Bedrock, the Optimism Protocol’s first major upgrade proposal, went live on Tuesday, which will significantly drop gas fees via data compression techniques, shorten deposit times, and advance layer-2 modularity with the OP stack, a new advance for interoperability.

The OP Stack is the centerpiece of the Bedrock upgrade. It abstracts the Optimism blockchain by transforming it into modular components that are free and open-source. The Optimism Collective, a group of companies, individuals and communities working together for the advancement of the Optimism ecosystem, claims that crypto projects can leverage this modularity and use specific components from the OP stack to build new interoperable chains (called OP chains) with minimal effort.  

Karl Floersch, the cofounder and CEO of OP Labs, which contributes to the Optimism protocol, believes that the OP Stack will be the foundation for the Superchain, calling it “a network of L2 chains that share bridging, decentralized governance, upgrades, a communication layer and more.” 

The claims made by the collective are being substantiated as reputable businesses in the cryptosphere are building on top of the OP Stack. Coinbase recently launched an Optimism based layer-2 network called Base, built on the OP Stack. Venture capital firm a16z also announced they’re working on a rollup client made for the OP Stack called Magi.

Optimism is on the pursuit of greater Ethereum equivalence. As the Ethereum network progresses with its rollup-centric roadmap, the Bedrock upgrade seeks greater compatibility with the evolving Ethereum dynamics.

The Bedrock upgrade proposal received overwhelming support and marked the highest voter turnout in OP governance history, with 99.8% of the proposal’s 27.9 million OP participation voting in favor of the upgrade.