OP Stack

Thank you to the Optimism community for a fabulous week in Brussels! Here are the slides I presented at the Optimistic Gathering on Tuesday, where I gave a preview of some of the things that we're working on in the rest of 2024. 

THREAD:

First, WHAT IS OPTIMISM? 

If you're in this channel, you probably already know, but there are a bunch of things that make Optimism what it is today:

• OP Stack: Modular, open-source, decentralized. EVM-equivalent. OP gov rarely approves changes to the mainline OP Stack codebase that could cause it to deviate from Ethereum. e.g. new precompiles typically need to go through vigorous RollCall process before they can get added to OP Stack 

• Superchain: A network of L2s and L3s scaling Ethereum together and sharing common tech stack. Also contributing a portion of revenue to Collective, to reinvest in shared infra and public goods

• Retro Funding: Process for funding these public goods, for Optimism and beyond. ALL ecosystems in the Superchain are eligible for Retro Funding! Sequencer revenue is used for this, so we get a flywheel of development and OP Stack roadmap is accelerated by broad network of contributors, like Base, Lattice, and Sunnyside Labs

product @ optimism • ex-crypto @ ex-twitter 

Let's drill in on THE SUPERCHAIN: 

• Network of L2s and L3s working to scale Ethereum together & share the Optimism vision, values, tech stack
• Contributing revenue to shared infra + public goods
• By joining the Superchain, teams are making a statement and a commitment to scaling Ethereum’s technology and values
• Soon: chains will have the opportunity to share security & a communication layer ("interop") 
• Today: Supported through grants, Retro Funding, Optimism community of builders 
• Many ways to be part of the Superchain: launch a chain, build an app, delegate your OP, vote in governance
• If you are part of Optimism, you are part of the Superchain!

So that's the vision -- what are we BUILDING to get there? What's new, and what's next?

To start, here are our MAJOR SHIPS FROM JUNE (that's right, ships from the past ~month):

• STAGE 1! OPM upgraded to permissionless fault proofs on June 10, and is now a stage 1 rollup adjudicated by its code, with the security council serving as a human-powered override. Other OP Stack Chains will be Stage very soon 🔜 

• ALT-DA! Now OP Stack Chains can use Celestia, Eigen DA or Avail to store data instead of blobs on Eth L1. This means tx fees & overhead will stay low even if blob data fees spike on L1. 

• CUSTOM GAS! Now you can launch an OP Stack Chain that uses a gas token other than eth. Very interesting for teams building rich internal ecosystems (e.g. games, or going L1->L2)

Last two are "beta features" which haven't yet been approved by OP Gov, but they've gone through the same eng & security processes as all features that are shipped for the OP Stack.

But what's next? Time to talk about what else is coming soon (in approx order that you'll see it). 

First, we're launching the SUPERCHAIN REGISTRY later this month:

• "Who's in the Superchain?" Superchain Registry will tell you -- along with what config & code each chain is using 
• Quickly see what chains you can build on, along with any mods 
• Full list for partners who want to integrate w/ and support the full Superchain 
• New onboarding process for new OP Stack Chains (and a way to verify that you're set up correctly) 
• Starting scrappy, with a git repo that you can query + build off of

Next: BLOCKSPACE CHARTERS. 

• New governance primitive which helps implement & guide the Law of Chains 
• Specifies the criteria that chains have to follow. Different types of blockspace have different charters (e.g. Alt-DA chains are different from Eth DA chains) 
• See the draft gov proposal here:

Next: BLOCKSPACE CHARTERS. 

• New governance primitive which helps implement & guide the Law of Chains 
• Specifies the criteria that chains have to follow. Different types of blockspace have different charters (e.g. Alt-DA chains are different from Eth DA chains) 
• See the draft gov proposal here: https://gov.optimism.io/t/season-6-introducing-blockspace-charters-superchain-first-governance/8133

Next: INTEROP 

• Kill network switching, so that users never have to change their network in wallet or app 
• Grow shared liquidity, so that devs and users can access funds from anywhere in the Superchain 

The Superchain will feel like just one chain ✨ 

See also: 
• @tynes going deeper on this in Brussels: https://x.com/Optimism/status/1811382568685593039
• Interop specs: https://specs.optimism.io/interop/overview.html

Finally, we're working towards a new decentralization milestone, which we call "STAGE 1.5" 

First, let's recap the Rollup Stage Framework

• Proposed by Vitalik and tracked by L2BEAT
• Tracks progressive decentralization -- as rollups get more mature and we build more confidence, we can gradually take the (human) training wheels off and get to a place where rollups and txns are adjudicated by code
• OP Mainnet is at Stage 1 today, with other OP Chains to follow soon this summer 
• But we don't want to jump straight from Stage 1 to Stage 2, because Stage 2 means effectively removing the human backup. How do we do this safely??

STAGE 1.5 is the answer:

• Build redundancy in our fault proof system so we can take training wheels off confidently 
• Build a second proof system, comprised of new fault proof program (Kona) and new fault proof VM (Asterisc)
• Written in Rust! Completely independent from current (Go) proof system
• Open source! See it all here https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/kona and here https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/asterisc
• Built on top of amazing OSS from Reth team @ Paradigm + others, as well as Sunnyside Labs

There are many other smaller features, improvements, tools and more that we're planning now, but these are some of the "big rocks" you'll start to see moving in 2024

Let me know if you have questions -- my DCs are open -- and don't forget to stay Optimistic ✨