Optimism to roll out new Superchain features for layer-3 devs

May 9, 2024 Coin Telegraph

MetaMask ‘glitch’ caused opBNB recommended fees to be too high: Report

September 25, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BNB Chain

According to BNB Chain, MetaMask was averaging recommended fees from multiple networks, causing opBNB recommended fees to be too high.

A "glitch" in MetaMask that caused it to overestimate opBNB gas fees has now been fixed, according to a social media post from BNB Chain. Many users pay the default recommended fee displayed in their wallets, so a misestimation can cause users to overpay.

Together with our friends at @MetaMask, we've resolved a glitch that made it seem like opBNB's gas fees were unusually high.

Now, you can enjoy the true benefits of opBNB: fast, cheap, and secure transactions. Here's how it happened: [1/7]
— BNB Chain (@BNBCHAIN) September 25, 2023

opBNB is an optimistic rollup layer-2 of Ethereum. It was launched on Sept. 13 and was developed by the team that created BNB Chain. According to the team, they discovered recently that “Metamask had set a default minimum recommendation price for gas based on the average of all networks.” This was a reasonable policy for other L2 networks, the team said, but it “didn't quite align with opBNB.” The team claimed that opBNB fees “can be much lower than other L1 and L2 networks,” making the estimation inaccurate.

To solve this problem, BNB Chain contacted the MetaMask team, who were “extremely helpful and agreed to update their algorithm.” As a result, the wallet now accurately displays the network’s fees.

According to the BNB Chain team, users can now check each network's fees by switching to opBNB from within MetaMask and attempting to perform a transaction, which they say will prove that the network often has lower fees than competitors.

opBNB was developed using the OP Stack, a modular framework that can be used to create interoperable blockchain networks. The OP Stack was developed by the OP Labs team, which is attempting to create a “Superchain” comprised of multiple interconnected blockchain networks. The Superchain faces competition from Polygon's "Supernets," which attempts to accomplish a similar aim.

Base, Optimism unveil shared governance and revenue-sharing framework

August 24, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BASE

The two networks will share profits and governance using multisignature wallets, and a “security council” will be formed as the ecosystem grows.

Developers behind the Base and Optimism networks have jointly announced a revenue-sharing and governance-sharing agreement. Coinbase, the parent company of Base, has also published a list of “principles of neutrality” it will follow to prevent Base from becoming centralized. This announcement was made through three separate blog posts on Aug. 24: one from the jointly controlled Optimism Collective, one from Base and one from Coinbase.

According to the Optimism Collective’s post, Base’s smart contracts can only be upgraded via a two-of-two multisignature wallet account. One signature is controlled by Base and the other by the Optimism network’s team (called the “Optimism Foundation”). This means that Base cannot be upgraded without the consent of the Optimism team. As more chains opt to use the OP Stack and become part of the “Superchain,” governance will be handed over to a “security council” with representatives from all of the chains that comprise this ecosystem.

This month marked a momentous first for Ethereum: a publicly listed US company incubated and launched an OP Chain powered by Optimism.

But @BuildOnBase represents so much more than just technological validation of the OP Stack.https://t.co/E1Pow0LIlk
— Optimism (✨_✨) (@optimismFND) August 24, 2023

Base will also pay either 2.5% of its revenue or 15% of its profits to the Optimism Collective, whichever is greater. In return, it will receive “up to approximately 118 million OP Tokens,” allowing it to have a voice within Optimism’s protocol governance. This amount will be capped at 9% of the total votable supply in order to maintain balance, the announcement stated.

The post from Base was issued under the name of its principal creator, Jesse Pollak. He pledged that Base will become more decentralized over time, moving from what Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called “stage 0” to “stage 2” of a layer 2’s decentralization. The Base team will work to improve the scalability of the two current Optimism clients, op-geth and op-node, and create an entirely new client called “op-reth” to diversify the types of clients used.

The team will also continue to develop Pessimism, a real-time network-monitoring tool that attempts to detect cybersecurity threats early.

In addition, Pollak confirmed that Base will share revenue with the Optimism Collective and will eventually hand over upgrade keys to an Optimism security council.

Coinbase’s post was published under the name of the company’s engineering lead, Will Robinson. He focused specifically on the concept of “neutrality.”

Robinson pledged that Coinbase will remain a neutral participant in the Base network. The exchange will not “custody or control the crypto that users bring to the Base network,” nor will it change the order of transactions for its own benefit or “misuse any non-public information gleaned from Base.”

Robinson claimed that Coinbase’s marketing team and other branches of the company will use only publicly available data from block explorers and other tools in its efforts to sell Coinbase’s products, gaining no insider advantage from running Base’s sequencer. Withdrawals from Base will also be processed without censorship, respecting what Robinson calls “freedom to exit.”

Some critics of the Base network have suggested that its currently centralized nature may lead to regulatory scrutiny from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. For example, attorney Gabriel Shapiro has stated that Base “could threaten dangerous collateral damage” to the industry.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also raised eyebrows on March 7 by suggesting that “centralized players” on Base must implement identity verification. Despite these criticisms, many Ethereum investors have expressed hope that Base and the Optimism Superchain will help to onboard new users to the Ethereum ecosystem.

Optimism successfully completes ‘Bedrock’ hard fork, reducing deposit times, layer-1 fees

June 6, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BASE

The upgrade is part of a series of reforms meant to increase modularity in the OP Stack, allowing developers to spin up their own networks using the software.

The Optimism network concluded its “Bedrock” upgrade on June 7, reducing deposit times, lowering layer-1 fees and enacting additional security features, according to an announcement from network developer OP Labs. The upgrade is part of a series of reforms the developer says will help create a “Superchain” of scaleable Web3 networks based on Optimism’s OP Stack software.

✅OP Mainnet’s migration to Bedrock has concluded and the Bedrock sequencer has started up.

Key external OP Mainnet infrastructure is starting to come back online. You can track infrastructure status here:https://t.co/XTtaArdI03
— Optimism (✨_✨) (@optimismFND) June 6, 2023

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, OP Labs CEO Karl Floersch stated that Bedrock implements multiple gas optimizations the team discovered, reducing the network’s data availability fees on Ethereum by 40%. These reductions are passed on to the user in the form of lower gas fees on Optimism.

In addition, the upgrade allows the network to recognize chain reorganizations (reorgs) on Ethereum, reflecting these reorgs in the user’s Optimism balance. This allows deposit times to be reduced to one minute. Previously, deposits from Ethereum to Optimism took an average of 10 minutes due to the need to gain finality on L1.

Bedrock also implements a two-step withdrawal process to help prevent bridge exploits.

In addition to these immediate changes, the new upgrade paves the way for further development of the OP Stack in the future, with the ultimate goal of building a multi-network “Superchain,” Floersch stated. It features “modular proof systems” that allow developers to create and customize their own blockchain networks. And the software’s validator component, called “op-geth,” has less than 1,000 lines of code that differ from Ethereum’s version, potentially making it easy for validators to switch to.

On Feb. 23, Coinbase’s Base network announced that it will become part of the Superchain as well. On May 24, it laid out a roadmap detailing its plans for mainnet launch.

superchain