OP Airdrop #1 is now live.
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Details below. But first, a quick recap of what’s been an absolute whirlwind of a month:
// TL;DR: The Optimism Collective is a large-scale experiment in non-plutocratic governance and funding public goods for a more aligned internet. In this post, we explain our agile approach to governance—relentlessly iterating until we form a system which can stand the test of time.
Last month, we unveiled our vision for Optimism’s governance system.
For years leading up to this milestone, people asked us: “when token?”
But fewer asked: “why token?”
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.
Excitement has been brewing since last week’s announcement of the Optimism Collective.
It’s going to be an OP Summer.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be publishing more details on how we plan to scale a sustainable future for the Optimism Collective—starting today with OP Stimpack, the first formal action of the Token House.
This activates the Governance Fund (231,928,234 OP) to begin incentivizing growth on Optimism.
It’s hard to believe, but Optimism mainnet launched over a year ago. Since then, we’ve:
- Saved users over $1.1B in gas fees
- Deployed over 6,800 contracts
- On-boarded over 300k unique addresses
- Secured over $900M of value
- Facilitated over $17.4B in transaction volume
- Generated over $24.5M in revenue
- Donated over $1M to public goods funding
As a company, we’ve grown right alongside the network. We now have:
- More than 40 employees
- Over $175M in funding led by a16z and Paradigm
Humanity’s defining characteristic is its ability to organize and cooperate. We have devised a number of tools to do this — from language, religion, and legal structures, to rules on the highway — all are systems created to align our actions.
Despite these tools, many current attempts to coordinate large-scale action are failing. Planetary health is in rapid decline. Open source software is underfunded. Public and common goods don’t receive the support they need to survive long term.
Why is it that crucial things which stand to benefit all of us are being neglected and, more importantly, what can we do about it? In a moment where coordination is overshadowed by defection and common ground is hard to find, how do we choose the path which leads to a better future? Enter Ether’s Phoenix.