# When the OP Stack evolves into the OP Superchain By [LXDAO](https://paragraph.com/@lxdao) · 2024-05-15 --- 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. **Starting with Optimism** -------------------------- 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. **What is a "Superchain"?** --------------------------- 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. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/49eb99dd45f629a9bacb42d1458d0ed684d98849036c179bce2caec030a7a7eb.png) 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. **How does the OP Chain ensure security?** ------------------------------------------ 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. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f41ac5ffe5ae11b2d8a8efb4674eca39f4a3e12e726c66eac940a6dd90bce9e4.png) **OP Technology's "Decentralization" Path** ------------------------------------------- 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](https://medium.com/offchainlabs/security-disclosure-289a4ad50709). 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. * ![Timeline and Milestones for Technological Decentralization](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1f42d3f5952428d13a7e8b7e300aef29c76135e8789b0a1b4367182386e0ab49.png) Timeline and Milestones for Technological Decentralization **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](https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/optimism/blob/74a63c94d881442b4edd4df6492513e0113eb064/packages/contracts-bedrock/contracts/L1/SystemConfig.sol) 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. * **Communication Between OP Chains - “Chain Factory” Utilizes OP Chain Data** Bedrock introduced a method to establish L2 chains from the L1 chain, where all chain data can be synchronized with L1 blocks. As the L1 chain factory expands to put all configurations on the blockchain, Optimism nodes are able to deterministically synchronize any OP chain using just an L1 address and its connection to L1 🌟 It’s important to note that when an OP chain is synchronized, the chain state is computed locally. This means determining the state of the OP chain is permissionless and secure. Since all invalid transactions are ignored by the local computation process performed by the nodes, derived chains do not require a proof system. However, to ensure withdrawals on the Superchain, a proof system is still needed. * **Using SystemConfig for Modular Sequencer Design** In Bedrock, the SystemConfig contract has been introduced to set the sequencer address. With multiple chains each having their own SystemConfig contracts, it allows deployers of OP chains to configure the sequencer addrsses. This configurable sequencer design is known as modular sequencing. This allows different entities to sequence OP chains while maintaining the standard \[Superchain Bridge\] security model—a crucial step towards sequencer decentralization. Modular sequencing allows for the permissionless experimentation of different sequencing models. Developers can adopt various sequencing protocols, such as round-robin sequencing, consensus among sequencers, price-competitive sequencing (PGA sequencing), or first-in-first-out sequencing (FIFO sequencing). Over time, we can expect more user-friendly sequencing standards to emerge. * **OP Chains Share a Unified Path for Technological Upgrades** To launch the initial Superchain with high confidence in security and decentralization, a decentralized security committee should be introduced to manage upgrades. **The security committee should be able to update the set of chain provers, initiate contract upgrades with delays**, and in emergencies, press the bridge pause button, while canceling ongoing upgrades. The ability to pause the bridge in emergencies means that in the worst-case scenario, where the private keys of security committee members are compromised, the result would be an indefinite suspension of withdrawals, and the bridge upgrade would be permanently canceled. In other words, the L1 bridge would be frozen. This follows the design principle of prioritizing security over liveness—always preventing the loss of ETH or tokens (i.e., enforced security), even if it means locking up ETH or tokens (i.e., sacrificing liveness). * **Pain Points on the Path to Becoming a 'Superchain':** Of course, before fully realizing the vision of a scalable blockchain, there are significant pain points to address. Anticipated pain points include: * Withdrawal requests depend on a set of trusted chain provers. * Slow cross-chain transaction speeds, requiring a waiting period for challenges. * Insufficient scalability in submitting transactions to the Superchain, with transaction data needing to be submitted to a limited-capacity L1. * Cross-chain transactions are asynchronous, disrupting the ability to execute atomic cross-chain transactions (like flash loans). * This has improved following EIP-4844. * Lack of a user-friendly framework for building scalable applications that utilize multiple OP chains. * Absence of a simple wallet to manage tokens and applications across multiple OP chains. We envision that addressing these pain points could lead to the creation of decentralized alternatives capable of replacing the most complex web2 applications. **Mass Adoption of the Superchain Post-EIP-4844?** -------------------------------------------------- The rollout of EIP-4844 and the Delta upgrade in the Optimism ecosystem are perfectly synchronized. Data availability (DA) solutions like Celestia mainly aim to reduce the costs of rollups submitting data to L1, and EIP-4844 offers a native solution that reduces the operational costs (OPEX) of OP chains by over 90%. Before EIP-4844, the main expenses of the OP Stack were concentrated on L1 gas costs, as follows: OP Stack Chain On-Chain L1 Activity (Chain / L2 Revenue / L1 Costs / Gross Margin / L1 Cost Ratio): * OP Mainnet: 2k ETH / 1.97k ETH / 30 ETH / 98.5% * Base: 1.7k ETH / 1.37k ETH / 330 ETH / 80% After EIP-4844, the Superchain ecosystem is a positive development for OP Stack, and more projects will be willing to use L2 as a technological solution. We also hope to see reduced blockchain solution costs, providing more business opportunities for project developers, and enabling mass adoption. **How to Easily Deploy L2 Using the Superchain** ------------------------------------------------ How to operate it? The Superchain offers a platform called [Superchain Dev Console](https://console.optimism.io/?ref=blog.oplabs.co), which supports chains like Ethereum, Base, Fraxtel, Mode, OP Mainnet, Redstone, Lisk, Zora as L1 or L2. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1b461423f97acc66225bcb72430babf985980f037858977e0074a7618f077889.png) [https://docs.optimism.io/builders/app-developers/quick-start](https://docs.optimism.io/builders/app-developers/quick-start) Additionally, the Superchain community also features tools for one-click deployment of Layer 3 solutions, such as the Mode Flare developed by the Mode team. The architecture incorporates technologies like Pyth, Blockscout, and Goldsky. [https://www.mode.network/mode-flare-l3](https://www.mode.network/mode-flare-l3) Some final thoughts: We observe Optimism's strategy and the commercial success of the Superchain. OP Stacks greatly reduces the barriers to launching a blockchain, with more and more teams benefiting from the convenience and speed of deploying their own L2 and L3 solutions. In the future, could OP Stack become a leading industry platform like AWS or Alibaba Cloud, providing infrastructure that facilitates developers in building their own projects? Indeed, this type of decentralized technology solution can ensure a degree of openness and security of technology. From a design perspective, is there a potential risk of industry monopolization with the Superchain? Time will tell. Reference: ---------- [https://docs.optimism.io/](https://docs.optimism.io/) [https://optimism.mirror.xyz/2jk3D1Y8-hid8YOCUUa6yXmsyzNCYYyFJP0Nhaey9x0](https://optimism.mirror.xyz/2jk3D1Y8-hid8YOCUUa6yXmsyzNCYYyFJP0Nhaey9x0) [https://blog.oplabs.co/decentralization-roadmap/](https://blog.oplabs.co/decentralization-roadmap/) [https://www.chaincatcher.com/article/2088168](https://www.chaincatcher.com/article/2088168) ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1063caf956b211cec9cd7f8d102dbc3b9875b056ceb8cd6d0e965f69ff253559.png) --- *Originally published on [LXDAO](https://paragraph.com/@lxdao/when-the-op-stack-evolves-into-the-op-superchain)*