I recently applied for a role with Optimism, although I got turned down, the process of applying was a huge value-add. I got to do a deeper dive into the OP stack. What I uncovered was beyond my anticipation.

I kinda fell in love.

To summarize what I saw, in my head, bridges. Bridges the likes of those built to connect floating islands, spanning over bodies of water or over thousands of feet of air.

I also envisioned steel-workers standing on half-built sky-scrapers. The likes of early bridge work at the start of the industrial revolution.

The iron bridge is sometimes regarded as the symbol of the industrial revolution. The case for this can be fairly simple, as machine powered production took hold, the importance of connecting civilization to handle new production capabilities increased in priority.

The horses, carriages, trains, cars, trucks needed new reinforced paths between emergent bodies to increase profit and decrease cost.

A new abstraction, steel bridges, created a new meme of production. And so forth it goes.

And as early settlers adopted a country, new states emerged. First building bridges for the village, later building bridges for the country, and last for the state.

Today.

We have new "land masses" emerging -- chains.

And as early settlers adopt these chains, new states will emerge. Needing reinforced paths between these emergent bodies, to increase profit and decrease cost

As this need continues to increase, the case for better bridges grows, to handle new production capabilities, and create a better interconnected onchain society. Potentially needing a symbol for our "blockchain revolution".

I saw Optimism.io becoming this symbol -- the iron bridge.

Closing note: This was to get some thoughts out of my head. Follow ups will lean towards more technical components of what I read/saw, including links and references, and how they tie into the evolution of our industry, at least how I see it.