Optimism Announces The Superchain

Quick Take

• Coinbase deploys an optimistic rollup called Base.
• Optimism announces its Superchain.
• Polygon suffers a 157-block reorg.
• Orbiter X is now live for whitelisted users.

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Superchain Highlights 🔴✨

Optimism Announces The Superchain
Optimism announced the Superchain, a horizontally scalable network of chains built under the OP Stack. All chains deployed on the Superchain inherit shared security and a shared communication layer. The Superchain aims to serve as a single interoperable and composable system for L2 chains deployed using the OP Stack. Developers can deploy their own L2 and share bridging and sequencing with other rollups on the Superchain. Coinbase joined Optimism as a core developer on the OP Stack and is committing a portion of Base transaction fee revenue back to the Optimism Collective. Optimism is currently working toward its Bedrock upgrade, which is the next step in enabling the Superchain.

Coinbase Deploys “Base” Ethereum L2 Rollup
Coinbase launched its own Ethereum L2 rollup called Base. The rollup was built using the OP Stack codebase, an open-source development stack for building custom blockchains. Base is an EVM-equivalent optimistic rollup just like Optimism. This means the chain is nearly identical to Ethereum from a dapp developer perspective. Coinbase says it will use Base for its onchain products as a gateway for Coinbase users to access the broader crypto economy. Coinbase seeks to attract developers to build on Base by offering access to its products, users, and tools. Notably, developers will be able to integrate easy fiat onramps onto their dapps.

Base was incubated by Coinbase and marks the second chain to deploy on the OP Stack, ahead of Optimism. Coinbase says it will progressively decentralize Base over time and will serve as a contributor to the chain rather than the sole operator. Coinbase plans to progress Base to a Stage 1 rollup in 2023, which requires a live fault prover. A testnet for Base is now live for users and developers.

Polygon PoS Suffers 157 Block Reorg

Polygon’s PoS chain experienced a 157-block reorg, potentially affecting thousands of users transacting on the sidechain. A block reorg occurs when multiple blocks are produced at the same time, resulting in a duplicate chain. Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic said the recent block reorg on Polygon was caused by a software bug. The sidechain previously experienced a 120-block reorg in December. It also underwent the Delhi hard fork in January, which aimed to reduce the frequency of block reorgs. Uniswap creator Hayden Adams commented on the matter, suggesting that Polygon make moves publicly to solve its re-org problem.

Orbiter X Cross-Token Transfers

Orbiter X, an upgrade that features cross-address and cross-token transfers on Orbiter Finance, is now available for whitelisted users. Eligible users can access the feature by toggling on “V2” from the UI. Orbiter X allows users to bridge and swap USDC, USDT, and DAI. The feature supports Mainnet, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon.