Introduction to Optimism
💡 Welcome to the Premia x Socket Campaign!
Welcome, Recruit! In this article, you will learn about:
- Details of the campaign
- What Optimism is
- What an optimistic rollup is
Welcome to the Optimism Campaign
The Optimism Campaign is a joint effort between Premia, Socket, Optimism, and Layer3 to familiarize users (new and old) to Optimism and DeFi Options!
As you, the recruit, learn more about Premia and our partners, you have a chance to earn some extra OP tokens in the process - what's not to love?
Let's start easing into things, Anon!
💡 Optimism Campaign Timeline
Starts on August 14th
Ends on August 18th
What is Optimism?
Now, the potential rewards wouldn't be as gratifying if you got them for free, would they? Time to learn, recruit!
Introducing Optimism: a low-cost and lightning-fast Layer 2 blockchain rollup created to scale Ethereum.
Oftentimes, as the demand for Ethereum's network rises, so do its gas fees. When the network becomes congested, executing transactions can become slow and inefficient. This is where Layer 2s such as Optimism come in, increasing the efficiency and usability of the battle-tested and highly secure Ethereum mainnet.
From a practical standpoint, OP Mainnet is simply a separate blockchain with its own ecosystem of apps. However, the inherent compatibility to Ethereum makes it seamless for developers to deploy the same applications familiar to everyone from Ethereum to Optimism, and for users to bridge over from other chains.
So, for the end user, it's just like Ethereum, only faster and cheaper! But what's the key behind the user experience, and what's the tech behind the solution?
Layer 2: A blockchain built on top of an existing "Layer 1" blockchain (e.g. ETH). Rollups such as Optimism and Arbitrum piggyback off of the security of a parent blockchain, effectively reducing gas fees and speeding up transactions while retaining security.
What is an Optimistic Rollup?
The key behind the most popular Ethereum Layer 2 blockchains is the "Optimistic Rollup" technology.
In essence, a rollup piggybacks off of the consensus of a Layer 1 blockchain (in OP Mainnet's case, Ethereum), effectively reducing gas fees and speeding up transactions while retaining high security. Optimistic rollups also increase the throughput of Ethereum by moving computation and state-storage off-chain.
What Does "Rollup" Mean?
Rollups bundle multiple transactions together in large batches (rolls them up, if you will). By combining this idea with different techniques that reduce the overall gas fees and demand for Ethereum's block space, rollups enhance throughput while reducing fees.
Why is it "Optimistic"?
Optimistic rollups initially assume that all of the transactions are valid before submitting the batch to Ethereum. After submission, there is a "challenge period", during which anyone can dispute the results of a rollup transaction by computing a fraud proof. If undisputed, the transaction batch will be deemed valid on Ethereum after the challenge period concludes.
Learn more about the tech behind optimistic rollups on ethereum.org and community.optimism.io.
Rollup: An efficient method for a Layer2 to submit transactions to Ethereum for security.
Optimistic: A method for a rollup to efficiently verify transactions without the need for initial computation.
Test Yourself!
What type of rollup is Optimism?
Zero-knowledge.
Validium.
Optimistic