.","The result is a safety net where Flashblocks enhance UX without ever undermining the canonical guarantees of OP Mainnet.","Deploying Flashblocks at scale revealed multiple bottlenecks, each of which required targeted solutions.","Disk I/O","op-rbuilder is I/O intensive, and standard SSDs couldn’t keep up. Latency caused missed Flashblock intervals. To fix this, op-rbuilder was deployed on NVMe-backed hosts. An internal snapshot/restore tool was also built to take consistent snapshots and quickly spin up new nodes, making rollouts and incident recovery far faster.","Mempool HandlingLoad testing with Flashbots’ Contender revealed spikes in pending transactions on op-rbuilder. Due to this, it even produced empty blocks while user transactions sat waiting. This was traced back to differences in mempool defaults between reth and geth. By tuning parameters such as txpool.max-account-slots and txpool.max-new-pending-txs-notifications, the mempool now processes bursts more smoothly, keeping block builders busy.","Empty Block PreventionIn rare cases, despite the previous fix, op-rbuilder could still produce nearly empty blocks while op-geth produces the same blocks with transactions. To prevent this, the block selection policy, called “gas-used”, was added. It works by ensuring that if an op-rbuilder generated block uses less than 10% of the gas as compared to the  op-geth generated block, rollup-boost discards it in favor of op-geth’s block. This eliminated the “empty block” edge case.","TimeoutsConsidering our network topology, the default BUILDER_TIMEOUT and L2_TIMEOUT values (1000ms) were too aggressive for Flashblocks’ streaming cadence. They caused false errors and retries. By raising these timeouts to values tailored to our topology, timeout-related errors were nearly eliminated without sacrificing responsiveness.","Leader-Aware ForwardingTo guard against rare split-brain scenarios where multiple op-rbuilders produce Flashblocks at a time, op-conductor was augmented, in collaboration with Base, to listen to Flashblocks from op-rbuilder via rollup-boost, and forward them only when its sequencer is leader. This ensures the proxy sees exactly one authoritative stream, even if other builders continue producing locally.","Mempool RebroadcasterAnother subtle issue arose from differences between op-geth and op-rbuilder in transaction acceptance. Sometimes a transaction accepted by geth was rejected by rbuilder, leading to delays in inclusion. A mempool rebroadcaster, contributed by Base, now runs periodically to diff the two mempools and re-insert missing transactions into op-rbuilder. This self-healing mechanism improves consistency and reduces dropped transactions.","Boot and Sync SafetyFinally, syncing new op-rbuilder nodes from genesis was painfully slow. To fix this, a snapshot of an existing NVMe-backed node can now be restored onto new hosts. A dedicated op-node-rbuilder is then used to sync via the “consensus layer” syncmode rather than the “execution-layer syncmode”, greatly accelerating the process. During this period, rollup-boost runs in off mode to avoid causing “execution-layer” sync to be triggered by its FCU calls.","Together, these improvements allow Flashblocks to sustain a reliable 250ms cadence under real-world conditions while minimizing operational risks.","Pending transaction pool stability","Before: frequent spikes up to 4,000 txs; sustained plateaus around 1,000.","After: baseline around ~60 txs with occasional spikes to ~100.","Impact: ~94% reduction in steady-state backlog (1,000 → 60) and 97.5% reduction in worst-case spikes (4,000 → 100).","Flashblocks re-org exposure","Before: 600+ re-orged Flashblocks surfaced over a 10-day window.","After: 0 exposed (filtered at rollup-boost).","Impact: 100% prevention of user-visible re-org Flashblocks.","op-rbuilder backing storage","Before (network-attached SSDs): sporadic block-time degradation to 2.5–3.0 s.","After (NVMe-backed hosts): near-100% healthy chain and block progression at target cadence.","op-rbuilder spin-up and sync","Before: days to weeks to recover from scratch.","After: <8 hours via NVMe snapshot + restoration + consensus-layer catch-up.","Impact: Order-of-magnitude faster recoveries and safer rollouts.","Taken together, these changes move Flashblocks from a promising prototype to a production-hardened path.","Leader-aware forwarding, re-org filtering at rollup-boost, and the gas-used fallback eliminate the primary failure modes such as reorged Flashblocks, empty blocks, and mempool drift, while NVMe I/O, tuned txpool parameters, and right-sized timeouts sustain the 250 ms cadence under real load.","Operationally, snapshot/restore, dual-instance proxying, and mempool rebroadcasting cut recovery time and reduce incident blast radius. The result is a system that is faster, safer, and simpler to operate without asking clients to change how they use JSON-RPC.","Flashblocks bring a step-change improvement to OP Mainnet - by streaming preconfirmations every 250ms, they transform UX across DeFi, gaming, and social applications - all without protocol-level changes. For developers, this means designing apps around the assumption of immediate feedback. Trades settle faster, games feel smoother, and users stay engaged.","This is only the beginning. Over the next few months, we will be testing lower flashblock times and platformizing this setup to bring to the entire Superchain. If you're thinking about deploying an app or launching a chain, learn more about how Optimism's high-performance features can help accelerate your vision.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/flashblocks-deep-dive-250ms-preconfirmations-on-op-mainnet"},"/blog/okx-migrates-xlayer-to-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"OKX Migrates XLayer to the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"OKX - one of the world’s largest digital-asset exchanges — has migrated its XLayer network from Polygon to the OP Stack.","keywords":"","h1":["OKX Migrates XLayer to the OP Stack"],"h2":["The OP Stack’s Growing Industry Footprint","Enterprise Momentum"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","December 9, 2025","OKX - one of the world’s largest digital-asset exchanges - has migrated its XLayer network from Polygon CDK to the OP Stack, joining a growing list of industry-leading operators building on Optimism’s open-source Layer 2 infrastructure.","One of the world’s largest exchanges processing billions in daily trading volume, OKX’s migration carries weight well beyond OKX’s platform: global enterprises, including exchanges, increasingly view on-chain infrastructure as critical systems akin to settlement networks or payment rails that require stability, transparency, and consistent operational standards to succeed in a competitive landscape","The OP Stack, Optimism’s open-source framework for building Layer 2 networks, is the most widely deployed scaling framework today, powering ~70% of Ethereum Layer 2 activity and ~12% of daily crypto transactions. By leveraging the OP Stack to rebuild XLayer, OKX gains full autonomy over network operations while connecting to a broader network that is continuously improved by Optimism’s engineering community. Enterprises handling customer assets at scale, including exchanges, fintechs, and custodians, can expand on a foundation proven under real-world conditions, optimizing performance and security for their own operations – without the complexity of building it from scratch.","This adoption is part of a wider movement as enterprises increasingly standardize on shared, production-ready blockchain infrastructure.","Nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies are actively pursuing blockchain or distributed-ledger initiatives, and estimates project the enterprise blockchain market to surpass $600 billion as production-ready infrastructure like the OP Stack gains traction. OKX’s migration shows the value of shared, open frameworks in reducing operational complexity, enabling faster product launches, and helping enterprises grow more efficiently.","Enterprises interested in building with the OP Stack, joining the superchain, or launching applications on production-ready Layer 2 infrastructure can explore more about the ecosystem network of independently operated, interoperable chains here.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/okx-migrates-xlayer-to-the-op-stack"},"/blog/op-mainnet-the-enterprise-launch-pad":{"version":1,"title":"OP Mainnet: The Enterprise Launch Pad - Optimism","description":"At Optimism, our success is measured by our partners' success. Whether they’re just beginning to explore onchain infrastructure or ready to launch their own network.","keywords":"","h1":["OP Mainnet: The Enterprise Launch Pad"],"h2":["The Journey Starts on OP Mainnet","Morpho, Gauntlet, and Utila: The Enterprise Yield Stack on OP Mainnet"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","October 30, 2025","At Optimism, our success is measured by our partners' success. Whether they’re just beginning to explore onchain infrastructure or ready to launch their own network, we're here to help them move onchain and scale.","There is growing evidence and countless examples that suggest that any enterprise with sufficient distribution will benefit from launching their own chain; our mission is to ensure that the OP Stack is the fastest, most configurable, and most scalable way to do so. Coinbase, Kraken, Sony, Uniswap, and World have all joined the growing Superchain ecosystem, validating the OP Stack’s enterprise credibility.","As enterprises discover how easily they can scale, differentiate, and capture economic benefits with a dedicated chain, the decision to accelerate with Optimism becomes more clear. For many companies, their onchain journey begins with a first product or use case that initiates a larger transformation.","OP Mainnet serves as the infrastructure backbone for the Superchain, featuring credibly neutral, high-performance blockspace for enterprises and developers. Its true differentiator is that when enterprises are ready, there’s no obligation to stay on OP Mainnet – we'll help them migrate to their own chain so they can capture a large share of the value their activity creates. This unfolds as follows:","Integrate with 'Earn' products on OP Mainnet to validate product-market fit, leaning on existing liquidity and battle-tested infrastructure.","Build customer traction, iterate on products quickly, and prove economics.","When ready, graduate to a dedicated OP Stack chain for full customization and control.","OP Mainnet serves as a flagship model for the OP Stack, stewarding many of the most cutting edge features, running on durable infrastructure, and maintaining extremely low transaction costs. It combines efficiency with performance:","20Mgas per second max throughput, with active efforts underway to continue scaling to 100MGas/sec and beyond","$0.00001 median transaction fee — enabling cost-effective operations at scale","$3.2B in Total Value Secured, including $700M in stablecoins","250ms transactions via Flashblocks — performance that matches familiar web2 applications","99.99% uptime year to date — Reliable infrastructure","Flashblocks delivers web2-like responsiveness to onchain applications by streaming transactions every 250 milliseconds (configurable down to 200ms). Users receive near-instant feedback without sacrificing security or decentralization, eliminating the UX friction that has historically limited blockchain adoption. For fintechs building customer-facing products, this means offering user experiences that rival traditional applications while maintaining the transparency and security of onchain infrastructure.","To ensure companies can confidently and securely launch hyper-scalable products on OP Mainnet, we're focusing on strengthening core DeFi primitives including lending markets, vaults, and overall liquidity. The integrations we’re announcing today represent the first step in establishing OP Mainnet as a leader in comprehensive enterprise-focused yield infrastructure to power 'Earn' products and more.","Morpho’s decentralized lending infrastructure is now fully supported on OP Mainnet, with Gauntlet’s USDC Prime Vault as the first institutional-grade yield product. This vault optimizes for risk-adjusted yield across large market cap, high liquidity collateral markets.","\"OP Mainnet has proven itself as a production-ready environment for high-performance, onchain finance. Its stability, scalability, and low transaction costs make it the ideal foundation for deploying lending and yield infrastructure that meets enterprise standards.\"Kirk Hutchison, Governance and Multichain Expansion Lead, Morpho","Utila, an enterprise-grade digital asset operations platform,  integrated the USDC Prime Vault, opening up access to over 100 institutional clients globally. Processing $10B+ monthly and having secured $60B+ in cumulative transactions, Utila's MPC wallet infrastructure bridges the gap enabling direct institutional capital flows into DeFi protocols while maintaining security, compliance, and operational efficiency.","This integration represents a complete enterprise yield stack in action with each component working seamlessly together to make DeFi: accessible, secure, and operationally efficient. There are many possible variations to the stack across protocols, risk managers, and access interfaces:","Settlement Layer: OP Mainnet — neutral, performant network with Ethereum security","Protocol Layer: Morpho — programmable, risk-isolated lending markets and vault infrastructure","Risk Layer: Gauntlet USDC Prime Vault — professional risk management and dynamic optimization","Access Layer: Utila — MPC custody infrastructure bridging institutional requirements with onchain execution.","Optimism is investing in OP Mainnet to accelerate the growth of a robust DeFi ecosystem with the integrations, security, and performance enterprises require.","Ready to start the journey? Get in touch. Disclaimer: OP Mainnet is a public and permissionless blockchain, and none of The Optimism Foundation or its affiliates or service providers own or control OP Mainnet or the products described herein. As always, use good judgment, do your own research, and remember that nothing here is a promise or an endorsement.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-mainnet-the-enterprise-launch-pad"},"/blog/the-new-optimism-documentation":{"version":1,"title":"The new Optimism documentation - Optimism","description":"We're excited to announce that the Optimism documentation has undergone a complete transformation!","keywords":"","h1":["The new Optimism documentation"],"h2":["Why we made the switch","What's new: features that will change how you build","Try it today","We want your feedback","Ready to build?"],"h3":["AI-Powered documentation assistant","Lightning-fast search with context","Mobile-first design","Enhanced code examples","Instant issue reporting & feedback","AI-powered content actions"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Labs","October 9, 2025","We're excited to announce that the Optimism documentation has undergone a complete transformation!","As the Optimism ecosystem continues to grow rapidly, with thousands of developers building on the Superchain, our documentation needed to evolve to match the sophistication of what you're building. We recognized that our community deserved something more powerful, more interactive, and more aligned with modern developer expectations. Developers need better search, interactive examples, and easier feedback tools- features that Mintlify makes native.","The numbers speak for themselves: Our documentation receives over 50,000 monthly visits from developers worldwide, and we wanted to ensure every single interaction was as smooth and productive as possible.","Say goodbye to endless scrolling through docs. Our new AI chat assistant is trained on the entire Optimism documentation and can answer complex questions about:","OP Stack architecture and components","Smart contract deployment strategies","Cross-chain messaging patterns","Troubleshooting common issues","Try asking:","“How do I deploy a custom L2 using op-deployer?”","and get an instant, tailored walkthrough","Our enhanced search doesn't just find keywords, it understands intent. Whether you're looking for:","Configuration examples","Tutorial steps","Contract addresses","The new search delivers contextual results in milliseconds, with smart highlighting and relevant code snippets.","Built for developers on the go. Whether you're debugging on your phone during a hackathon or reviewing docs on your tablet, the new responsive design ensures a perfect experience across all devices.","Every code snippet now includes:","One-click copy functionality","Multiple language examples (Solidity, JavaScript, Python, Go)","Context-aware suggestions based on your current page","Direct feedback buttons to report issues or suggest improvements","This is a game-changer for documentation quality. Now you can:","Report issues directly from any documentation page with a single click","Flag incorrect code snippets and suggest corrections inline","Leave actionable feedback on specific sections or examples","Track resolution status of your reported issues","Contribute improvements without needing to navigate to GitHub","Every page now has contextual feedback options that help us maintain accuracy and relevance across our entire documentation suite.","Take your documentation experience to the next level with built-in AI integrations:","Suggest an edit using AI assistance for any section","Copy entire pages or sections directly to ChatGPT for further analysis","Send content to Claude for detailed explanations","Export full pages with one click for offline reference or team sharing","The new documentation is live at docs.optimism.io with all your favorite content, now supercharged with Mintlify's powerful features.","Getting started recommendations:","Try the new search – Search for anything you’ve looked for before and notice the difference","Chat with our AI assistant – Ask complex questions about the OP Stack","Report an issue – Find a typo or outdated code? Report it directly from the page and help us improve","This migration represents our commitment to providing world-class developer resources, but we know there’s always room for improvement.","Share your experience:","Join the conversation in Optimism Discord","Send feedback directly to our docs team","Tweet us @OptimismFND","The future of Optimism development starts with great documentation.","Whether you're deploying your first smart contract, spinning up a new L2, or building the next generation of decentralized applications, our new docs are here to support you every step of the way.","Start exploring: docs.optimism.io","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-new-optimism-documentation"},"/blog/the-largest-exchanges-in-the-world-are-choosing-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"The largest exchanges in the world are choosing the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"The world’s largest and most reputable exchanges are choosing the OP Stack because it delivers the security and scalability required to support the most liquid markets.","keywords":"","h1":["The largest exchanges in the world are choosing the OP Stack"],"h2":["RWAs as the primary expected growth driver for onchain assets","Scaling transactions to support increased onchain asset issuance - and the supporting defi-native transactions","Why OP is best suited to support the increase in tokenized assets and supporting transactions"],"h3":["Trust","Speed and throughput","Customizability and off-the-shelf features","Direct support leading into mainnet and beyond","Staying power"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Chris Andreola","December 10, 2025","Summary","The tokenization of RWAs is expected to be the primary driver of onchain asset growth over the next 10 years, entering well into the trillions in market cap (excluding stables) by 2030","As the quantity of tokenized assets increases, both the volume transactions and complexity of transactions will scale in tandem","The pre-eminent teams supporting trading of tokenized assets continue to choose the OP Stack today to support these assets - including Coinbase, Uniswap, Kraken, Mantle, ByBit, UpBit, and Hashkey","OP Stack provides partners unmatched trust, high performance, deep customizability, and pre-and-post mainnet support backed by an expansive partner network and long-term staying power","The world’s largest and most reputable exchanges are choosing the OP Stack because it delivers the security and scalability required to support the most liquid markets on the planet. At the same time, the most actively traded asset classes are beginning to move onchain - starting with U.S. Treasuries and rapidly expanding to traditional financial instruments such as public and private credit, commodities, equities, and a wide range of alternative assets.","Over the past five years, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization has shown consistent, compounding growth. This trajectory is expected to accelerate meaningfully over the next decade as institutions, regulators, and market participants gain confidence in the efficiency and transparency of global, permissionless financial infrastructure.","Today, approximately $35 billion in RWAs already exists onchain, as shown in Exhibit A below - a number that represents the early stages of a much larger transformation underway across global capital markets.","Exhibit A: Total RWAs being brought onchain","Over the next 3-10 years, leading global analysts, banks, and strategy firms project that tokenized assets will expand into the trillions of dollars, representing 20× to more than 300× growth from where the market stands today. These forecasts assume the continued migration of the world’s most liquid financial instruments into onchain formats - including treasuries, credit, equities, commodities, and alternative assets.","Exhibit B below highlights a range of projections from top banks and management consultancies. Across institutions, the conclusion is unmistakable: we are no longer discussing incremental, double-digit percentage increases. The industry is now aligned around double- and even triple-digit multiples as tokenization becomes a foundational pillar of global financial markets.","Exhibit B:  Onchain tokenization projected growth","As more real-world assets move onchain, ranging from U.S. Treasuries and money-market funds to private credit, equities, and commercial real estate, the volume of transactions required to service, trade, and manage those assets grows in lockstep. Tokenization transforms static, intermittently traded financial products into digitally native instruments that can settle instantly, interact with automated smart contracts, and be integrated into global liquidity pools. Each of these behaviors generates new onchain events: mints, redemptions, transfers, collateral updates, interest payments, NAV recalculations, and secondary-market trades. What once lived inside custodial systems and overnight batch processes becomes a continuous stream of verifiable, onchain activity.","The shift from traditional financial rails to programmable settlement also expands who transacts and how frequently. When assets become composable they in-turn become usable across DeFi protocols, global exchanges, wallets, and enterprise payment flows - they start to circulate far more actively than their off-chain equivalents.  An onchain treasury token might be rehypothecated across lending markets, put to work in automated strategies, or rapidly moved between counterparties to meet liquidity, hedging, or treasury-management needs.  Each of these actions creates a transaction, and because they rely on open, permissionless infrastructure, the marginal cost of activity is dramatically lower than in legacy systems. Lower cost and higher flexibility naturally drive more usage, more experimentation, and more transactional throughput.","As institutions, fintechs, asset managers, and enterprises adopt tokenized assets at scale, these effects compound. The growth of onchain money markets alone has already created consistent, high-velocity transaction flows from interest accruals, portfolio rebalancing, and cross-protocol arbitrage. Layer in tokenized credit, real estate, and equities, and you get a financial ecosystem where the majority of operational, trading, and settlement lifecycles occur directly onchain. This isn’t just more assets moving into digital form - it’s a structural shift that multiplies transactional demand. Ultimately, the expansion of onchain asset supply doesn’t just increase total value locked; it accelerates the velocity, diversity, and frequency of onchain transactions, setting the foundation for a significantly larger and more dynamic blockchain economy.","Today, the world’s largest and most trusted exchanges are already choosing the OP stack - including:","Teams are continuing to select the OP stack today for a range of reasons beyond just EVM compatibility.","Our partners rely on the OP Stack because it is built on years of proven production security, transparency, and open-source delivery. Institutions know they can trust an ecosystem stewarded by a team unrelentingly committed to public goods, rigorous security practices, and long-term alignment w/ our partners. The OP Stack’s architecture is openly verifiable, widely audited, and supported by one of the most credible communities in the industry. This trust is reinforced by the major exchanges, builders, and enterprises already deploying on it.","The OP Stack consistently delivers the high performance required for modern financial applications, enabling lightning-fast settlement and handling transaction volumes that traditional chains cannot sustain. Its modular design ensures constant performance improvements as new innovations in batching, compression, and execution layers come online. Teams looking to support real-time trading, clearing, or high-volume user activity know the OP Stack can scale with them. As onchain markets continue to expand, the OP Stack is engineered to stay ahead of demand.","Exhibit C:  Optimism transaction throughput (TPS)","Unlike monolithic solutions, the OP Stack gives teams the flexibility to tailor their chain to their precise needs - whether optimizing for performance, compliance, privacy, or fee models. Builders can plug in custom data availability layers, configure sequencing options, integrate zk-proofs, and select any gas tokens to meet their customer’s or business’ desires. This modularity ensures teams can build a chain that aligns with their unique vision without sacrificing functionality. As requirements evolve, the OP Stack adapts with them.","OP Labs and the broader Optimism ecosystem provide end-to-end partnership that begins well before mainnet and continues long after launch. Teams receive hands-on architectural guidance, performance optimization support, and direct access to experts who have designed, deployed, and scaled some of the most widely used chains in the world.","Similarly, Our support extends beyond the blockchain protocol itself - we actively help partners establish the surrounding infrastructure, integrations, and ecosystem relationships required for a successful launch.  We work closely with the industry’s leading infrastructure providers, tooling companies, and ecosystem applications to ensure that every Optimism chain enters the market with a complete, production-ready environment. This collaborative approach removes friction, accelerates development timelines, and gives teams the confidence that they are building on a foundation supported by proven operators and aligned contributors.","Post-launch, teams continue to rely on OP Labs for comprehensive operational and strategic support. This includes maintaining robust blockchain infrastructure; delivering performance upgrades; integrating new features such as programmable transaction ordering; and guiding chain-level and infrastructure-level development. Beyond technical execution, we also serve as thought partners for product roadmaps, ecosystem strategy, general planning, and community growth. Co-marketing opportunities and coordinated ecosystem initiatives help amplify adoption and strengthen each chain’s presence in the broader Optimism Superchain. Together, these layers of support create a smoother path to launch - and sustained success well into the future.","The OP Stack is backed by a robust treasury, expansive ecosystem, and a clear roadmap that prioritizes sustainability over hype cycles. It is already the most widely adopted rollup framework in the world - used by leading exchanges, consumer apps, DeFi protocols, and enterprise-grade projects. This broad adoption signals durability: teams can build on the OP Stack knowing the ecosystem will only strengthen over time. With a growing community, continuous innovation, and recursive funding from our partnership models, the OP Stack is built to last.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-largest-exchanges-in-the-world-are-choosing-the-op-stack"},"/blog/fusaka-is-live-scaling-optimism-and-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Fusaka Is Live: Scaling Optimism and the Superchain - Optimism","description":"Ethereum’s Fusaka hardfork is now live on mainnet, unlocking the next major leap in data scalability for rollups.","keywords":"","h1":["Fusaka Is Live: Scaling Optimism and the Superchain"],"h2":["Scaling Blobs: Lower Costs, More Capacity","L1 🤝L2 Collaboration Wins","Looking Ahead"],"h3":["Blob Parameter Only (BPO) Fork Schedule"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["George Knee","Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Sanjana Mehta","George Knee","December 3, 2025","Ethereum’s Fusaka hardfork is live on mainnet, unlocking the next major leap in data scalability for rollups. This upgrade incorporates core contributions made by the engineering teams in the Superchain – including Blob Parameter Only (BPO) and changes to L1 consensus clients - and delivers the most meaningful expansion of Ethereum’s data availability capacity since EIP-4844. With Fusaka activated, OP Stack chains can immediately take advantage of these enhancements, giving builders, users, and ecosystem partners faster throughput, lower fees, and a more scalable foundation to grow on.","Over the past year, activity across the Superchain has grown to the point where Ethereum’s existing blob capacity was once again nearing saturation. Blobs from EIP-4844 delivered a major step forward, but the ecosystem quickly began pushing up against the limits of what the current data layer could support. Without deeper protocol changes on Ethereum itself, rollups would hit a ceiling on throughput and would have limited room to continue reducing fees.","Fusaka addresses this bottleneck directly. The upgrade introduces two foundational improvements to Ethereum’s data layer: PeerDAS, a more efficient protocol for verifying data availability, and EIP-7892, the “Blob Parameter Only” (BPO) mechanism that lets Ethereum safely increase blob capacity between hardforks. Together, these upgrades create the next stage of scalability—expanding Ethereum’s data bandwidth while keeping the network secure, decentralized, and predictable for the L2s that depend on it.","EIP-7594 introduces PeerDAS, a new networking protocol that lets nodes verify blob data availability through sampling rather than needing to download all the data. This is a foundational step toward increasing blob throughput while preserving Ethereum’s security and decentralization.","Since the Dencun upgrade, demand for L2 blockspace has outstripped the throughput provided by Ethereum’s  current 9-blob limit. PeerDAS enables Ethereum to raise that limit safely. It uses erasure coding to let nodes sample small portions of blob data while still providing cryptographic guarantees that the full data is available across the network. This mechanism unlocks the path toward higher blob targets envisioned in Ethereum’s scaling roadmap.","For rollups, the impact is straightforward: more blob capacity unlocks greater throughput and lower fees. As L1 data availability throughput scales beyond today’s limits, L2 users can transact more cheaply without any impact on the security and trust assumptions they are accustomed to","Following PeerDAS activation, Ethereum will use Blob-Parameter-Only (BPO) forks to safely raise blob capacity without tying these adjustments to major named upgrades. Fusaka includes two planned BPO parameter adjustments on mainnet starting December 9, 2025. See the BPO schedule below for further details.","Following the main Fusaka activation, the network will implement Blob Parameter Only forks to gradually increase blob throughput. BPO1 will increase the per-block blob target to 10 and maximum to 15.","BPO Fork (target/limit)","Epoch","Date & Time (UTC)","Unix Timestamp","BPO 1 (10/15)","412672","2025-12-09 14:21:11","1765290071","BPO 2 (14/21)","419072","2026-01-07 01:01:11","1767747671","Fusaka is the result of a year of close collaboration across Ethereum’s core dev and the broader L2 ecosystem. Engineers from OP Labs, Base, Soneium, and multiple Ethereum client teams contributed to designing, testing, and validating the upgrade. You can read more about it in our previous blogs:","PeerDAS and a 48 blob target in 2025 - Optimism","PeerDAS-devnet-7 Updates - Optimism","OP Labs developers proposed the Blob Parameter Only model, which became EIP-7892. This gives Ethereum a mechanism to safely increase blob capacity between major hardforks – allowing for a more responsive scaling plan as L2 usage grows.","Teams across the Superchain helped test PeerDAS in early devnets, confirming its performance for both execution clients and consensus clients under real rollup workloads.","“Fusaka represents steady, shared engineering between Ethereum’s core developers and the Superchain,” said Mark Tyneway, Co-Founder and Head Systems Engineer at Optimism. “PeerDAS and BPO make scaling more predictable and cost-efficient, showing how aligned development across layers keeps the network moving forward.”","With Fusaka now in production, rollups will gather real-world usage data to guide future BPO forks planned for early 2026. These forks will gradually raise Ethereum’s data capacity, giving L2s more bandwidth to scale. In parallel, OP Labs is preparing a Superchain upgrade, expected in early 2026, to adopt Fusaka EIPs into the OP Stack itself.","Scaling Ethereum is a collective effort, and each upgrade compounds the last. Optimism remains committed to driving that progress – improving performance, lowering costs, and keeping the network secure, usable, and open to all.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/fusaka-is-live-scaling-optimism-and-the-superchain"},"/blog/optimism-selects-ether.fi-to-deploy-liquid-staking-treasury-on-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism Selects Ether.fi to Deploy Liquid Staking Treasury on OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"Today, the Optimism Collective is pleased to announce the selection of ether.fi (weETH) as our strategic Liquid Staking partner on OP Mainnet.","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Selects Ether.fi to Deploy Liquid Staking Treasury on OP Mainnet"],"h2":["Why Ether.fi","Strengthening OP Mainnet’s Ecosystem"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","December 11, 2025","Today, the Optimism Collective is pleased to announce the selection of Ether.fi (weETH) as our strategic Liquid Staking partner on OP Mainnet. This marks an important step in strengthening the Optimism Collective as the leading environment for low-risk, institutionally aligned DeFi and sets the foundation for the next wave of sustainable, on-chain economic activity.","This decision follows a comprehensive, comparative assessment of all proposals submitted to the Collective’s Liquid Staking RFP. Each protocol was evaluated across liquidity depth, net yield, ecosystem alignment, and risk profile and normalized into a risk-adjusted framework grounded in established treasury management standards. Ether.fi’s proposal demonstrated the most compelling overall combination for OP Mainnet at this time.","The selection reflects Optimism’s broader view of liquid staking: the future is multi-protocol. The Collective remains committed to supporting a diverse Liquid Staking Token (LST) ecosystem and expects to expand opportunities for many partners as the Optimism Collective scales.","Ether.fi brings a strong blend of strategic alignment, performance, and ecosystem maturity, which positions weETH as a key asset in OP Mainnet’s next phase of growth. Their proposal emphasized broadening access to weETH, deepening liquidity, and integrating high-quality staking collateral across core DeFi primitives such as DEXs, lending protocols, and custodial platforms. Combined with competitive staking and restaking yields that support efficient borrowing and lending markets, weETH offers builders and users a versatile, capital-efficient foundation for participation in OP Mainnet’s financial ecosystem. Ether.fi’s transparent, audited architecture and compatibility with leading institutional partners further ensure that weETH meets the security and operational standards expected of critical infrastructure.","The selection of Ether.fi represents a meaningful milestone in Optimism’s work to build the most secure, liquid, and institutionally trusted DeFi environment. With weETH serving as one of the core building blocks, OP Mainnet is positioned to unlock more resilient financial integrations and a stronger foundation for long-term ecosystem growth as a home for neutral blockspace.","This partnership is designed to be additive, not exclusive. The Collective remains committed to fostering a vibrant, multi-protocol LST landscape, ensuring developers, institutions, and users can benefit from a diverse array of high-quality collateral options.","This is only the beginning, and we look forward to continuing our work with builders, partners, and the broader community as we bring this next chapter of OP Mainnet to life.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-selects-ether.fi-to-deploy-liquid-staking-treasury-on-op-mainnet"},"/blog/a-post‑quantum-roadmap-for-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"A Post‑Quantum Roadmap for the Superchain - Optimism","description":"Large‑scale quantum computers aren’t here yet—but if they arrive and we’re not ready, core cryptography in Ethereum and the Superchain could be at risk.","keywords":"","h1":["A Post‑Quantum Roadmap for the Superchain"],"h2":["Announcing a 10‑year deprecation of ECDSA EOAs","User wallets: moving to post‑quantum smart accounts","Consensus: upgrading sequencers and Ethereum itself","How we’ll ship this: hardforks, not heroics","Building a quantum‑resilient Superchain"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Karl Floersch","January 14, 2026","Special thanks to Dan Boneh for strategic guidance and Justin Drake for review.Large‑scale quantum computers aren’t here yet—but if they arrive and we’re not ready, core cryptography in Ethereum and the Superchain could be at risk. Signatures and commitments are the foundation of the system. If those break, everything built on top is in trouble.","The good news: the OP Stack is already architected to swap in new signature schemes via hardforks. Once the right post‑quantum (PQ) scheme is chosen, upgrading is a coordination problem, not a redesign.","Today, we’re announcing our roadmap to get there.","As of this post, OP Labs is committing to a 10‑year timeline to deprecate ECDSA‑based externally owned accounts (EOAs) on OP Mainnet and across the Superchain, subject to governance approval.","By January 2036:","ECDSA-signed EOA transactions will be deprecated.","Every ECDSA EOA must have delegated its key management to a post‑quantum smart contract account.","This blog post is the formal start of that countdown.","We’re making this call early because secure migrations take time. Wallets, apps, infra providers, and OP Stack chains all deserve a clear runway to plan around.","The migration path for users is powered by account abstraction (AA).","Thanks to EIP‑7702 support in the OP Stack, EOAs can now delegate their authority to smart contract accounts. This lets us upgrade key management without forcing users to abandon their addresses or balances.","Over the next decade, our roadmap looks like this:","Smart wallet migration via EIP‑7702 or future AA standardEOAs gradually delegate signing authority to smart contract accounts that verify post‑quantum signatures instead of ECDSA.","Protocol‑level enforcementAfter the 10-year window, OP Stack chains are expected to deprecate raw ECDSA-signed EOA transactions. User transactions should flow through PQ-aware smart accounts.","Pluggable post‑quantum schemesThe specific post‑quantum signature scheme is not yet decided. We don’t yet know whether the NIST‑standardized lattice‑based signatures are the best long‑term choice for Ethereum and the Superchain. We’ll keep evaluating options with the broader ecosystem and design smart account patterns to be upgradeable if assumptions change again.","Users don’t need to take any action today. This announcement is about setting expectations and timelines. As we approach concrete deployments, we’ll provide tooling, guides, and safe migration paths for wallets and apps across the Superchain.","User wallets are only half the story. For real post‑quantum resilience, we also need to upgrade the infrastructure that secures the chain.","On the OP Stack side:","The L2 sequencer and batch submitter will transition off ECDSA signatures to post‑quantum signatures.","OP Stack chains will inherit a common roadmap, so upgrades can be rolled out consistently across the Superchain.","On Ethereum’s side:","Today, Ethereum relies heavily on BLS signatures (for validators) and KZG commitments (for data availability and blobs).","Long‑term, we believe Ethereum should commit to a timeline to move validators away from BLS signatures and KZG commitments to post‑quantum algorithms.","We’re already in communication with folks at the Ethereum Foundation about this and other efforts to make Ethereum—and by extension, the Superchain—post‑quantum secure. The final choice of schemes and timelines will be a community decision, but our position is clear: PQ‑safe consensus is not optional.","The OP Stack is designed to track Ethereum as closely as possible. That pays off here.","Once the ecosystem converges on a preferred post‑quantum signature scheme (or set of schemes), our plan is:","Specify the upgrade for OP Stack chains, including wallet patterns, sequencer keys, and onchain validation rules.","Schedule and coordinate a hardfork across OP Mainnet and participating OP Stack chains.","Run overlapping support for ECDSA and post‑quantum paths during the migration window, then complete the transition toward PQ-aware smart accounts as the standard path at the end of the 10-year period.","No surprise breaks, no rushed timelines, and plenty of time for the ecosystem to adapt.","Post‑quantum security isn’t a nice‑to‑have. It’s part of taking the long view.","By announcing this 10‑year deprecation of ECDSA EOAs, committing to migrate sequencer infrastructure, and staying aligned with Ethereum on validator‑level changes, we’re putting a clear stake in the ground: the Superchain will be ready for a post‑quantum world.","If you’re building wallets, infra, or apps on the OP Stack, keep an eye on this blog and the OP Stack docs. As the post‑quantum signature story solidifies, we’ll publish concrete migration paths, timelines, and implementation guidance.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/a-post‑quantum-roadmap-for-the-superchain"},"/blog/introducing-op-enterprise":{"version":1,"title":"Introducing OP Enterprise - Optimism","description":"OP Enterprise is production-grade, managed blockchain infrastructure from the team that built the OP Stack.","keywords":"","h1":["Introducing OP Enterprise"],"h2":["Focus on Your Business, Not Your Blockchain","Why Now","What We're Offering","How It Works","Why the OP Stack Wins","Enterprise Capabilities","Working with the Source — Proof Points","Talk to Us"],"h3":["Your blockchain. Your revenue. Enterprise guarantees.","Who This Is For","Why OP Enterprise","→ OP Enterprise: OP Mainnet","→ OP Enterprise: Self Managed","→ OP Enterprise: Fully Managed","Mission-Critical Support","Proven Infrastructure","Ecosystem & Partners","Built to Last","Launch Partners"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","January 29, 2026","TL;DR: OP Enterprise is production-grade, managed blockchain infrastructure from the team that built the OP Stack. We handle operations, security, and scaling so enterprises can focus on shipping products, not running blockchains.","Three tiers, ready in 8-12 weeks:","Fully Managed (we take care of the chain so you don't have to)","Self Managed (you operate it, we support it)","OP Mainnet (start on a proven public network, graduate to your own chain when ready)","Your blockchain. Your revenue. Enterprise guarantees.","Today we're announcing OP Enterprise—a suite of products for enterprises that need blockchain infrastructure with world-class support from the team that built the OP Stack.","OP Enterprise seeks to refocus partners and institutions on what's most important for their businesses: delivering differentiated products and business outcomes.","Our code is MIT licensed and open source. If you ever want to shift to a self-managed model, you can. Most teams discover they'd rather work with us—but the choice is always yours. This isn't vendor lock-in. This is a partnership.","OP Enterprise is for companies that want to build transformative businesses not become blockchain experts. Whether you're a fintech building next-generation financial services, a centralized exchange launching tokenized products, a payments company building cross-border rails, or a financial institution exploring tokenization and digital assets—if you need infrastructure that performs without the operational burden, OP Enterprise is for you.","Enterprises today are building on infrastructure where the incentives don't align with their own—and learning the hard way that their best interests aren't the priority. They're competing for mindshare, fighting to keep users, chasing the next hot thing, and working against the platform's own incentive structures.","Most blockchains extract a percentage of every transaction. Your revenue becomes their revenue. You're building on rented rails where the economics work against you.","OP Enterprise is different. When you own your chain, your infrastructure becomes a revenue-generating asset—not a cost center. DeFi protocols deploy on your infrastructure. Liquidity pools operate on your rails. The economic activity you enable accrues to you—not to a platform extracting a cut of everything that moves.","This isn't about saving on fees. It's about owning the infrastructure layer where financial value is created.","But revenue control is only half the story.","The real bottleneck in blockchain launches isn't the infrastructure—it's onboarding the ecosystem partners you need to go live. Each negotiation can take months and costs hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars—and this is before the technical onboarding work even starts. These vendors pick off blockchain teams one by one with custom pricing and lengthy contracting processes.","We solve this with vendor and partner management at scale. We've onboarded the tier-one partners—they're already integrated, contracted, and ready to deploy on your chain. We negotiate standard terms, manage costs down, and fast-track partnerships that would otherwise delay your launch by 6-12 months.","This matters because your customers want better financial services—faster settlements, lower costs, programmable assets, 24/7 availability. Blockchain enables all of this, but only if you own the rails. When you own your infrastructure, you can offer your customers DeFi solutions, tokenization services, and programmable finance without a middleman taking a cut.","We handle the operations and vendor coordination. You focus on maximizing revenue and delivering value to your customers.","The window for enterprise blockchain strategy has shifted from \"if\" to \"how fast.\"","Regulatory clarity has arrived. MiCA is live in Europe. US policy is stabilizing. The enterprises that spent 2023-2024 in exploratory mode are now greenlighting production builds—and the ones that move first will lock in ecosystem advantages that compound over time.","Meanwhile, the infrastructure landscape is consolidating. Some providers have struggled to scale. Others have pivoted away from enterprise. The question buyers are asking isn't just \"which technology\"—it's \"which partner will still be here in five years.\"","Every major platform is now offering enterprise services to meet the needs of enterprise customers.","What differentiates Optimism:","Enterprise track record: We've successfully designed and launched 50+ chains for enterprise customers—not pilots, but production systems serving millions of users. No other stack has this combination of foundational protocol experience and proven enterprise delivery.","Innovation velocity: We get new features and optimizations to production chains faster than anyone else because we control the entire stack. When we discover vulnerabilities, our customers get patches within hours, not weeks.","Proven infrastructure: The OP Stack powers 50+ chains with $6.1 billion in TVL. This isn't theoretical—it's battle-tested at scale.","Direct access to the source: When you work with us, you're working directly with the team that built and maintains the OP Stack. Questions go to the engineers who wrote the code. Feature requests go to the people who can actually implement them. There's no translation layer.","Ethereum foundation credibility: Our team didn't just build the OP Stack—we helped build Ethereum itself. We've worked on Ethereum's core protocol, defined its scaling roadmap, and invented the Layer 2 architecture that powers the entire industry.","OP Enterprise is a suite of three products + support, each designed for different stages and needs:","Deploy on OP Mainnet—the OP Stack's flagship public network—with enterprise-grade support. Deploy here, validate your model with real users and liquidity, then graduate to your own chain when ready. Same codebase, same tooling, seamless migration.","What you get:","Access to established liquidity and user base from day one","Enterprise-grade support on a proven public network","Dedicated account manager for technical guidance","Seamless migration path to your own chain when ready","Same codebase and tooling across all OP Stack chains","Priority access to new features and upgrades","You run your own infrastructure with direct support from the team that built the OP Stack. We provide architecture guidance, security assessments, performance optimization, and priority access to upgrades and patches.","Dedicated account manager for technical escalation","Priority access to zero-day security patches","Direct engineering support (40 hours/year included)","Security and performance assessments for production readiness","Migration support from existing infrastructure","Direct access to core protocol engineers","This tier is designed for enterprises with existing infrastructure teams who want expert support without delegating operations.","We host and operate your chain end-to-end. You focus on your product; we handle the infrastructure. This includes 24/7 monitoring, incident response, capacity planning, security operations, and upgrade orchestration, all backed by enterprise SLAs.","High-availability sequencer with 99.99% uptime SLO","Mainnet + testnet production environments","Public RPC endpoints (up to 5B requests/month with multi-provider redundancy)","Managed L1 bridge contracts with Stage 1 certification","Block explorer and chain status page","15-minute P1 incident response with dedicated Slack channel","160 hours of custom engineering support in first year","Security and performance assessments included","We operate the infrastructure, you own the chain. Most customers go from first conversation to production in 8-12 weeks, testnet in 4-8 weeks.","All three offerings are underpinned by Mission-Critical support. For operations where downtime isn't an option.","15-minute P1 incident response with war-room access","Priority security patches deployed before they can be exploited","Bespoke integrations tailored to your infrastructure","Elevated SLAs with guaranteed uptime","Direct escalation path to senior engineering leadership","Launching an OP Enterprise chain follows a pragmatic, enterprise-grade process:","Discovery — Align on your use case, throughput and latency requirements, and compliance constraints.","Design — Define architecture together: data availability strategy, settlement approach, access model, observability integrations.","Pilot — Deploy a production-like environment. Run performance and integration testing.","Production Rollout — Transition to live operations with defined SLOs, clear support paths, and operational handoffs.","Ongoing Operations — Continuous monitoring, upgrades, and capacity management — coordinated with your timelines, not ours.","We work with your engineering, security, and legal teams throughout to ensure smooth operational handoffs and the right compliance posture. Most customers go from first conversation to production in 8-12 weeks.","OP Enterprise replaces the headcount, tooling, and coordination burden you'd otherwise need internally:","24/7 infrastructure monitoring and incident response — Eliminating the need for your own 24/7 ops team","Capacity planning, scaling, and performance tuning — So your engineers focus on product, not infrastructure","Lifecycle management — Optimism orchestrates upgrades and manages one-time events","Dedicated support across technical and non-technical areas — One team instead of juggling dozens of vendors","Onboarding and rollout assistance — Faster time to market, fewer delays","Vendor & Partner Support","We manage the ecosystem so you don't have to:","Pre-vetted infrastructure partners — Wallets, indexers, oracles, bridges, and explorers already integrated and negotiated","Pre-negotiated vendor discounts — Leverage our scale for better rates on essential services","Integration coordination — We handle onboarding, you get the benefits","Compliance partners — sanctions screening and audit-ready tooling through trusted providers","DeFi and liquidity partnerships — Access to ecosystem applications and liquidity infrastructure without individual negotiations","You maintain policy controls. We handle operations. Your team ships products instead of becoming infrastructure operators.","It's the most battle-tested blockchain infrastructure in production. The OP Stack powers 50+ chains, with $6.1 billion in total value locked.","Built by the team that invented Ethereum scaling. Our engineers didn't just build the OP Stack—they invented the foundational concepts that power the entire Layer 2 industry. Optimistic rollups, sequencer architecture, fraud proof systems—these are innovations that came from our team. We built the infrastructure standards that everyone else is now adopting.","Proven at scale. Our customers routinely process more transactions than most other L2s, serving millions of users globally. These aren't pilots—they're production systems handling real money and real users.","Enterprise-grade performance. Throughput scaling from 10 Mgas/sec baseline to 100+ Mgas/sec for high-volume applications. Sub-200ms block times with burst capacity support. Auto-scaling infrastructure that adjusts to your growth. Multi-provider RPC redundancy with up to 20k requests-per-second burst capacity.","Security and compliance. Permissionless fault proofs with Stage 1 security status. Optional ZK fault proofs for faster finality. Built-in support for custom compliance requirements.","Customization without complexity. Custom gas token support (ETH or any ERC-20). Modular data availability (Ethereum-native or alternative DA layers). Programmable block building and transaction ordering. Pre-deployed smart contract tooling.","Partner Network. The OP Stack has one of the largest networks of vendors, infrastructure, and ecosystem partners of any blockchain stack in crypto. Our established relationships become your advantage — faster onboarding, better pricing, and partners who already know how to deliver on OP Stack chains.","Ecosystem integration. Pre-negotiated vendor discounts across RPC providers, indexers, oracles, and compliance tools. One-click integrations with wallets, bridges, and developer services. Most infrastructure teams are already familiar with the OP Stack.","Future-proof. Native interoperability (scheduled for 2026), continued protocol upgrades, and automatic feature rollouts as the stack evolves.","Engineering quality. Built by the engineers who invented optimistic rollups and defined Ethereum's Layer 2 scaling architecture. Our founders and team aren't just implementing blockchain — they created the standards the industry is built on.","No vendor lock-in. The code is MIT licensed. Fork if you want. Most teams discover they'd rather work with us because maintaining blockchain infrastructure is hard and we're really good at it. But the choice is always yours. This is infrastructure you truly own.","OP Enterprise offers a direct path to the team that built and maintains the OP Stack.","When you work with us, you get features first. We see production issues before they're public. When we discover vulnerabilities, our customers receive patches within hours. Updates, optimizations, and new capabilities ship to OP Enterprise customers as they're developed.","There's no translation layer. Questions go directly to the engineers who wrote the code. Architecture decisions involve the people who designed the system. When something needs to be customized, you're working with the team that can actually change it.","We're launching OP Enterprise with two customers: Unichain and Celo.","Unichain — When Uniswap — the largest decentralized exchange — needed its own chain, they chose the OP Stack. Unichain is built for high-performance DeFi with native interoperability across OP Stack chains. Uniswap Labs operates Unichain with OP Enterprise Mission-Critical Support — priority response for high-stakes moments where downtime isn't an option.","Celo — Celo migrated to the OP Stack to leverage proven infrastructure for mobile-first payments around the world. Serving millions of users, Celo operates their network with OP Enterprise Mission-Critical Support, ensuring enterprise-grade backing for consumer-facing applications in emerging markets from Latin America to Africa.","If your organization is exploring blockchain infrastructure — whether for tokenization, payments, settlement, identity, or something we haven't seen yet—and you want to keep control without running the entire stack yourself, OP Enterprise is designed for you.","OP Enterprise is a major focus for us in 2026, with active enterprise engagements across fintech, centralized crypto exchanges, payments and financial institutions. If you're serious about building onchain, we should talk.","Contact us to schedule a technical briefing and discuss architecture, compliance, and a pilot plan tailored to your needs.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/introducing-op-enterprise"},"/blog/op-token-buybacks":{"version":1,"title":"OP Token Buybacks - Optimism","description":"The Optimism Foundation is putting forward a proposal to align the OP token with the Superchain’s success","keywords":"","h1":["OP Token Buybacks"],"h2":["Optimism’s next chapter","Evolving the role of the OP token","How the buyback works","Aligning Incentives","Next steps"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","January 8, 2026","TLDR: The Optimism Foundation is putting forward a proposal to align the OP token with the Superchain’s success by using 50% of incoming Superchain revenue to buy back OP tokens, starting in February.","Over the past five years, the OP Stack has moved from an experiment in scaling Ethereum to the default infrastructure for serious builders. Exchanges, enterprises, and blue-chip institutions are standardizing on the Superchain because it provides the security, scalability, and economic clarity required to support the most liquid markets in the world. The Superchain captured 61.4% L2 fee market share and processes 13% of all crypto transactions, and that share continues to rise.","The OP token should be aligned with that momentum and growth.","Optimism earns revenue from the Superchain, a network of L2 chains built on the OP Stack that includes Base, Unichain, Ink, World Chain, Soneium, OP Mainnet, and more. These chains all contribute a portion of their sequencer revenue back to Optimism. In the past twelve months, Optimism has collected 5,868 ETH in revenue, 100% of which has been dedicated to a treasury overseen by Optimism governance. As the Superchain expands, so does this treasury.","Today, the Optimism Foundation is excited to introduce a proposal to use 50% of incoming Superchain revenue to buy OP tokens. The more demand there is across the Superchain, the more this demand benefits OP.","With this buyback mechanism, OP transitions from a pure governance token to a token that is tightly aligned with the growth of the Superchain. This mechanism will start small and grow as Optimism grows. Every enterprise creating a new chain on the Superchain grows underlying demand. Every builder choosing OP Mainnet accelerates the flywheel. Every transaction across every chain in the Superchain expands the base from which buybacks operate.","This marks a first step in expanding the role of the OP token beyond its current uses. As the Superchain evolves, the token may take on additional functionality aligned with the network’s long-term decentralization and resilience, including roles in securing shared infrastructure, coordinating sequencer rotation, and enabling collective governance over core protocol functions. Establishing this initial utility creates a foundation for further evolution of the token’s role.","This proposal recommends directing 50% of incoming Superchain revenue to buy OP tokens on a monthly basis for the next year. OP tokens bought through this program will flow back into the token treasury. These tokens can then be burned or distributed as staking rewards as the platform evolves. Governance will retain oversight over parameters that control the buyback and the token treasury.","This proposal would also allow the Optimism Foundation to directly manage any ETH revenue not directed to buybacks. In addition to the current staking program approved by governance, this will allow for more active treasury management aimed at growing the shared economies of the Superchain.","The Superchain is powered by a flywheel where usage generates revenue, revenue funds development, and development drives more usage. By directing a portion of that revenue to align OP with Superchain growth, the Collective ensures that users, developers, infrastructure providers, and tokenholders are all reinforcing and contributing to the same system. OP becomes the shared reference point: as activity grows, more resources flow back into building, securing, and expanding the Superchain.","The OP Stack is becoming the settlement layer for the next generation of financial systems. With this proposal, the OP token will capture value alongside the Superchain’s growth.","The governance proposal will move to vote on January 22. If approved, the buyback program will begin in February.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/op-token-buybacks"},"/blog/season-9-from-experiment-to-organization":{"version":1,"title":"Season 9: From Experiment to Organization  - Optimism","description":"The goal of the Optimism Foundation has always been to establish an organization that can support the “world supercomputer” into perpetuity.","keywords":"","h1":["Season 9: From Experiment to Organization"],"h2":["Where Corporate Governance Fails","Capital Allocation 2.0","Towards a Bedrock Constitution ✨"],"h3":["Reduced platform risk for users of the OP Stack, via governance of the protocol","Prevention of short-term profit seeking at the expense of the platform’s long-term viability, via governance of the treasury","Short-term optimization that leads to long-term degradation of the platform (enshittification)","The Board as a single point of failure in holding management accountable","How we Invest in the Business","How We Fund Public Goods","How the OP Token Shares in the Superchain's Success","How OP Labs is Held Accountable by Stakeholders"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","January 8, 2026","The goal of the Optimism Foundation has always been to establish an organization that can support the “world supercomputer” into perpetuity. After nearly four years of experimentation — and countless conversations with users, customers, academics, politicians, and other experts — we now understand that this organization can’t look like the typical DAO or the traditional corporation.","Relative to the organizations that came before us, the core value propositions that Optimism governance delivers are:","Platform risk is the risk to a business or user that a platform they depend on changes against their interests. It is a common risk of Web 2 platforms and is a key consideration for the largest partners building on the OP Stack. See here to read more about how Optimism governance reduces this risk.","We call this risk “enshittification” and it is one of the failure modes of traditional corporate governance. See more below about our plan to reduce this risk via Optimism governance below.","Over the past year, we introduced a refined process for governing the OP Stack (Protocol Upgrades 2.0) aimed at reducing platform risk. Over the next six months, we’ll gradually introduce an updated process for governing the treasury (Capital Allocation 2.0) to prevent short term extraction at the cost of long term innovation. While these differences may seem simple, they allow Optimism to build a meaningfully different business.","DeFi evolved to emulate many of the characteristics of the traditional financial system with one important difference: Transparency.","Organizations that support protocols will similarly evolve to emulate many of the characteristics of the tradition corporate governance system with one important difference: Accountability.","By June, we expect to reach the milestone we set out nearly four years ago to achieve: the initial spec of a new type of organization - not a DAO and not a corporation - but something new ✨","It’s no secret that most DAOs struggle with capital allocation. While Optimism has avoided some of the worst failure modes, the current process still doesn’t adequately serve the needs of the Superchain.","If we instead look to the traditional corporate governance as a more appropriate model for inspiration, it too fails in important ways. The base case corporate governance model creates two key failure modes we want to avoid:","In traditional companies, requirements to “maximize shareholder value,” short sighted incentives, and governance control by only the largest financial interests lead to a series of short-term decisions that may temporarily pump the price, but that may also jeopardize the long term sustainability and value of the business.","Naturally, tension arises when deciding what should be done with profits. Financial interests tend to push to use profits to pay out investors, which can starve re-investment in the business, resulting in a worse product over time. In extreme cases, over-extraction can result in underinvestment in mission critical security measures, which can cause existential risk.","Disagreements over these decisions can result in costly proxy fights to control seats on the board of directors, a potentially suboptimal and extreme outcome generally used as a last resort. That can prevent change from occurring until underperformance reaches undesirable levels.","Avoiding these dynamics has always been core to Optimism’s design, evidenced by the incorporation of OP Labs as a Public Benefit Corporation and the inclusion of non-financial interests in voting since day one (See Stakeholder Voting.) Capital Allocation 2.0 will introduce additional measures aimed at preventing this failure mode.","The board of directors, as the primary accountability mechanism for public companies, was cited as a significant source of failure of corporate governance in many of our expert interviews (i.e. failing to hold management accountable). Capital Allocation 2.0 will introduce additional accountability mechanisms to ensure management “can’t be evil.”","Over the next ~6 months, the Foundation plans to address the above failure modes, and work towards delivering the unique value propositions of Optimism governance, by putting forward proposals to:","Restructure how capital is allocated to more effectively invest in the Superchain","Enhance the OP token’s role in the Superchain","Add mechanisms to hold OP Labs accountable, including:","A legal structure (possibly a DUNA) to allow more voting power to come online and to transfer specific assets and governance powers to the structure onchain","A final set of proposal types outlined in the Operating Manual","All Foundation proposals are subject to governance approval.","Over the past three years, Optimism has experimented with ways to organize, fund, and align our efforts to build and grow the Superchain. We’ve run experiments evaluating the following:","Community-led capital allocation aimed at fueling user growth, supporting developer adoption, and winning customers.","Community contributions via Mission Requests and a public core development process.","Public goods funding aimed at discovering how Optimism might accurately fund positive impact to support a growing ecosystem.","What we've learned is that attempting to coordinate a disparate set of teams and organizations results in loss of shared context and less efficient operating structures, and also does not meaningfully increase decentralization where it matters.","This is especially true for an organization at Optimism’s stage in development, which has early product-market fit but must ruthlessly prioritize in order to scale and become profitable.","Over the next few months, the Foundation will propose updates to allow the Collective to sustainably fund OP Labs, while governance ensures accountability for the achievement of goals and targets via a set of veto rights over capital allocation.","As in a public company, the primary role of governance will be holding OP Labs accountable to effective and sustained progress. Unlike the original vision of DAOs, the role of governance will not be to empower voters to actively drive this progress themselves - via capital allocations or open contributions - but rather to ensure those entrusted with this responsibility (OP Labs) perform well.","By allowing voters to veto specific allocation decisions, course correction can occur faster and with lower stakes relative to the corporate governance base case.","Over the past several years, Retroactive Public Goods Funding has been one of the Collective’s most ambitious experiments in grant making, distributing OP to a wide range of open-source builders, researchers, educators, and contributors as a way to strengthen the Optimism ecosystem. The program generated valuable learnings about retroactive incentives, ecosystem-scale public goods funding, and community-led capital allocation, all of which have meaningfully informed Optimism’s evolution.","As Optimism enters a new phase focused on execution, scale, and enterprise adoption, the Retro Funding program will be paused to reevaluate how it fits into Optimism’s long term strategy. Public goods remain core to Optimism's vision. This decision reflects the near term need to focus on the core public good Optimism provides in developing and maintaining the OP Stack.","The Retro Funding program will not run for at least the next 12 months. In the meantime, the Foundation will assess alternative approaches to support public goods. A proposal to re-allocate all or a portion of the tokens reserved for Retro Funding (~775M OP) may be put forward by the Foundation in the coming months.","The Optimism Foundation has put forward a proposal to transition OP from a pure governance token to a token that is tightly aligned with the growth of the Superchain. The Foundation’s proposal introduces a buyback mechanism using 50% of incoming Superchain revenue to buy the OP token for the next 12 months. Every transaction across every OP Chain expands the base from which buybacks operate. The more blockspace consumed across the Superchain, the more structural demand flows into OP.","The OP token will still retain important governance rights, but now Superchain activity will also strengthen the underlying demand for the token. This is the first step in establishing healthy tokenomics for the OP token, which plays an important role in capital allocation.","See the full proposal here.","All Foundation proposals are subject to governance approval","As more discretion over the treasury is transferred to the Optimism Foundation and OP Labs, holding these entities accountable becomes that much more important for the long term sustainability of the business. In addition to existing governance rights (which include removal of Foundation Directors), the Foundation plans to ensure these entities ultimately remain accountable to governance by putting forward proposals to:","Establish a legal structure (possibly a DUNA) to allow more voting power to come online and to transfer specific assets and governance powers to the structure with onchain controls.","Finalize the set of proposal types outlined in the Operating Manual and transition the Working Constitution to a Bedrock Constitution on the original four year timeline. This will include oversight over capital allocation, a key difference to the corporation governance base case in which shareholders typically don’t have direct oversight over most capital allocation decisions.","Relative to offchain governance, onchain governance can provide unique properties that enhance accountability. Rather than optimize the existing board structure, additional onchain functionality will ensure management works in the interest of all stakeholders.","We are excited to evolve from the experimental stage towards the establishment of a new type of organization that aims to avoid common failure modes of both web 2 and web 3. Over the next few months, this initial design will be solidified on the Foundation’s original four-year timeline, transitioning the Working Constitution to a Bedrock Constitution. The Foundation - with governance oversight - will continue to monitor, refine, and update the design to ensure the Collective continuously adapts, innovates, and evolves over time.","For more details about Season 9, see Guide to Season 9.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/season-9-from-experiment-to-organization"},"/blog/optimism-partners-with-succinct-as-preferred-provider-to-accelerate-zk-proving-on-the-superchain":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism partners with Succinct as first preferred provider to accelerate ZK Proving on the Superchain - Optimism","description":"Zero-knowledge validity proofs will become canonical on the OP Stack, unlocking native capital efficiency.","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism partners with Succinct as first preferred provider to accelerate ZK Proving on the Superchain"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","February 12, 2026","Zero-knowledge validity proofs will become canonical on the OP Stack, unlocking native capital efficiency.","Optimism is partnering with Succinct as its first preferred provider for ZK proving. This collaboration will make zero-knowledge validity proofs canonical on the OP Stack, with the ultimate goal of instant, real-time withdrawals. This is Optimism’s first official zero-knowledge partner for the OP Stack.","\"We're honored to partner with Optimism to bring ZK to the Superchain, starting with OP Mainnet. As rollups consolidate around ZK, Succinct is building the proving infrastructure the ecosystem can rely on.\"Uma Roy, CEO and Co-Founder of Succinct","Today, capital mobility is a restraint for custody providers, market makers, and enterprises coming onchain. While transactions are sub-second fast, safely offramping capital from L2 to L1 can take days. This partnership starts to close the gap, introducing fast, secure, low-cost withdrawal finality through the latest breakthroughs in ZK proving.","\"Succinct offers one of the most trusted proof systems in the industry, securing billions of dollars in TVL. We’re excited to bring validity proofs to the Superchain as we focus on fast, cost-effective scaling for Optimism and our partners in 2026 and beyond.\"Karl Floersch, Co-Founder of Optimism","Succinct operates one of the most trusted proof systems in the industry, securing billions of dollars in total value. With Optimism and Succinct’s solution, OP Succinct, transactions are confirmed cryptographically using validity proofs, eliminating the challenge period that optimistic rollups currently require.","What this unlocks:","Custody providers can move client assets without locking capital for a week","Market makers gain capital efficiency across L2 positions","Treasury operations get faster withdrawal finality, matching expectations from traditional infrastructure","Optimism is building specialized blockchain infrastructure and standards that ZK providers can plug into - standards that anyone building on the OP Stack can benefit from. For teams building on the OP Stack: this integration is part of a broader multi-proof architecture where chains can eventually choose the prover network that best meets their needs.","After ZK proofs go live on OP Mainnet, existing OP Stack chains will be able to upgrade to ZK validity proofs seamlessly, with fast finality, low-cost proving, and strong cryptographic security.","Optimism's partnership with Succinct is the latest step in building modular, enterprise-ready infrastructure for institutions moving onchain.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/optimism-partners-with-succinct-as-preferred-provider-to-accelerate-zk-proving-on-the-superchain"},"/blog/liveness-module":{"version":1,"title":"Liveness Module - Optimism","description":"Most, if not all, crypto companies at scale use multisigs to manage their operations and upgrades. Collectively these multisigs hold about a hundred billion dollars","keywords":"","h1":["Liveness Module"],"h2":["Context and Requirements","The Solution","Limitations","Conclusion"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Alberto Cuesta Cañada","February 11, 2026","Most, if not all, crypto companies at scale use multisigs to manage their operations and upgrades. Collectively these multisigs hold about a hundred billion dollars in assets, but their importance is higher than that, as those multisigs are critical to the functioning of their crypto protocols. If the multisig is lost, most likely the protocol is lost as well.","Losing keys to hackers is not the only risk. It is also possible to lose keys in a literal sense. Hardware wallets might be misplaced or destroyed in an accident. PIN codes might be forgotten or accidentally deleted from password managers. Hardware wallets can be restored from a passphrase, but storing these passphrases is a significant risk in itself, and not everyone stores them securely.","At Optimism, we have developed a simple Gnosis Safe liveness module that we believe offers good guarantees against the risk of lost multisig keys. Using this module allows multisig owners to have a more balanced security model and sleep better at night.","In this article we’ll explain how our liveness module works. It is open-source and free to use, and we hope that the industry at large will be safer because of it.","Gnosis Safe Multisigs are configured as a set of owner addresses where some threshold of addresses can sign and execute a transaction through the safe contract.","Multisig liveness means the ability for the multisig to reach consensus and execute a transaction that states \"this multisig is live” within a specific time — that’s what we want to guarantee.","A multisig fails to be live if a sufficient minority of signers (total - threshold + 1) permanently prevents it from reaching consensus. This could happen, for example, by keys being accidentally lost or stolen by hostile parties.","Our first attempt at a multisig liveness solution (1, 2) didn’t prevent malicious signers from refusing to sign. They could selectively choose to sign only transactions that proved liveness, while blocking transactions that advance the multisig’s actual interests.","Our first attempt was also inconvenient for signers, as they had to regularly show they were in control or they would be assumed incapable and removed from the multisig owner set. In many multisigs, there are always a few signers that rarely act, but serve as a convenient backup for the more active signers.","Let’s see how we solved this.","Gnosis Safes allow signers to use modules and guards to augment or restrict their capabilities.","Modules can be enabled by Safe signers to pre-approve some actions to be executed from the Safe when triggered by non-signers. The module implements some function, non-signers call it, and the Safe executes the action.","A guard can also be enabled on a Safe to execute additional actions or enforce conditions before or after the Safe executes a transaction. It’s like adding requirements for the Safe to execute a transaction.","Our original liveness guard and module removed signers if they individually failed to show liveness. In addition to that, if the number of owners in the safe fell below a minimum defined level, then all owners would be removed and sole control of the multisig would be transfered to a fallback owner.","Suitable fallback owners would be other multisigs with stronger security guarantees. They could be other multisigs in the same company, external multisigs maintained exclusively for this purpose, or multisigs handled by other organisations willing to do this service and deemed extremely trustworthy.","Our new solution uses this fallback owner as its only mechanism, and in doing so, it switches from an idea of individual liveness to that of multisig liveness, which is easier to manage.","Instead of keeping a liveness registry for signers, we implemented a simple challenge-response mechanism for the multisig itself. The multisig can be challenged to show liveness, or in other words, it can be asked “are you still alive?”.","The multisig can answer by executing a simple predetermined call that will cancel the challenge. Since the multisig can only execute calls if it has a quorum, this ensures that enough keys are still controlled the signers. If this call can’t be executed within a given time for lack of quorum, the fallback owner will get sole ownership and use it to restore the multisig to a live owner set.","This simple mechanism also solves the situation in which malicious owners sign only transactions that prove liveness. If there are malicious signers in the owner set, then it will be the honest owners that will refuse to sign the reply to a liveness challenge. By their refusal, the challenge reply won’t be executed and the fallback owner will get sole ownership as before.","Using module capabilities to replace the owner set by the fallback owner","To avoid spamming attacks, only the fallback owner can issue challenges. The fallback owner is assumed to have stronger security guarantees, and be alive and not malicious. If the fallback owner would fail at keeping any of these properties, the multisig can reply to any malicious challenges and replace the malicious fallback owner by an honest one.","Finally, the reason for a multisig failing to execute transactions could be a faulty or misconfigured guard. Such a malfunctioning guard would still block the multisig even if owned by the fallback owner. For this reason, the liveness module removes any guards when replacing the owner set by the fallback owner. Removing guards involves its own risks, which can be mitigated.","Security researchers will read this article and will point out some obvious limitations.","This mechanism only solves the scenario with malicious signers for multisigs in which the quorum is larger than half of the owner set, for example, 4/7. In multisigs where the quorum is less than half of the owner set, the malicious signers will reach quorum early on and will be able to respond to any challenges.","Hacks in which malicious parties obtain a quorum of keys from a multisig and steal all of its assets are the ones that appear in the headlines. However, there are other scenarios that can be equally catastrophic and that we prevent with sometimes heavy measures. One of these is simply too many owners irrecoverably losing their signing keys.","A second limitation is that the fallback must have stronger security guarantees, and it is impossible to keep assigning ever-stronger fallbacks in a chain of trust. The ultimate fallback cannot have a fallback with stronger security guarantees.","In practical terms, though, it would be fine for two strongly guarded multisigs with completely independent owner sets and security mechanisms to act as fallbacks for each other. These two ultimate fallbacks could be highly reputable and well-defended common goods organisations.","While hacks in which malicious parties obtain a quorum of keys from a multisig and steal all of its assets are the ones that appear in the headlines. There are other scenarios that can be equally catastrophic and that we prevent with sometimes heavy measures. One of these is simply too many owners irrecoverably losing their signing keys.","To allow for a better structured defense in depth of multisigs, at Optimism we came up with an extremely simple liveness module for Gnosis Safes that uses the concept of a fallback owner and a challenge and response mechanism to guarantee liveness of a multisig under workable assumptions.","We are releasing this module as a common good as part of our commitment to advance the interests of the community. Feel free to use it as-is, tailor it to your use case in a fork, or discuss it as you might find convenient. The module was audited by Spearbit.","The creation of this module was a joint effort by several people at Optimism. The vision came from Kelvin Fichter, the code was developed by John Mardlin. Josep Bové, Tom Assas, Matt Solomon and I helped in other capacities.","At Optimism, we are always looking for talented individuals who will help us on our mission to scale Ethereum and build the Superchain, pushing the edge on what is possible and finding smart solutions for complex problems. If that is something that interests you, we are hiring.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/liveness-module"},"/blog/benchmarking-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Benchmarking the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"Most blockchain benchmarks are great at producing a number but not so good at explaining what it means. You’ll see “X TPS” or “Y gas/sec,”","keywords":"","h1":["Benchmarking the OP Stack"],"h2":["Why benchmarking matters (and why it’s harder than it looks)","Full-Network, End-to-End Benchmarks","Our approach: full devnet, end-to-end (with a bottleneck diagnosis)","TPS & Gas/s","Workloads","Guardrails","Bottlenecks are a Deliverable","The Goal"],"h3":["What’s Next"],"h4":["The status quo: execution-only benchmarking"],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Stefano Charissis","March 11, 2026","TL;DR:","We’re investing heavily in benchmarking the OP Stack - with a focus on end-to-end benchmarks on full devnets","We treat bottleneck identification as a first-class deliverable, not a footnote","We measure sustainable ‘real work’ under representative workloads with UX guardrails","This is a first in our series of benchmarking blog posts","Most blockchain benchmarks are great at producing a number but not so good at explaining what it means. You’ll see “X TPS” or “Y gas/sec,” but you won’t see the transaction mix, the hardware, the state shape, the failure modes, the end-to-end throughput, or whether the system stayed stable once the load was sustained. Too often, our industry fixates on TPS, and we end up optimising the wrong thing: a headline number instead of sustained, user-visible capacity.","For engineers and operators, this framing provides an incomplete picture and is almost unusable. If you can’t reproduce a result, you can’t compare releases. If you can’t explain the bottleneck, you can’t fix it. That’s why we treat bottlenecks as a first-class output: every run should tell you what limited throughput and why.","For these reasons, and more, we’re building a workload-based, end-to-end benchmarking framework for the OP Stack: to measure real capacity under realistic conditions, with guardrails and evidence.","The goal isn’t a flashy peak metric. It’s to make scaling work predictable. Scaling is often the ultimate goal of benchmarking. But to achieve this we must first embrace being in a state of perpetual learning. Learning what the system can actually sustain, what breaks first and how different choices (protocol, client, config, infra) change the shape of the performance envelope.","Benchmarking is how we turn that learning into something useful: a shared, defensible source of truth that engineers can iterate on, operators can plan around, and partners can trust.","This post is an introduction to how we think about benchmarking the OP Stack: what we measure, why “TPS” alone doesn’t cut it anymore, and what makes our approach different from the status quo.","Over the next posts, we’ll dig into definitions (what we count), methodology (how we make results reproducible), and how benchmark outputs translate into real engineering decisions.","At OP Labs, we’re investing heavily in benchmarking because we think it’s one of the highest-leverage ways to make the OP Stack faster, safer, and easier to operate. We don’t want performance to be a collection of one-off tests, heroic debugging sessions, or benchmark folklore. To push the limits of Ethereum scaling, we need a measurement system that’s as serious as the engineering.","If you’ve spent any time in crypto, you’ve seen the classic performance debate:","“We do X TPS, and Y gas/sec…. We’re faster because our number is bigger.”","Those numbers aren’t wrong. They’re just usually incomplete because they’re answering a different question than the one people actually care about:","“How much real work can the system sustain, end-to-end, without user experience degrading?”","That’s the benchmark question we care most about. And when a system is pushed to its limits, it rarely fails in a tidy, single-variable way. It fails as a system:","Latencies creep up","Inclusion time increases (txs sit in the mempool / queue longer before inclusion)","Tail percentiles get spiky","Verifier nodes fall behind","Engineering teams start getting paged","The important part is: these aren’t mysteries. Before a chain “goes down,” you can usually see it coming in the metrics. Benchmarking is how we surface those early warning signals under controlled conditions, so we can raise real capacity without learning the hard way.","Most performance numbers in crypto still come from execution-only tests: one node, one client, one narrow slice of the system. Even in the L2 world — where “performance” is clearly more than just EVM execution — most benchmarks you see are still shaped like execution-layer tests.","There are a few notable exceptions, but it’s still uncommon to treat the entire rollup pipeline as the thing you benchmark by default. That’s too narrow. It’s a bit like testing how powerful a car engine is on a stand and declaring you’ve measured the car. Useful? Sure. Sufficient? Not even close.","Execution-only benchmarks usually answer:","“How fast can a single node execute a specific kind of transaction?”","“What’s the biggest number we can hit in a clean, controlled setup?”","They’re often less helpful for the questions protocol engineers and operators end up caring about: end-to-end inclusion behavior, stability under sustained load, and what the current bottleneck actually is.","Our approach starts from the opposite direction: we benchmark the OP Stack end-to-end on a full devnet, because that’s where real limits show up — queueing, coordination costs, tail latency, and the failure modes you only see when the whole system is under pressure.","We want system-level truth using realistic traffic patterns.End-to-end devnet benchmarks answer:","“How much can the whole system sustain before user experience starts to degrade?”","“What breaks first, and why?”","“If we change one thing, what bottleneck moves next?”","For rollups, “performance” is the product of a whole pipeline working together: transaction ingestion and propagation, sequencing and block building, execution, state access and storage behavior, L1 coordination and publishing, node health under sustained load, and everything surrounding that (plus the messy stuff: variance, failure modes, recovery).","This isn’t the easiest path. Full-system tests are noisier than single-node tests, and they’re harder to make perfectly repeatable. But they also surface the problems that actually matter in production: inclusion time blowing out, failure rates rising, backlogs that don’t drain, and nodes falling behind.","And importantly: every run is expected to end with a bottleneck diagnosis, not just a headline number. Once an end-to-end run points to a real limiter, we can zoom in with microbenchmarks to measure that component in isolation — but we start with the full system so we don’t optimize the wrong thing.","A simple example: you double sequencer block-building performance, but blocks can't reach verifier nodes fast enough via p2p, so verifier nodes fall behind. End-to-end benchmarks make that obvious.","TPS is a tempting number to use. It’s a standard in the tech industry, very familiar and intuitive. The problem with this though is that not all transactions are the same.","A simple ETH transfer costs ~21,000 gas. It touches two account balances, executes no contract logic, and carries no calldata. It's lightweight, predictable, and parallelizable — two transfers with non-overlapping accounts have zero state dependencies and can run concurrently.","On the other end of the spectrum, onchain ZK proof verification (Groth16 or PLONK) runs ~200,000 to 2,000,000+ gas. Most of that cost comes from elliptic curve pairing operations via the ecPairing precompile — 45,000 base gas plus 34,000 per point pair — with the proof, public inputs, and verification key all landing as calldata. Memory expansion is significant, and the call puts real CPU pressure on the node.","And two chains running identical gas/s numbers can be bottlenecked on completely different resources — one on execution, one on state root computation — requiring entirely different scaling investments to fix.","Two transactions. Same gas usage. Completely different load on the network.","This is why headline TPS is the wrong metric — it flattens workload complexity into a single number that tells you almost nothing about real throughput. Meaningful benchmarking measures what the system can sustain under representative workloads, and uses those results to surface bottlenecks, not just scores.","A rollup can “do a lot of TPS” by pushing cheap, homogenous transactions that don’t look like what users do in the real world. Gas/sec has a similar issue: it compresses a multi-dimensional system into a single scalar that can be optimized in ways that don’t necessarily improve user outcomes.","As workloads diversify (more contract-heavy activity, different calldata patterns, different state access behavior, different latency sensitivity) you start caring less about “how many transactions” and more about:","What kinds of actions are those transactions representing?","Are they sustainable over time?","Do inclusion time and failure rates stay healthy?","What breaks first when you turn the dial up?","That’s another reason we’re focused on measuring real work under representative workloads with guardrails.","Instead of chasing one universal headline number, we define workloads: versioned, documented mixes of transaction types that represent a real category of onchain activity.","This matters because onchain activity is diverging fast. A stablecoin payment workload looks nothing like a DeFi trading workload — different transaction types, different state access patterns, different resource constraints, different latency requirements. As the OP Stack powers more fintech, neo-finance, and institutional use cases alongside consumer DeFi, a single throughput number becomes not just incomplete but actively misleading. It tells you a chain is fast without telling you what it's fast at.","Workload-based benchmarking is how we solve this. Each workload has a name and a version, a defined transaction mix, and an intended interpretation, giving operators and partners an apples-to-apples basis for evaluating the system against their specific use case. If you're building a stablecoin payment rail, you should know exactly how the chain performs under a payment workload, not a generic one that doesn't represent your users.","Workloads also stop you from accidentally benchmarking the wrong thing. A concrete example: a stablecoin payment workload is data-availability-bound — high transaction count, low compute per transaction. A DeFi trading workload is execution-bound — high compute, significant state contention from concurrent pool interactions. Same chain, same hardware, completely different binding constraint. If your benchmark doesn't reflect the actual workload, you'll optimize the wrong thing and never know it.","Throughput doesn’t really count if you have to break UX to get it. So we treat throughput as valid only when the system stays inside defined “guardrails,” such as:","Transaction inclusion time staying within acceptable bounds","Failure rates staying low","Stability under sustained load (no unbounded backlogs)","Predictable behavior at the tail","This also means that new capacity that is used entirely by spam doesn’t add throughput, meaningful gains help users take action.","This is the heart of “max sustained” benchmarking: we don’t accept wins that degrade the user experience. If p50 looks great but p99 is on fire, you didn’t win - you just moved the problem.","A benchmark that ends with a report full of numbers and charts is only half a benchmark. What we want from every meaningful run is:","A defensible headline result, and","A clear, evidence-backed explanation of what limited us","This transitions performance tuning from a guessing game to a science. Accompanying our charts are the artifacts engineers actually use: system metrics across percentiles, profiling/tracing outputs and structured context to compare runs meaningfully.","The goal is to shorten the loop from: “we saw a regression / we hit a ceiling” to “here’s the evidence, here’s the limiter, here’s what to fix next.”","That loop is the compounding advantage.","In summary, these are the goals of our benchmarking platform:","Proficiency: build a standardized, repeatable system we trust (and can explain)","Confidence: Make production changes without concern. Catch any regressions early","Publish methodology openly so the ecosystem can reproduce and build on our results","Inform our scalability roadmap: use evidence to prioritize what actually moves the limit","This post was the “why” and the big-picture approach: measure real performance end-to-end, on a full devnet, with guardrails.","In the next posts, we’ll get more specific. Planned topics include:","Onchain Actions/sec: what we mean by “real work,” what we count, and what we don’t","Workloads: how we define and version transaction mixes so results stay comparable over time","Guardrails: what “sustained” really means, and why p95/p99 matter as much as the headline number","Reproducibility: how we make runs consistent and defensible across releases and environments","Bottlenecks: how we go from a benchmark result to a clear “this is the limiter” story engineers can act on","If you’ve ever looked at a TPS chart and thought “cool, but what does this actually mean?” we’ll make that concrete in the next posts.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/benchmarking-the-op-stack"},"/blog/bitpanda-launches-vision-chain-as-the-first-fully-managed-op-enterprise-chain":{"version":1,"title":"Bitpanda to Launch Vision Chain as the First Fully Managed OP Enterprise Chain - Optimism","description":"Purpose-built blockchain infrastructure for European institutional finance. OP Succinct ZK proofs for same-day L1 withdrawals. 200ms blocks.","keywords":"","h1":["Bitpanda to Launch Vision Chain as the First Fully Managed OP Enterprise Chain"],"h2":["Why this matters for institutional finance","Built to institutional standards","The rollout","What this proves"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","March 24, 2026","Purpose-built blockchain infrastructure for European institutional finance. OP Succinct ZK proofs for same-day L1 withdrawals. 200ms blocks. Fully managed through OP Enterprise.","Bitpanda, founded in 2014 with 7 million users across Europe, is launching Vision Chain. A blockchain built specifically for European financial institutions — to issue tokenized assets on public infrastructure rather than relying on the permissioned systems that have defined enterprise blockchains for over a decade. Vision Chain is being developed on the OP Stack, fully managed through OP Enterprise, giving Bitpanda's institutional partners a direct path to production without building private blockchain infrastructure from scratch.","Banks want to issue tokenized deposits. Asset managers want to distribute tokenized funds on-chain. Payment providers want faster, more capital-efficient settlement rails. For European financial institutions operating under MiCA and DORA, getting there on public infrastructure has required infrastructure that didn’t exist until now.","For EU financial institutions, existing options forced a difficult choice: permissioned ledgers with no interoperability and limited liquidity, or public chains without the specific operational and regulatory architecture that European institutions required. Bitpanda needed infrastructure purpose-built for European institutional finance — high-performance, institutionally accountable, and fully managed so their team could focus on product rather than protocol maintenance.","Vision Chain is built on the OP Stack, fully managed through OP Enterprise, and designed from the ground up to serve European financial institutions at scale. Bitpanda Enterprise already serves major European banks and fintechs. Vision Chain gives them public infrastructure to match.","Vision Chain will deliver the technical architecture that institutional capital requires:","Institutional grade capital efficiency. Vision Chain will integrate OP Succinct’s zero-knowledge technology, targeting same-day withdrawals to L1 — giving institutions the capital efficiency and settlement finality that serious financial operations require.","Near-instant transaction confirmation. Vision Chain will launch with 200ms block times, providing consumers the experience they’ve come to expect with web2.","Euro stablecoin gas payments. European institutions operate in Euros. Vision Chain will support Bitpanda's upcoming MiCA-compliant Euro stablecoins as a gas tokens, next to the native VSN, eliminating unnecessary FX friction.","Ethereum level security. As a layer 2, Vision Chain will be secured by Ethereum — when you’re building infrastructure for regulated finance, you don’t trade security guarantees for cost optimization.","Vision Chain is targeting mainnet later this year.","The rollout begins with Institutional asset issuance, including RWAs and Euro stablecoin deployment. Then expanding into ecosystem development with Euro-denominated lending vaults and curated protocol deployments. Finally, retail distribution through Bitpanda's brokerage app.","For developers, this creates access to millions of users who have never touched a non-custodial wallet, alongside high-quality capital and a user base that traditional DeFi has struggled to reach.","The commercial model reinforces this. A portion of Vision Chain’s network revenue will be used to purchase and remove Vision Tokens (VSN) from circulation — creating a direct link between chain activity and ecosystem value. More usage means more demand. Developers building here aren't just accessing users, they're building into an economic structure designed to grow with the network.","Bitpanda chose a fully managed deployment for a reason. They want to own their blockchain economics without building and maintaining an infrastructure team from scratch.","OP Enterprise handles the chain operations: hosting, sequencer management, ongoing infrastructure. That includes proactive system monitoring with dedicated OP engineers responding to alerts, security patching and upgrades managed end-to-end, and bridge security monitoring so Bitpanda doesn't need to stand up their own incident response stack. This support allows Bitpanda to focus on what they do best: building products for their users.","This is the model working in production — a regulated European financial institution, live on the OP Stack, focused entirely on their product roadmap instead of their infrastructure.","Their blockchain. Their revenue. OP Enterprise guarantees.","Learn More: Vision Chain","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/bitpanda-launches-vision-chain-as-the-first-fully-managed-op-enterprise-chain"},"/blog/ether.fi-is-live-on-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"Ether.fi is Live on OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"$220M in TVL. 300,000 accounts. One of crypto's biggest consumer products just chose its long-term home.","keywords":"","h1":["Ether.fi is Live on OP Mainnet"],"h2":["Ether.fi is on OP Mainnet","Why the product matters","Why OP Mainnet","What $220M changes","What's next"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Jing Wang","Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Mike Silagadze","Jing Wang","April 15, 2026","TL;DR: Ether.fi, the largest non-custodial crypto card by spend volume, is now live on OP Mainnet with $220M in TVL, 70,000 active cards, and 300,000 accounts. OP Mainnet is the home for one of crypto's biggest consumer fintech products, and the product roadmap that comes next starts here.","$220M in TVL. 300,000 accounts. One of crypto's biggest consumer products just chose its long-term home.","Ether.fi runs the largest non-custodial crypto card in the market. 70,000 active cards. 300,000 accounts. Millions of dollars in real-world payments every day. All of it is now on OP Mainnet, along with $220M in TVL. The largest single TVL event in OP Mainnet history.","The full migration took three days. Cards kept working the entire time. No downtime, no user complaints. The Optimism Foundation ran the move alongside the Ether.fi team, covering bridge engineering, oracle support, asset metadata, and the operational work behind a live consumer product. A migration this size, for a product this active, completed in days.","The infrastructure move is the headline. The product is the reason it matters. EtherFi Cash is a best-in-class card experience — tap-to-pay anywhere Visa runs, instant settlement, global reach, the same speed and ease people already expect from their best traditional card. And every dollar sitting on it earns yield onchain. That is the combination no traditional credit card can match. Points and interest charges on one side, real onchain economics on the other.","That is the hook for every enterprise watching where consumer finance is going next. A best-in-class card experience plus yield built into the money itself. It is what a card becomes when the rails are onchain, and it is the reason a $5.8B protocol is putting its consumer product on OP Mainnet.","The decision came down to what the product actually needs. EtherFi Cash settles real payments every day, and at that volume, latency is money, fees are churn, and uptime is the product. The team evaluated the options and OP Mainnet was the only chain whose performance profile matched what consumer-scale cards require.","The numbers:","Median fees: $0.00001","Finality: sub-250ms via Flashblocks","Throughput: 20Mgas/sec, scaling toward 100Mgas/sec","Uptime: 99.99%","Data feeds: powered by Pyth Network","For a payment product that settles real money every day, those are the conditions the product needs to grow. Optimism is committed to scaling OP Mainnet cheaply as the protocols on it get bigger. The infrastructure gets better as Ether.fi's product gets bigger.","New asset support also opens the product roadmap Ether.fi has been building toward. A Gold Vaults and a Euro card are next. Native minting, deeper DeFi integrations, broader yield strategies, and richer cashback economics all get easier from here. The product work is what this was for. OP Mainnet is the platform that makes it possible.","\"EtherFi Cash is the largest non-custodial crypto card in the market, and the roadmap we've been building is why. To ship what comes next, we needed infrastructure that could handle real-time payments at consumer volume. OP Mainnet delivered on every dimension. Three days to migrate $220M with no downtime answered the question. Now we get to build.\"","Mike Silagadze, CEO, Ether.fi","Every dollar that arrives on OP Mainnet makes the next dollar cheaper to move, easier to pair, and faster to put to work. That is the flywheel. Ether.fi's $220M deepens every liquidity pool already here, and it changes the calculation for the next protocol weighing the same decision.","If you're building a consumer product that needs real throughput, finality, and asset support to scale, OP Mainnet is ready for it. The migration path is proven, it runs in days, and the liquidity is already here. Ether.fi picked OP Mainnet for the infrastructure and stayed for the partnership. That combination is what's on the table for every team evaluating the same move.","\"This is what OP Mainnet is for. A live consumer product at this scale picks the infrastructure it needs for the next chapter, and we're building with Ether.fi for what comes next. Every dollar that lands deepens the liquidity for everyone already here.\"","Jing Wang, OP Labs","Gold Vaults and Euro card launches on OP Mainnet","Expanded DeFi integrations and yield strategies built on Ether.fi's relocated collateral","Continued work on OP Mainnet throughput toward 100Mgas/sec","Joint milestones across the partnership between the Optimism Foundation and Ether.fi","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/ether.fi-is-live-on-op-mainnet"},"/blog/ether.fi-is-migrating-to-optimism-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"ether.fi is Migrating to Optimism’s OP Mainnet  - Optimism","description":"ether.fi plans to migrate ether.fi Cash, its digital cash account and card product, to OP Mainnet.","keywords":"","h1":["ether.fi is Migrating to Optimism’s OP Mainnet"],"h2":["ether.fi’s Ethereum Journey"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","February 18, 2026","Onchain neobanking comes to Optimism’s flagship chain","ether.fi plans to migrate ether.fi Cash, its digital cash account and card product, to OP Mainnet. Over the coming months, ~70,000 active cards, ~300,000 accounts, and millions in user TVL are moving to Optimism.","This migration brings one of the fastest-growing crypto products to Optimism with a long-term OP Enterprise partnership aligned around accelerating global payments. For Optimism, this positions OP Mainnet as a leading chain for payments activity.","By deploying on OP Mainnet as an OP Enterprise customer, ether.fi gains access to:","Established liquidity and users from day one","Enterprise-grade support on a proven public network","A dedicated account manager for technical guidance","The same codebase and tooling across all OP Stack chains","Priority access to new features and upgrades","ether.fi Cash offers a credit card and a savings account that uses DeFi under the hood. Users can move from fiat to crypto, earn yield, spend globally, receive cash back, and manage assets in a non-custodial wallet. It combines the utility of a neobank with the benefits of DeFi.","Launched last year, ether.fi Cash has quickly become a market leader, surpassing products from incumbents that have been in the market for years. Each day, the ether.fi app processes 2,000 internal swaps and 28,000 spend transactions averaging $2 million spend volume. These numbers have doubled approximately every two months since launch.","Back in 2024, ether.fi began building ether.fi Cash. As they scaled, it became clear ether.fi needed a long-term infrastructure partner deeply aligned with Ethereum and capable of supporting payments at global scale. Optimism is that partner.","Here’s what this migration unlocks for ether.fi users:","Increased liquidity for swaps within a larger DeFi ecosystem","Access to more assets for deposits and withdrawals","Card transactions with gas fees and network costs covered by ether.fi","More cashback rewards for users","Stronger infrastructure designed to support high transaction volume","For end users, the transition will be seamless. Optimism has supported major ecosystem migrations in the past, and provides a secure and robust process designed to avoid disruption.","In the second half of 2025, the OP Stack processed 3.6 billion transactions, representing 13 percent of all crypto transactions during that period. OP Mainnet serves as a hub for DeFi activity and a launchpad for both consumer and enterprise applications. Teams can deploy quickly, scale efficiently, and benefit from shared infrastructure and distribution across the broader Superchain ecosystem.","ether.fi represents the next wave of onchain neobanking. By operating non-custodially on blockchain infrastructure, ether.fi can expand globally, operate more efficiently than traditional fintech incumbents, and offer better products at lower cost.","As part of the product integration, ether.fi users will be able to access OP token rewards. ether.fi’s ongoing rewards programs include 3%+ cashback, in-app reward campaigns, travel discounts & rewards, membership tiers, travel lounges, free metal cards, and more.","For developers building payments, lending, or consumer-facing applications, OP Mainnet offers the infrastructure, liquidity, and ecosystem to go from concept to production-scale.","Learn more about OP Enterprise here.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/ether.fi-is-migrating-to-optimism-op-mainnet"},"/blog/stake-based-transaction-ordering-a-new-experiment-on-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"Stake-Based Transaction Ordering: A New Experiment on OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"We're introducing stake-based transaction ordering on OP Mainnet — the first change to transaction ordering rules in the chain's history. ","keywords":"","h1":["Stake-Based Transaction Ordering: A New Experiment on OP Mainnet"],"h2":["Why We're Doing This","Experiment Design","How the Staking Contract Works","Safety and Rollback","Live on Sepolia","A Series of Experiments","Links"],"h3":["Phase 1: Flat FIFO (maximum 1 week)","Phase 2: Stake-Weighted Ordering (maximum 3 weeks)"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","April 16, 2026","TL;DR: we're introducing stake-based transaction ordering on OP Mainnet — the first change to transaction ordering rules in the chain's history. Participants who stake OP into an audited smart contract receive top-of-block positioning for their transactions. The experiment is now live on Sepolia and will roll out to mainnet in phases, starting with a flat FIFO tier and progressing to a stake-weighted multiplier model. This is the first in a series of sequencer experiments designed to make blockspace work better for the participants who depend on it most.","Today, every transaction on OP Mainnet competes for block inclusion through a priority gas auction (PGA). You pay more gas, you get included sooner. This works, but it has side effects: trading bots spray redundant transactions hoping to land first, failed transactions clog blocks, and the actors who care most about execution quality — the ones providing liquidity and tightening spreads — have no way to signal commitment beyond gas price.","We're willing to find a better mechanism. One where participants can stake OP to earn predictable, priority access to blockspace, reducing the need for gas wars and spam.","This isn't a permanent protocol change. It's a time-boxed experiment designed to generate real data on how sophisticated blockspace consumers behave when the rules change. We'll publish results openly, and what we learn here will inform sequencer tooling for OP Stack chains.","Stake OP, get top-of-block access for your transactions. The implementation runs through a dedicated smart contract (PolicyEngineStaking) and a new engine built inside OP Mainnet's builder.","This experiment runs in two phases.","Every address that stakes 100,000 OP becomes eligible for top-of-block positioning. Within this tier, ordering is strictly first-in, first-out — no amount of extra stake changes your position. Everyone who meets the threshold is on equal footing. All non-staking transactions continue to be ordered by the existing priority gas auction. Nothing changes for users who aren't participating.","Phase 2 introduces a multiplier that blends stake size, stake duration, and priority gas into a single ordering score:","effectivePriorityGas = priorityGas × m_total(S, t)","The more you stake — and the longer you hold — the lower the priority fees you need. m_total is bounded at 3x and follows a square-root curve, so diminishing returns kick in immediately. m_time adds up to +10% after 15+ days staked, penalizing flash borrowing. Fee market signals are preserved.","Key properties: bounded at 3x max / diminishing returns / stake-rent resistant (time component penalizes flash borrowing) / non-staking transactions unaffected.","The PolicyEngineStaking contract is minimal by design: stake, unstake, link, unlink.","No lockups: withdraw 100% of stake at any time. No cooldown, no penalty.","No admin controls over funds: neither OP Labs nor the Foundation can move staked tokens.","Linking: delegate stake's benefit to a separate address (e.g., a trading bot).","Audited by Spearbit prior to deployment. Report published alongside source.","Experiment capped at 20% gas limit consumed per flashblock.","This is the first time transaction ordering rules have been modified on OP Mainnet. The experiment can be rolled back to standard PGA ordering at any time without affecting stake withdrawals. Stakers keep access to their funds regardless.","The experiment is live on Sepolia now. We'll run Sepolia for a defined period, collect data, and publish a follow-up post with learnings before activating on mainnet. During testnet phase, we will be minting a test token that will enable teams to test this feature out. Please reach out if you'd like to participate.","Stake-based ordering is the first of several sequencer experiments planned for OP Mainnet. The engine is general-purpose and can express a range of block-building customizations.","Staking contract","Audit report","Technical documentation","Governance proposal","Disclosures","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/stake-based-transaction-ordering-a-new-experiment-on-op-mainnet"},"/blog/mitsui-co.-digital-commodities-launches-zipangcoin-on-op-mainnet":{"version":1,"title":"Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities Launches Zipangcoin on OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities is bringing Zipangcoin to OP Mainnet. ZPG is the first commodity-backed cryptoasset issued by a Japanese company to launch on the network","keywords":"","h1":["Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities Launches Zipangcoin on OP Mainnet"],"h2":["What is Zipangcoin?","Why OP Mainnet","The Broader Picture","What Comes Next"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","April 17, 2026","Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities is bringing Zipangcoin to OP Mainnet. ZPG is the first commodity-backed cryptoasset issued by a Japanese company to launch on the network.","Zipangcoin (ZPG) is a cryptoasset backed by gold, silver, and platinum. Issued by Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities (MDC), it gives investors exposure to physical commodities through a regulated digital instrument. MDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. A Fortune Global 500 company with a market capitalization exceeding $94 billion, Berkshire Hathaway as its largest shareholder at 10%+, and operations across 60 countries.","ZPG is a yield-bearing instrument backed by physical assets, issued by MDC, and distributed through regulated exchanges including GMO Coin. Gold, silver, platinum.","OP Mainnet is developed by the Optimism Foundation. 50+ chains. 6 billion transactions in 2025. A track record that institutional due diligence can evaluate. MDC did. ZPG is here.","Japan is where institutional financial products are coming onchain first. When they commit, they choose infrastructure with a proven track record: the security model, the production history, and 50+ institutional deployments that make the due diligence case.","OP Stack chains processed over 6 billion transactions in 2025 — 29x growth in two years, the fastest of any blockchain ecosystem. Infrastructure on the network is operated by companies including Coinbase, Sony, Kraken, Bitpanda, and Uniswap: exchanges, fintechs, consumer platforms.","The shift on OP Mainnet goes beyond deployment count. A different category of asset is arriving: DeFi protocols, consumer fintech, and now regulated financial instruments backed by physical assets from institutions that have operated in global commodity markets for over a century. Each made the same infrastructure call for different reasons — the security model, the operational track record, the fee structure. ZPG is the institutional commodity layer of that pattern.","A company at this scale putting a regulated financial product on Ethereum L2 infrastructure doesn't happen by accident. The product has to be built. The issuer has to establish a track record. And the infrastructure partner has to have cleared the security and operational bar that institutional due diligence demands.","\"Zipangcoin's strength lies in the safety and transparency we have built since 2022 under Japan's rigorous regulatory framework. We are pleased to partner with Optimism to bring a high-quality, commodity-linked digital asset from Japan to investors worldwide. Going forward, we will accelerate our global expansion through partnerships with overseas exchanges.”Sho Miichi, Representative Director & President, Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities","\"Japan’s clear regulatory framework makes it one of the most compelling markets for on-chain finance. Zipangcoin is a commodity-backed cryptoasset issued by Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities and will be the first cryptoasset issued by a Japanese company to launch on OP Mainnet. We’re proud to be building this with Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities. We remain committed to the Japanese market and excited to deepen our work with leading Japanese companies.\"","Kyle Jenke, Chief Business Officer, OP Labs","ZPG will be listed on GMO Coin beginning April 20, 2026, with the global press announcement to follow. The listing is the first step in MDC’s multi-chain expansion.","Just a few years ago, the question was whether onchain infrastructure was ready for regulated financial products. Now it's who's already there.","The answer keeps growing.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/mitsui-co.-digital-commodities-launches-zipangcoin-on-op-mainnet"},"/blog/the-case-for-specialization-what-the-ethereum-l2-roadmap-means-for-enterprises":{"version":1,"title":"The Case for Specialization: What the Ethereum L2 Roadmap Means for Enterprises - Optimism","description":"Every enterprise evaluating blockchain infrastructure faces the same tradeoff: deploy on a shared chain and sacrifice control","keywords":"","h1":["The Case for Specialization: What the Ethereum L2 Roadmap Means for Enterprises"],"h2":["Bespoke, Standard, Specialized","Why This Matters for Enterprises","What OP Enterprise Is Building","What's Ahead"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Karl Floersch","April 24, 2026","Every enterprise evaluating blockchain infrastructure faces the same tradeoff: deploy on a shared chain and sacrifice control, or launch your own and sacrifice interoperability. For years, that was a forced choice. We're building the answer.","There's a persistent narrative that L1 and L2 are working against each other. Some of this is organic. Alignment is genuinely hard. But a lot of it is manufactured noise from competing ecosystems looking to fracture Ethereum's greatest asset: its ecosystem alignment.","The real story is more interesting. The question of how you balance specialized, differentiated chains with a coherent, interoperable whole isn't just an Ethereum problem. It's the defining challenge of bringing the world onchain. And the Ethereum ecosystem is further along in solving it than most people realize.","The history of L2s is a story in three phases.","The first generation was a wild diversity of bespoke, special-purpose protocols. Early L2 tech couldn't achieve scalability, security, and general-purpose computation all at once, so everything was custom-built from scratch. Powerful for narrow use cases, but with no real points of integration between them.","Then we figured out how to build a general-purpose L2. We coined the term \"EVM equivalence\" — an L2 that could run the exact same code as Ethereum itself. That was the standardization moment. It gave us common ground, shared tooling, and real integration points across the ecosystem.","Now we're entering a third phase. Chains are specializing again, but on top of that solid, standardized base. Custom block builder policies for payments. Smart contract acceleration for exchanges. Different proof systems, alternative data availability layers. Differentiation without fragmentation. Unique chains that still talk to each other.","The pattern is: bespoke → standardized → specialized. And it only works if you nail the standard first.","There are three reasons an enterprise deploys its own chain: customization, control, and revenue.","You tailor the chain to your use case. You own your block space and infrastructure. You capture the economic activity instead of contributing to someone else's.","These aren't abstract ideals. They're business fundamentals. This is why companies like Bitpanda, Kraken, and OKX are all building Ethereum L2s rather than launching their own L1s. The security comes for free. The customization is what you're paying for.","But the challenge is real. Every complex system faces the same tension eventually: the more specialized things get, the harder it becomes to maintain coherence across the whole. How do you give every enterprise a chain that's tailored to their needs without the ecosystem fragmenting into a thousand isolated islands?","This is the problem we built OP Enterprise to solve.","Optimism has been the dominant chain stack powering the L2 ecosystem. Kraken launched Ink, OKX migrated X Layer, and Sony deployed Soneium — part of a broader wave that now includes 50+ chains in production securing over $16B in value. We built the foundation that made much of this possible.","But being the open-source base wasn't enough. Enterprises need more than software they can fork. They need a partner that helps them actually realize the potential of having their own chain.","OP Enterprise is built around two core ideas.","Customization without fragmentation. We're building out modularity at every layer: block builder policies for specialized sequencing, smart contract acceleration for specific use cases, pluggable proof systems (both ZK and fault proofs), flexible data availability options, and post-quantum resistance. The goal is that an enterprise can tailor their chain to exactly what their users need without sacrificing interoperability with the rest of the ecosystem.","Deployment speed that doesn't sacrifice operational support. We've stood up 50+ chains and chain ecosystems. We know what works, what doesn't, and where the pain points are. Contract to production in weeks, not months. Then ongoing operational support, roadmap alignment, and infrastructure management. The chain should work for you, not the other way around.","The Ethereum roadmap is moving in the same direction from the base layer up: teragas for L2s, blob scaling that increases throughput across the board, ZK proofs, fast finality, privacy. Every major L1 initiative directly enables more L2 specialization. L1 builds the standard; L2s specialize on top of it. The relationship is multiplicative, not zero-sum. The layers need each other, and the teams building them know it.","The challenges we're tackling aren't Ethereum-specific. Making chain deployment easy, giving enterprises real customization without sacrificing interoperability — these are the core challenges of bringing any enterprise onchain. Ethereum's credibly neutral base layer makes it the strongest foundation to build on today. OP Enterprise is what makes it actually work for businesses.","How do we give enterprises and users real control over their onchain destiny? How do we balance customization with interoperability? How do we make these systems actually work for the people and businesses that use them?","These are the questions we're working on.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/the-case-for-specialization-what-the-ethereum-l2-roadmap-means-for-enterprises"},"/blog/timelock-guard":{"version":1,"title":"Timelock Guard - Optimism","description":"A timelock is an essential tool in blockchain governance. It takes transactions and delays their execution while making them visible to everyone.","keywords":"","h1":["Timelock Guard"],"h2":["The Solution","Schedule","Execute","Cancel","Cancellation Threshold","Pending Transactions","Resetting the Timelock","Conclusion"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Alberto Cuesta Cañada","February 19, 2026","A timelock is an essential tool in blockchain governance. It takes transactions and delays their execution while making them visible to everyone.","Timelocks have traditionally been used to reassure users that protocol owners cannot do anything undesired without giving users time to react and remove their assets. But that is not all you can do with a timelock.","Relatively recent hacks, like the one suffered by Bybit, could likely have been prevented with a timelock. In a scenario where a hacker manages to obtain signatures to execute a malicious transaction, a timelock would reveal that plan and offer an opportunity to counter it.","Unfortunately, the most popular timelocks in use, such as those from OpenZeppelin and Compound, suffer from several drawbacks that make them not great for protecting protocols against external attacks:","They require the timelock to have privileged permissions over the assets or protocol.","They add several steps to the governance process.","They do not make scheduled transactions easily visible, since only a hash identifier is stored.","They do not make scheduled transactions easy to cancel: cancellation requires the same permissions as scheduling, or a separate privileged actor.","Given these limitations, we decided at Optimism to design a timelock that would be simple, robust, easy to plug into any protocol governance structure, and that would allow us to easily detect and remove malicious transactions.","Most governance actions originate in a Gnosis Safe Multisig, and one of the tools available in such multisigs are Gnosis Safe Guards.","A Gnosis Safe Guard is a smart contract plugin for Gnosis Safe Multisigs that allows the multisig owners to dictate some conditions that are required for any action executed from the multisig.","At heart, any timelock is a condition for execution. A transaction needs to have been revealed to the timelock a certain time before execution. A Gnosis Safe Guard is a perfect fit and allows a timelock function to be implemented as a plugin to a Gnosis Safe Multisig.","Like other timelocks, we implemented three functions: schedule, execute, and cancel. We complemented those with a very visible transaction queue, a dynamic cancellation threshold, and a mechanism to clear the timelock queue.","There are other things that we didn’t build. The Safe already does all the work to store and execute a transaction as part of its core function of enabling collective control of an account. The Safe also includes logic for batching transactions. By not needing to code this ourselves, we greatly reduce the complexity and burden of the timelock.","Let’s discuss the implementation in detail.","To schedule a transaction in our Timelock, the user needs to have already collected the signatures for its execution in the Safe, and we reuse the Safe code to check the signatures and derive an identifier hash. The only new code is storing all the transaction data, along with a minimum execution time.","The safe.checkSignatures logic does all the work: it verifies that the signatures are valid and that there are enough of them to reach quorum. By reusing this code from the Safe, our timelock doesn’t need to have its own access control mechanism.","There is no standalone execute function. Instead, as a Safe Guard, the Timelock is consulted by the Safe before executing a transaction in the checkTransaction function. The main goal of this function is to revert if the transaction was not scheduled at least a defined time before execution.","There is no execute function, instead the timelock uses the execution hook of the guard","By inserting itself in the Safe execution, our timelock doesn’t require any additional work by signers after the scheduling and the wait. It works behind the scenes.","In other timelocks, cancellation is often an afterthought, and ends up being implemented in a way that adds complexity and risk.","In our timelock, we wanted to make transaction cancellation easy for the Safe owners. In a crisis situation, it might be difficult to assemble a quorum of signers to cancel a malicious transaction. At the same time, we didn't want to create a parallel governance structure to manage cancellations.","We solved this by creating a no-op signCancellation function. This function does nothing, but Safe owners can create off-chain signatures allowing the Safe to execute it, the same as they would sign any other transaction from the multisig.","The multisig is not going to execute signCancellation, because it does nothing. Instead, we implemented a cancelTransaction function that uses the signatures for signCancellation to assess if enough signers wanted to cancel a transaction. This sounds complicated, but the implementation is very simple as it it built entirely from features already present in the Safe multisig code.","The cancelTransaction function was coded mainly as calls to Safe code.","In describing the cancelTransaction function, we skipped the question of how many signers need to assemble to cancel a transaction.","At the suggestion of some very sharp folks working on the same problem (samczsun, dvf), we decided to implement a dynamic cancellation threshold, which is by far the most complex part of the timelock. We thought it was worth it, though.","The number of signatures needed to cancel a transaction starts at 1, giving a crisis team the best possible chance of stopping an attack.","If the cancellation threshold were always 1, it would be too easy for an attacker to compromise a single key and permanently DoS the Safe. To avoid that, the cancellation threshold increases by one with each consecutive cancellation, and resets back to 1 with a successful execution.","Cancellation threshold management functions","A determined DoS attack would need a high number of leaked keys to be successful. We capped the cancellation threshold at min(quorum, blocking_threshold), so it never exceeds the quorum, and never exceeds the number of signatures required to permanently block executions from the Safe.","We decided that this should be the limit because if attackers hold a blocking_threshold of keys or a quorum of keys, we already have a more serious problem than them being able to abuse the timelock to DoS the Safe, and it is best to deal with those problems separately.","We wanted scheduled transactions to be clearly visible. Other timelocks just emit an event when a transaction is scheduled, but our experience is that monitoring often misses events or can be fooled to miss events.","For this reason, we store the hash identifiers of all pending transactions in an enumerable set. When queried, we return all data fields of each scheduled transaction, to make analysis as easy as possible.","Querying the timelock is very convenient for all monitoring purposes","We considered the added complexity reasonable because the pending transactions set is never consulted on-chain by the timelock itself. Instead, it is maintained as a completely parallel structure for the benefit of monitoring tools.","Even with all the precautions above, there are some scenarios that could overwhelm the timelock with unwanted transactions, such as those we discussed when working on the cancellation threshold.","In those scenarios, we would expect the protocol to skip the timelock and execute a pause. Then, the crisis management team would resolve the situation before allowing normal operations to resume.","To make a restart safer, we included a very simple switch to remove all pending transactions in a single call, by pointing the Timelock to a new configuration set.","We can reset the timelock with a single call","By making the configuration and pending transaction queue depend on a sequential identifier, we just need to increase it to immediately switch to a default configuration and empty transaction queue, without resorting to heavy cleaning loops.","The dominant timelock implementations are a good fit for protecting users from harmful governance actions, but fall short when protecting protocols against external attackers. Furthermore, they are a burden on already complex governance processes.","At Optimism, we implemented a timelock that integrates closely with Gnosis Safes and demands the minimal possible variation on existing governance processes. By reusing code from the Safe that it integrates with, the timelock becomes much simpler and more robust.","We also paid special attention to how the timelock would be used during a crisis situation, so that the timelock owners have the best possible chance to detect and stop a malicious actor.","Our timelock is public goods and was audited by Spearbit. You can use it in any way that would suit you, including forking it and modifying it. We would love to hear your feedback!","This module was a joint effort by several people at Optimism. The vision came from Kelvin Fichter, and John Mardlin put the code together. Josep Bové, Ethnical, Matt Solomon, and I helped in other capacities.","At Optimism, we are always looking for talented individuals that will help us on our mission to scale Ethereum and build the Superchain, pushing the edge on what is possible and finding smart solutions for complex problems. If that is something that interests you, we are hiring.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/timelock-guard"},"/blog/dunamu-just-signed-an-mou-on-giwa-chain.-korea-s-largest-exchange-is-picking-a-side-on-infrastructure":{"version":1,"title":"Upbit Announces Planned Partnership with The Optimism Foundation on GIWA Chain. Korea's Largest Exchange Is Picking a Side on Infrastructure. - Optimism","description":"Through the partnership with The Optimism Foundation, GIWA Chain plans to be the first chain on the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise.","keywords":"","h1":["Upbit Announces Planned Partnership with The Optimism Foundation on GIWA Chain. Korea's Largest Exchange Is Picking a Side on Infrastructure."],"h2":["The decision that's becoming routine","The pattern is getting harder to miss","Why Self-Managed is the new frontier","What this means for the industry","What comes next"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Jing Wang","May 4, 2026","Through the partnership with The Optimism Foundation, GIWA Chain plans to be the first chain on the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise. The bigger story is the pattern — major exchanges are increasingly choosing to own their infrastructure, and they're choosing the same stack to do it.When an exchange at Upbit's scale signals it's building its own chain, the industry should read that as a pattern, not a one-off.","Today, Upbit — South Korea's largest digital asset exchange, operated by Dunamu — announced its planned partnership with The Optimism Foundation on GIWA Chain, a new Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack. GIWA Chain is currently live on testnet, with mainnet planned to follow. GIWA Chain plans to be the first chain to operate on the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise, the Optimism Foundation's managed infrastructure product for institutional operators. Both teams will mark the partnership at Consensus Miami on Monday, May 4, 2026.","For the world's largest digital asset exchanges, whether to operate their own chain is no longer a technical question. It's a strategic one, about what an exchange owns and what it rents.","Shared blockspace is fine for most use cases. For exchange-grade workloads — institutional volume, compliance requirements, fee economics that compound at scale — it's a liability. An exchange on shared infrastructure can't control which transactions get included, can't set its own ordering rules, can't capture the fees its users generate, and can't guarantee the SLA its regulators require. Every one of those tradeoffs becomes more expensive as the exchange gets bigger.","Upbit serves more than 13 million registered users and ranks #2 globally by cumulative spot trading volume from 2020 to 2024 (CoinGecko). At that scale, the math stops working for renting someone else's infrastructure. Building your own chain becomes the logical next step.","That's not a hot take. It's what's already happening.","The world's largest exchanges are increasingly reaching the same conclusion, and they're reaching it on the same infrastructure. More than 32 Layer 2 networks run in production on the OP Stack today, and the ecosystem processed over six billion transactions in 2025. The OP Stack has become the standard for exchanges launching their own chains, not because it was positioned that way, but because every serious evaluation seems to end in the same place.","An exchange building a production chain doesn't want to be the one proving whether the underlying infrastructure works. The OP Stack has the track record, the tooling, the ecosystem, and the security model. It works at scale, with the kind of uptime and forensic resilience that regulated operators require.","Dunamu's MoU puts Upbit among a growing cohort of major exchanges choosing the same foundation. What's distinct about Upbit's decision is the tier.","OP Enterprise comes in two tiers. Fully Managed is the default for operators that want to focus on their product, their users, and their market while The Optimism Foundation handles the chain. Self-Managed is the opposite: the operator runs the chain's primary sequencer, controls configuration, and holds operational authority. The Foundation provides assurance, monitoring, engineering support, and a backup sequencer in the event of primary sequencer disruption.","Self-Managed is built for operators who can't cede operational control. For a regulated exchange serving Korean and global institutional users, giving up sequencer control over Upbit's chain was never going to be acceptable. But taking on the full weight of chain resilience alone, running the single instance of sequencer infrastructure that millions of users depend on, is a burden few single-operator chains can credibly sustain.","Self-Managed is designed to bridge that gap. Under the MoU, Upbit would run the chain. The Foundation would run the safety net. The operator keeps sovereignty. The user base gets resilience. Neither side has to compromise.","GIWA Chain plans to be the first chain to go live under that model. It won't be the last.","\"Operating our own GIWA Chain is a strategic move for Upbit. Our goal is to provide institutional and retail users with a level of performance and compliance consistent with our existing platform. The Optimism Foundation's Self-Managed tier provides a suitable framework, allowing us to maintain operational control while building on established infrastructure. This approach aligns with our requirements for scalability and oversight.\"","Minseok Jung, Chief Operating Officer, Dunamu Inc.","\"What we hear consistently from the largest exchanges and institutional operators is that they want to own the chain their users transact on, not rent it. Upbit going live on OP Enterprise Self-Managed is a clear signal about where the industry is moving. It also says something about where the trust is going: an operator at Upbit's scale isn't going to build on infrastructure that hasn't already proven it can carry the weight.\"","Jing Wang, Director, The Optimism Foundation","When Coinbase built Base, the industry debated whether exchange chains were a good idea. When Kraken built Ink, the debate shifted to whether they'd see real adoption. By the time the next wave of exchanges started to build, the question had changed again: not whether to build a chain, but how, and on what stack.","The answers are converging. Exchanges build chains. They build them on the OP Stack. And increasingly, they build them under a management model that matches their operational requirements — Self-Managed for operators with the capability and need to control their own sequencer, Fully Managed for operators who'd rather focus their engineering resources elsewhere.","GIWA Chain is the flag being planted for the Self-Managed tier. Korea's largest exchange, ranked #2 globally by cumulative spot volume from 2020 to 2024, chose Self-Managed because the model fits how a regulated financial institution actually wants to operate infrastructure. Other operators — exchanges, payment networks, regulated financial platforms — will watch how this plays out. Many will make the same call.","Dunamu and The Optimism Foundation will sign the MoU in Miami on May 4. Definitive agreements will follow, with technical work running in parallel: architecture reviews, performance benchmarking, and security audits between the teams as GIWA Chain progresses from testnet toward mainnet.","For exchanges, fintechs, and institutional operators evaluating where to build: the OP Stack's track record speaks for itself. OP Enterprise's two-tier model means that \"own your chain\" and \"don't run infrastructure alone\" are no longer in tension. Self-Managed is the first product to put both in the same deal.","GIWA Chain is what that looks like at scale. From here, it's just a matter of who builds next.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/dunamu-just-signed-an-mou-on-giwa-chain.-korea-s-largest-exchange-is-picking-a-side-on-infrastructure"},"/blog/privacy-comes-to-the-op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"Privacy Comes to the OP Stack - Optimism","description":"Privacy Boost by Sunnyside Labs is the first privacy offering by an Optimism core developer. ","keywords":"","h1":["Privacy Comes to the OP Stack"],"h2":["The Privacy Wall","Sunnyside Labs","What Privacy Boost Does","How It Works","The Complete Picture","What's Next"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Optimism","Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Sunnyside Labs","Optimism","April 20, 2026","Privacy Boost by Sunnyside Labs is the first privacy offering by an Optimism core developer. A privacy SDK that integrates directly into any OP Stack chain, bringing confidential computing to Sunnyside customers. Encrypted token transfers, private smart contract logic, compliance-compatible architecture. Live on OP Mainnet today for Sunnyside customers, with priority integration support for OP Enterprise clients.","Every institutional player evaluating blockchain infrastructure hits the same wall.","\"We can't put our customers' transaction data on a public ledger.\"","This isn't a hypothetical objection. A large payment provider processing billions in volume told us directly: they wanted to move operations on-chain, but the moment their compliance team looked at public chain architecture, the conversation stopped. Transaction amounts visible to anyone with a block explorer. Counterparty relationships exposed. Competitive positions readable in real time. Enterprises can't put treasury movements and trading strategies on a ledger competitors and front-runners can read. Consumer-facing apps can't ship products where user balances and transaction history are public. And regulators are increasingly mandating that blockchain applications protect users' financial information on-chain.","At DAS earlier this month, privacy was named the single one of the most important barrier to institutional on-chain adoption. The same message came through from every direction: institutions won't move on-chain without protecting competitive data. When we surveyed the OP community about what matters most for scaling on-chain payments, built-in privacy ranked number one at 30.4%. Above faster finality. Above lower fees. Above better UX.","The demand was clear. The question was who would build it.","Sunnyside Labs has been building core OP Stack infrastructure for over three years alongside OP Labs and other core developers. Sequencer performance, benchmarking, core infrastructure development. They know this stack at the protocol level.","The cryptographic foundation caught up to their ambition. Zero-knowledge proofs got fast enough for production workloads. Trusted execution environments got secure enough for institutional requirements. The primitives needed to add privacy without sacrificing performance crossed a threshold that didn't exist eighteen months ago.","Sunnyside built on that foundation. Privacy Boost is the result: confidential computing custom-built for the OP Stack, by engineers who helped build the stack it runs on.","Until now, enterprises have been forced into a false choice: expose all data transparently on a public chain, or go opaque with privacy solutions that create new problems.","Privacy Boost brings configurable privacy to the OP Stack at the application layer. It plugs directly into the infrastructure enterprises are already using.","Everything the OP Stack already offers stays intact: Ethereum security guarantees, access to a broad ecosystem of 50-plus chains, open-source protocol evolution from a global contributor base, developer tooling and talent, shared infrastructure economics.","What Privacy Boost adds:","Confidential token transfers. Send and receive tokens without exposing balances or transaction amounts on-chain. The privacy model uses a UTXO architecture, which provides stronger guarantees than account-based approaches by naturally breaking the link between transactions.","Private smart contract logic. Run computations on encrypted data. Applications can process sensitive information without revealing it to validators or other network participants.","Compliance-compatible architecture. Auditable access with programmable policy. TRM Labs integrated for sanctions screening. Sunnyside designed a full-trace audit view for MiCA (EU) and BSA (US) requirements. Privacy doesn't mean opacity. Compliance teams can audit what they need to audit. The goal is protecting customer data from public exposure, not from authorized oversight.","Drop-in SDK. No migration required. No new chain. No new tooling. Sunnyside customers can add Privacy Boost to any existing OP Stack chain without rebuilding anything. SDKs available for TypeScript, React, iOS, Android, and Rust.","Privacy Boost uses a ZK plus TEE hybrid architecture. This is a deliberate design choice.","Zero-knowledge proofs handle correctness and confidentiality. Every private transaction is mathematically verified without revealing the underlying data. ZK guarantees that the computation is correct and that sensitive information stays encrypted.","Trusted execution environments operated by Sunnyside handle integration simplicity and scale. TEEs provide strong guarantees that even Sunnyside cannot see customer transaction data while enabling sub-500 millisecond proof generation and high throughput via proof aggregation. Sunnyside runs, manages, and scales the ZK prover infrastructure so customers don't have to manage that complexity. TEEs also enable the regulatory-friendly audit features that make Privacy Boost deployable in regulated environments.","Most privacy implementations force a choice: security or performance. ZK-only approaches are mathematically elegant but slow at scale. TEE-only approaches are fast but rely entirely on hardware trust assumptions. The hybrid takes the strongest property of each. ZK for correctness and confidentiality, TEE for throughput, simple integration, and regulatory compliance.","Privacy Boost has completed a security audit by OpenZeppelin, with the full report available at docs.privacyboost.io/audit.","The system also includes a forced withdrawal mechanism. Users can always exit via a mechanism similar to the OP Stack's native withdrawal path, regardless of what Privacy Boost operators do. Self-custody guaranteed at the protocol level.","The OP Stack handles scaling. 3.6 billion transactions in late 2025, over 61% of Ethereum L2 fee market share, 50-plus chains in production. OP Enterprise handles managed operations: hosting, sequencer management, security monitoring, compliance customizations, SLAs.","Privacy was the missing piece. Every enterprise prospect pointed to it. Sunnyside built it. Custom for the OP Stack.","Scaling. Managed services. And now, privacy.","\"As we work with banks, fintechs, and institutional partners looking to move on-chain, privacy consistently comes up as a non-negotiable requirement. Privacy Boost checked every box: performance, regulatory readiness, seamless integration, and self-custody. That's why we're excited chose to work with Sunnyside is launching theon the first privacy offering for the OP Stack.\"","Jing Wang, CEO + Co-Founder, OP Labs","\"The technology was mature enough. The demand was there. Building it natively on the OP Stack was the right path because that's the infrastructure we know and the team that knows us.\"","Taem Park, CEO + Co-Founder, Sunnyside Labs","Privacy Boost is live on OP Mainnet for Sunnyside customers. Enterprise deployment documentation and integration guides are available at privacyboost.io. OP Enterprise clients get priority integration support - contact the OP Enterprise team to discuss integration, or visit privacyboost.io for technical documentation.","This is the first of many privacy solutions on the OP Stack. The ecosystem is built to support the broadest range of enterprise requirements. Sunnyside just proved it.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/privacy-comes-to-the-op-stack"},"/blog/light-nodes-specialize-your-op-node-fleet":{"version":1,"title":"Light Nodes: Specialize Your Op-Node Fleet - Optimism","description":"We're recommending a specialized op-node topology: a small tier of source nodes owns L1 derivation","keywords":"","h1":["Light Nodes: Specialize Your Op-Node Fleet"],"h2":["Why: the case for specialization","How: source nodes and light nodes","A reference architecture for production","How to migrate","What changes, and what doesn't","What this means going forward","Definition of Done","References"],"h3":["What changes","What doesn't change"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Zak Ayesh","May 4, 2026","TL;DR","We're recommending a specialized op-node topology: a small tier of source nodes owns L1 derivation, and the rest of the fleet runs as light nodes that follow those sources via -l2.follow.source.","Operators get lower L1 RPC spend, independent scaling of read capacity, faster sequencers, and a smaller blast radius for every future protocol upgrade.","Migration is one flag per node. The legacy homogeneous setup keeps working, and you can migrate one node at a time.","Specializing now also means a cleaner runway into interop and other upcoming changes to derivation.","Source nodes derive once. Light nodes follow. The fleet runs leaner.","Lightweight, role-specialized node designs have been a long-running area of research across the broader ecosystem. With this release, OP Labs is shipping a production-ready version of that thinking, built specifically for the operational realities of running an OP Stack chain at scale. It's the latest step in our continuous work on op-node and kona-node, and the kind of operator-facing primitive we expect to keep evolving as the stack matures.","The four benefits compound as your fleet grows.","Lower L1 cost, starting today. Light nodes stop running the L1 derivation pipeline. They keep an L1 RPC connection for the other things op-node needs it for, but the heavy, per-node derivation traffic disappears from the light tier. If you run ten nodes, you stop paying for ten copies of derivation traffic. The work happens once at the source tier, regardless of how many light nodes are scaled behind it. For operators paying per-call to L1 providers, this is the kind of change that pays for itself the day it ships.","Each tier focuses on what it owns. Light nodes put their resources into advancing the unsafe chain and serving RPC. Source nodes focus exclusively on derivation. We've already seen this matter on sequencers, where benchmarks show that removing derivation eliminates real bottlenecks during block production.","Asymmetric scaling. RPC capacity and derivation capacity become independent variables. Need to absorb more reads ahead of a launch? Add light nodes, and L1 load doesn't move. Need more derivation redundancy? Size the source tier separately, on its own SLOs.","Smaller blast radius for future upgrades. Future protocol changes, including interop, will require more sophisticated derivation logic. Centralizing derivation behind a small source tier shrinks the operational surface area affected by those upgrades. The fewer nodes that need to know how derivation works, the cheaper every future rollout becomes.","The last benefit is the quietest, but it's the one that matters most over the long run.","The new topology splits the fleet into two roles.","Source node","Light node","Derives from L1","Yes","No","Issues L1 RPC for derivation","Serves RPC","Participates in gossip","Drives an execution client","Started with --l2.follow.source","A source node is a traditional op-node. It derives the full chain from L1 exactly as before. You'll typically run a small, redundant set of them, sized for derivation throughput and failover rather than for read traffic.","A light node is an op-node started with one new flag, --l2.follow.source=<source op-node RPC>. With that flag set, it stops running its own derivation pipeline and instead receives the safe chain from its designated source. Everything else about the node stays the same: it still serves RPC, still participates in gossip, and still drives its connected execution client.","A few things worth saying clearly:","op-node is not being deprecated. The classic homogeneous setup is not being removed. Specializing your fleet is a recommended operational upgrade. Existing deployments keep working, you can migrate one node at a time, and you can roll back just as easily.","Light node mode is also available in Kona, the Rust implementation of op-node, for operators who want to test on that path.","For production, we recommend a three-tier setup that pairs the new design with a consensus-aware proxyd:","A deriver tier sits at the back: a small, redundant set of derivation-enabled op-nodes (your sources), behind a proxyd configured with the consensus_aware_consensus_layer routing strategy. The proxyd aggregates multiple sources into a single highly-available endpoint and hides individual failures or reorgs from anything downstream.","A light-node tier sits in front of the deriver tier: a horizontally scalable pool of light op-nodes pointed at the deriver-tier proxyd. You scale it up and down based on read traffic, and the deriver tier doesn't notice.","An edge tier sits at the front: your user-facing API gateway or proxyd that fronts the light-node tier and handles external RPC, rate limiting, and routing.","The shape generalizes. If your stack already runs behind a different load balancer or service mesh, apply the same idea: a minimal, well-defined deriver tier with a scalable collection of light nodes in front of it.","The migration is incremental and low-risk.","Designate your sources. Pick one or more existing op-nodes to keep running with full L1 derivation. Size them for derivation throughput, with redundancy for failover. These are now the most important nodes in your fleet, so treat them that way in your dashboards and alerting.","Convert the rest to light nodes, one at a time, by setting -l2.follow.source to a source op-node's RPC endpoint. Make sure each light node has a reliable, low-latency network path to its source.","Validate. Confirm each converted light node tracks the safe chain correctly against its source before shifting production traffic to it.","Update monitoring. The source tier is now a hard dependency of the light-node tier and should be alerted on as one.","The full set of flags is short:","bash","# On a light node: OP_NODE_L2_FOLLOW_SOURCE=https://your-source-op-node.example/rpc OP_NODE_L2_FOLLOW_SOURCE_RPC_TIMEOUT=10s # default","For chain operators, the same guidance applies, and we specifically suggest pointing sequencer op-nodes at a source via --l2.follow.source as well. The sequencer's job is to extend the unsafe chain, and offloading derivation removes a real bottleneck from block production.","L1 derivation runs on the source tier only. The light tier no longer carries that load.","RPC and derivation become independent scaling axes.","Future derivation-touching upgrades land on the source tier instead of every node.","Light nodes still serve RPC, still gossip, and still drive their EL exactly as before.","Light nodes still keep an L1 RPC connection for non-derivation needs. They just stop hammering it for the derivation pipeline.","Existing homogeneous deployments continue to work. Migration is opt-in and reversible.","Specializing your fleet is one layer of operational hygiene, not a finish line. Sequencer security, monitoring, redundancy planning, and the rest of the production checklist all still matter.","Specializing your fleet now sets it up for what's coming next. As the OP Stack evolves, op-node on its own may not remain sufficient as a derivation source for every future feature, and the source role may grow to include additional software running alongside it. Operators who specialize early absorb those changes once, in the deriver tier, instead of across every node in the fleet.","This setup will become required for node operators running OP Mainnet and Unichain nodes in the future. For now, it's a recommendation, and a strong one. Operators who specialize early get the cost wins immediately and walk into every subsequent upgrade with a fleet already shaped for it.","Your fleet meets the bar when all of these are true:","One or more op-node instances are designated as source nodes, sized for derivation throughput with failover.","Every other op-node is started with -l2.follow.source pointed at the source tier.","Light nodes are tracking the safe chain correctly against their sources.","In production, the deriver tier sits behind a consensus-aware proxyd, with the light-node tier scaled independently in front of it.","Sequencer op-nodes use -l2.follow.source to offload derivation.","Dashboards and alerting treat the source tier as a hard dependency of the light tier.","If any box is unchecked, you're still paying for derivation work you don't need to be doing.","Specialized op-node topology with light nodes — the full notice, including the reference architecture diagram and exact flag definitions.","Consensus-aware proxyd — required reading for the production architecture.","Kona — Rust implementation of op-node. Light node mode is also available here for operators who want to test on the Rust path.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/light-nodes-specialize-your-op-node-fleet"},"/blog/stop-rotating-npm-tokens-delete-them":{"version":1,"title":"Stop Rotating npm Tokens. Delete Them. - Optimism","description":"How we replaced our npm publish tokens with short-lived OIDC credentials, and what that does and doesn't protect against.","keywords":"","h1":["Stop Rotating npm Tokens. Delete Them."],"h2":["Why: the case against static tokens","How: identity, not secrets","What changes, and what doesn't","Stop rotating. Start deleting.","Definition of Done"],"h3":["Incident timeline","The two token classes","The OIDC exchange","Wiring it into CircleCI","The branch-identity loophole","Scripting the per-package setup","Closed","Still open","The migration (roughly 30 min per package)","The last token you'll ever need","References"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Raffaele Mazzitelli","April 22, 2026","TL;DR","Nearly every major CI-mediated npm supply-chain breach of the last five years traces back to a long-lived credential sitting somewhere it shouldn't.","We migrated three repos and six packages to OIDC Trusted Publishing on CircleCI, then deleted every static npm token on the account, including the service account that only existed to hold one.","OIDC alone is not enough. You also need to set each package to \"Require 2FA and disallow tokens\" to close the maintainer-laptop path (the axios / WAVESHAPER class).","Rotation does not close the theft window. Deletion does.","The only credential that can't be stolen at rest is the one that doesn't exist.","For years, publishing to npm from CI meant storing a long-lived access token as an environment variable. Three incidents shaped our thinking, and they split cleanly into two distinct threat classes.","Year","Incident","Root cause","Class","Fix","2023","CircleCI breach","Malware stole a 2FA SSO session, and the attacker exfiltrated customer env vars, including stored NPM_TOKENs","1: CI-resident token","OIDC Trusted Publishing","2025","Shai-Hulud worm","Self-replicating package harvested NPM_TOKENs and GitHub PATs from dev/CI environments, then republished trojanized packages","2026","axios / WAVESHAPER","Social-engineered maintainer; persistent publish token on maintainer laptop used to ship malicious versions directly","2: Maintainer-resident token","Registry-side: \"Require 2FA, disallow tokens\"","Class 1, CI/CD tokens. Addressed by OIDC Trusted Publishing. CI no longer needs a stored token; nothing in the build environment for a platform breach, a worm, or an insider to exfiltrate.","Class 2, maintainer-laptop tokens. These survive a clean OIDC migration, because OIDC only governs CI-origin publishes. The registry will still accept a valid static token from anywhere else. Fixed only by a registry-side policy that rejects token-based publishes entirely.","The underlying truth: if a credential is persistent, it is stealable. Rotation doesn't close the window. The window between rotations is the window an attacker operates in.","On April 6, 2026, npm added Trusted Publishing support for CircleCI. We migrated shortly after.","At publish time:","CircleCI issues a signed JWT identifying the workflow, job, and branch running.","The npm registry validates issuer, subject, and audience against the Trusted Publisher configuration on the package.","On match, npm mints a short-lived token scoped to that one package.","The build uses the token and discards it.","Resulting credential properties:","Property","Value","Lifetime","Minutes","Scope","Single package","Binding","Workflow identity (JWT)","Exists at rest?","No","The three legacy steps around NPM_TOKEN (check, write to .npmrc, npm whoami) collapse to a single OIDC fetch:","Working reference: ethereum-optimism/ecosystem .circleci/config.yml. The original PR #992 needed follow-up fixes. Copy from the linked commit, not the PR.","Gotchas that bit us:","Stock CI images often ship an npm too old for OIDC publishing. Upgrade explicitly.","The audience claim is npm:registry.npmjs.org. Not a URL. Not with a scheme. Exactly that.","Trusted Publisher config lives on the npm package page, not in account or org settings. It is per-package: there is no org-wide toggle. Ten packages means ten UI trips, or one scripted loop (see below).","npm's Trusted Publisher config for CircleCI lets you pin org, project, and pipeline definition, but not branch. On its own, npm will accept a publish from any branch that runs the matching workflow.","If you rely solely on filters: branches: only: main in the workflow YAML, you are vulnerable: anyone with push access can create a feature branch, delete that filter, commit malicious code, and trigger a live publish.","To actually constrain publishes to main:","Create a CircleCI context with a branch restriction (only main can access it).","Bind the publish job to that context.","Pass that context ID to the npm Trusted Publisher config (--context-id).","How this closes the loophole: CircleCI emits an oidc.circleci.com/context-ids claim in every OIDC token, listing the UUIDs of contexts the job had access to. A feature-branch run can't access the branch-restricted context, so that UUID won't appear in the claim, and npm rejects the publish because the JWT doesn't match the pinned --context-id in the trust policy.","Configure every package in one pass with npm trust:","Strongly recommended over the UI for more than two or three packages. Also the one-command fix for misconfigurations.","Persistent NPM_TOKEN in CircleCI. Gone.","CI-token exfiltration path (CircleCI 2023, Shai-Hulud 2025). Closed for our packages.","OIDC binds a release to a workflow and branch. It does not protect against:","A malicious commit merged into a main release branch. The OIDC exchange will happily sign a publish of bad code.","An attacker who can modify the workflow file or the Trusted Publisher config on https://www.npmjs.com/.","Compromise of the upstream dependency tree at build time.","A compromised maintainer account with a static token on their laptop. Deleting CI tokens does not disable password- or token-based publishing from a workstation.","To close that last path, set each package's Publishing access to \"Require two-factor authentication and disallow tokens.\" OIDC-minted credentials are exempt from this setting, so CI keeps working while the registry rejects any static token, no matter who minted it.","Trusted Publishing is one layer, not the finish line. Branch protection, required reviews, dependency pinning, and build provenance all still matter.","Add the Trusted Publisher on npm (package Settings → Publishing access → CircleCI).","Upgrade the publish job (npm >= 11.5.1, Node >= 22.14.0 for us) and swap NPM_TOKEN setup for circleci run oidc get.","Run a release. Confirm the publish succeeds and the build no longer reads NPM_TOKEN.","Delete every static npm token on the account, and retire service accounts that existed only to hold them. This is the step that changes your security posture.","Set every package to \"Require 2FA and disallow tokens.\" Makes static-token publishes impossible at the registry level.","Move publish teams to read-only on npm. CI publishes via OIDC; human publishes go through org owners with hardware 2FA. A phished developer account becomes worthless for publishing.","Doing step 5 through the UI means clicking into every package. Passkey-based CLI 2FA means one tap per package. Neither is fun at scale.","The pragmatic move: create one short-lived, broadly-scoped, bypass-2FA token specifically for this operation, use it, then delete it.","Create a granular access token on npm with:","Read+write on your entire scope (@your-scope/*)","Bypass 2FA enabled","Expiration: 1 day","Name it memorably: super-powerful-temporary-delete-me-now-I-mean-it","Verify the flag mapping on one package first.","The npm CLI flag for the \"disallow tokens\" radio has shifted across versions. Both mfa=publish and mfa=automation have at different times produced the correct UI state. Run the command on one package, open Settings → Publishing access in the browser, and confirm the selected option is \"Require two-factor authentication and disallow tokens\" before running anything in bulk.","Run the loop:","Delete the token. (It can still make admin-level settings changes, so this step is not optional.)","This is the exact credential class Axios missed: a long-lived, bypass-2FA token on a compromised machine, used by WAVESHAPER to publish. The lesson isn't \"never create bypass-2FA tokens\" (we just did). It's \"never let them outlive the operation that needed them.\"","Your account meets the bar when all of these are true:","Every publishing package has a Trusted Publisher configured on npm.","Every Trusted Publisher is bound to a branch-restricted CircleCI context (not just a workflow YAML filter).","The publish job fetches an OIDC token at runtime; no NPM_TOKEN is referenced.","A release has succeeded end-to-end under the new config.","Every static npm token on the account is deleted.","Every service account that existed only to hold a publish token is retired.","Every package's Publishing access is set to \"Require 2FA and disallow tokens.\"","Developer/publish teams are read-only on npm; write access is limited to org owners with hardware 2FA.","The temporary bulk-hardening token has been deleted.","If any box is unchecked, you still have a stealable credential. Rotate it? No. Delete it.","npm Trusted Publishing now supports CircleCI: announcement.","npm Trusted Publishers documentation.","ethereum-optimism/ecosystem CircleCI config: reference implementation. Original: PR #992 (needed follow-up fixes).","CircleCI January 2023 security incident.","Google Cloud Threat Intelligence: North Korea threat actor targets axios.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/stop-rotating-npm-tokens-delete-them"},"/blog/institutions-aren-t-moving-independently-anymore":{"version":1,"title":"Institutions Aren't Moving Independently Anymore - Optimism","description":"Asset issuers, banks, and exchanges are forming a coordinated system. That changes how infrastructure decisions get made.","keywords":"","h1":["Institutions Aren't Moving Independently Anymore"],"h2":[],"h3":["Asset Issuers: The Control Problem","The answer","Controlling your Infrastructure","Banks: Extension, Not Replacement","Exchanges: The Coordination Layer","The System Only Works When the Infrastructure Aligns"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Optimism","May 8, 2026","TL;DR","Asset issuers, banks, and exchanges have stopped operating in parallel; they've formed a pipeline where each layer depends on the others.","Control of the infrastructure layer means control over compliance rules, fee structures, and access terms for everyone built on top of it.","The institutions designing their own infrastructure now will set the terms; the ones adapting later will inherit them.","For the last decade, asset issuers, banks, and exchanges each worked their own corner of the digital asset problem: issuers tokenizing assets, banks building custody and settlement infrastructure, exchanges building liquidity and access. Clean separation, independent timelines, parallel development.","That model has broken.","These players no longer operate independently; they've formed a pipeline. Issuers need exchanges for distribution. Banks need infrastructure that plugs into both. Exchanges are in a race to avoid being bypassed entirely. We've watched this form across 50+ production chains on the OP Stack, representing $16 billion in secured value. The system only works when the layers align, and who controls the terms of that alignment is now the actual competition.","The technology is largely available. Who defines the coordination layer is what's being decided.","Tokenization has moved from concept to execution. Fidelity, WisdomTree, and BlackRock are actively bringing products onchain. Regulatory clarity has improved; the SEC's recent guidance allows issuer-led tokenization models to move forward without waiting for a counterparty to initiate.","But execution reveals a different constraint. Asset issuers are no longer asking how to tokenize. They're asking where those assets live, trade, and settle.","The answer, in practice, is distribution. Issuers are increasingly dependent on exchanges to provide it, not just for liquidity, but for compliance infrastructure, user access, and global reach. Even early implementations like BlackRock's BUIDL run through tightly controlled distribution paths rather than open systems. The issuer defines the asset; the exchange defines who gets it and on what terms.","The dependency is new, and it creates a real problem.","If your asset lives inside someone else's infrastructure, you don't control how it moves, who accesses it, or how revenue accrues. You've tokenized an asset and handed the value to someone else.","The institutions moving fastest are solving for this at the infrastructure layer: building chain environments where they define the compliance rules, access controls, and settlement logic rather than inheriting them from a third party. The OP Stack handles the underlying infrastructure (the boring, expensive part) so the institution's team is actually configuring a product instead of building a protocol.","Banks are not redesigning their core systems; they're layering new capabilities on top of what already works.","The regulatory environment shifted decisively in 2025. These changes didn't create demand; they unlocked activity that was already waiting:","These aren't pilots. They're production commitments from institutions with combined balance sheets in the tens of trillions.","The constraint is the same across all of it: banks cannot introduce new systems that increase operational or regulatory risk. Integration has to be incremental. Compliance has to be embedded from the start, not retrofitted. The infrastructure they adopt has to fit into existing systems, not replace them. Chains built on the OP Stack inherit the operational infrastructure and compliance tooling developed across 50+ production deployments, which matters specifically because banks aren't in the business of running novel infrastructure; they need the boring parts already solved.","Exchanges now sit at the center of this system. Issuers rely on them for distribution. Banks rely on them for liquidity and access. Users rely on them as the primary interface.","Traditional market infrastructure is moving fast to avoid being cut out. NYSE and Nasdaq are exploring tokenized equities. DTCC is expanding its scope specifically to stay relevant as settlement logic moves onchain. The question for exchanges isn't whether to participate; it's how much of the value chain they control when they do.","The stakes are highest here, because the leverage runs in both directions. Kraken launched Ink on the OP Stack. OKX migrated X Layer to the OP Stack. Both made the same calculation: operating on shared infrastructure means inheriting shared economics; operating on infrastructure you control means defining your own.","Fee structures, compliance frameworks, product design, integration paths with banks and issuers. All of it becomes configurable instead of constrained. That difference doesn't show up in the first quarter. It compounds across every partnership, every product launch, every fee that would have gone elsewhere.","Where the infrastructure is owned is where the decisions get made.","The pattern is consistent across all three. Each is moving toward infrastructure it can control, because control is what lets it serve the others without ceding economics to them.","Infrastructure that extracts value from every layer creates friction. Infrastructure that aligns incentives across layers scales. That sounds like a principle but it's really just the math: every toll collected by a neutral platform is revenue that should have gone to the operator.","The institutions moving first are designing for this specifically: customizable execution environments, compliance frameworks defined at the protocol level, revenue models that belong to the operator. That's the structure forming across the deals already in production.","The ones adapting later will be adapting to terms they didn't write.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/institutions-aren-t-moving-independently-anymore"},"/blog/benchmark-reproducibility":{"version":1,"title":"Benchmark Reproducibility - Optimism","description":"Measuring a chain’s sustained throughput is easy. Getting a number you can trust is the hard part.","keywords":"","h1":["Benchmark Reproducibility"],"h2":["Potential causes of variability","How to eliminate test variability","Results"],"h3":["Chain configuration consistency","Reliable test tooling","Recent improvements"],"h4":["Three changes did most of the work:"],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Sam Stokes","May 13, 2026","TL;DR:","Benchmarking results must be reproducible to be trusted","OP Labs made some recent improvements to achieve reproducible results","Load test flakiness reduced from 42% to <1% after our reproducibility improvements","Measuring a chain’s sustained throughput is easy. Getting a number you can trust is much more difficult. We must be able to measure a chain’s performance in order to know what our current capabilities are and how changes to our software/architecture affect that performance. To reliably attribute performance differences across runs to changes in the software itself, we must eliminate other potential sources of variability first: the test tooling and methodology. If the results of our measurements are unreliable, then we risk wasting time re-running tests and chasing red herrings instead of addressing true performance bottlenecks.","At OP Labs we have a team dedicated to building benchmark tools that yield reproducible results so that the results are reliable, actionable, and can be confidently shared with users/customers. We use an open-source tx-spammer called contender, which means external parties don’t have to just trust our results. They can verify the results by triggering a load test from contender that targets any evm-compatible rpc endpoint.","hardware types: cloud or local machine types that host ELs, CLs, etc. during tests","chain config: gasLimit, gasTarget, block times, flashblocks enabled","EL config: mempool size","load test type: what type of txs are being mined during the load test; some tx types are much easier to process than others so we should be explicit about the traffic profile tied to any Mgas/s or mined-tps values.","load test duration: short bursts of high throughput are not as reliable as long-term sustained throughput","network latency: location of tx spammer relative to location of the target network/chain","The first place to start is to choose a sane, consistent default configuration for any chain we test. Most often we black-box load test an entire chain by spamming the outermost proxyd url and measure results via the blocks produced by the chain during that load test. This allows us to closely mirror production setup for the chain, and identify bottlenecks at any level whether that’s proxyd ingress + any other network hops, DA throughput, or the L2 block-builder itself. But each additional component in the chain adds new potential variability if we don’t keep its configuration consistent. If we change too many variables between consecutive runs, it makes it very difficult to pinpoint exactly what affected performance.","The primary benchmark tooling we use is:","contender: open-source tx spammer; built by flashbots, significant contributions made by OP Labs engineers","op-benchmark: closed-source wrapper around contender which has awareness and access to OP Labs devnets internals; gives us more detailed metrics/data and allows us to wipe mempools between each run to ensure every load test starts with the same clean slate (i.e. not affected by previous runs)","Contender supports a variety of tx-types (aka “scenarios” in the contender codebase) that we can use during a given load test. There are several built-in scenarios as well as support for custom toml-based scenarios. If we’re not consistent with the tx-types we use across load tests, then that can be a major source of variability for the final Mgas/s and mined-tps values we use to represent overall throughput. If “gas” was a perfect representation of the effort it takes a sequencer to process that tx, then tx-types would not matter. Currently OP Labs focuses on the following contender scenarios to compare performance for different chains/devnets:","erc20","token transfers from a limited pool of “sender addresses” to fuzzed token recipients","~55kgas/tx","stresses storage since every tx hits unique storage slots","groth16Verify","groth16 zk proof verifcation","~300kgas/tx","stresses cpu since elliptic curve operations are cpu-intensive","(future) uniV3","uniswap swaps of one token to another","common txs sent on many chains, applicable to many OP Enterprise customer targets","The worst performing scenario helps us set the threshold for the max gasTarget and gasLimit a given chain can use before it opens itself up to a DOS attack where it couldn’t process valid user txs as fast as they are sent.","We also build custom scenarios for customers who expect specific apps/txs to consume significant block space on their chain. Our future plans include expanding the standard suite of scenarios we use as part of every benchmarking process to stress-test different dimensions of potential bottlenecks.","For awhile we unexpectedly got catastrophic failures on almost half of our black-box load tests that ran with significant load for >1 min. This made it difficult to differentiate when a load test found the maximum throughput versus when a transient issue corrupted our load test results. After implementing fixes across the benchmark tooling and core op-stack components, the load tests are now much more resilient/reliable. Transient events (e.g., single rpc failure, L1 derivation) now result in minor temporary hits to throughput instead of leading to cascading failures that cause the entire load test to be discarded (e.g. introduction of nonce gap that prevents all futures txs from making it in a block).","contender: harden against transient rpc failures (merged pr); defense against a single rpc failure causing the entire load test to fail due to a nonce gap","op-node config: use light-CL mode, which outsources L1 derivation to a separate rpc node instead of doing that work within the sequencer. This eliminates some contention within op-node since block building and L1 derivation run in the same thread. This type of issue is usually described as a “derivation pipeline stall” or “FCU avalanche”.","op-reth config: increase mempool max pending/queued txs so that we are resilient to minor transient blips that temporarily throttle the block-builder’s throughput. This prevents the mempool from reaching its capacity, at which point it starts dropping txs, leading to nonce gaps in the txs beings sent by contender.","Before improving our benchmark reproducibility, our results were shaky. When we ran the same load test (i.e. same test config against the same target chain), the test would pass most of the time but also frequently fail on re-runs. A “pass” in this context means all sent txs were successfully mined and the chain generally was healthy. For one particular high load test (scenario: erc20, tps: 1700) we had a 58/42 pass/fail split.","After the fixes and reconfigurations, those same re-runs succeeded 100% of the time (n=66). That is a huge improvement that allows us to trust the results and avoid wasting time debugging flakey tests. This means we can devote more time to identifying and addressing actual performance bottlenecks, which delivers real value to customers and users.","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/benchmark-reproducibility"},"/case-studies/morpho":{"version":1,"title":"Collateralized Lending with Morpho - Optimism","description":"Morpho, a leading decentralized lending protocol, collaborated with Base, a Coinbase-incubated Layer 2 built on Optimism’s OP Stack.","keywords":"","h1":["Collateralized Lending with Morpho"],"h2":["$640M","6%","Instant loans","The Opportunity","The Solution","Results","Why It Matters"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["in loan origination volume to date","average borrow rate","loans are issued instantly","Sign up"],"p":["Morpho","Application","Aug 22, 2025","Morpho, a leading decentralized lending protocol, collaborated with Base, a Coinbase-incubated Layer 2 built on Optimism’s OP Stack, to launch a crypto-backed loan product at scale. With the infrastructure support of Optimism, this collaboration has become the largest “DeFi mullet” product in the market - offering a smooth fintech user experience with crypto-native infrastructure under the hood, generating ~$640 million in loan origination volume to date.","Morpho needed a scalable, secure, and composable platform to distribute its lending infrastructure. Meanwhile, Coinbase sought to expand its flagship consumer offerings, with scalable onchain infrastructure. The result was a new verticalized lending offering that could serve both institutional and retail markets.","Optimism provided the technical foundation through the OP Stack, enabling Base to launch and scale quickly. Morpho then deployed its lending protocol on Base, allowing Morpho and Base to scale a loan product that is deeply integrated with Coinbase’s offerings. Paul Frambot, Co-Founder and CEO, Morpho:","“Optimism provides the foundational technology that powers Base, and the ecosystem that enabled Morpho and Coinbase to build and scale one of the most successful fintech and DeFi integrations.”","$640 million in loan origination volume to date.","6% average borrow rate (vs. 9% or more from competing products)","Loans issued instantly vs. waiting for manual processes that take hours or days to complete.","Significant liquidity and order flow captured on Base","80% of USDC supply comes from Spark, another Optimism partner - showcasing how DeFi protocols work together to strengthen the ecosystem.","This rapid growth highlights the effectiveness of Optimism’s infrastructure in enabling DeFi protocols to serve both institutional and retail markets efficiently.","Morpho shows how apps built on the OP Stack can unlock high-value, revenue-generating use cases for crypto exchanges and fintechs. With support for trusted, modular lending products like Morpho, any institution can offer customized onchain lending without building from scratch.","About Morpho","Morpho is a decentralized lending protocol designed for flexibility and capital efficiency. Through institutional-grade, customizable markets, and optimized lending vaults, it offers a scalable solution for both crypto-native and traditional finance users. Morpho currently supports lending across Ethereum and Base, with a growing ecosystem of partners. Morpho V2, an intent-based lending platform enabling fixed-rate, fixed-term loans is coming soon.","Sign up for our newsletter","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/case-studies/morpho"},"/case-studies/world":{"version":1,"title":"From App to Chain: Scaling World Chain with Optimism - Optimism","description":"World Chain began as an app on Optimism’s OP Mainnet and has since grown into a high-throughput blockchain purpose-built for real humans.","keywords":"","h1":["From App to Chain: Scaling World Chain with Optimism"],"h2":["600M","5.17M","1.1B","The Opportunity","The Solution","Results","Why It Matters"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["All-Time Txs","Monthly Active Users on World App","All-Time UOPS","Sign up"],"p":["World","Chain","Aug 22, 2025","World Chain began as an app on Optimism’s OP Mainnet and has since grown into a high-throughput blockchain purpose-built for real humans. Today, World supports 14 million verified unique humans. It anchors World App, from Tools for Humanity, which has more than 30 million users and has supported more than 500 million transactions. Optimism supported World throughout this journey, from application launch to chain deployment, with technical infrastructure, engineering support, and ongoing collaboration.","World needed scalable, neutral blockspace to support the growth of its real human network. As World App began to scale toward millions of users, it became clear that existing L2 infrastructure needed to evolve to meet real-world performance and reliability demands.","World launched on OP Mainnet in 2023, initially migrating over 2 million users from its beta phase. This move gave the team real-world feedback, all while proving that Ethereum rollups had matured enough for production use. Building on this experience, World launched World Chain in 2024, a dedicated Layer 2 chain built with the OP Stack. Steven Smith, Head of Protocol and Applied Research at Tools for Humanity, a contributor to World, said:","“Bringing the entire world onchain is a task that no one entity can tackle alone. With the OP Stack, we found the infrastructure and the community to scale World Chain, and to keep improving it.”","With Optimism’s support, World gained access to shared governance, continuous upgrades, and deep protocol expertise, accelerating their ability to scale blockspace for a growing network of real human users.","275M+ total transactions since launch","5.17M monthly active wallets","200M+ all time UOPS","Featured on the cover of Time Magazine as a landmark example of proof of human infrastructure at scale","World Chain now powers a growing ecosystem of applications for proof of human, payments, and everyday digital activity, secured by Ethereum, optimized by the OP Stack, and designed for real users.","World Chain demonstrates a clear path for enterprises: start as an app on OP Mainnet, then graduate to a standalone chain built with the OP Stack. Optimism provides not only the tooling, but also the technical partnership and protocol stewardship to help ambitious teams bring millions of users onchain.","About World","World Chain is a layer-2 network designed to make blockchain technology and its benefits accessible to everyone. Built with the OP Stack and integrated with the World protocol, World Chain is secured by Ethereum as an L2 and engineered for scalability as part of the Optimism ecosystem.\nWorld Chain is uniquely enabled by World ID’s proof of human and built around stablecoin finance, international remittances, commerce and more. Anyone can explore and use apps with real world utility on World Chain through compatible wallets, starting with World App.","Sign up for our newsletter","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/case-studies/world"},"/case-studies/velodrome-aerodrome":{"version":1,"title":"Velodrome and Aerodrome: Powering Liquidity Across the Optimism ecosystem - Optimism","description":"Velodrome and Aerodrome, the world’s largest MetaDEXs, are essential trading and liquidity marketplaces for Optimism’s Superchain.","keywords":"","h1":["Velodrome and Aerodrome: Powering Liquidity Across the Optimism ecosystem"],"h2":["#1 ETH, BTC","$300B+","$450M+","The Opportunity","The Solution","Results","Why It Matters"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["pools onchain in the past year","all-time volume across the Optimism ecosystem","all-time rewards distributed to voters","Sign up"],"p":["Velodrome","Application","Aug 28, 2025","Velodrome and Aerodrome, the world’s largest MetaDEXs, are essential trading and liquidity marketplaces for Optimism. Tailor-made for liquidity with secure, high-performance infrastructure, these products enable fast liquidity bootstrapping, efficient token swaps, and active participation in the onchain economy.","In 2023, the core team behind Velodrome launched Aerodrome to support the fast-growing Base ecosystem. Aerodrome has since become the dominant DEX on Base by volume, now available to millions of Coinbase users via DEX trading on the Coinbase app.","Velodrome was designed to be the foundational liquidity layer across the Optimism ecosystem, providing tools for chains to grow liquidity on essential assets in their DEX markets. The aim was to reach billions in trading volume while aligning incentives with the broader ecosystem. This required infrastructure capable of supporting rapid growth, multi-chain deployment, and capital-efficient trading experiences.","Velodrome now provides liquidity infrastructure across the ecosystem, using the OP Stack to easily scale to 10+ chains. With its integrated liquidity bootstrapping mechanisms and industry-leading features like Superswaps, Velodrome has become a foundational tool for the ecosystem.","Velodrome’s proliferation and Aerodrome’s presence on Base helps drive deep liquidity for critical assets, benefiting traders, protocols, and institutional participants alike.","Alex Cutler, Contributor, Aerodrome and Velodrome, said:","“Velodrome and Aerodrome are foundational tools for bootstrapping liquidity on important assets across the Superchain. We’ve reached billions in volume and are aligned on scaling the Superchain for the next generation of onchain markets.”","#1 ETH and #1 BTC pools onchain in the past year","$300 billion+ all-time volume across the Optimism ecosystem","$450 million+ all-time rewards distributed to voters","Velodrome and Aerodrome’s growth shows how exchanges and fintechs can build scalable, capital-efficient trading products on the OP Stack. By aligning with Optimism’s shared incentives and infrastructure, Velodrome has extended its reach well beyond a single network, capturing trading volume and liquidity across multiple high-growth chains.","About Velodrome","Velodrome and Aerodrome are next-generation decentralized exchanges. Velodrome serves as the Optimism ecosystem’s primary liquidity marketplace, delivering efficient, low-fee swaps and ensuring deep liquidity for critical assets across OP Stack chains. Aerodrome, built on the same MetaDEX model and tailored for the Base ecosystem, is the largest DEX on Base by volume. With seamless integration into the Coinbase app, Aerodrome brings efficient trading and active participation in the onchain economy to millions of Coinbase users.","Sign up for our newsletter","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/case-studies/velodrome-aerodrome"},"/learn-more":{"version":1,"title":"Learn more - Optimism","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.\n","keywords":"","h1":["Your blockchain.Your revenue.Enterprise guarantees."],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["We handle operations, security, scaling, and vendor management so enterprises can focus on shipping products, not running blockchains. Focus on your business, not your blockchain.","Powering 50+ blockchains","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/learn-more"},"/case-studies/etherfi":{"version":1,"title":"How ether.fi Migrated $220M in Live Consumer Payments to OP Mainnet - Optimism","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.\r\n","keywords":"","h1":["How ether.fi Migrated $220M in Live Consumer Payments to OP Mainnet"],"h2":["3 days","$220M","70k+","What ether.fi Actually Did","Who Noticed","How It Actually Worked","The Performance Floor","What This Proves"],"h3":["The Architecture","The Migration Stack","The Product"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["to migrate","moved with zero disruption","active cards","Sign up"],"p":["Ether.fi","Application","May 7, 2026","The biggest migrations in finance are always disasters. TSB locked 1.9 million UK customers out of their own accounts for weeks after a botched platform switch in 2018. The outage made national news, triggered a parliamentary inquiry, and cost the bank over £330M in remediation. Santander, Barclays, NatWest have all had their own versions. The pattern repeats: announce the migration, take the system offline during a maintenance window, pray nothing breaks, spend weeks cleaning up when it does.","In crypto, the constraints are worse. There is no maintenance window. The infrastructure runs 24/7/365. You cannot tell a live payments product processing millions of dollars in daily transactions to hold tight while you swap out the engine underneath it.","So when ether.fi moved its entire product to OP Mainnet on April 15, cards kept working the whole time. $220M in DeFi TVL relocated in three days. The people tapping their ether.fi cards at a coffee shop in London or a gas station in Texas had no idea the infrastructure underneath their payment just changed.","ether.fi runs the largest non-custodial crypto card by spend volume. 70,000 active cards. 300,000 accounts. Millions of dollars in real-world payments every single day, backed by a $5.8B protocol.","The migration moved everything to OP Mainnet while the product was running at full volume. Old environment running, new environment coming online, traffic shifting over. Cards couldn't skip a beat.","A DeFi protocol can usually tolerate a brief pause. A yield vault going offline for a few hours is annoying but recoverable. ether.fi Cash has 70,000 active cards being tapped in real time. A declined card is a user experience failure. A pattern of them is a product trust failure. There is no \"we'll be back in a few hours.\"","You only hear about migrations when they fail. TSB made headlines for weeks. A clean migration is invisible.","ether.fi built custom monitoring specifically for the migration. Not a single unexpected alert triggered during the entire move.","This one got noticed anyway, though users never knew it happened. Institutional observers who run compliance desks and treasury operations at scale saw $220M move cleanly and flagged it as remarkable: no incident report, no customer communication, no \"we apologize for the inconvenience.\"","The most common reaction: \"wait, how did that actually work?\"","ether.fi's Scroll deployment stayed live while OP Mainnet stood up alongside it. There was no cutover moment. Core contracts deployed on OP Mainnet first, mirroring the exact system and ownership configuration running on Scroll. Then the peripheral layer: tooling to migrate individual user accounts across chains. During the build-out, new users were already provisioned with OP Mainnet accounts directly.","The key building blocks already existed: cross-chain bridging, deterministic vault deployments, card accounting that works independently from onchain settlement. Each component could be upgraded on its own. That sequencing meant no single step was all-or-nothing.","The old environment stayed live the entire time. If something had broken mid-migration, ether.fi could have kept routing through Scroll while the team investigated. The failsafe was built into the architecture from the start.","Three properties of OP Mainnet worked in ether.fi's favor. Gnosis Safe deploys deterministically across OP Stack chains, so ether.fi got the same multisig addresses on OP Mainnet without redeploying or reconciling address differences. The canonical bridge plus OFT support for weETH gave them bridging paths with known behavior. And the WETH predeploy handled ETH wrapping cleanly.","Three assets moved through bridges: USDC, USDT, and WETH each bridged from Scroll to Ethereum first, then took separate paths to OP Mainnet depending on the asset.","Every other asset moved as an OFT, bypassing Ethereum entirely.","On oracles, Pyth price feeds for EURC/USD, ETHFI/USD, and eUSD/USD were live on OP Mainnet before migration started, validated against Chainlink availability as a fallback. Optimism helped coordinate the timeline with Pyth directly. Push oracle model. No gaps in price data during the transition.","ether.fi paused deposits and withdrawals during the move but kept processing card payments the entire time. Their accounting system tracks every card spend independently from onchain settlement, so cards could keep authorizing while assets were in transit. Once migration completed, the team settled everything onchain on OP Mainnet and reopened deposits and withdrawals. At no point did a card decline that wouldn't have declined anyway.","ether.fi owned the migration end to end: contract deployments, engineering, migration tooling, user transition flows. OP Mainnet's permissionless infrastructure meant the core deployment required no special access or coordination. Optimism helped accelerate the timeline by coordinating third-party vendors, getting Pyth oracle feeds live and asset metadata confirmed on Etherscan before launch day.","OP Mainnet runs the specs a payments product requires: sub-250ms finality through Flashblocks, $0.00001 median transaction fees, 99.99% uptime, throughput at 20Mgas/sec scaling toward 100Mgas/sec, and data feeds powered by Pyth Network.","Spec sheets are easy to publish. The migration proved those numbers hold when a live product is moving $220M in real assets while processing consumer payments in real time.","ether.fi arrived on OP Mainnet with $220M in TVL. That number has already grown to $347M since the move. Gold Vaults, a Euro card, and native stablecoin support are next. ether.fi's roadmap starts here.","\"OP Mainnet is the only place where the team that built the stack co-pilots your migration, and where the liquidity is already deep before you arrive. We closed the move in three days with zero downtime, and we're already building the next chapter.\"","Charles Mountain, DeFi Ecosystem Lead, ether.fi","Every protocol team sitting on infrastructure that isn't serving them already knows the migration calculus: the risk, the cost, the months of engineering time, and the fact that every example they can think of went badly.","ether.fi just rewrote them. Three days. $220M. Zero disruption. The playbook exists now. The next team doesn't have to write it from scratch.","About Ether.fi","Sign up for our newsletter","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/case-studies/etherfi"},"/build":{"version":1,"title":"Build - Optimism","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.\n","keywords":"","h1":["Build on Optimism"],"h2":["Integrate DeFi actions in hours, not months.","Get a grant for your project"],"h3":["Actions SDK","Chain Developers Docs","App Developer Docs","Support","Grants for the Superchain Ecosystem","Growth Grants","Audit Grants"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Developers","Everything you need to start building on Optimism.","Integrate DeFi features in minutes.","Find tutorials, examples, and resources.","Deploy an app on Optimism.","Reach out on GitHub.","Developer preview","Deliver seamless swaps, lending, and borrowing in your app through a simple frontend integration.","For individual builders and teams launching apps, tooling or infrastructure.","For existing apps built on Optimism that are ready to scale their impact.","Covering the cost of smart contract audits for apps across the Superchain.","Products","Solutions","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/build"},"/op-enterprise":{"version":1,"title":"OP Enterprise - Optimism","description":"Your blockchain. Your revenue. Enterprise guarantees. OP Enterprise: we handle operations, security, scaling, and vendor management so enterprises can focus on shipping products, not running blockchains.","keywords":"","h1":["OP Enterprise","Your blockchain.Your revenue.Enterprise guarantees."],"h2":["Your blockchain. Your revenue.Enterprise guarantees.","Focus on your business, not your blockchain.","What’s included","Built by the team that invented Ethereum scaling.","Tier-one partners ready to deploy on your chain.","Compare options","Bring your business onchain"],"h3":["Full control","Guaranteed 24/7 uptime backed robust SLAs","Lifecycle management","Compliance partners","Dedicated support across technical and non-technical areas","Pre-vetted infrastructure partners","Onboarding and rollout assistance","Capacity planning, scaling, and performance tuning","Deploy on OP Mainnet","Self Managed","Fully Managed","Mission-Critical Support"],"h4":[],"h5":["We negotiate standard terms, manage costs down, and fast-track partnerships that would otherwise delay your launch by 6-12 months."],"h6":["Add Mission Critical Support to any tier for operations where downtime isn't an option.","Elevated SLAs with guaranteed uptime","15-minute incident response and war-room access","Bespoke integrations","Priority security patches"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","We handle operations, security, scaling, and vendor management so enterprises can focus on shipping products, not running blockchains.","Optimism powers 50+ blockchains","Define architecture together: data availability strategy, settlement approach, access model, observability integrations.","This includes 24/7 monitoring, incident response, capacity planning, security operations, and upgrade orchestration, all backed by enterprise SLAs.","Depend on Optimism to orchestrate upgrades and manage one-time events.","Sanctions screening and audit-ready tooling through trusted providers.","One team instead of juggling dozens of vendors.","Wallets, indexers, oracles, bridges, and explorers already integrated and negotiated.","Faster time to market, fewer delays.","So your engineers focus on product, not infrastructure.","Our engineers didn't just build the OP Stack - they invented the foundational concepts that power the entire Layer 2 industry.","0.00%","Uptime","Source","0M","Transactions per Day","0+","Powered Chains","$0B","Total Assets Secured","We negotiate standard terms, manage costs down, and fast-track partnerships that would otherwise delay your launch by 6-12 months.","OP Enterprise is a suite of products, each designed for different stages and needs.","Permissionless deployment on a live, battle-tested network. Start building today.","Access to established liquidity and user base","Technical advisory for regulated assets and complex deployments","Migration path to your own chain","You run your own infrastructure with direct support from the team that built the OP Stack.","Dedicated account manager","Priority access to new features","Direct engineering support","Migration support","We host and operate your chain end-to-end. You focus on your product; we handle the infrastructure.","99.99% uptime SLO","Mainnet & testnet environments","Public RPC endpoints","Block explorer & chain status page","Security & performance assessments","Contact our team to schedule a technical briefing and discuss architecture, compliance, and a pilot plan tailored to your needs.","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy","BrandA"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/op-enterprise"},"/scalingsummit":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism Scaling Summit","description":"February 17, 2026, Denver.","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Scaling Summit"],"h2":["Manifesto","Speakers"],"h3":["Marek Olszewski","Nicholas Santomauro","Karl Floersch","Jing Wang","Marek Moraczyński","Leland Lee","Guillaume Poncin","Eric Woolsey","John Morrow","NK Yoon","Wil Schmor","Kyle Jenke","Sam McIngvale","Sanjana Mehta","Erin Kelly","Chuck Traverse","Dumitrel Loghin","0xOptimus","Parker Mathews","Alim Khamisa","Benjamin Jones","Eli Haims","dmarz","Alexander Cutler","Monet Supply"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Opal Graham","Ryan Gittleson","Luke Chmiel","Charles St. Louis","Taem Park"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Feb 17, 2026","​The Scaling Summit is where Optimism shows what's next - not theory, but working infrastructure that makes millions of users inevitable.","CEO","cLabs","Head of Onchain Growth","Kraken","CTO","OP Labs","Head of Blockchain Engineering","Nethermind","Ecosystem Lead","Succinct","Alchemy","Senior Software Engineer","Tools For Humanity","COO/ Co-Founder","Gauntlet","VP of Growth","Startale Group","Senior Product Manager","Chief Business Officer","Head of Product","Product","Senior Director of Partnerships","Staff Data Scientist","Senior Staff Engineer","X Layer","Computer Science","University of Waterloo","Blockchain Security Engineer","Coinbase","Global Startup Growth","Base","DeFi BD Lead","LayerZero","DeFi Partnerships & Growth","Co-founder","Optimism Foundation","Product Manager","Flashbots","Founder and CEO","Dromos Labs","Head of Strategy","Spark","Growth","Morpho","DeFi","Ethereum Foundation","Sunnyside Labs","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy","BrandA"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/scalingsummit"},"/op-stack":{"version":1,"title":"OP Stack - Optimism","description":"The most popular way to build on Ethereum. The OP Stack is a fully open-source, modular framework built for teams launching blockchains.","keywords":"","h1":["The most popular wayto build on Ethereum","The most popular way to build on Ethereum"],"h2":["One stack, infinite possibilities.","Enterprise-level performance","Designed for scale","Powering 50+ chains","Open source, built by the best.","By developers, for developers."],"h3":["Sovereignty and Control","Infinite scalability","Fast and cheap transactions","Instant launch, no lock-in","Battle-tested infrastructure","Base","Unichain","World Chain","Ink"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Assets onchain","% of L2 transactions","Transactions per day","App Developer Docs","Deploy an app on Optimism."],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","The OP Stack","The OP Stack is the open source framework for launching fast, secure, and scalable blockchains.","Powering 50+ blockchains","The OP Stack is a fully open source, modular framework built for teams launching blockchains. Flexible and configurable, it can be adopted as a whole or integrated layer by layer. Developed in the open by Optimism, it’s strengthened by one of the largest developer communities in crypto - and already proven in production.","Customize every layer of your infrastructure: select your gas token, data provider, transaction ordering policy, and bridge methodology - all without sacrificing security.","Designed to handle near-infinite transaction throughput with horizontal scaling, always secured by Ethereum.","200 ms block times and sub-cent fees deliver instant, seamless user experiences at scale.","Start your chain today with no contracts or licenses.","Your infrastructure is an accelerator, not a science project. Choose the most widely adopted and configurable infrastructure.","$0B","As of Oct 1st 2025","0%","0M","An open stack for the global economy.","An L2 designed for DeFi by Uniswap.","A blockchain for humans, featuring unique primitives.","A network for onchain builders to deploy innovative DeFi protocols.","Open source","The OP Stack is built by a team of world-class contributors. OP Labs supports innovation and infrastructure across the stack. Building in the open makes the OP Stack transparent, resilient, and battle-tested.","Chain Developer Docs","Find tutorials, examples, and resources.","GitHub","Explore repositories.","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy","BrandA"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/op-stack"},"/careers":{"version":1,"title":"Careers - Optimism","description":"Scale your career in the Optimism ecosystem. Find open roles at the Optimism Foundation and OP Labs.","keywords":"","h1":["Build with Optimism"],"h2":["Optimism is lowering the barrier to entry for developers and enterprises building onchain. With Optimism’s software - the open source, MIT-licensed OP Stack - we help developers, exchanges, fintechs, and global enterprises launch scalable, secure, and customizable networks and applications that form the foundation for the onchain economy.","What we stand for","Open positions"],"h3":["Be a Force Multiplier","Obsess Over Improvement","Breathe Optimism","Have Courage to Question"],"h4":["Scale your career in the Optimism ecosystem."],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","At a startup, impact doesn’t come from doing the same corporate job in a smaller company, it comes from owning the gaps, solving problems, and doing the “glue work” that holds things together. We value people who take ownership, move fast, and multiply their impact by unblocking others.","Growth happens when you treat feedback as fuel, not friction. At Optimism, we expect people to seek, give, and act on feedback constantly. We approach feedback with humility and use it as a tool to sharpen our skillset. Feedback is a gift and the fastest way to level up.","We tackle big, complex problems, and optimism is the mindset that makes them solvable. By framing challenges as opportunities, we unlock creativity, resilience, and the ability to build something world-changing together.","Asking “dumb” questions is how you get smart, fast - and pretending to understand only slows everyone down. We celebrate “exposing our ignorance” by having the courage to question, because clarity and shared understanding are the foundation of high trust and high performance.","Scale your career alongside a deeply mission-driven team building the infrastructure for onchain innovation.","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/careers"},"/centralized-exchanges":{"version":1,"title":"Centralized Exchanges","description":"Unlock new revenue and grow user engagement by moving your business onchain. With the OP Stack, crypto exchanges can embed fully-customizable chains into their UX to power new products and experiences.","keywords":"","h1":["Be more than just an onramp"],"h2":["Move your business Onchain","What exchanges are building with the OP Stack","Coinbase incubated Base, built on the OP Stack","Why crypto exchanges choose to build using the OP Stack","Full control","Configure your infrastructure"],"h3":["New revenue streams","Keep users in your ecosystem","Expand to new markets"],"h4":["Keep your most valuable users in your ecosystem by launching a customized OP stack chain."],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Centralized Exchanges","Trusted by","Unlock new revenue and grow user engagement by moving your business onchain. With the OP Stack, crypto exchanges can embed fully-customizable chains into their UX to power new products and experiences.","Earn new revenue","Expand internationally","Retain users","Become a platform","Challenge","Coinbase wanted to offer onchain products to millions of users without compromising on UX, infra control, or security.","Solution","Unlock new revenue and grow user engagement by moving your business onchain. With the OP Stack, crypto exchanges can embed fully-customizable chains into their UX to power new products and experienves.","25 MGas/sec","200ms Flashblocks","Ethereum Data Availability","\"Optimism aligns with the core values behind Ink - open source, modular, and focused on enabling decentralization. The Superchain vision clicked right away: Ink was never meant to live in isolation. It’s part of a future where users and assets move freely across chains.\"","Andrew Koller","Founder","Earn sequencer fees, stablecoin float, MEV, and wallet-based swap fees.","Launch wallets, chains, or apps to retain users after their first trade.","Reach users in more regions with non-custodial flows and branded infra.","Own the sequencer, UX, fees, and token logic to keep your margins.","Sequencer","UX","Token logic","Fee structure","Built with the flexibility to handle complex controls and business logic that your products need.","Configurable rules","Adapt the stack to reflect your business needs and applicable controls.","Integrations that matter","Works with industry leading tools and services that enable IP and sanctioned wallet blocks.","Audit-ready records","Every transaction leaves a clear, indelible trail that can be verified.","Proven and reliable","Battle-tested with 99,99% uptime and independent audits.","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/centralized-exchanges"},"/actions":{"version":1,"title":"Actions SDK - Optimism","description":"Optimism Actions SKD allows you to deliver seamless swaps, lending, and borrowing in your app through a simple frontend integration. One SDK instead of dozens. Integrate DeFi actions in hours, not months.","keywords":"","h1":["Give your userseasy DeFi yields."],"h2":["One SDK instead of dozens. Integrate DeFi actions in hours, not months.","One integration connects you to leading wallets and protocols.","Deliver seamless swaps, lending, and borrowing in your app through a simple frontend integration.","3 steps to DeFi integration.","Flexibility to meet regulatory requirements.","Ready to offer competitive yields?"],"h3":["The old way.","With Actions.","Lend","Borrow","Swap","Custody and control","Asset and chain controls","First class protocol integrations"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Tooling","Developer preview","No blockchain expertise required.Integrate DeFi features in minutes.","Integrate each protocol separately. Manage multiple dependencies. Handle complex wallet interactions.","One integration. One dependency. Ship in minutes.","Enterprise-grade controls for regulated environments.","DeFi Providers","Aave","Morpho","Velodrome","Uniswap","Wallet providers","Privy","Dynamic","Turnkey","Supported chains","ETH Mainnet + OP Stack chains","ETH Mainnet + all OP Stack chains","Let users earn yield on idle assets.","Instant liquidity without liquidating assets.","Seamless token exchanges at the best rates.","Simple and configurable, global rules.","Install the Actions SDK. That's it.","Configure your options. Choose which actions to enable. Set your parameters.","Go live. DeFi features in your app - no blockchain expertise required.","Your custody model - full custody, delegated, or hybrid. Key management flexible to your security model.","Allowlist and blocklist by asset, chain, or market. One config file, auditable documentation.","Aave and Morpho: audited protocols, $20B+ combined TVL. Add or remove integrations with a few lines of code.","See how Actions integrates with your stack.","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/actions"},"/fintech":{"version":1,"title":"Fintech","description":"Launch new products on trusted infrastructure. Build faster, scale globally, and grow margins - powered by the OP Stack.","keywords":"","h1":["Launch new products","on trusted infrastructure"],"h2":["The industry is moving fast,don't get left behind.","Unlock new growth","Enterprise-level performance","Configure your infrastructure"],"h3":["The industry is moving fast, don’t get left behind.","Expand to new markets","Launch new products, unlock higher utility","Leverage DeFi product innovation","Increase operational efficiency","Configurable rules","Integrations that matter","Audit-ready records","Proven and reliable"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Stablecoins on Optimism infrastructure","Daily transactions","Apps and institutions deployed on OP Stack, including Circle, and JPMorgan","Built with the flexibility to handle complex controls and business logic that modern products need.","Security audits","Secure, modular infrastructure battle-tested by companies like Coinbase and Kraken.","99.99% uptime","The OP Stack ensures high availability and resilience, so your chain stays operational without interruption.","Data","Battle-tested infrastructure","Your infrastructure is an accelerator, not a science project. Choose the most widely adopted and configurable infrastructure.","Fast and cheap transactions","200 ms block times and sub-cent fees deliver instant, seamless user experiences at scale.","Sovereignty & control","Customize every layer of your infrastructure - all without sacrificing security.","Infinite scalability","Designed to handle near-infinite transaction throughput with horizontal scaling, always secured by Ethereum."],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Brokerages and Neobanks","Build faster, scale globally, and grow margins.","Trusted by","$0B","Source","0M","0+","The onchain advantage","From slow, costly international rails → To near-instant global settlement with stablecoins.","From limited product offerings → To onchain assets that unlock lending, yield, and above-market returns.","From legacy rails that limit margins → To onchain products that unlock new revenue and deepen customer engagement.","From fragmented systems and manual workflows → To automated onchain processes that reduce operational overhead.","Built with the flexibility to handle complex controls and business logic that modern products need.","39 audits to date","\"Optimism aligns with the core values behind Ink - open source, modular, and focused on enabling decentralization. The Superchain vision clicked right away: Ink was never meant to live in isolation. It’s part of a future where users and assets move freely across chains.\"","Andrew Koller","Founder","Built with the flexibility to handle complex controls and business logic that your products need.","Adapt the stack to reflect your business needs and applicable controls.","Works with industry leading tools and services that enable businesses to meet their obligations without friction.","Every transaction leaves a clear, indelible trail that can be verified.","Battle-tested with 99.99% uptime and independent audits.","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/fintech"},"/blog/collective":{"version":1,"title":"Collective Blog - Optimism","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.\n","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Collective"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","All","Engineering","Collective","Optimism","•","Jan 2026","Season 9: From Experiment to Organization","The goal of the Optimism Foundation has always been to establish an organization that can support the “world supercomputer” into perpetuity....","Jun 2025","Governance in Season 8: The Next Phase","Just over three years ago, the Optimism Collective embarked on a large-scale experiment in decentralized governance. From the beginning, we’ve been committed to taking...","Apr 2025","SuperStacks: A New Approach to Rewards on the Superchain","With many chains building as one, a new network structure is emerging to solve fragmentation in Ethereum. This network is modular, interoperable, and composable...","Nov 2024","Building the Future of Ethereum: the Superchain and Native Interoperability","At Optimism, our mission is to build an internet that benefits all, owned by all. We are working to scale Ethereum and empower developers and users worldwide...","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/collective"},"/blog/updates":{"version":1,"title":"Updates - Optimism","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.\n","keywords":"","h1":["Company"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","All","Engineering","Collective","Optimism","•","May 2026","Institutions Aren't Moving Independently Anymore","Asset issuers, banks, and exchanges are forming a coordinated system. That changes how infrastructure decisions get made....","Jing Wang","Upbit Announces Planned Partnership with The Optimism Foundation on GIWA Chain. Korea's Largest Exchange Is Picking a Side on Infrastructure.","Through the partnership with The Optimism Foundation, GIWA Chain plans to be the first chain on the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise....","Karl Floersch","Apr 2026","The Case for Specialization: What the Ethereum L2 Roadmap Means for Enterprises","Every enterprise evaluating blockchain infrastructure faces the same tradeoff: deploy on a shared chain and sacrifice control...","Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities Launches Zipangcoin on OP Mainnet","Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities is bringing Zipangcoin to OP Mainnet. ZPG is the first commodity-backed cryptoasset issued by a Japanese company to launch on the network...","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/updates"},"/blog/developers":{"version":1,"title":"Developers Blog - Optimism","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.\n","keywords":"","h1":["Engineering"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","All","Engineering","Collective","Sam Stokes","•","May 2026","Benchmark Reproducibility","Measuring a chain’s sustained throughput is easy. Getting a number you can trust is the hard part....","Zak Ayesh","Light Nodes: Specialize Your Op-Node Fleet","We're recommending a specialized op-node topology: a small tier of source nodes owns L1 derivation...","Raffaele Mazzitelli","Apr 2026","Stop Rotating npm Tokens. Delete Them.","How we replaced our npm publish tokens with short-lived OIDC credentials, and what that does and doesn't protect against....","Stefano Charissis","Mar 2026","Benchmarking the OP Stack","Most blockchain benchmarks are great at producing a number but not so good at explaining what it means. You’ll see “X TPS” or “Y gas/sec,”...","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog/developers"},"/brand":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism - Brand","description":"Optimism logos and brand resources.","keywords":"","h1":["Brand assets"],"h2":["Logo","Color"],"h3":["Wordmark","Token & Avatar","OP Mainnet","Optimism Red"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Wordmark","Token & Avatar","OP Mainnet","Color","Optimism logos and brand resources.","Our wordmark is the core representation of our brand identity. Its italic shape is a nod to the forward momentum and optimism that drives everything we do.","Use the icon only for avatars and tokens. For all other applications, use the wordmark.","Use only when referring to the Optimism Layer 2 blockchain.","Our brand color is Optimism Red. Bold, energetic, and instantly recognizable, it reflects the spirit of optimism, action, and forward momentum that defines our brand.","#FF0421","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/brand"},"/collective":{"version":1,"title":"Collective - Optimism","description":"The Optimism Collective is a community of builders creating a new internet that benefits all and is owned by all.","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Collective"],"h2":["Build on a platform you can trust and influence","An iterative approach to Digital Democracy","Build in the Superchain Ecosystem and get rewarded","600+ builders","have been rewarded"],"h3":["A platform that “can’t be evil.”","Your voice shapes the platform","Economic incentives to build a better internet","Iterating on thousand year old problem","Start human, then automate what works","Experiment rapidly and adapt","Governance Update: Season 8","Get rewarded for impact","Access proactive grants for strategic work","Building a flywheel for ecosystem growth"],"h4":[],"h5":["A community of builders creating a new internetthat benefits all and is owned by all.","Optimism governance ensures the Superchain remains credibly neutral while enabling your business’ growth.","We're building governance that evolves with real-world feedback, not theoretical perfection.","Multiple incentive paths reward builders who create real value for the Superchain ecosystem."],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","A community of builders creating a new internet that benefits all and is owned by all.","Synthetix","The liquidity layer for onchain derivatives. Powering an array of derivatives protocols across the Superchain.","256k","rewarded","Moonwell","Moonwell is an open and decentralized lending and borrowing protocol built on Base.","156k","LI.FI","One API to swap, bridge, and zap across all major blockchains and protocols.","481k","Solidity","Solidity is an object-oriented, high-level language for implementing smart contracts.","278k","Ethers.js","Ethers.js is a simple, compact and complete JavaScript (via TypeScript) library for interacting with Ethereum and related blockchains.","Solady","Solady is an open-source repository containing highly-optimized Solidity snippets.","135k","Hardhat","Hardhat is a development environment to build and deploy your Ethereum software.","Viem","Viem is the most used modern TypeScript Interface for Ethereum.","Governance of protocol upgrades by the Superchain’s businesses and users prevents changes that could break your app.","OP Chains and application developers can participate in the development of a fully open source platform.","Protocol revenue funds ecosystem growth rather than extraction, with transparent budgeting that rewards actual impact.","Blending time-tested ideas from political science and corporate governance with three years of practical experimentation.","Begin with people making decisions, measure outcomes, then replace successful processes with algorithms while preserving human override.","Season-based iterations test new mechanisms, pilot programs validate approaches, and continuous feedback drives improvements.","Governance Update: Season 8","Retroactive Public Goods Funding rewards measurable results using on-chain data, from dev tools to protocol contributions.","Governance Fund and Foundation Missions target ecosystem priorities with clear success metrics and expert evaluation.","Superchain revenue is used to reward development of the ecosystem's projects, ensuring shared security and healthy tooling for all.","One API to swap, bridge, and zap across all major blockchains and protocols. Enable trading across all DEX aggregators, bridges, and intent-systems and save hundreds of developer hours.","Solady is an open-source repository containing highly-optimized Solidity snippets. It offers efficient implementations of commonly-used libraries, such as MerkleProofLib, alongside cutting-edge features like LibZip.","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/collective"},"/case-studies":{"version":1,"title":"Case studies","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.\n","keywords":"","h1":["Powering 50+ blockchains"],"h2":[],"h3":["How ether.fi Migrated $220M in Live Consumer Payments to OP Mainnet","Velodrome and Aerodrome: Powering Liquidity Across the Optimism ecosystem","Collateralized Lending with Morpho","From App to Chain: Scaling World Chain with Optimism"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":["Sign up"],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Case Studies","Ether.fi","Application","Read the story","Velodrome","Morpho","World","Chain","Sign up for our newsletter","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/case-studies"},"/":{"version":1,"title":"Optimism: The most used blockchain infrastructure.","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.","keywords":"","h1":["Your blockchain.Your revenue.Enterprise guarantees."],"h2":["Optimism powers 17M transactions per day.","Everything needed to bring businesses onchain.","$280M","1M","Companies like yours are moving onchain","Enterprise-level performance","Build on enterprise-grade infrastructure"],"h3":["Fintechs","OP Stack","OP Mainnet","Expand new markets","Grow your revenue","Launch new products","Simplify compliance","Security audits","99.99% uptime","Battle-tested infrastructure","Fast and cheap transactions","Sovereignty & control","Infinite scalability"],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Launch your own blockchain and capture the upside of every transaction. Powered by Optimism. Secured by Ethereum.","Fintechs","Exchanges","Payments","Offer more financial products, stay compliant, and reduce overhead with programmable, next-generation rails tailored to your app.","Product Expansion","Operational Efficiency","Trusted by","The OP Stack is already processing millions of transactions and serving hundreds of millions of users, trusted by leading financial and consumer platforms.","0+","Powered Chains","Source","0%","L2 Market Share","0M","Transactions per Day","$0B","Total Assets Secured","Launch a blockchain with the OP Stack or deploy on OP Mainnet - Optimism supports every stage: blockspace, infrastructure, ecosystem, post‑launch support.","The OP Stack is a fully open source, modular framework built for teams launching blockchains. Flexible and configurable, it can be adopted as a whole or integrated layer by layer.","50+","$14B","Base is a Layer 2 built on the OP Stack to unlock access to finance for 1B users.","OP Mainnet is Optimism’s flagship Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain. By offering a seamless pathway from building an app to launching a full-service chain, OP Mainnet is where developers and enterprises begin their onchain journey.","99.99%","Uptime","$0.001","Avg. Transaction Fee","Earn yield and spend globally with a cashback card.","“Six years into building DeFi, our priority is giving people the best trading experience possible. Unichain on the OP Stack gives us the flexibility to innovate while benefiting from shared infrastructure. Features like Flashblocks let us push latency down to the point where trading feels instant.”","Hayden Adams","CEO of Uniswap","$280M","DEX Trade volume per day","1M","Transactions per day","“Six years into building DeFi, our priority is giving people the best trading experience possible. Unichain on the OP Stack gives us the flexibility to innovate while benefiting from shared infrastructure. Features like Flashblocks let us push latency down to the point where trading feels instant.\"","Forward-thinking companies are moving onchain to deliver faster, compliant financial services while cutting costs and improving user experiences.","Expand globally faster with onchain products, stablecoin rails, and localized onramps that help you reach more customers.","Unlock new ways to monetize distribution and capture a greater share of the customer activity your products create.","Launch new financial products faster with onchain rails that reduce overhead, expand functionality, and create better user experiences.","Use configurable infrastructure to tailor workflows and controls to your regulatory and compliance requirements.","Built with the flexibility to handle complex controls and business logic that modern products need.","Secure, modular infrastructure battle-tested by companies like Coinbase and Kraken.","39 audits to date","The OP Stack ensures high availability and resilience, so your chain stays operational without interruption.","Data","Your infrastructure is an accelerator, not a science project. Choose the most widely adopted and configurable infrastructure.","200 ms block times and sub-cent fees deliver instant, seamless user experiences at scale.","Customize every layer of your infrastructure - all without sacrificing security.","Designed to handle near-infinite transaction throughput with horizontal scaling, always secured by Ethereum.","From infrastructure to product and distribution, Optimism helps you launch faster.","Benchmark Reproducibility","May 13, 2026","Institutions Aren't Moving Independently Anymore","May 8, 2026","Light Nodes: Specialize Your Op-Node Fleet","May 4, 2026","Upbit Announces Planned Partnership with The Optimism Foundation on GIWA Chain. Korea's Largest Exchange Is Picking a Side on Infrastructure.","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/"},"/faq":{"version":1,"title":"Frequently Asked Questions","description":"Find answers to commonly asked questions. What is Optimism? Who uses the OP Stack? How can I run my OP Stack chain? What is the Optimism Collective?","keywords":"","h1":["FAQ"],"h2":["Optimism","OP Stack","Developers","Governance"],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","Find answers to commonly asked questions.","Have questions?","Get support from the Optimism community.","What is Optimism?","Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Aenean eu leo quam. Pellentesque ornare sem lacinia quam venenatis vestibulum. Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Maecenas faucibus mollis interdum.","How does Optimism earn revenue?","Where can I find stats on Optimism?","What is the OP Mainnet?","What is OP Labs?","What is the OP Stack?","Who uses the OP Stack?","How do I use the OP Stack?","How fast is the OP Stack?","What are transaction costs for OP Stack chains?","How can I run my OP Stack chain?","How can I deploy apps on OP Stack chains?","Is Optimism EVM-compatible?","Where can I find developer documentation?","What is the Optimism Foundation?","What is the Optimism Collective?","How does governance work?","If I'm interested in getting involved, where do I start?","How can I get a grant?","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","Optimism","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/faq"},"/blog":{"version":1,"title":"Blog - Optimism","description":"Optimism is the most used blockchain infrastructure. Launch scalable, customizable Layer 2s and apps with Ethereum-grade security - powered by the OP Stack.\n","keywords":"","h1":["Optimism Blog"],"h2":[],"h3":[],"h4":[],"h5":[],"h6":[],"p":["Before you continue, please read and agree to the Terms of Service and Optimism Community Agreement.","Products","Solutions","Developers","Case studies","Stats","OP Stack","Compare","Fintech","CEX","Build","Documentation","Grants","Company","Blog","Careers","All","Engineering","Collective","May 2026","Upbit Announces Planned Partnership with The Optimism Foundation on GIWA Chain. Korea's Largest Exchange Is Picking a Side on Infrastructure.","Jing Wang","Sam Stokes","•","Benchmark Reproducibility","Measuring a chain’s sustained throughput is easy. Getting a number you can trust is the hard part....","Optimism","Institutions Aren't Moving Independently Anymore","Asset issuers, banks, and exchanges are forming a coordinated system. That changes how infrastructure decisions get made....","Zak Ayesh","Light Nodes: Specialize Your Op-Node Fleet","We're recommending a specialized op-node topology: a small tier of source nodes owns L1 derivation...","Karl Floersch","Apr 2026","The Case for Specialization: What the Ethereum L2 Roadmap Means for Enterprises","Every enterprise evaluating blockchain infrastructure faces the same tradeoff: deploy on a shared chain and sacrifice control...","Raffaele Mazzitelli","Stop Rotating npm Tokens. Delete Them.","How we replaced our npm publish tokens with short-lived OIDC credentials, and what that does and doesn't protect against....","Sunnyside Labs","Privacy Comes to the OP Stack","Privacy Boost by Sunnyside Labs is the first privacy offering by an Optimism core developer. ...","Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities Launches Zipangcoin on OP Mainnet","Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities is bringing Zipangcoin to OP Mainnet. ZPG is the first commodity-backed cryptoasset issued by a Japanese company to launch on the network...","Stake-Based Transaction Ordering: A New Experiment on OP Mainnet","We're introducing stake-based transaction ordering on OP Mainnet — the first change to transaction ordering rules in the chain's history. ...","Mike Silagadze","Ether.fi is Live on OP Mainnet","$220M in TVL. 300,000 accounts. One of crypto's biggest consumer products just chose its long-term home....","Mar 2026","Bitpanda to Launch Vision Chain as the First Fully Managed OP Enterprise Chain","Purpose-built blockchain infrastructure for European institutional finance. OP Succinct ZK proofs for same-day L1 withdrawals. 200ms blocks....","Stefano Charissis","Benchmarking the OP Stack","Most blockchain benchmarks are great at producing a number but not so good at explaining what it means. You’ll see “X TPS” or “Y gas/sec,”...","Alberto Cuesta Cañada","Feb 2026","Timelock Guard","A timelock is an essential tool in blockchain governance. It takes transactions and delays their execution while making them visible to everyone....","ether.fi is Migrating to Optimism’s OP Mainnet","ether.fi plans to migrate ether.fi Cash, its digital cash account and card product, to OP Mainnet....","Optimism partners with Succinct as first preferred provider to accelerate ZK Proving on the Superchain","Zero-knowledge validity proofs will become canonical on the OP Stack, unlocking native capital efficiency....","Liveness Module","Most, if not all, crypto companies at scale use multisigs to manage their operations and upgrades. Collectively these multisigs hold about a hundred billion dollars...","Jan 2026","Introducing OP Enterprise","OP Enterprise is production-grade, managed blockchain infrastructure from the team that built the OP Stack....","A Post‑Quantum Roadmap for the Superchain","Large‑scale quantum computers aren’t here yet—but if they arrive and we’re not ready, core cryptography in Ethereum and the Superchain could be at risk....","OP Token Buybacks","The Optimism Foundation is putting forward a proposal to align the OP token with the Superchain’s success...","Season 9: From Experiment to Organization","The goal of the Optimism Foundation has always been to establish an organization that can support the “world supercomputer” into perpetuity....","Dec 2025","Optimism Selects Ether.fi to Deploy Liquid Staking Treasury on OP Mainnet","Today, the Optimism Collective is pleased to announce the selection of ether.fi (weETH) as our strategic Liquid Staking partner on OP Mainnet....","Chris Andreola","The largest exchanges in the world are choosing the OP Stack","The world’s largest and most reputable exchanges are choosing the OP Stack because it delivers the security and scalability required to support the most liquid markets....","OKX Migrates XLayer to the OP Stack","OKX - one of the world’s largest digital-asset exchanges — has migrated its XLayer network from Polygon to the OP Stack....","Sanjana Mehta","Fusaka Is Live: Scaling Optimism and the Superchain","Ethereum’s Fusaka hardfork is now live on mainnet, unlocking the next major leap in data scalability for rollups....","Oct 2025","OP Mainnet: The Enterprise Launch Pad","At Optimism, our success is measured by our partners' success. Whether they’re just beginning to explore onchain infrastructure or ready to launch their own network....","OP Labs","The new Optimism documentation","We're excited to announce that the Optimism documentation has undergone a complete transformation!...","Yashvardhan Kukreja","Sep 2025","Flashblocks: Deep Dive - 250ms preconfirmations on OP Mainnet","Onchain applications live and die by their user experience. If transactions feel slow or unpredictable, the promise of Ethereum scalability falls flat. ...","Ronin is Coming Home to Ethereum with Optimism’s OP Stack","Ronin is coming home to Ethereum, and Optimism is making it possible. ...","Adrian Sutton","Aug 2025","Tech Debt: Understanding its Business Impact","Technical debt has become a catchall term for engineering challenges, often cited as a blocker without clear articulation of its actual impact....","Optimism Partners with Flashbots to Accelerate Sequencing for Every OP Stack Chain","Optimism and Flashbots are partnering to bring fast, configurable, verifiable sequencing to the Superchain, powered by the team that built Ethereum’s sequencing pipeline....","Andreas Bigger","Introducing the Kona-Node: A Rust-Powered Leap for the OP Stack","Today marks a thrilling milestone for the OP Stack ecosystem: the first public release of kona-node, our modular, high-performance rollup node built entirely in Rust....","Chuxin Huang","Jul 2025","Lessons in Causality: Measuring Impact in the Superchain Ecosystem","We all love a good story, especially in crypto, where rapid change and open data make it easy to find patterns and draw conclusions....","Using Threat Modelling as a Strategic Development Tool","Security roles in crypto need steady, methodical work. Figuring out the safety of a complex protocol is genuinely challenging, and effective threat modelling is a...","Jun 2025","Optimism Extends $2 Million Bug Bounty Program to Protocol Upgrades Ahead of Superchain Interop","Optimism is extending its $2 million bug bounty program to cover proposed protocol upgrades before they ever go into production, as OP Stack core developers prepare to...","Faina Shalts","End-to-End Multichain Testing with Relayer.sol","Relayer.sol brings first class multichain end-to-end testing to your Forge testing setup. By inheriting from the abstract Relayer test helper, your tests can spin up fork...","Governance in Season 8: The Next Phase","Just over three years ago, the Optimism Collective embarked on a large-scale experiment in decentralized governance. From the beginning, we’ve been committed to taking...","PeerDAS-devnet-7 Updates","We recently ran PeerDAS through its paces on a modified peerdas-devnet-7 testnet (big thanks to EthPandaOps for leading the spec work!). This devnet was run by Sunnyside...","Michael Silberling","Metrics To Be Optimistic About in 2025","Like any business, the Superchain needs clear success metrics to evaluate performance and guide strategic decisions....","May 2025","PeerDAS and a 48 blob target in 2025","This post kicks off a multi-part series on PeerDAS. Over the coming weeks we’ll publish performance deep dives for every major consensus layer /execution layer (el/cl)...","Optimism Brings Ethereum’s Pectra Upgrade to the Superchain","Optimism core developers at OP Labs successfully activated the Isthmus hardfork today, bringing key features from Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade to the OP Stack...","Why the Future Runs on the OP Stack","The OP Stack is becoming the standard. Standards win because they compound. More OP Stack chains mean more experiments, faster iteration, and unstoppable momentum....","Apr 2025","SuperStacks: A New Approach to Rewards on the Superchain","With many chains building as one, a new network structure is emerging to solve fragmentation in Ethereum. This network is modular, interoperable, and composable...","Mar 2025","Interoperable Superchain assets are here, with USDT0 leading the way","Stablecoins are vital for onchain finance, and the Superchain is quickly becoming an important ecosystem for stablecoin users and asset issuers...","Jan 2025","Optimism: 2024 year in review","There is never a dull year in the Ethereum ecosystem. As we begin 2025, we want to take the opportunity to look back at the progress that has been made across Optimism...","Dec 2024","Inside the EIF: Ethereum community unites for an interoperable future","A milestone event took place during this year's Devcon – the Ethereum Interop Forum (EIF). This gathering brought together key players from across the Ethereum ecosystem...","Wonderland","Setting out for a cross-chain future: Moving data across blockchains","This blog post shares how the Wonderland team builds tools to make data interoperable across the Superchain and Ethereum ecosystem....","Nov 2024","Building the Future of Ethereum: the Superchain and Native Interoperability","At Optimism, our mission is to build an internet that benefits all, owned by all. We are working to scale Ethereum and empower developers and users worldwide...","Retro Funding 2025","As we step into 2025, we continue to summon Ether's Phoenix through the evolution of Retroactive Public Goods Funding. This post outlines our plan to improve the...","Oct 2024","Welcoming Ink to the Superchain","Today we’re excited to welcome Kraken to the Superchain with Ink: a blockchain powered by the OP Stack....","Our shared Optimism","Optimism started as a project with a single L2 chain and the goal to scale Ethereum — both its technology and its values. The blockchain industry has evolved...","Welcoming Unichain to the Superchain","Uniswap Labs, Uniswap Foundation, and Optimism are excited to announce the launch of Unichain, an L2 purpose-built for DeFi, exclusively on the OP Stack – now live...","Aug 2024","How (and why) the Superchain drives fees to the Optimism Collective","The Superchain is pioneering a new, shared approach to scaling Ethereum’s tech and values in a sustainable way that benefits all builders....","Welcoming Soneium to the Superchain","Today we are excited to welcome Soneium to the Superchain.  Soneium, by Sony Block Solutions Labs, is building an Ethereum Layer 2 using the OP Stack...","Solving Interoperability for the Superchain and beyond","This blog post details our approach to unifying the Superchain by bringing native Interoperability to the OP Stack and enhancing UX across the Ethereum ecosystem...","Building a unified Superchain","Optimism began with a single chain – an L2 called OP Mainnet – a single team, and a single dream: to scale Ethereum...","Jun 2024","The Fault Proof System is available for the OP Stack","This post outlines the key features and benefits of fault proofs, details its rollout plan, and offers a glimpse of what's next on the path of technical decentralization....","Permissionless Fault Proofs and Stage 1 Arrive to the OP Stack","Governance-approved, permissionless fault proofs are live on OP Mainnet, and with them the OP Stack arrives at Stage 1. This is a monumental milestone for the Superchain...","Unpacking progress in baseline decentralization","This post details the latest baseline decentralization upgrades - including permissionless output proposals, bridge improvements, and permissioned roles updates...","May 2024","Welcoming L3s to the Superchain","The Optimism Collective holds a shared, long-standing commitment to scaling Ethereum. From our technology stack to our values structure, it’s core to everything we do...","Redstone Mainnet is Live, Featuring Plasma Mode","For the past month, Lattice has prepared for the public launch of Redstone with its Race to Mainnet, inviting several game developers to build and playtest on the network...","Apr 2024","Initial findings from the fault proof program Sherlock audit","With the Sherlock audit contest completed, fault proofs are one step closer to OP Mainnet! This post covers initial contest results and next steps....","Welcoming World Chain to the Superchain","Last year, Worldcoin Foundation committed to the Superchain vision for a more secure, decentralized, and equitable internet....","Tim Daubenschütz","Minting NFTs from Ethereum or OP Mainnet","This guest post from Kiwi News discusses how to tap into Ethereum liquidity by making NFT minting available both on L1 and L2....","Alexis Williams","Fault Proof Deep-Dive Part 2: Cannon","Part two of the Fault Proof Deep-Dive Series with Coinbase concludes the overview of Cannon, the OP Stack’s first Fault Proof Virtual Machine (FPVM)...","Mar 2024","850M OP Dedicated to the Evolution of Retro Funding","At its core, Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) embodies a vision of collaboration and collective success. In order to scale the Superchain...","Build faster, build together: Introducing the Superchain Developer Console","A one-stop shop for aggregated tools and promotions, the Optimism Collective’s new Superchain Developer Console makes it easier than ever for developers to build and grow...","Open-source and feature-complete fault proofs bring permissionless validation to the OP Sepolia testnet","Feature-complete fault proofs are live on OP Sepolia! This milestone testnet release lays the foundation for a \"multi-proof nirvana\" and Stage 2 Superchain....","protolambda","From EIP to Ethereum mainnet: the collective triumph of 4844","This blog post reflects on the journey from EIP-4844's inception to implementation, and shares insights into what this update means for the future of Ethereum....","Celebrating Superchain Creativity: Announcing the Winners of \"We ❤️The Art\"","Amidst a whirlwind of creativity, We ❤️The Art has reached its conclusion, after seeing 7,000+ submissions seize this OPportunity to share their art...","Mofi Taiwo","Incentivizing honesty and participation in the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System","This blog post explores the theory behind how bonds are incorporated into the OP Stack's Fault Dispute Game to incentivize both participation and honest behavior....","Test in Prod","Feb 2024","How the Delta Upgrade reduced OP Chain fixed costs by over 90%","This blog post shares how Test in Prod built the Delta protocol upgrade, which brought the feature Span Batches, and significant savings, to OP Chain mainnets....","RetroPGF 3: Learnings & Reflections","Retroactive Public Goods Funding (Retro Funding) is an economic flywheel that rewards positive impact to the Optimism Collective...","Drop #4: Create together, benefit together","Today, Optimism is excited to announce Optimism Drop #4 (claim here), which gives 10,343,757.81 OP to 22,998 unique addresses...","Fault Proof Deep-Dive Part 1: MIPS.sol","Part one of the Fault Proof Deep-Dive Series with Coinbase explores the FPVM smart contract MIPS.sol and how it works within the OP Stack's Fault Proof System....","Introducing the Optimism Collective’s Security Council","On February 9, the Collective marked the launch of its first Security Council with the execution of an onchain transaction establishing a 2/2 multisig that is authorized...","Jan 2024","Improving Superchain Incident Response Capabilities","OP Labs is introducing a proposed protocol upgrade to bolster the ability to respond to security incidents in a coordinated manner across all OP Chains....","Nicholas Italiano","Open Sourcing Utilities for dApp Developers","Introducing the Ecosystem Repository, a place where utilities & applications get built to interact with protocols in the Optimism ecosystem, and their infrastructure....","Announcing RetroPGF Round 3 Recipients","501 builders, writers, creators, educators, and contributors from across the Optimism ecosystem have been allocated a portion of 30M OP...","Dec 2023","The Endgame for Decentralization in the OP Ecosystem is Stage 2","This blog post shares more about how we are thinking about decentralization at OP Labs as we support the ecosystem engineers building out a fault proof system...","Preparing Optimism for the Superchain future","In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, Optimism is pioneering a path towards a collaborative Superchain ecosystem—one where all chains are on a level playing field...","Nov 2023","A Very Onchain Summit: 2023 Devconnect Recap","This year at Devconnect in Istanbul, Turkey, the Optimism Collective hosted their first full day of talks and networking, aptly titled Onchain Summit: Superchain Edition...","OP Testnets are migrating from OP Goerli to OP Sepolia.","Ethereum's Goerli testnet, and OP Goerli along with it, will be fully decommissioned in January 2024. Migrate to OP Sepolia for any testing and development needs!...","Preparing the ecosystem for multiple chains","This blog post shares details about the first code changes that will make the Superchain real. The first establishes as protocol version system, and the second focuses...","Harry Markley","Providing Easier Access to Testnet ETH Across the Superchain with the Superchain Faucet","Developers need access to testnet tokens so that they can properly deploy, test, and iterate on their contracts in testnet...","Announcing 'We ❤️ The Art': A Creator Contest for Artists With ❤️","Thus far blockchain has been the site for exciting innovation in the realms of finance, governance, identity, and culture...","Introducing the Canyon Hardfork","On Nov. 14 at 17:00 UTC, Superchain testnets will upgrade to Canyon! This blog post outlines all the changes coming to the Optimism ecosystem in the wake of this protocol...","Answering the call: How RISC Zero and O(1) Labs are bringing ZK proofs to the OP Stack","In Season 4 of Optimism Governance, the community rallied around Collective Intents, where teams work on tightly scoped, specific initiatives known as Missions...","Oct 2023","The OP Stack’s Fault Proof System is live on OP Goerli","This post gives an overview of the OP Stack's first fault proof system, its components, and how they will work together to enhance decentralization in the Optimism...","clabby","Sep 2023","The game’s afoot: designing modular dispute games for the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System","A deep dive into dispute games & the role they will play in fault detection in the OP Stack's first fault proof system....","Social Decentralization & the OP Stack’s Fault Proof Virtual Machine","This blog post explores the principle of social decentralization, how L2 architecture allows Layer 2s to extend this principle to include proof diversity...","RetroPGF Round 3 Applications Are Open","Earlier this year, the Optimism Collective announced the third round of Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF)...","Aug 2023","Welcoming Base","This month marked a momentous first for Ethereum: a publicly listed US company launched its very own OP Chain powered by Optimism...","Maximizing fault proof modularity with a composable pre-image oracle","This blog post explores the modular design of the OP Stack's Fault Proof System, featuring a deep dive into the system’s pre-image oracle....","Zain Bacchus","Using onchain reputation data for testnet funds with the Superchain Faucet","The Superchain Faucet will enable builders in the Optimism ecosystem to leverage onchain reputation data to to claim up to 20x the typical amount of testnet ETH....","Jul 2023","Introducing the Law of Chains","The OP Stack was built to be the most forkable, modular scaling infrastructure out there. When we introduced it, we explained that it was our bet on the ingenuity...","Building a Fault Proof System worthy of the Superchain","An update on technical decentralization and the OP Stack's first Fault Proof System....","The Future of Optimism Governance","The Optimism Collective is governed by a two-house system. The Token House is made up of OP holders and their delegates, and the Citizens’ House...","Mark Tyneway","Jun 2023","Here’s how you can reproduce OP Mainnet’s migration to Bedrock","On June 6, 2023, OP Mainnet upgraded to Bedrock, and the entire migration process was designed to be verifiable and reproducible....","The OP Stack: Modular, Exponential Scalability for L2s","The OP Stack's code is EVM-equivalent, secure, performant, and MIT-licensed. The Optimism Ecosystem Contributions Dashboard can help developers get started....","Announcing RetroPGF Round 3","The Optimism Collective is excited to announce the third round of RetroPGF. This fall, 30 million OP will be distributed to builders, creators...","Building op-erigon: how Test in Prod joined the Optimism Collective","Test in Prod authors this guest post where they share their journey of discovering the OP Stack and building op-erigon....","Kelvin Fichter","Community-Driven Development: Introducing OP Stack Mods","OP Labs is excited to start highlighting OP Stack Mods, modifications or improvements to the OP Stack created by members of the Optimism and Ethereum communities...","May 2023","RetroPGF2: Learnings & Reflections","Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) is one of the leading economic experiments to help decentralize and grow crypto ecosystems...","Multi-proof design in the OP Stack","With Bedrock, we built a system that can fit many types of proof schemes, providing a more flexible, secure, and future proof OP Stack for builders in the Optimism...","Season 4: Our next experiment in community governance","The Optimism Collective is building community governance through experimentation. This iteration happens through time-bound governance experiments known as “Seasons.”...","Building a Decentralized Identity Ecosystem, Together","The Optimism Collective is building a better economic engine that fuels positive-sum games, and decentralized identity is central to that goal...","Progressing towards decentralization: highlights from the Keys in Mordor summit","In February, OP Labs engineers and core developers from the Optimism Collective gathered in person for the Keys in Mordor summit. The goal for this summit?...","Apr 2023","Improving token discoverability and trust through the Superchain Token List","The Superchain Token List will simplify the process of bridging tokens between Ethereum and OP Chains built on the OP stack, including OP Mainnet and Base....","Introducing op-erigon: how the Bedrock upgrade unlocks client diversity","Test in Prod leveraged the modular and open source OP Stack to develop an alternate execution client, op-erigon, now available to test on OP Goerli....","Exploring a new RPC endpoint to support ERC-4337 and account abstraction","This blog post delves into the intricacies of account abstraction, ERC-4337, and the benefits of a novel RPC endpoint that is being built to make...","Mar 2023","Announcing the Results of RetroPGF 2","Retroactive Public Goods Funding is the engine that drives the growth of the Optimism ecosystem....","Increasing Confidence in the OP Mainnet Bridge with Two-Step Withdrawals","The Bedrock upgrade will introduce a new two-step withdrawal process to the Optimism Mainnet bridge that will improve its security & make exploits much more difficult....","OP in Denver: Rollup Recap","A recap of the super time Optimists from OP Labs and the Optimism Foundation had talking about scaling Ethereum, the Superchain, and RetroPGF at ETHDenver....","Joshua","Here’s How Bedrock will Bring Significantly Lower Fees to OP Mainnet","This post explores how the Bedrock upgrade will bring 47% reduction in protocol costs and security fees to Optimism Mainnet....","Feb 2023","Optimism Goes m̶u̶l̶t̶i̶ Superchain","Optimism was built to empower humanity through decentralized blockchain technology that enables unprecedented coordination of human intelligence across the globe...","Optimism’s Path to Technical Decentralization","An update on OP Labs’ goals for advancing Optimism’s technical decentralization....","OP Drop #2","In May 2022, Optimism conducted Airdrop #1, distributing over 200m OP tokens to 250,000 early adopters and engaged users....","Building Bedrock","The successful OP Goerli Testnet upgrade is behind us, a robust audit competition is putting the Bedrock architecture under a microscope, and voting on the upgrade...","Jan 2023","Bedrock Security Reviews & Audit Competition","With the recent successful migration of the OP Goerli to Bedrock, we are approaching a crucial phase of the Bedrock release: the OP Mainnet upgrade....","Dec 2022","OP Goerli is Migrating to Bedrock","After a year of intense research and development, OP Labs has built the cheapest, fastest, most minimal codebase for an Ethereum-equivalent rollup, ever...","Optimism 2022: Year in Review","Wow. 2022 has been quite the decade.  As we prepare to leave it behind us and greet the new year, we thought we'd take a look back on another year of Optimism....","Gitcoin","Building the infrastructure for public goods funding","Gitcoin’s new grants protocol is actively under development and, as of this writing, currently in an alpha testing phase...","Making Blockchains Human-friendly","Alpha leak: today marks the start of the beta for the Optimist NFT, a customizable profile picture project meant to represent user identity across the Optimism ecosystem...","Introducing the Citizens’ House: 10m OP to Public Goods","Optimism is many things: a rapidly diversifying economy, a stack of open source modules for scalable blockchains, and a Collective of companies, contributors...","Nov 2022","EIP-4844: An Optimistic Bet on Rollup Scalability","EIP-4844 (protodanksharding) is on the rise. With its development, memes, and community support, it's anticipated as the next big upgrade to Ethereum...","Nick Balestra","Pragmatism: designing a Figma library in the open","In alignment with our goal to decentralize the Optimism ecosystem, we plan to open source more and more pieces of the Collective...","Oct 2022","OP in Bogotá: Rollup Recap","A recap of the time your Optimistic amigos spent at ETHBogotá and Devcon 6, complete with Hackathon winners, workshop highlights, and links to our many presentations....","Announcing OPCraft: an Autonomous World built on the OP Stack","Building an entirely on-chain crafting-based voxel game using the OP Stack....","Introducing the OP Stack","The Optimism Collective is an attempt to birth a new form of organization, built on the belief that that humans > capital and impact = profit...","Sep 2022","Earn NFTs while learning about popular apps on OP Mainnet","Explore the Optimism app ecosystem with Quests...","Aug 2022","OP Summer Summary","Earlier this year, we declared a Summer of Optimism heralded by the launch of the Optimism Collective, the OP token, and the distribution of grants to projects aligned...","Jul 2022","OP in Paris: Rollup Recap","A recap of all things Optimism at EthCC Paris, with links to presentations on Bedrock, EIP-4844, Cannon, and Optimism's technical roadmap....","Making OP Mainnet more accessible — meet Get Started","Guiding new users to their first transaction on Optimism....","Drippie: How OP Mainnet automates Ethereum","Optimism does a lot of stuff on-chain. Managing and monitoring the many on-chain interactions required to keep a system like this running can become a bit of a headache...","Jun 2022","Optimism is Migrating From Kovan to Goerli Testnet","The Kovan testnet has been deprecated by the Ethereum community, with only two validators remaining...","May 2022","Let the Claims Begin","A little over a month ago, we announced the launch of the Optimism Collective: our large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance...","Introducing Bedrock","Bedrock is the cheapest, fastest, and most advanced rollup architecture. Ever....","This Governance Will Self Destruct","Last month, we unveiled our vision for Optimism’s governance system.  For years leading up to this milestone, people asked us: “when token?” ...","A Summer of Optimism","Excitement has been brewing since last week’s announcement of the Optimism Collective.  It’s going to be an OP Summer....","Apr 2022","Introducing the Optimism Collective","As crypto enters its next wave of adoption, the calls for scalability are deafening. This demand is often answered by centralized layer-1 competitors...","A New Chapter","It’s hard to believe, but OP Mainnet launched over a year ago. Since then, we’ve...","Ether’s Phoenix","Humanity’s defining characteristic is its ability to organize and cooperate. We have devised a number of tools to do this — from language, religion, and legal structures...","Matthew Slipper","Reliability and Hardening","In the beginning, mainnet.optimism.io was just a domain alias. All the actual infrastructure was handled by QuickNode. This let us focus on developing the core protocol...","Mar 2022","CANNON CANNON CANNON: Introducing Cannon","Today, we’re extremely excited to formally introduce Cannon to the world. Cannon is OP Mainnet’s next-gen fault proof. Its initial implementation by geohot...","The Road to Sub-dollar Transactions, Part 2: Compression Edition","Optimistic rollups are rapidly gaining maturity. As we move beyond the “zero to one” phase, the name of the game is optimization–and the most tangible optimization...","Feb 2022","ETHDenver: Rollup Recap","It’s hard to overstate how much fun we had at ETHDenver last week. We’re still coming down from our post-conference high — the inevitable fallout from a week...","The Road to Sub-dollar Transactions Part 1: Slashing Fees by 30%","Last month was OP Mainnet’s 1-year mainnetiversary. We’re incredibly proud of this milestone — but the path is far from over...","Aug 2021","Introducing Smock v2","Solidity devs: meet Smock v2. The Solidity mocking library. A collaboration between Optimism and the fantastic team over at DeFi Wonderland....","A Love Letter to Etherscan","Dearest Etherscan,  How to describe what you mean to us? Let us count the ways. You are...","Jul 2021","The Missing Message Mystery","This is the story of our experience looking into a bug that caused our Optimistic Ethereum testnet deployment to stop accepting new L1 ⇒ L2 deposits for a period...","OP Enterprise","Actions SDK","FAQ","Brand","Bridge","Collective documentation","Governance","Governance forum","Start building","GitHub","Onchain data","Status","Bug Bounty","Social","X","LinkedIn","YouTube","© 2026 Optimism Foundation. All rights reserved.","Optimism Community Agreement","Terms of Service","Privacy Policy"],"codeblock":[],"url":"/blog"}}