The Optimist Twitter Space - Superchain(S) Live

In The Optimist’s Twitter Spaces which took place on December 14, 2023, Subli from The Optimist hosted Ben Jones from Optimism Foundation, James Ross from Mode Network, Sophia Dew and Nicole from Public Goods Network, Anika Raghuvanshi from Base, and Mike from Lyra Finance to discuss Superchain development, innovations, challenges, scalability, smart contract integration, and more! Read our notes below to learn more.

Background

Subli (Host) – The Optimist Founder, Optimism ambassador

Ben Jones (Guest) – Co-Founder of Optimism Foundation

James Ross (Guest) – Founder of Mode Network

Sophia Dew (Guest) – Product & Engineering at Gitcoin, Public Goods Network

Nicole (Guest) – Product Lead at Public Goods Network

Anika Raghuvanshi (Guest) – Founding Engineer at Base

Mike (Guest) – Contributor at Lyra Finance

Optimism Foundation – a layer-two blockchain that operates on top of Ethereum, aiming to scale the Ethereum ecosystem by using optimistic rollups.

Base – a new Ethereum L2, incubated by Coinbase and built on the open-source OP Stack

Lyra Finance – a self-custodial, high-performance crypto trading platform for options, perpetuals, and spot trading

Mode Network – an Ethereum L2 built on the OP stack architecture, aiming to build solutions for economic growth

Public Goods Network – a digital schelling point and the world’s first L2 that works to create durable and recurring funding for public goods

Innovations and Challenges in Blockchain Scalability and Integration

Anika says she focuses on smart contracts and key management aspects at Base.
Sophia describes her role as a technical integrations engineer involved in strategy, growth, and Public Goods Network.
Nicole talks about her role at Public Goods Network as a protocol lead, building, growing, and scaling the ecosystem since its launch in July 2023.
Mike shares that they have been developing DeFi options for the past years, were the first to launch natively on Optimism, and are launching their chain with the OP stack and Superchain this week.
Ben focuses on the Superchain, aiming to ensure the success of all participating teams and projects.
Ben explains that the OP stack is an open-source codebase designed for building scalable blockchains, extending beyond traditional rollups and supporting alternative data availability layers. He highlights its role in enhancing the throughput of blockchain systems by parallelizing computation.
Ben explains the challenges of scaling in blockchain, noting that users experience difficulties in moving between environments due to fragmentation and the complexity of bridges in the current roll-up projects.
He describes the Superchain as Optimism’s approach to aligning and interoperating multiple chains built on the OP stack, sharing code and security properties for seamless interaction and upgrades, aiming to improve inter-chain communication and user experience.
Ben reflects on the evolution of the Superchain concept, stating that the need for multiple chains for scalability was always apparent. He highlights that horizontal scalability was a fundamental goal from the start, and the development of multiple interoperable chains was inevitable for global blockchain scalability.
Ben says the release of the Bedrock upgrade was a pivotal moment, which addressed technical shortcomings and laid the foundation for a more stable, performant, and secure system. This upgrade made it feasible for others to securely operate these chains, marking a significant step toward the practical implementation of the Superchain concept.

Coinbase and Superchain: Collaborative Innovation in OP Stack

Subli asks Anika about the motivation behind Coinbase‘s decision to join the OP stack and contribute to the Superchain.
Anika explains that Coinbase’s decision to build a layer-2 was influenced by the modularity and open-source nature of the OP Stack. She mentions their previous collaboration with the OP team on Ethereum core development and scalability improvements, which aligned with their vision for layer two technologies.
Ben praises Anika and the Coinbase team for being early movers and acknowledges their significant contribution to OP Stack’s development. He credits Base, as the second core developer of the OP stack, for their role in the optimism governance’s decision on the canyon hard fork.
James discusses how their decision to join was driven by a desire for collaboration within the optimism ecosystem. He highlights Mode‘s vision of cooperative on-chain development and its commitment to funding public goods and supporting developers through revenue-sharing models.
Mike explains that the need for a unique execution environment led them to the Superchain. He highlights the importance of composability and network effects in their decision, noting how Base’s involvement was a significant factor in their choice to join the Superchain.
Subli comments on the leverage effect where larger teams with more capital and user base can benefit from smaller teams with technical niche products, leading to synergy in the Superchain.
Sophia highlights that smaller teams can now utilize shared network stacks, which was difficult before. She highlights PGN‘s focus on not being a siloed appchain but part of a larger Superchain movement, aiming to enhance user experience through interoperability and asset management across different platforms.
Nicole adds that their decision to build on OP and within the Superchain predated the explosion of different networks. She says this decision strengthened their conviction about being in the right place, focusing on public goods funding and leveraging the strong foundation of the network instead of bootstrapping a new one.
Nicole describes their focus on public goods not just within their network but broadly, using innovative funding methods. She sees potential for generating funds for public goods projects through their network and anticipates healthy overlap with other chains while strengthening the collective effort.
Anika notes the importance of each chain’s strengths and niches. She mentions Base’s role in onboarding people into the crypto ecosystem and highlights the non-zero-sum nature of the competition among chains, viewing them as complementary pieces of a larger puzzle in the crypto world.
Mike says that Lyra Finance’s goal is to become the options chain for the Superchain and the source of options liquidity. He highlights that options, despite their complex terminology, are fundamental financial primitives for creating future payoff structures.
Mike views them as essential in various financial structures, including insurance and yield products. He envisions their platform as a key source of options liquidity, working with diverse projects and enhancing products in competition.
James highlights Mode Network’s focus on product development, aiming to provide a smooth experience for developers and users, especially in the DeFi ecosystem. He talks about experimenting with new funding methods and the potential for cross-chain collaboration and innovation.
James recognizes the inevitable overlapping of functionalities among chains but sees it as a part of ongoing research and innovation rather than competition.
Ben shares that his perspective differs as he is not focused on growing his chain. He highlights the need for the mainnet chain to evolve and support project migrations to their own chains. Ben underscores the importance of interoperability as a key protocol milestone, facilitating asset transactions across different chains and contributing positively to the entire ecosystem.

Superchain: Collaborative Initiatives and Onboarding Innovations

Subli asks whether there are collaborative initiatives among the Superchain’s various chains for go-to-market strategies or user onboarding. He asks if such collaborations exist or are planned for the future.
Ben recognizes existing collaborative efforts. He mentions the recent optimism governance initiative for retroactive public goods funding, which distributed tokens across the Superchain.
Ben mentions the ongoing ‘We Love the Art‘ campaign, supporting NFT builders on various chains within the Superchain. He expects the continuation and natural evolution of such collaborations, enhancing the onboarding process and overall ecosystem growth.
Subli expresses admiration for the art campaign in the Web3 and crypto ecosystem, highlighting its novelty and refreshing impact. He recalls Anika’s innovative launch of Base in August with a summer campaign that successfully onboarded traditional companies into Web3. Subli asks Anika about Base’s initiatives to onboard new users into the Web3 world.
Anika recognizes the challenges in the user experience of crypto onboarding, highlighting the difficulties in key management and the risks associated with interacting with insecure dApps. She mentions Base’s focus on improving user experience through smart contract wallets and accessible fiat on-ramps and off-ramps worldwide, despite regulatory and security challenges.
Subli asks Mike about Lyra chain‘s approach to simplifying onboarding for new users and institutions.
Mike explains Lyra chain’s plans to innovate the onboarding and UX flow, focusing on smart contract accounts that separate signers from accounts. He mentions upcoming features like native smart contract wallets, gasless trading, and simplified transaction signing processes. Mike highlights the need for the crypto industry to evolve user experience to attract a broader audience.
Nicole raises a point about the balance between user experience and network visibility in Web3. She refers to a tweet discussing the push for abstraction in user interfaces while maintaining the visibility of distinct networks. Nicole expresses her desire for both ease of use and the preservation of unique network characteristics.
Subli highlights the importance of each blockchain having its uniqueness, as users prefer chains offering the best products. Subli asks James about his strategies to onboard builders on a new chain and the solutions planned to simplify builders’ lives.
James highlights the need for a clean product with good UX, dashboards for developers, revenue opportunities, and referral programs. He discusses the aim of leveraging network effects and creating innovative systems to grow the network.
James argues against simplifying everything for user onboarding, highlighting the necessity of maintaining Web3’s essence without compromising on decentralization for ease of use. He underlines the significance of good UX and the balance between user-friendliness and control.
James announces a DeFi Degen hackathon to encourage innovation and creativity among builders, focusing on improving UX while maintaining decentralization. He highlights the need for comprehensive tools and infrastructure to support builders and enhance the product for users.
Sophia discusses the challenges posed by multiple Layer 2 networks and their impact on user experience. She expresses excitement about the Superchain’s mission, particularly its potential for interoperability and its benefits for end users.
Subli, describing personal experiences as an end user, praises Coinbase Wallet for its user-friendly interface in the DeFi space. Subli encourages easy onboarding methods that don’t require deep technical knowledge of blockchain technology.
Ben discusses the importance of bridging and key management in blockchain, highlighting the trade-offs between user experience and centralization. He stresses the need for clarity on how centralization affects various parts of the blockchain stack.
Ben envisions a future where applications are the focal point for users, rather than the chains themselves. He advocates for solving infrastructure problems across the entire stack to create a more application-centric world in the blockchain industry.

2024 Blockchain Development: Innovations and Scaling Strategies

Subli asks about their current status in chain development and their roadmap for the upcoming year.
James mentions an ongoing hackathon and upcoming big news. He explains that Mode Network has been in Testnet for two months and is- now on DevNet, a mainnet without a UI bridge, to prepare the ecosystem for the eventual mainnet launch. He highlights his work with ecosystem partners and plans involving referral systems on-chain, dashboards for developers, and growth experiments both on and off-chain.
Nicole shares her focus on integrating public goods organizations. She mentions their immediate goals, including finalizing the safe UI, bringing in alliance partners, and supporting builders in their ecosystem. She mentions upcoming governance discussions regarding sequencer fee distribution, set to start six months after their July launch.
Mike mentions the recent launch of their Lyra V2 and an upcoming product reveal, hinting at a Bitcoin-related event and options as a predictive tool.
Anika says that the goal for the base is to onboard a million developers and a billion users on the chain. She mentions plans for the next year, including enabling users to use smart contract wallets and paymasters to potentially sponsor transaction fees in certain scenarios. Anika highlights exploring and experimenting with these ideas and continuing to contribute back to the stack in various ways.
Subli comments on the complexity of explaining gas fees to crypto novices and applauds Anika’s idea of gas fee sponsoring. He addresses Ben, noting his appointment as an Optimism ambassador at the end of 2022 and his discovery of the Superchain and Optimism vision. Subli asks Ben about his plans for 2024, specifically regarding the stack and the Superchain.
Ben shares his strategy for 2024, focusing on bringing more chains on board and business development efforts. He expresses excitement about the productization of fault proofs and the interop roadmap, which involves improved light clients, ZK proofs, and other incremental steps toward scaling. Ben highlights the importance of chains communicating with each other and the collaborative work between the labs and base teams.

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Show Information

Medium: Twitter (Audio)
Show: The Optimist Twitter Space
Show Title: Superchain(S) Live <> The Optimist
Show Date: December 14, 2023