Interpreting the latest route of OP Stack: What impact will the addition of L3 bring?
Basic concepts and announcement analysis
First of all, what is OP Stack? OP Stack is an open standard code library that supports super chain development. It is not limited to L2 chains and DApp developers (well-known cases include Base, Zora Network, etc.), and the L3 ecosystem can also use it.
Another important question, what is Superchain? Superchain is a major vision of Optimism. It is conceived as multiple decentralized L2 chain networks (now also including L3), which share security, communication layers and open source technology OP Stack. These chains have standardized characteristics and interchangeable network resources to enhance the interoperability of chains, enabling developers to create DApps targeting the entire super chain.
And Optimism’s latest announcement can be understood as that developers who use OP Stack to build L3 can now join Optimism’s super chain development map and enjoy the benefits of overall ecological development. For these L3s, direct benefits include Retro funding, airdrops, and growth activities, and these L3s will return part of their income to the Optimism Collective.
However, it should be noted that the OP Stack technology for L3 is not yet fully mature, especially in terms of interoperability.
Application demand forces technological change?
Why did Optimism make this change? The official announcement elaborated on a long technology and vision, but in fact, the most important content may be as follows:
L3 can provide a new and more cost-effective way to build for chain and DApp developers. We have seen this trend on Base, which has rapidly expanded support for L3 on the original basis.
It is not difficult to see that this point should be L3 Degen on the Base chain. The story behind this can be traced back to a story that happened on Warpcast a month ago:
Binji Pande, head of Optimism NFT, posted a message asking: "Why does DEGEN L3 use Arbitrum Orbit technology instead of OP Stack?" (Note: Arbitrum Orbit is a chain development tool launched by the Arbitrum team.)
This update includes custom Gas tokens and Plasma mode.
First, OP Stack will support L3 custom Gas tokens. Projects that build communities around existing L2 native tokens can now use their tokens as Gas tokens to develop their communities into L3 ecosystems.This also reduces the entry cost for new users. There is no need to deposit Gas tokens into L2 through expensive L1 operations and then enter L3. You only need to perform low-cost L2 deposit operations in L3.
Conclusion
At a time when various chains are booming, L1, L2 and L3 are no longer scarce. When there are too many "gold diggers", being a "shovel seller" is the most stable and effective way of doing business. From the latest announcement, it can be seen that Optimism is actively adapting to market demand, aiming to make OP Stack the ultimate weapon to realize the vision of super chain.
