Key data (as of August 25, 2022):
- Circulating Provide — 214,748,364 OP
- Whole Provide — 4,294,967,296
- Market Cap — $264,520,019
- Sector — DeFi, Layer 2 options, sensible contract platform
- Token Kind — Native
- Token Utilization — Awarding grants and governance
- ATH — $2.21
- ATH Date — August 4, 2022
About Optimism
Optimism is a layer 2 (L2) scaling answer constructed on prime of the Ethereum community. On account of elevated curiosity in L2 scaling options, Optimism has risen in prominence previously yr.
Because of congestion on the Ethereum community, customers have been on the lookout for methods to bypass the congestion whereas additionally persevering with to make use of the safety and decentralization of the Ethereum community. That is the place L2 scaling options come into play. Whereas there are a number of sorts of L2 options, Optimism makes use of a proprietary know-how known as Optimistic Rollups as its technique to enhance scalability.
Optimism permits builders and customers to make the most of the Ethereum blockchain on an L2, trying to permit customers a low-cost and tremendous fast approach to transact on an L2 scaling answer.
Optimism’s Founders
Optimism Labs was co-founded by CEO Jinglan Wang and chief scientist Benjamin Jones, who additionally serves on the board of the Optimism Basis.
Whole Worth Locked
In keeping with DeFiLlama, Optimism has a complete worth locked (TVL) of $767.93 million as of August 4, 2022. The highest 3 dApps on Optimism as of August 4, 2022, are Aave V3, Synthetix, and Velodrome. There are at the moment 62 dApps on Optimism.
So far, Optimism claims to have saved over $1 billion in gasoline charges and donated $1 million to public items and companies. In keeping with DeFiLlama Optimism has a complete worth locked of $767.93 million as of August 4, 2022. The highest 3 dApps on Optimism as of August 4, 2022, are Aave V3, Synthetix, and Velodrome. There are at the moment 62 dApps on Optimism.
Optimism TVL. Supply: DeFiLlama
Layer 2 Chains
In cryptocurrency, there are layer 1 (L1) and layer 2 (L2) blockchains. L1 is the bottom layer and consists of the underlying infrastructure of a blockchain. Examples of L1 blockchains embrace Ethereum, Avalanche, and Bitcoin. As the bottom layer blockchain, dApps, NFTs, and L2 blockchains are constructed on prime of the L1 blockchain. The 2 fundamental objectives of an L2 blockchain are growing the pace of the underlying blockchain by scaling the community past its capability. Whereas this may be executed in a wide range of methods, the 2 fundamental options embrace rolling up transactions and conducting some L1 computation on one other layer.
In keeping with DeFiLlama, Optimism is the ninth largest chain by whole worth locked. Within the L2 house, Optimism has a number of opponents, with every chain scaling another way.
Layer 2 blockchains proceed to extend in reputation due to the rise in reputation of sensible contracts, cryptocurrency, and blockchain know-how. L1 blockchains akin to Ethereum are experiencing giant will increase in transactions leading to a clogged community and better gasoline charges. An L2 answer, like Optimism, helps unlock these logjams by providing alternate paths to validating transactions, thus assuaging the community and decreasing charges.
Gasoline Charges Defined
On blockchains akin to Ethereum, customers should pay “gasoline charges” to carry out many actions on the community. Gasoline charges on the Ethereum community are used to mint NFTs, work together with DeFi protocols, in addition to ship ETH, ERC-20 tokens, and NFTs from one pockets to a different. In brief, almost each exercise executed on the Ethereum community requires a gasoline charge.
All gasoline charges on the Ethereum blockchain should be paid within the community’s native coin, Ether. Gasoline charges on the blockchain are denoted in gwei. One gwei is the same as 0.000000001 ETH. Gasoline charges are used on the community to incentivize Ethereum miners to prioritize transactions. Customers then “bid” for his or her transaction to be prioritized, beginning what some name a “bidding battle.” Because of this throughout instances of excessive quantity on the community, gasoline charges can turn out to be extraordinarily costly. Merely put, fewer transactions are pending, and fewer bidding happens, which in flip lowers charges.
How Optimism Works
Because of the excessive congestion on the Ethereum community, customers have been trying to find a approach to lower gasoline charges and enhance the scalability of the community. Layer 2 chains work to divert a few of the congestion onto itself, permitting for freer motion on the underlying L1 community. Optimism achieves this by inserting all transaction knowledge on the Ethereum Blockchain whereas working all computations off-chain. Nevertheless, knowledge from the transactions is proposed and validated on the Ethereum blockchain.
Layer 2 blockchains, akin to Optimism, try to extend the scalability of the underlying Ethereum community by rolling up transactions. Put merely, Layer 2 Optimism supplies to customers and builders by bridging belongings from one layer to a different and creating dApps on prime of Optimism, each customers and builders can transact on Optimism whereas sustaining the info on the Ethereum community.
What’s an Optimistic Rollup?
Optimism permits Ethereum to deal with extra transactions per second and reduces transaction prices by utilizing a proprietary know-how known as Optimistic Rollups. In brief, these work to bundle off-chain transactions and submits them in giant batches to the Ethereum community. This in flip reduces charges for customers. Optimism then compresses the info to scale back storage issues on the community earlier than posting it again to the Ethereum blockchain.
In the intervening time, Optimism’s greatest competitor is Arbitrum. Each Arbitrum and Optimism use Optimistic rollups to scale the underlying Ethereum community. Whereas Optimism makes use of single-round fraud proofs, Arbitrum makes use of multi-round fraud proofs.
Whereas Optimism has 62 dApps at the moment constructed on it, Arbitrum has 109. Arbitrum has a complete worth locked of $954.1 million. Of all rollup chains, Optimism is the most important by market capitalization, accounting for 51% of the TVL of all rollup chains. Arbitrum accounts for an additional 45%, that means that Optimism and Arbitrum account for over 96% of the TVL of all rollup chains.
Whereas this distinction may be very technical, the distinction between Arbitrum and Optimism entails how transactions are submitted to remove the potential for any fraud. Arbitrum additionally doesn’t make the most of the Ethereum Digital Machine, it makes use of the Arbitrum Digital Machine.
Concerning the OP Token
The native cryptocurrency of Optimism is the Optimism Token (OP). OP is at the moment the 102nd largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Lately, Optimism carried out an airdrop for choose customers who had engaged with the Optimism bridge earlier than the token’s launch. At the moment, the OP Token is used primarily for governance. OP tokens may also be given to initiatives on Optimism.
These scaling options assist customers rapidly transact with dApps and builders constructing on Optimism. Optimism is equal to the Ethereum Digital Machine, permitting builders to create dApps and instruments that work on the community.
Optimism exists to serve two main features: to extend the transactions Ethereum can deal with and to lower the gasoline charges. The OP token offers customers entry to the Optimism Collective.
Optimism Governance
Developed by Optimism Labs, Optimism is managed by the Optimism Basis, a non-profit group whose mission is to develop and seed the Optimism Chain. Optimism is ruled by the Optimism Collective which is answerable for working and upgrading the protocol. Because the Optimism protocol generates an ideal sum of money and crypto in income, the Optimism Collective helps allocate these funds to a wide selection of initiatives, protocols, organizations, and communities which can be constructing in direction of what Optimism calls “the widespread good.”
In keeping with the Optimism structure, governance of the Optimism chain shall be managed by two equal branches referred to as the Optimism Collective, with possession of the OP token permitting customers to participate in governance points on the chain.
The 2 branches are the Token Home and the Residents’ Home. The Token Home is made up of members of the neighborhood who assist allocate undertaking incentives, protocol upgrades, and treasury funds The Citizen’s Home offers with retroactive public items funding, and may solely be joined by non-transferable citizenship that’s awarded by a course of that entails each homes. In flip, each homes take care of community parameters and granting citizenships. This requires customers to carry OP as grounds for participation.
The Token Home and Residents’ Home. Supply: Optimism
The Launch of the Optimism Token
On Might 31, 2022, the OP token was launched because the governance and native cryptocurrency of the Optimism Chain. For the preliminary airdrop, over 230,000 addresses certified to assert over 210 million OP tokens.
Following the airdrop, the OP token noticed a large dip in its worth Since then, the worth remained considerably secure across the $0.50 worth, earlier than surging to a brand new all-time excessive of over $2.15 in early August.
The place to be taught extra about Optimism
There are numerous assets out there to these seeking to be taught extra about Optimism, the OP Token, and utilizing the Optimism chain. Try Optimism’s official web site to be taught extra concerning the OP ecosystem, governance, block explorer, and rather more. One other place to be taught extra about Optimism is DeFiLlama. Monitor the highest dApps on Optimism, observe the whole worth locked on Optimism, and rather more on DeFiLlama. You can too observe the value of OP on CEX.IO.
