Last week, we explained that it’s time for a new chapter.
The same is true for Ethereum itself.
As crypto enters its next wave of adoption, the calls for scalability are deafening. This demand is often answered by centralized layer-1 competitors, who abandon Ethereum’s security and values under the guise of cheap fees and a quick buck.
We must not recreate Web2 incentives in our quest for Web3 scalability. Web3 offers the opportunity to rebuild the internet to align with the values of its users. Sacrificing this mission is sacrificing the purpose of crypto.
Scaling the technology alone is not enough. We have a duty to scale our values along with our networks.
In pursuit of this mission, we are excited to announce the Optimism Collective.
Introducing the Optimism Collective
The Optimism Collective is a large-scale experiment in digital democratic governance, built to drive rapid and sustainable growth of a decentralized ecosystem, and stewarded by the newly formed Optimism Foundation. The Collective is a band of communities, companies, and citizens united by a mutually beneficial pact to adhere to the axiom of impact=profit. This is outlined in depth in the Optimistic Vision.
Tokens and Citizens
The Optimism Collective will be governed co-equally by two houses, the Citizens’ House and the Token House.
Token House: The Bags
The Token House is established by Airdrop #1, bringing in the first thousands
of people who have engaged in positive-sum, community-oriented behavior. Token
holders will be able to vote on protocol upgrades, project incentives as a part of a Governance Fund, and more. The token is called OP. More follows below.
Citizens’ House: The Fam
The Citizens’ House will facilitate and govern a process to distribute retroactive public goods funding, generated from the revenue collected by the network. Citizenship will be conferred by “soulbound” non-transferrable NFTs, and the set of citizens will grow over time as the Optimism community grows. The Citizen House is the vehicle which enables the distribution of power away from any centralized organization, to a human-centric, non-plutocratic mechanism.
Together, these two houses will help direct the revenue generated from the Optimism L2 to efforts that promote public goods and help grow the collective. You can read more about the structure in the Governance Overview.
Check out my OF
The Collective’s bicameral governance system seeks to avoid governance pitfalls experienced by other models on Ethereum today. But, we also recognize there are still many lessons yet to learn, and the structure of governance today is far from final.
The newly created Optimism Foundation will serve as a steward of the Collective, running governance experiments on behalf of the Collective and bootstrapping the ecosystem before eventually dissolving. The organization formerly known as Optimism PBC has been renamed to OP Labs PBC, and will be focused on building and decentralizing the protocol as well as supporting the growth of projects in the ecosystem with product and business development**.**
The Optimism Foundation is the first step towards the full distribution of power from the Optimism PBC, and towards the optimistic ecosystem. As it matures, the Foundation will iteratively replace its governance roles with on-chain mechanisms. For more information on these structures, you can check out the
The Optimism Foundation is a new organization focused on governance experimentation and ecosystem growth. The Optimism Foundation will be led by two of the founders of Optimism, Jinglan Wang (formerly CEO) and Ben Jones (formerly Chief Scientist). Joining us are some new faces: Eva Beylin, Executive Director of The Graph Foundation, Abbey Titcomb, Director of Radicle Foundation, and Brian Avello, former General Counsel to the Maker Foundation.
Liam Horne, formerly Head of Engineering at the PBC, is stepping into a new role as the CEO of OP Labs PBC, with continued support from Josh Stein, Julien Boedec, Bobby Dresser, and the PBC’s new General Counsel, Trevor Dodge.
Introducing OP
OP governs upgrades to the protocol and network parameters, and creates an ongoing system of incentives for projects and users in the Optimism ecosystem.
The OP token will not have an airdrop.
The Optimism Collective will continuously reward value-added actors on Optimism. To decentralize ownership of the protocol and encourage governance participation, OP will have an entire season of airdrops.OP Airdrop #1 goes live in Q2. If you’re an Ethereum user (not just an Optimism user), check here to see what’s waiting for you.
Over 250,000 addresses are eligible, but if you’re not one of them, airdrop season still awaits.
There’s so much more to share over the coming weeks, but here’s what you need to know about OP today.
Token Distribution
The total supply of OP is 2^32 (4,294,967,296) tokens.
OP is an L2-native token which resides on Optimism at the easy-to-remember address 0x420000000000000000000042.
Please triple check that you are interacting with the right token. Note that Airdrop #1 has not yet occurred, and anything claiming you can get OP tokens today is a scam.
OP is broken down into the following categories:
OP will unlock over the course of 4 years as follows:
For more details, you can check out the OP Allocations Overview in our governance documentation.
OP Airdrop #1
To check your eligibility for OP Airdrop #1, you can head here.
For Airdrop #1, we’re allocating 5% of the initial OP supply for the following actions:
In addition to these tiers, we’re excited to announce the OP Overlap Bonus - an added reward for users which have accomplished 4 or more of the above actions.
- 4 Tiers - 3,329.57 OP
- 5 Tiers - 10,313.82 OP
- 6 Tiers - 20,975.42 OP
If you’re interested in diving into the details of airdrop methodology and criteria, check out the docs here.
What’s Next
Starting today, Optimism begins its transformation into the Optimism Collective.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing a series of posts regarding governance, incentives, and iteration, to provide the community with every detail.
In the meantime, bridge your ETH ahead of our next chapter and get ready. Even if you don’t qualify for Airdrop #1, with more airdrops and governance on the way, there’s never been a better time to use Optimism.
This is a historic milestone for both Optimism and the L2 ecosystem at large, and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with the world.
Soontimism.
And as always, Stay Optimistic!