Just over three years ago, the Optimism Collective embarked on a large-scale experiment in decentralized governance. From the beginning, we’ve been committed to taking “an agile approach to governance—relentlessly iterating until we establish a system which can stand the test of time.” As we experiment, we learn more about the balance of power and other dynamics within our system, an iterative process that allows the Collective to mature and evolve (see Working Constitution).

Optimism core developers at OP Labs successfully activated the Isthmus hardfork today, bringing key features from Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade to the OP Stack and the Superchain. The upgrade comes just two days after Pectra went live on Ethereum, making the Superchain the first L2 ecosystem to support Pectra.

The OP Stack is becoming the standard. Standards win because they compound. More OP Stack chains mean more experiments, faster iteration, and unstoppable momentum. The OP Stack powers more L2 transactions than any other framework - 69.9% of all L2 transaction fees are on the Superchain, as is 49% of L2 TVL. From Base, Unichain, and World Chain to Soneium, OP Mainnet, Celo, and Ink, the most serious teams are building on Optimism’s open and modular stack. Together, they are laying the foundation for the Superchain by contributing a portion of their revenue to the Optimism Collective and helping grow a thriving ecosystem of builders.

With many chains building as one, a new network structure is emerging to solve fragmentation in Ethereum. This network is modular, interoperable, and composable by default. We call it the Superchain: and it changes everything.

Stablecoins are vital for onchain finance, and the Superchain is quickly becoming an important ecosystem for stablecoin users and asset issuers.

There is never a dull year in the Ethereum ecosystem. As we begin 2025, we want to take the opportunity to look back at the progress that has been made across Optimism and beyond. From the many upgrades to the OP Stack, to partnerships and collaborations that were formed, to the millions in OP rewards and everything in between, the growth of the Superchain has been nothing short of exciting. 2024 has been a pivotal year in shaping the future of Ethereum and the user-owned internet – yet the work continues.

A milestone event took place during this year's Devcon – the Ethereum Interop Forum (EIF). This gathering brought together key players from across the Ethereum ecosystem who set aside competition to focus on a shared mission: making Ethereum truly interoperable.

As we step into 2025, we continue to summon Ether's Phoenix through the evolution of Retroactive Public Goods Funding. This post outlines our plan to improve the Retro Funding mechanism, as well as the proposed scope of contributions Retro Funding will reward in 2025, with the end goal of more effectively and accurately rewarding those creating the impact on the Superchain.

Interoperability is the key to achieving the Superchain vision, and it’s the central focus of the Optimism Collective’s roadmap for 2025.