The Optimism network has successfully completed the “Bedrock” upgrade on June 7th, introducing faster transaction times, reduced layer-1 fees, and additional security features, as announced by OP Labs, the network’s developers. The upgrade is part of a series of improvements aimed at creating a “Superchain” consisting of scalable Web3 networks based on Optimism’s OP Stack software.
The CEO of OP Labs, Karl Floersch, has stated that Bedrock implements several gas optimizations that the team has discovered, reducing the network’s data availability fees on Ethereum by 40%. These reductions are passed on to users in the form of lower gas fees on Optimism.
The Bedrock upgrade comes with specific goals, including a 40% reduction in gas fees and a 90% reduction in transaction time. Specifically, Bedrock will divide the project’s OP Stack architecture into three separate components – Consensus Layer, Execution Layer, and Settlement Layer – to bring about notable changes, including:
- Reducing the time to transfer funds from Ethereum to Optimism by up to 4 times.
- Reducing data transfer costs to Ethereum by up to 20%.
- Decreasing the divergence with Ethereum’s Geth client to just 500 lines of code, enabling better synchronization between the two.
- Implementing the EIP-1559 fee model, similar to Ethereum, to update transaction gas fees.
- Paving the way for other data proof solutions such as ZK-Rollups.
These significant improvements are seen as game-changers that can help Optimism advance towards its goal of becoming a “Superchain.” The name Bedrock also carries the meaning of being the foundation of the Superchain. As Karl Floersch, the CEO of OP Labs, shared:
The Superchain is a long-term vision that fundamentally includes multiple OP chains, all operating under the OP Stack standard.