Twitter users noticed thousands of Safe deployments to Optimism, leading to speculation that it may be an attack, but the developer of Worldcoin confirmed that this activity was merely an app migration.
Optimism network transactions surged 67% following Bedrock upgrade — Nansen
The Optimism layer-2 network saw less than 300,000 transactions per day around the time of the upgrade, but this number increased to over 500,000 afterward.
Binance’s BNB Chain introduces layer-2 testnet powered by Optimism
The Binance-founded blockchain has introduced a new layer-2 chain opBNB, though some suggest there are other ways to scale the network.
Optimism Says Ether Now Treated as Native Cryptocurrency Alongside OP Token
Representatives of the layer-2 network atop Ethereum confirmed the change in the treatment of ETH after CoinDesk observed a $550 million transfer in blockchain data. The change occurred in conjunction with Optimism’s “Bedrock” upgrade this week.
Optimism successfully completes ‘Bedrock’ hard fork, reducing deposit times, layer-1 fees
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.
Optimism Completes ‘Bedrock’ Hard Fork, in Pursuit of Superchain
Developers behind the layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum say the upgrade will reduce gas fees and cut deposit confirmation times.
Optimism ‘Bedrock’ Upgrade to Speed Confirmations, Cut Gas Fees, Set Path to ‘Superchain’
The “Bedrock” upgrade will improve the usability of the chain by lowering gas fees and cutting deposit-confirmation times by 90% – pitched as a key step toward the Optimism network’s goal of becoming a “Superchain.”
Optimism-Based Velodrome Token Slides Nearly 8% Ahead of Major Upgrade
Velodrome’s upgrade is slated for June 15 and is a complete overhaul of the protocol.
Coinbase’s Base network publishes ‘path to mainnet’ outlining roadmap
The testnet must perform the Bedrock upgrade and go through audits and stability tests before mainnet launch.
Optimism (OP) Trading Volume Soars Amid Bullish Price Surge
Optimism is trading in the green today, with its trading volume up by over 54%. OP traded at $0.9231 on January 1, 2023, and peaked at $3.0294 on February 7, close to its all-time high value of $4.5692.
Currently, OP is at the $1.6 price level as it seeks to consolidate its gains, which is bullish. Also, the upcoming upgrade in June might lead to an uptrend for the asset.
Optimism (OP) Technical Analysis
OP price is in an uptrend today, forming a higher high on the daily chart and moving up from the sideways trend of the last few days. However, despite its positive price moves today, the bears are still active in the market.
OP is trading below its 50-day and 200-day Simple Moving Averages (SMA), a short and long-term bearish sentiment.
Also, it is in the lower region of the Donchian channel, where it moved from its previous downtrend. This is also a bearish sentiment for the asset.
However, it is not all bad for the digital asset as OP has formed four consecutive green candles on the daily chart confirming that the bulls are rallying once again in the market. OP has found strong support at the $1.621 price level. It is approaching the $1.709 resistance level as the bulls mount pressure today.
OP’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 35.47, close to the oversold region 30. The RSI is moving upwards, indicating a potential bullish recovery ahead.
Related Reading: Shiba Inu Faces Tough Resistance, Risk Of Uncharted Lows – Here’s Why
A break above this resistance level will see the asset reclaim the $1.903 price level in the coming days. However, if another price decline occurs, the $1.544 support will prove critical to sustaining its gains this year.
Upcoming Bedrock Upgrade
The Optimism Mainnet Bedrock Upgrade will occur on June 6, 2023, at 16:00 UTC. This upgrade is a community-based decision by members holding governance tokens.
The Optimism Foundation released a schedule of events for the execution of this upgrade from the announcement. The long-anticipated upgrade will feature lower transaction fees, increased high network security, and compatibility with Ethereum.
It aims to reduce delays on the network and cut deposit time from 10 minutes to 3 minutes. The OPlabs team announced a 2-4 hours downtime will occur during the upgrade.
Also, once the upgrade commences, deposits and withdrawals on the legacy network will pause, and the smart contracts on the Layer 1 (L1) will be upgraded.
While the upgrade does not guarantee a price increase, the improvements can boost investors’ interest in the network.
Also, Optimism’s price performance this year is positive despite volatility. And the upgrade and increased investor interest may help it surpass its all-time high value.
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from Tradingview.com
Crypto Assets Flow From Ethereum To BSC, Are Users Escaping High Gas Fees?
There is a substantial flow of assets from Ethereum to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), according to data from Cryptoflows.
Migration From Ethereum To BSC
The shift to move assets from the legacy smart contracting network could be driven by the desire to escape high gas fees.
For every transaction executed on public ledgers like Ethereum and BSC, a fee is paid. In Ethereum, gas fees remain higher, especially for users deploying smart contracts.
Analysis of the latest gas fee trends on Etherscan indicates shows that network fees have been fluctuating, and generally higher in the past weeks. As of May 17, Gas fees stood at 43 gwei or roughly $1.59 for simple transfers.
Meanwhile, BscScan data shows that users have to pay 3 gwei for transfers, regardless of the urgency of the transaction.
The difference in gas fees between Ethereum and BSC, when analyzed in USD terms, is apparent and could explain why users are seeking alternatives, moving assets from Ethereum to alternative blockchains like BSC that offer lower Gas fees.
Is PEPE FOMO The Reason?
The recent surge in Ethereum gas fees can be attributed, in part, to the hype surrounding the PEPE, a meme token. With PEPE spurring demand and forcing on-chain activity higher, Ethereum gas fees rose in tandem. According to Y-Charts, Gas fees on Ethereum increased from $43 on April 22 to $155 as of May 5, 2023.
The unprecedented demand for PEPE due to the fear of missing out (FOMO) coincided with the near-exponential increase of fees from the last week of April to early May.
This spike highlighted the scalability challenges faced by Ethereum during periods of increased activity.
Fluctuating Gas fees, depending on network activity, is primarily one of the reasons why developers are looking to integrate long-lasting solutions, including on-chain and off-chain scaling methods.
According to the roadmap, Ethereum will introduce Sharding, where the network will be broken into portions called “shards”.
Shards are sub-networks that will form part of the whole of the Ethereum blockchain. Each Shard will process transactions independently but remain connected to other shards. In this system, Ethereum developers hope to scale transaction processing throughput on-chain, lowering fees. Shards remain an idea and are being studied.
Given this, layer-2 scaling options are gaining traction as a means of improving scalability by re-routing transactions to an off-chain platform, relieving the underlying blockchain, and reducing processing fees.
L2Beat currently shows that there are over 20 layer-2 scaling options aiming to scale the mainnet. Arbitrum and Optimism, two of the most active general-purpose platforms for deploying smart contracts and decentralized applications are the most active. The two, Optimism and Arbitrum, control over $7.5 billion of assets as measured by total value locked (TVL).
Optimism will release “bedrock,” via a hard fork in early June 2023. This upgrade aims to enhance scalability, improve transaction speeds, and reduce gas fees on the off-chain solution. With these improvements, Optimism hopes to carve out a larger market share, pushing its TVL higher.
Optimism, Scaling Solution for Ethereum, Sets June Date for Biggest Ever Upgrade, ‘Bedrock’
The Bedrock hard fork, proposed earlier this year and approved by the Optimism community in April, is supposed to bring a “new level of modularity, simplicity and Ethereum equivalence.”
Optimism Layer-2 Is Upgrading: Is This What Bulls Want?
Optimism, one of the most popular Ethereum layer-2 platforms, will release the Bedrock upgrade on June 6, 2023.
Optimism Upgrading Via Bedrock In Early June
The layer-2 provider on Ethereum says the release is “highly anticipated” by the community and will introduce some changes that make the protocol even more scalable, reducing transaction fees.
As it is, Optimism offers an off-chain, general-purpose platform where users can deploy smart contracts and launch decentralized applications (DApps) in a low-cost, highly scalable, and secure environment.
Optimism uses roll-ups and bundles transactions before confirming them on the Ethereum mainnet. This move relieves the mainnet, helping reduce fees by re-routing demand to an off-chain solution.
According to Optimism, Bedrock will be a hard fork. It means validators will have to update to the latest version. Optimism’s documentation reads that “the network will retain the same chain ID, transaction history, and state. The first block of the new network will be the last block of the old network +1.”
These changes that come with the Bedrock hard fork will improve scalability, usability, and security.
For instance, the developer of the layer-2 protocol says there will be better Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) equivalence since, even after the upgrade, Optimism will remain compatible with the base layer, that is, Ethereum. Accordingly, users will continue deploying smart contracts as before the upgrade.
The Bedrock upgrade will introduce a new two-step withdrawal process to the Optimism Mainnet bridge that will improve its security & make exploits much more difficult
One of the architects of two-step withdrawals, @vex_0x, explains how
https://t.co/qs6Dtsz2nO
— OP Labs (@OPLabsPBC) March 22, 2023
Moreover, Bedrock introduces a new fee structure that makes fees more predictable and efficient. Overly, developers expect transfer or smart contracts deployment fees to drop. Presently, L2fees data shows that simple transfers on Optimism cost $0.30. Meanwhile, swapping tokens will cost $0.45.
On the security angle, Bedrock introduces a 2-step withdrawal process and a more robust sequencer. With a better sequencer, developers hope user funds will be better protected. At the same time, there will be better usability with the introduction of the Optimism Portal, allowing for easy cross-domain messaging.
OP Prices Down 50% From Q1 2023 Highs, Will Bulls Flow Back?
Despite all these changes, it remains to be seen whether OP, the native token of Optimism, will rise. As of writing on May 16, the token is down nearly 50% from February 2023 high. However, considering gains in Q1 2023 formation, the OP uptrend remains.
Still, traders need more signals before committing. In recent days, OP has been trending lower, breaking below the critical support level in early May. Whether OP bears will press on will be seen in the sessions ahead. Even so, what’s clear is that OP prices have been stagnating, finding support at 1.64.
Related Reading: OP Plummets 7% As Optimism Postpones Hardfork
Ahead of the June 6 Bedrock upgrade, OP prices could recover, shaking off the bears of May, and align with the primary trend set in motion in Q1 2023.
Optimism’s major ‘Bedrock’ upgrade set for June 6
The much-needed upgrade will provide a number of improvements across the network, and come at a time when competition in the layer 2 space has been heating up.
Layer 2 Network Optimism to Use Ethereum Attestation Service to Promote User Trust
The attestation service will allow any Optimism user to create digital sign-offs on all kinds of information involving the blockchain’s activities and users.
How the Hunt for Yet-to-Exist Tokens Is Shaping Ethereum’s Layer 2 Landscape
Token airdrops – and the prospect of them – have become a major customer acquisition strategy for Ethereum’s layer 2 scaling projects. But is this strategy a sustainable one?
A16z Says It’s Working on an Optimism-Based Rollup Called Magi
The news comes a day after the firm teased a potential blockchain announcement by tweeting an orange dot.
Optimism’s OP Token Rallies After Cryptic Tweet From A16Z Engineer
The tweet spurred speculation that the notable venture capital firm could launch its own Optimism-based layer 2 blockchain. A16Z Crypto’s CTO tweeted: “not an L2.”
3 signs Arbitrum price is poised for a new record high in Q2
Arbitrum is relatively cheaper versus its top Ethereum L2 rival, Optimism, which may lead to a rise in ARB price over the next few months.
Coinbase CEO says Bitcoin Lightning is ‘something we’ll integrate’
“Lightning is great and something we’ll integrate,” Armstrong said in response to an allegation that he was “ignoring” the network.
