Ethereum Layer 2 Network Optimism Is Dropping a Token

Optimism’s new OP token will likely be distributed to Optimism customers throughout “a complete season of airdrops.” The crew revealed its token as half of a bigger transfer towards a decentralized governance construction generally known as the Optimism Collective.

Optimism Launches Token 

Ethereum energy customers are getting one other airdrop—a collection of them, actually.

Optimism, one among Ethereum’s high Layer 2 scaling tasks, has introduced that will probably be issuing a governance token underneath the ticker OP. The Optimism crew revealed the information in a blog post Tuesday. The crew additionally shared a list of criteria for airdrop eligibility, which incorporates gadgets so simple as being an Optimism consumer to extra superior standards akin to being a DAO voter or multisig signer. 

The token airdrop would be the first in a collection of airdrops to be launched within the coming months. Whereas the crew didn’t present a precise date for the primary airdrop, it took care to warn customers that it’s not stay but, and any try to persuade customers in any other case is a rip-off.

The token drop is a component of a bigger transfer to a extra decentralized governance construction. The Optimism Collective, as will probably be generally known as of immediately’s announcement, will characteristic a bicameral “home” system that divides governance roles amongst a Token Home and a Residents’ Home. The Token Home will likely be comprised of recipients of OP throughout the first airdrop; Optimism will add customers to the Residents’ Home later by the use of issuing “soulbound” NFTs that can’t be purchased or bought. Collectively, the bicameral system in supposed to mitigate the potential plutocratic tendencies of purely token-based governance.

Optimism leverages a type of cryptographic know-how referred to as Optimistic Rollups to assist Ethereum scale. By working its personal community on high of the bottom chain, it will possibly course of transactions at the next pace and decrease value than Ethereum mainnet whereas leveraging the safety of the community. Optimism has a bridge that connects Ethereum mainnet to its Layer 2 community. Since launching in 2021, the community has welcomed key DeFi tasks like Synthetix and Uniswap. In launching a token, Optimism will likely be adopting a decentralized governance mannequin akin to many different comparable DeFi tasks on Ethereum. 

The token announcement had been anticipated for a number of days, thanks primarily to an Apr. 19 Mirror post during which Optimism detailed a plan to start out a brand new chapter “pushed by neighborhood possession and governance.” A leaked Coinbase web page additionally appeared to listing an Optimism token final week.  

Layer 2 Race Intensifies

The venture has seen vital progress over the previous few months amid elevated deal with Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling options. In response to L2Beat data, the community holds about $662 million in complete worth locked, a sum that’s jumped 15% during the last week because the token rumors began to floor. Notably, though Optimism is at present benefiting from a wave of hype, it’s nonetheless lagging behind its largest competitor, Arbitrum, one other Layer 2 resolution of the Optimistic Rollup selection holding $3.57 billion in complete worth locked—greater than half the Ethereum Layer 2 market. 

Whereas Optimism and Arbitrum are at present two of Ethereum’s largest scaling weapons, that’s anticipated to vary as soon as ZK-Rollups like StarkWare’s StarkNet acquire vital traction. Final week, the early Ethereum DeFi venture MakerDAO outlined plans to launch on StarkNet commencing with a bridge launch this Thursday as a part of its dedication to serving to the Ethereum ecosystem scale (2022 can be an enormous yr for the Ethereum protocol and its scaling roadmap, because it’s because of launch its extremely anticipated “Merge” to Proof-of-Stake). 

With Optimism now dropping a token, different comparable Layer 2 protocols face a call of whether or not to comply with swimsuit. On the earth of DeFi, it’s not unusual for tasks to launch a token as soon as a competitor does to incentivize utilization and assist bootstrap progress. Both method, alongside the Merge, the race to construct out Layer 2 is more likely to change into a key narrative in Ethereumland over the following few months. 

Disclosure: On the time of writing, the creator of this piece was eligible for Optimism’s token airdrop. Additionally they owned ETH, SNX, and had publicity to MKR and UNI in a cryptocurrency index.