Optimism about the launch of new Superchain features for Layer 3 developers
Optimism, an Ethereum scaling solutions provider, seeks to take blockchain throughput to the next level by onboarding layer 3 applications on top of the OP stack.
On May 8, the Optimism team announced that it welcomes Layer 3 of Superchain, which could build on the OP stack and share revenue with the Optimism Collective.
The OP Stack is an open standard codebase that supports superchain development, but “is not limited to L2 chain deployers and app builders,” the team previously said. adding “It can also be utilized in the L3 ecosystem.”
Optimism Superchain is a network of layer 2 chains known as OP chains that share security, communication layers, and open source technologies.
They pointed out that Layer 3 can enjoy benefits such as eligibility for retro funding, airdrops, and developer grant programs, but may have limitations on certain features such as interoperability.
Layer 3 protocols are built on top of Layer 2 to host distributed, application-specific applications and provide improved solutions for scalability, performance, interoperability, customization, and cost.
To support L3 builders, the OP stack comes with two main features: custom gas tokens and “plasma mode”.
Custom gas tokens, a highly requested feature in the final stages of development, allow developers to use layer 2 tokens as the default gas token for layer 3 protocols. This lowers onboarding costs because there is no need to perform expensive transactions to get gas tokens from L1 to L2 and then to L3.
Plasma mode is an alternative to the data availability layer that can reduce the fixed overhead costs of L3 operation compared to L2. Data availability refers to the ability of network participants to access and verify data stored on the blockchain.
Related: Polygon’s ZK rollup Ethereum scaler Miden has reached testnet.
The goal is to make Optimism Superchain more accessible to developers by providing layer 3 functionality.
However, not everyone is convinced that L3 is a progressive way to scale Ethereum. Last April, Polygon CEO Marc Boiron argued that a Layer 3 network was not needed and that capturing value from the network could increase security risks to Ethereum.
May 9, Boylong repeated He claimed that “L3 is worse than L2” and added:
“L2 allows us to resettle to Ethereum frequently and quickly. L3 does not. They always have to pass the L2 overlord.”
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted that L3 will feature “custom features” in late 2022 to serve different purposes for scaling.
According to L2beat, rollup-based Optimism (OP mainnet) is the second largest layer 2 network with a total value pegged at $6.76 billion, accounting for approximately 18% market share.
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