Wormhole Chains — Optimism

Welcome to the latest edition of the Wormhole Chains series, where we introduce the latest chain that has been added to the Wormhole network. Today, it’s all about Optimism.

1. What is Optimism?

TL;DR:

Optimism is an “Optimistic Rollup,” which is a fancy way of describing a blockchain that benefits from the security of another “parent” blockchain. Specifically, Optimistic Rollups use their parent chain’s consensus mechanism (such as PoW or PoS) rather than providing their own, which is rather resource-intense. In the case of Optimism, the parent blockchain is Ethereum.

As the popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) and decentralized applications (dApps) grows on the Ethereum network, the demand for faster and cheaper transactions also increases. The Ethereum network, however, is facing scalability challenges due to its limited transaction throughput and high gas fees. To address these issues, the Ethereum community has been exploring various Layer-2 (L2) scaling solutions, including Optimism. Optimism is a Layer-2 scaling solution that uses the concept of Optimistic Rollups to increase the transaction throughput and reduce gas fees on the Ethereum network. In this blog post, we will discuss how they work and how they are used to scale the Ethereum network.

2. What are Optimistic Rollups?

Optimistic Rollups are a type of L2 scaling solution that allow for off-chain transactions while maintaining the security and integrity of the Ethereum network. In Optimistic Rollups, transactions are processed off-chain in a smart contract, and the state of the off-chain transactions is periodically synchronized with the Ethereum blockchain. The use of smart contracts in the rollup process provides a higher level of security compared to other L2 scaling solutions, as the transactions are secured by the Ethereum network.

3. How Optimism uses Optimistic Rollups

Optimism uses Optimistic Rollups to scale the Ethereum network by moving most of the transactions off-chain. The off-chain transactions are processed in a smart contract, allowing for faster and cheaper transactions compared to those on the Ethereum network. The state of the off-chain transactions is periodically synchronized with the Ethereum blockchain, ensuring the security and integrity of the network.

4. Benefits of Optimistic Rollups

The use of optimistic rollups in Optimism provides several benefits for the Ethereum network and its users:

1. Increased Transaction Throughput: Optimistic Rollups allow for faster and more efficient transactions, as most of the transactions are processed off-chain.
2. Reduced Gas Fees: Transactions on the L2 are processed faster and with lower gas fees compared to those on the Ethereum network, making it a more cost-effective solution for users.
3. Enhanced Security: The use of smart contracts in the rollup process provides a higher level of security compared to other L2 scaling solutions, as the transactions are secured by the Ethereum network.
4. Support for Smart Contracts: Optimism supports smart contracts, allowing developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) and DeFi projects on top of it.

The Optimism Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to expanding the Optimism blockchain. They are not only writing software that scales Ethereum technology, but they are also scaling Ethereum values by laying the groundwork for highly impactful projects that lack a viable business model.

5. Anything else?

Native Token

OP token

With Airdrop #1, OP was distributed to hundreds of thousands of addresses that demonstrated positive-sum, community-oriented behavior. More information on the distribution criteria can be found here.

OP holders are responsible for submitting, deliberating, and voting on various types of governance proposals. OP holders may vote directly or delegate their OP voting power to an eligible third party.

Decentralized Markets

Plenty, find them all here

Wallets

MetaMask
Rainbow
BraveWallet
…and many more

Block Explorer

Etherscan

Programming Languages

Go
JavaScript
Solidity
Vyper

Documentation & GitHub

Docs
GitHub

Contact & Socials

Stay up to date with Optimism by following their social channels:

Website | Twitter | Twitch | Discord | Blog

6. Wormhole Noob? No problem!

If you’re new to Wormhole, here’s what you need to know:

🌪️ Wormhole is an interoperability protocol that allows projects to build on top of its generic message-passing layer. It connects to multiple chains, including Ethereum, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Algorand, Fantom, Karura, Celo, Acala, Aptos and Arbitrum. Wormhole does this by emitting messages from one chain to another, which are observed and verified by a Guardian network of nodes. After verification, this message is submitted to the target chain for processing. This simple message-passing primitive enables xChain functionality. Users interact with xDapps (xChain decentralized applications) to transfer xAssets (cross-chain assets) between networks or access their xData (xChain data) to provide them services on their current network.

Some stats:

⚬ 20+ chains on six runtimes
⚬ The protocol’s total volume stands at over $35B
⚬ Hundreds of millions of messages have successfully been transmitted
⚬ Currently, millions of messages are submitted each day
⚬ More than 60 protocols are building on top of Wormhole’s generic message-passing layer

Check out Chase M., a Wormhole contributor, explaining more about Wormhole below:

7. Wormhole’s supported networks

Applications built with Wormhole allow users to send assets to and from any of the 20+ supported chains without double-wrapping the asset. It enables seamless access to each network’s vibrant DeFi and NFT ecosystems!

Optimism is the latest addition to Wormhole’s network of supported chains — check out the Portal bridge to see which chains you can bridge to!

8. Join the ever-growing Wormhole community

If you have questions, need support or want to connect, join the Wormhole community and keep up-to-date with our upcoming announcements. We’re always happy to hear your feedback. Join our Discord, and drop us a comment!

Twitter | Discord | Medium | Telegram | Website