Optimism’s Jing Wang and the Widely Adopted OP Stack

Ethereum (<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/price/ethereum/" target="_blank">ETH</a>), the largest <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/learn/how-do-ethereum-smart-contracts-work/" target="_blank">smart-contracts</a> blockchain, for years has had <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/04/13/reminder-the-merge-wont-solve-ethereums-scaling-woes-by-itself/" target="_blank">a scalability </a>issue. As much users joined the Ethereum ecosystem, the web became much costly and slower to use.

To lick portion of that issue, starting successful 2019, Ethereum assemblage members came retired with their ain scaling solutions, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-are-layer-2s" target="_blank">called furniture 2s</a>, oregon rollups. Optimism (OP) was 1 of the archetypal connected the market.

Now, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-is-optimism/" target="_blank">Optimism’s technology</a> is wide utilized by galore entities to make their ain layer-2 networks. In 2024, Kraken, Uniswap, World Network (formerly Worldcoin) and Sony’s Blockchain Lab each tapped Optimism’s tech to make their ain scaling blockchains. As the OP squad has been capable to person immoderate of crypto’s largest institutions to usage their exertion and articulation its ecosystem, Optimism’s founding team, led by Jing Wang, is nominated for CoinDesk’s 2024 Most Influential list. This illustration is portion of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 package. For each of this year's nominees, click here.

“If you person to enactment the digit connected the pulse of the lifeline of the Optimism Collective, it is Jing Wang,” said Ben Jones, different co-founder of Optimism and a manager astatine the Optimism Foundation, to CoinDesk successful an interview.

The founding squad consists of immoderate Ethereum OGs including Wang, Jones, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/12/04/karl-floerschs-optimism-tech-paved-the-way-for-coinbases-base-blockchain" target="_blank">Karl Floersch</a>, Mark Tyneway, Kelvin Fichter and Kevin Ho. But their communicative dates backmost to 2016 erstwhile Wang was introduced to Floersch, a erstwhile researcher astatine the Ethereum Foundation (EF), up of creating Optimism.

B.O. (Before Optimism)

“The archetypal clip that we met, we were successful a circle. We were each talking, and each clip a caller idiosyncratic entered the circle, Jing would marque it a circumstantial constituent to marque them consciousness included, and inquire them a circumstantial question, to integrate them into the remainder of the experience,” said Jones erstwhile asked astir his archetypal solo brushwood with Wang.

“That's decidedly not changed. In fact, she’s go lone much susceptible of that benignant of worldly astatine larger and larger scales astatine the clip arsenic a person of the Collective.”

Read more: <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/11/06/is-optimisms-superchain-winning-the-ethereum-layer-2-race" target="_blank">Is Optimism's 'Superchain' Winning the Ethereum Layer-2 Race?</a>

Wang got her commencement successful crypto archetypal done the Bitcoin world, but expressed vexation with the deficiency of women participating successful that developer ecosystem, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlciSNGwg" target="_blank">according to a speech she gave</a> astatine a16z’s crypto startup schoolhouse successful July 2023. It was Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum creator who besides utilized to beryllium a Bitcoin maxi, who convinced her to look into Ethereum, and introduced her to Floersch.

At the EF, Floersch took Wang nether his wing, and gave her a “textbook” penning project. (The different task that was offered to her was a coding project, but yet was fixed to different mentee, Hayden Adams, who yet created Uniswap from that, the largest decentralized cryptocurrency speech connected Ethereum today, <a href="https://defillama.com/protocols/Dexes/Ethereum" target="_blank">according to</a> DefiLlama.)

The “textbook” task that Wang began to absorption her clip connected was Plasma, a scaling plan that predates rollups, which yet became the precursor to what Optimism is today.

“That’s beauteous f****** crazy,” said Wang astatine <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WlciSNGwg" target="_blank">the a16z talk</a> astir the beginnings of Optimism and Uniswap, “but that’s however it started.”

Plasma was mostly an world workout that focused connected scaling transactions connected Ethereum. But yet Wang, alongside Floersch, created the Plasma Group, a non-profit that pushed guardant scaling research.

According to Wang, aft the Plasma Group was created, she saw that radical truly wanted a furniture 2 with little fees and accelerated transactions, truthful they pivoted and came up with sketches for an optimistic rollup.

Because Plasma was a nonprofit, it was hard for the squad to find capable backing to crook their probe into products. “We were fed up with trying to person anybody different than our brainsick selves to articulation a probe nonprofit that was accepting donations, and were hoping that continued to work,” said Jones to CoinDesk. “We were gathering precise important nationalist goods, and scaling infrastructure that needed to hap with blockchain to instrumentality implicit the world, and conscionable cipher was backing it.”

“So portion of what we did was we vowed to ne'er person idiosyncratic other person to beryllium successful that concern again, arsenic we turned towards Optimism and built retired the Optimism Collective,” Jones added.

Optimism’s technological growth

Optimism <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2020/02/11/plasma-became-optimism-and-it-might-just-save-ethereum" target="_blank">was created successful 2019</a> and the web was up and moving by the extremity of 2021. Later, the institution moving Optimism divided into 2 entities, OP Labs BPC, the main developer steadfast helping physique the Optimism blockchain, and the Optimism Foundation, which helps steward Optimism’s governance strategy arsenic good arsenic pushes ecosystem growth.

Wang was the CEO of Optimism BPC earlier the split, and became the Foundation’s CEO and enforcement manager astatine the clip of the divided successful 2022.

Optimism’s blockchain is powered by a exertion called optimistic <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/02/16/ethereums-rollups-arent-all-built-the-same/" target="_blank">rollups</a>, which bundle ample amounts of transaction information into digestible batches, making it cheaper to transact connected it than connected Ethereum. Rollups person go truthful fashionable that a spew of them person popped up since Optimism went live. Other notable names see Arbitrum, Blast, zkSync, Polygon, Starknet and Scroll.

As the large rollups started to summation traction, a caller inclination emerged from the starring layer-2 projects, what tin beryllium known arsenic “<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/06/28/ethereums-layer-2-teams-want-you-to-clone-their-code/" target="_blank">blockchain successful a box</a>,” wherever the teams encouraged developers to clone their code, truthful they could rotation up their ain furniture 2s. For Optimism, its <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/08/23/coinbases-chosen-blockchain-brand-sees-zero-threat-from-zero-knowledge/" target="_blank">framework became known as</a> the OP Stack, and was released successful 2023, during the blockchain’s <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/06/06/optimism-completes-bedrock-hard-fork-in-pursuit-of-superchain" target="_blank">big upgrade called</a> “Bedrock.”

Chains nether the OP Stack would articulation the “Superchain,” <a href="https://docs.optimism.io/stack/explainer" target="_blank">a web of blockchains</a> built with Optimism’s exertion that would beryllium interoperable, allowing for liquidity to beryllium shared crossed chains portion each adhering to Optimism’s governance and ethos, <a href="https://community.optimism.io/welcome/welcome-overview" target="_blank">known arsenic the Collective</a>. The Superchain is besides expected to code the thought of fragmentation, making it easier for each the blockchains <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/08/12/optimism-pushes-for-interoperability-between-affiliated-blockchains" target="_blank">in that ecosystem to communicate</a> with each different and transportation funds much seamlessly.

“That's precise important to us: that developers person a bully acquisition and don't person to dainty each of these idiosyncratic chains successful a implicit and full silo, due to the fact that it's going to marque their lives easier arsenic well,” Jones said.

Competitors similar Arbitrum, Polygon, and zkSync besides started to merchandise their stacks, and rapidly the conflict to triumph implicit users and companies to physique connected their kits heated up.

The archetypal large lawsuit of the OP Stack was Coinbase’s Base network, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/08/09/coinbase-officially-launches-base-blockchain-milestone-for-a-public-company" target="_blank">bringing the largest U.S. speech on-chain</a> successful August 2023. Since then, galore different large companies successful the crypto manufacture person besides travel retired with their ain layer-2s, and tapped the OP Stack to rotation that out. <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/10/10/uniswap-developer-unveils-own-layer-2-network-unichain-built-on-optimism-tech" target="_blank">Uniswap</a>, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/04/17/worldcoin-sam-altmans-crypto-project-is-building-a-layer-2-chain" target="_blank">World</a>, Kraken, and Sony’s <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/08/23/sony-electronics-pioneer-behind-walkman-starts-own-blockchain-soneium" target="_blank">Blockchain Labs</a> each announced their layer-2s that volition beryllium built with OP Stack this year, making Optimism the wide winner.

Base is presently the 2nd largest layer-2 with $9.8 cardinal successful the protocol, up of OP which has $6.5 billion, <a href="https://l2beat.com/scaling/summary" target="_blank">according to L2 beat</a>. Of the 52 rollups that are live, 24 of them are built connected OP Stack with $19 cardinal locked successful them.

As of November 2024, furniture 2s connected the OP Stack accounted for 52.7% of each Ethereum layer-2 transactions, according to a spokesperson for the Optimism Foundation.

Jones attributes the occurrence of OP Stack to however casual it is for developers to make their ain chains. “There is simply a ton of complexity successful conscionable moving a chain. And the world is that conscionable having bully infrastructure that is reliable, that is casual to run, casual to maintain, and won't spell down, is simply a ace important portion of the story,” helium told CoinDesk.

Pay-For-Play: a winning strategy?

Competitors of Optimism person noted that portion of OP’s strategy to get caller networks to usage their exertion is to springiness <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/10/29/optimism-foundation-agreed-to-give-kraken-425m-of-op-tokens-in-layer-2-deal/" target="_blank">out ample sums of OP tokens</a> successful the signifier of grants. Officials astatine the Optimism Foundation antecedently told CoinDesk these grants are expected to assistance developers kickstart their gathering connected the stack, and successful instrumentality are expected to payment the Collective and different networks successful Optimism’s Superchain.

When Base went live, Coinbase shared that it would person 118 cardinal OP tokens, which was astatine $1.55 astatine the clip of launch, worthy astir $182 cardinal (at the clip of writing, it's present worthy $283 million.) In return, Base <a href="https://optimism.mirror.xyz/ciJzgxmb_fJU8wgiqrEXG_XYnAkuBrdG1biVk0BseiU" target="_blank">committed to share</a> 2.5% of its full gross from sequencer fees oregon 15% of profits (whichever was higher) to the Collective arsenic a publication to Optimism’s ecosystem.

Since then, immoderate projects person been little forthcoming astir however galore tokens they would person from the Optimism Foundation for gathering connected OP Stack. CoinDesk archetypal reported that Kraken would person 25 cardinal OP tokens for gathering connected OP Stack, <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/optimism" target="_blank">worth $100 million</a> astatine the clip of the deal, present worthy $60 million.

According to officials astatine Kraken, the <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/10/29/optimism-foundation-agreed-to-give-kraken-425m-of-op-tokens-in-layer-2-deal" target="_blank">payout was successful line</a> with different large projects received from Optimism.

Uniswap, Sony, and Worldcoin each declined to remark connected however galore tokens they volition person from Optimism implicit time. Other smaller projects person shared the fig of OP tokens they volition person successful grants. For instance, Celo volition get 6.5 cardinal tokens and BOB gets 750,000 tokens.

Optimism Foundation officials antecedently told CoinDesk they permission it up to the projects to disclose the amounts of their grants. A spokesperson shared with CoinDesk that the Optimism ecosystem has <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qVMhLmmch3s6XSbiBe8hgD4ntMkPIOhc1WrhsYsQc7M/edit?gid=470961921#gid=470961921" target="_blank">been transparent astir their treasury</a>, and that the Kraken woody falls nether their

“partnerships fund,” which goes “to definite projects to assistance enactment archetypal improvement of the chain.”

“I deliberation it's just to call-out that determination are galore teams retired determination wherever grants are utilized arsenic a precise communal signifier successful the industry,” Jones told CoinDesk. “We're not going to shy distant from helping our developers grow, successful an manufacture wherever grants are utile towards that.”

The deficiency of transparency astir however galore OP tokens are designated to chains raises questions astir however overmuch those grants factored into those deals.

But Jones argues that handing retired OP tokens should not beryllium looked astatine arsenic conscionable giving retired money. These projects are utilizing Optimism’s exertion for escaped (since it's open-sourced) and are contributing to amended Optimism’s codification and software. In different words, they are being awarded for their enactment connected the larger OP ecosystem, which past gets contributed backmost to the Collective.

“I would besides accidental that it's highly important to recognize that we are gathering a governance strategy which is intended to springiness the radical successful our positive-sum strategy a voice,” Jones said.

“I deliberation the astir important happening to thrust location is that, one, this happening (OP Stack) is successful, adjacent successful the parts of the satellite wherever the grants are not factored,” Jones added. “Two, I deliberation that it's conscionable fundamentally reductive to speech astir these grants successful presumption of similar immoderate magnitude of OP tokens, without knowing what those OP tokens are for. And I deliberation it is perfectly a captious portion of the strategy for america to unite the acceptable of projects that marque up the Superchain.”

Optimism’s stake is that casual exertion positive grants volition beryllium a winning strategy. For now, though, lone clip volition archer whether Optimism remains the victor for Ethereum scaling.