Optimism

Optimism was developed by OP Labs PBC, previously known as Optimism PBC, which was co-founded by Jinglan Wang, Karl Floersch, and Kevin Ho.

Optimism development began around 2019, and it officially launched on May 31, 2022.

Optimism uses Optimistic Rollup technology to scale Ethereum. Transactions are executed off-chain and submitted to Ethereum in batches. This model makes Optimism highly cost and speed efficient. Optimism supports EVM-compatible smart contracts. OP is used for governance, allocating funding, and voting on protocol upgrades and incentive programs.

Optimism offers several notable features:

• Scalability: Optimistic Rollups allow for reduced gas fees and higher throughput compared to Ethereum mainnet.
• Compatibility: Developers can easily migrate or deploy Ethereum dApps without modifying core logic.
• Security: Inherits Ethereum’s security model and uses fraud proofs to ensure transaction validity.
• Governance: OP hodlers participate in voting on protocol upgrades, treasury allocation, and ecosystem decisions via the Optimism Collective.
• Funding: A portion of network revenue and token distribution supports the development of open-source tools and infrastructure.
• Interoperability: Bridges allow movement of assets between Ethereum and Optimism, improving useability for users and developers.