Author: Shanni

Last month, the WorldCoin Foundation announced the launch of a blockchain based on the OP Stack called World Chain. This blockchain will join Optimism's Superchain network and will interact with other chains such as Base, Mode, OP Mainnet, and Zora.

You might have heard about OP, OP Stack, and the Superchain. Curious folks might be asking - what? why? where? This article will answer all those questions about the current state of the Superchain, its vision, and more. At the end of the article, there is also a handy guide on how to publish on Layer 2/Layer 3 platforms.

Optimism is well-known as a Layer 2 solution based on Ethereum, aimed at providing fast, stable, scalable, and cost-effective blockchain services. It operates on top of Ethereum's main chain (Layer 1), helping to alleviate network congestion, and thereby reducing transaction costs and processing times

Optimism utilizes Optimistic Rollups, which package a large amount of transaction data together, processing and paying fees on the Ethereum main chain only once. This method not only speeds up transactions and reduces costs but also maintains the high security that relies on Ethereum as its base. Later, the Optimistic Rollup was made open source, becoming the OP Stack - an open-source blockchain framework published by the Optimism Collective.

The OP Stack can be understood as a toolkit for launching Layer 2 chains with one click, significantly simplifying the construction of Layer 2 chains. These decentralized chains developed based on the OP Stack share security, communication layers, and the open-source technology stack, forming the vision of the Op Superchain.

Current Status: Using Op Stacks in Various Domains

Currently, Op Stacks has been adopted by multiple well-known projects, including Base, a Layer 2 developed by Coinbase that leads in various Layer 2 NFT trading data, Debank Chain launched by asset management application Debank, and Farcaster Stack from the leading social protocol Farcaster. The diversity of these applications reflects the concept of the Op Superchain that Op Stack was intended to support from its inception.

A "Superchain" is a multi-chain network architecture based on Layer 2 (L2) technology, designed to address the challenges of horizontal scalability in traditional blockchains. Traditional multi-chain architectures often face difficulties in collaboration and high overhead costs. The "Superchain," by treating each chain as an "interchangeable computational resource," essentially commodifies blockchain technology, thereby allowing developers to build cross-chain applications without increasing systemic risk.

In the "Superchain" model, individual chains (like the OP chain) are standardized and integrated into a network formally managed by the Optimism Collective. These chains not only share security and communication layers, but also a common open-source technology stack. This design allows developers to focus more on building applications across the entire superchain without worrying about the specific technical details of individual chains.

Additionally, this design concept means that the very concept of blockchain can become more abstract, allowing developers to view the entire interoperable blockchain network as a unified entity. This enables more efficient development and deployment of new solutions. In this way, the "Superchain" not only optimizes resource utilization but also opens up new possibilities for the future development of blockchain technology.

In the "Superchain" bridge security model, security (i.e., validity) and liveness (i.e., resistance to censorship) are ensured. Security is guaranteed by the proof system, while liveness is ensured by the ability to submit transactions directly to Layer 1 (L1). The combination of security and liveness means that if the OP Chain sequencer fails, users can always submit their transactions to L1, which will then migrate their usage to a new OP Chain with a correctly functioning sequencer.

Here is the official Optimism definition of a "Superchain," which meets the following criteria:

Property Purpose Shared L1 blockchain Provides a total ordering of transactions across all OP Chains. Shared bridge for all OP Chains Enables OP Chains to have standardized security properties. Cheap OP Chain deployment Enables deploying and transacting on OP Chains without the high fees of transacting on L1. Configuration options for OP Chains Enables OP Chains to configure their data availability provider, sequencer address, etc. Secure transactions and cross-chain messages Enables users to safely migrate state between OP Chains.

OP Labs, as a framework support entity, has done much work aimed at enabling broader technological decentralization for the OP Stack. For example, the Bedrock version supports multiple proof schemes and several clients. Multi-client fault proofing is a fundamental component of technological decentralization, and Bedrock’s modular framework significantly influences the community's decentralized capabilities in actual development of the OP Stack.

• Strategy - Maintain Honesty

  • In the pursuit of decentralization, maintaining intellectual honesty in facing challenges is important. Specifically, writing complex and error-free code is very difficult but crucial because any vulnerability could have catastrophic consequences for any Layer 2 solution.

• Tactic - Parallel Development of Protocol Upgrades

  • OP advocates for purposeful, pragmatic, and cautious maintenance in the steps of on-chain fault proofing. Achieving full proofing takes time, but Optimism believes that several protocol upgrades can be developed in parallel, allowing for meaningful further development of the OP Stack in decentralization without waiting for fault proofs to be ready.

    Constantly updating technical solutions actually led to OP being discovered to have two bugs by the Arbitrum team. As a technology provider, such a widely used open-source framework is also constantly under the scrutiny of the market and community, necessitating greater responsibility.

OP Stacks Superchain's Success in the CryptoMarket

According to data from L2beat, as of May 4, 2024, the total value locked (TVL) in Layer 2 solutions is $39.98 billion, with OP Stack accounting for $18.61 billion—nearly half of the total TVL and ranking first. The services of Optimism's Stack have been widely adopted, and an increasing number of projects are using the OP Stack framework to quickly establish new L2 solutions, such as Optimism, Base, Mode, Zora, Frax, Lyra, Ancient, Redstone, Worldcoin, Mint, Lisk. This underscores the value of Stack services in the market narrative.

How did OP Stacks evolve into a Superchain?

From a technical perspective, we can explain by discussing a specific part of the code and official information:

• Introduction of the SystemConfig Contract The technical platform behind OP Stack, Bedrock, introduced the SystemConfig contract, which starts defining L2 chains directly through L1 smart contracts. This can be expanded to include all information defining L2 chains on the blockchain, including creating unique chain IDs, block gas limits, and other key configuration values.

  • An excerpt of the SystemConfig contract is as follows

  • /** * @title SystemConfig * @notice The SystemConfig contract is used to manage configuration of an Optimism network. All * configuration is stored on L1 and picked up by L2 as part of the derviation of the L2 * chain. */ contract SystemConfig is OwnableUpgradeable, Semver { /** * @notice Enum representing different types of updates. * * @custom:value BATCHER Represents an update to the batcher hash. * @custom:value GAS_CONFIG Represents an update to txn fee config on L2. * @custom:value GAS_LIMIT Represents an update to gas limit on L2. * @custom:value UNSAFE_BLOCK_SIGNER Represents an update to the signer key for unsafe * block distrubution. */ /* * @notice Minimum gas limit. This should not be lower than the maximum deposit gas resource * limit in the ResourceMetering contract used by OptimismPortal, to ensure the L2 * block always has sufficient gas to process deposits. */ uint64 pubic constant MINIMUM_GAS_LIMIT = 8_000_000; /** * @notice Identifier for the batcher. For version 1 of this configuration, this is represented * as an address left-padded with zeros to 32 bytes. */ bytes32 public batcherHash; /** * @notice L2 gas limit. */ uint64 public gasLimit;

    • CREATE2 for Deterministic Chain Addresses

    With the SystemConfig design, once data is fully placed on the blockchain, a factory (Chain Factory) can be created to deploy configurations and all other necessary contracts for each chain. By using CREATE2 to generate corresponding contract addresses, this step is further extended: this means that given a chain configuration, we can determine all the bridge addresses associated with that chain. This also allows us to interact with the chain without deploying bridge contracts, making the deployment of chains almost free and allowing chains to inherit standard security properties.

Author: Shanni

Last month, the WorldCoin Foundation announced the launch of a blockchain based on the OP Stack called World Chain. This blockchain will join Optimism's Superchain network and will interact with other chains such as Base, Mode, OP Mainnet, and Zora.

You might have heard about OP, OP Stack, and the Superchain. Curious folks might be asking - what? why? where? This article will answer all those questions about the current state of the Superchain, its vision, and more. At the end of the article, there is also a handy guide on how to publish on Layer 2/Layer 3 platforms.

Optimism is well-known as a Layer 2 solution based on Ethereum, aimed at providing fast, stable, scalable, and cost-effective blockchain services. It operates on top of Ethereum's main chain (Layer 1), helping to alleviate network congestion, and thereby reducing transaction costs and processing times

Optimism utilizes Optimistic Rollups, which package a large amount of transaction data together, processing and paying fees on the Ethereum main chain only once. This method not only speeds up transactions and reduces costs but also maintains the high security that relies on Ethereum as its base. Later, the Optimistic Rollup was made open source, becoming the OP Stack - an open-source blockchain framework published by the Optimism Collective.

The OP Stack can be understood as a toolkit for launching Layer 2 chains with one click, significantly simplifying the construction of Layer 2 chains. These decentralized chains developed based on the OP Stack share security, communication layers, and the open-source technology stack, forming the vision of the Op Superchain.

Current Status: Using Op Stacks in Various Domains

Currently, Op Stacks has been adopted by multiple well-known projects, including Base, a Layer 2 developed by Coinbase that leads in various Layer 2 NFT trading data, Debank Chain launched by asset management application Debank, and Farcaster Stack from the leading social protocol Farcaster. The diversity of these applications reflects the concept of the Op Superchain that Op Stack was intended to support from its inception.

A "Superchain" is a multi-chain network architecture based on Layer 2 (L2) technology, designed to address the challenges of horizontal scalability in traditional blockchains. Traditional multi-chain architectures often face difficulties in collaboration and high overhead costs. The "Superchain," by treating each chain as an "interchangeable computational resource," essentially commodifies blockchain technology, thereby allowing developers to build cross-chain applications without increasing systemic risk.

In the "Superchain" model, individual chains (like the OP chain) are standardized and integrated into a network formally managed by the Optimism Collective. These chains not only share security and communication layers, but also a common open-source technology stack. This design allows developers to focus more on building applications across the entire superchain without worrying about the specific technical details of individual chains.

Additionally, this design concept means that the very concept of blockchain can become more abstract, allowing developers to view the entire interoperable blockchain network as a unified entity. This enables more efficient development and deployment of new solutions. In this way, the "Superchain" not only optimizes resource utilization but also opens up new possibilities for the future development of blockchain technology.

In the "Superchain" bridge security model, security (i.e., validity) and liveness (i.e., resistance to censorship) are ensured. Security is guaranteed by the proof system, while liveness is ensured by the ability to submit transactions directly to Layer 1 (L1). The combination of security and liveness means that if the OP Chain sequencer fails, users can always submit their transactions to L1, which will then migrate their usage to a new OP Chain with a correctly functioning sequencer.

Here is the official Optimism definition of a "Superchain," which meets the following criteria:

Property Purpose Shared L1 blockchain Provides a total ordering of transactions across all OP Chains. Shared bridge for all OP Chains Enables OP Chains to have standardized security properties. Cheap OP Chain deployment Enables deploying and transacting on OP Chains without the high fees of transacting on L1. Configuration options for OP Chains Enables OP Chains to configure their data availability provider, sequencer address, etc. Secure transactions and cross-chain messages Enables users to safely migrate state between OP Chains.

OP Labs, as a framework support entity, has done much work aimed at enabling broader technological decentralization for the OP Stack. For example, the Bedrock version supports multiple proof schemes and several clients. Multi-client fault proofing is a fundamental component of technological decentralization, and Bedrock’s modular framework significantly influences the community's decentralized capabilities in actual development of the OP Stack.

• Strategy - Maintain Honesty

  • In the pursuit of decentralization, maintaining intellectual honesty in facing challenges is important. Specifically, writing complex and error-free code is very difficult but crucial because any vulnerability could have catastrophic consequences for any Layer 2 solution.

• Tactic - Parallel Development of Protocol Upgrades

  • OP advocates for purposeful, pragmatic, and cautious maintenance in the steps of on-chain fault proofing. Achieving full proofing takes time, but Optimism believes that several protocol upgrades can be developed in parallel, allowing for meaningful further development of the OP Stack in decentralization without waiting for fault proofs to be ready.

    Constantly updating technical solutions actually led to OP being discovered to have two bugs by the Arbitrum team. As a technology provider, such a widely used open-source framework is also constantly under the scrutiny of the market and community, necessitating greater responsibility.

OP Stacks Superchain's Success in the CryptoMarket

According to data from L2beat, as of May 4, 2024, the total value locked (TVL) in Layer 2 solutions is $39.98 billion, with OP Stack accounting for $18.61 billion—nearly half of the total TVL and ranking first. The services of Optimism's Stack have been widely adopted, and an increasing number of projects are using the OP Stack framework to quickly establish new L2 solutions, such as Optimism, Base, Mode, Zora, Frax, Lyra, Ancient, Redstone, Worldcoin, Mint, Lisk. This underscores the value of Stack services in the market narrative.

How did OP Stacks evolve into a Superchain?

From a technical perspective, we can explain by discussing a specific part of the code and official information:

• Introduction of the SystemConfig Contract The technical platform behind OP Stack, Bedrock, introduced the SystemConfig contract, which starts defining L2 chains directly through L1 smart contracts. This can be expanded to include all information defining L2 chains on the blockchain, including creating unique chain IDs, block gas limits, and other key configuration values.

  • An excerpt of the SystemConfig contract is as follows

  • /** * @title SystemConfig * @notice The SystemConfig contract is used to manage configuration of an Optimism network. All * configuration is stored on L1 and picked up by L2 as part of the derviation of the L2 * chain. */ contract SystemConfig is OwnableUpgradeable, Semver { /** * @notice Enum representing different types of updates. * * @custom:value BATCHER Represents an update to the batcher hash. * @custom:value GAS_CONFIG Represents an update to txn fee config on L2. * @custom:value GAS_LIMIT Represents an update to gas limit on L2. * @custom:value UNSAFE_BLOCK_SIGNER Represents an update to the signer key for unsafe * block distrubution. */ /* * @notice Minimum gas limit. This should not be lower than the maximum deposit gas resource * limit in the ResourceMetering contract used by OptimismPortal, to ensure the L2 * block always has sufficient gas to process deposits. */ uint64 pubic constant MINIMUM_GAS_LIMIT = 8_000_000; /** * @notice Identifier for the batcher. For version 1 of this configuration, this is represented * as an address left-padded with zeros to 32 bytes. */ bytes32 public batcherHash; /** * @notice L2 gas limit. */ uint64 public gasLimit;

    • CREATE2 for Deterministic Chain Addresses

    With the SystemConfig design, once data is fully placed on the blockchain, a factory (Chain Factory) can be created to deploy configurations and all other necessary contracts for each chain. By using CREATE2 to generate corresponding contract addresses, this step is further extended: this means that given a chain configuration, we can determine all the bridge addresses associated with that chain. This also allows us to interact with the chain without deploying bridge contracts, making the deployment of chains almost free and allowing chains to inherit standard security properties.