Optimism Superchain deep dive: OP Stack, Bedrock and shared sequencing
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Explains the Superchain vision of OP Stack chains sharing sequencing with atomic cross-chain interaction, and Bedrock's upgrades: cheaper fees, 3-minute deposits, modular proofs (Cannon, future ZK), client diversity and configurable DA via SystemConfig.
Key claims
Bedrock cut deposit wait from up to 10 minutes to about 3
Compression and batching cut state growth by about 15GB per year
Multiple proof systems stop one bug becoming canonical truth
The OP Superchain vision is materializing in front of our eyes!
@Optimism is silently working to unleash the full potential of the OP ecosystem and no one is talking about it.
This could be the centre stage of the upcoming bull run
Superchain Deep Dive -🧵
1/ @Optimism is preparing for the next wave of adoption.
It's laying the groundwork for a unified network of chains, not just one.
It's driven by an ethos of building together, not apart.
@Optimism is becoming a platform for chains.
Are you ready to have your mind blown anon?
2/ The Superchain is a vision that aims to combine the scalability of parallel chains and the composability of a single blockchain.
It's a vision of a Web3 built on open source stacks that prioritize decentralization, governance, security, and making constant improvements.
3/ Optimism has always been an open source project, and proudly has the most forks of any L2.
But this isn’t just about creating many chains.
It’s about uniting them into a single network.
It's about the Superchain.
4/ The Superchain seeks to integrate otherwise siloed L2s into a single interoperable and composable system.
In the Superchain future, launching an L2 is as straightforward as deploying a smart contract to Ethereum is today.
5/ Embodying the OP Stack's public good status, @Optimism aims to empower builder to build together
This is why sustaining the OP Stack codebase is critical.
6/ Before we dive in, let's clear up some common confusion.
OP Mainnet is the name of the original L2 chain that was deployed to Optimism, formerly known as “Optimism” itself.
7/ In the Superchain vision, OP Mainnet is one L2 chain among many, communicating seamlessly with chains like @base and many others.
@Optimism, meanwhile, is no single blockchain.
8/ It represents the ethos of the Superchain and Optimism Collective.
Cooperation is the winning strategy,.
Optimism is the totality of the tech it runs on, the system it’s governed by, and the community that breathes life into it.
9/ The Collective is currently working to enable synchronous upgrades across all OP Chains.
This empowers all OP Chain operators to easily run compatible versions of software and benefit immediately from new features & security upgrades.
Unifying OP Stack chains [Loading...]
10/ But let's talk some tech! 👨💻
The OP Stack is the foundational software set that powers Optimism.
It's the tech stack that the Optimism Mainnet and the entire Superchain ecosystem are built on.
11/ A crucial USP of the OP Stack is modularity.
It is composed of software elements that either distinctly define a layer within the Optimism ecosystem or can be integrated as a module within these layers.
An architectural distinction of the OP Stack is exactly this layering.
12/ The current version and most recent iteration of the OP Stack is Optimism Bedrock.
Bedrock equips builders with all the tools necessary to build out a production-ready rollup.
It marked a significant milestone for the OP Stack, introducing significant improvements. 👇
13/ 💸 Reduced Transaction Cost
Transaction fees are drastically lowered by optimizing data compression, which reduces fees of posting data to L1 significantly.
Moreover, the removal of EVM execution-related gas costs in L1 data submission further lowered fees by roughly 10%.
14/ 🚀 Fast Deposit Times
Bedrock’s node software now supports L1 re-orgs, thereby drastically reducing deposit wait times from a previous maximum of 10 minutes to around 3 minutes.
15/ 🧱 Modular Proof Systems
A critical enhancement in Bedrock is its ability to detach the proof system from the main stack, allowing rollups to utilize either fault or validity proofs (such as zk-SNARKs) to verify execution validity (more shortly).
16/ 🖥 Superior Node Software Performance
Nodes can execute several transactions within a single rollup block.
In conjunction with improved data compression, this efficiency means state growth is cut down by an estimated 15GB annually.
17/ ⛓ Greater Ethereum Compatibility
Bedrock's design is closely aligned with Ethereum and removed unique opcodes for accessing L1 block data, separate fee structures for L1/L2 in the JSON-RPC API, and custom representations of ETH balances.
18/ Bedrock embodies modularity and provides unparalleled flexibility to devs looking to build potentially application specific rollup networks.
Through the SystemConfig Contract, it allows for customization on the level of:
✦ Sequencing Layer
✦ DA Layer
✦ Settlement Layer
19/ ⚙️ SystemConfig Contract
Aims to directly define the L2 chain with L1 smart contracts.
The goal is to encapsulate all details defining the L2 chain, including the creation of unique chain IDs, setting block gas limits, etc. in this contract.
The configuration allows for 👇
20/ 🌐 Sequencer Flexibility
Modular sequencing allows for various chains with unique SystemConfig contracts to have their sequencer address determined by the deployer.
OP chains can hence run their own sequencer or plug into a shared sequencing solution.
21/ 💾 DA Flexibility
Bedrock provides flexibility with regards to Data Availability (DA).
This flexibility allows builders to opt for alt-DA solutions, significantly reducing cost compared to DA on Ethereum L1.
Devs can literally build whatever with @CelestiaOrg underneath.
22/ ✨ Client Diversity
Bedrock’s modular design has already enabled multiple implementations of L2 clients to emerge in the Optimism ecosystem, a first for an L2.
This introduces technical decentralization, with the main benefit of resilience against bugs in the network.
23/ ⚡️ Multi-Proof System Support
@Optimism extends the diversity philosophy to the proof system
Bedrock uses Cannon as its main fault-proof mechanism (for settlement on L1).
Yet, it is flexible, allowing future integration with various optimistic as well as ZK proof systems.
24/ Especially this last point is very interesting.
The ability to incorporating multiple proofs into the OP Stack offers numerous benefits, with security being the most notable.
25/ Having multiple proofs prevents a bug in any one of them from becoming the canonical truth.
This is similar to how multiple implementations of L1 clients provide better overall security.
26/ This busts one of the main myths around @Optimism.
While its roots are optimistic, the Superchain ecosystem will not be purely based on optimistic rollups.
Bedrock's modularity enables a heterogenous ecosystem of chains running on all sorts of state validation mechanisms.
27/ Multiple teams in the ecosystem are currently working on alternative fault proof implementations.
In addition to OP Labs and all of the alternative client maintainers, teams currently working on alternative fault proofs include @RiscZero, @o1_labs, or @alt_layer.
28/ This is absolutely cutting-edge rollup tech anon.
Few understand that @Optimism is more than just OP Mainnet.
Few understand that Optimism is building a much bigger vision of an entire ecosystem of interoperable and highly scalable rollups on top of a modular tech stack.
29/ In the Superchain vision, it makes a lot of sense to think about OP-Stack based chains as (app-specific) shards of a monolithic chain.
Pay attention anon, this is where the magic happens. 👇
30/ Participating networks in the Superchain will share the sequencing layer.
As this shared sequencer produces blocks on multiple chains simultaneously, it can guarantee atomic interactions between these networks.
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