Optimism, a layer 2 scaling solution, is gearing up for its highly anticipated Bedrock upgrade on June 6, promising a range of improvements. The upgrade is expected to bring reduced transaction fees, enhanced network security, and better compatibility with Ethereum.
According to a Twitter thread from the Optimism team on May 15, the network will experience a downtime of 2-4 hours during the upgrade. Transactions, deposits, and withdrawals will be temporarily unavailable, and the OP Mainnet chain will not progress.
The Bedrock upgrade, which was announced in May 2022, marks a significant milestone as it was the first major network upgrade voted in by the Optimism governance council’s Token House. One of the key benefits of Bedrock is the anticipated reduction in transaction fees, estimated to decrease by 47% according to OP Labs, the network’s protocol development unit.
Bedrock aims to improve on the previous version by optimizing batch compression and utilizing Ethereum as a data availability layer. It also aims to shorten delays in including Layer 1 transactions in rollups by handling Layer 1 re-orgs more effectively. Additionally, deposit times will be significantly reduced from approximately 10 minutes to just 3 minutes with Bedrock.
Optimism upgrade compatibility with EVM
The upgrade will also enhance the network’s compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the software responsible for executing Ethereum smart contracts. Bedrock will remove existing deviations from Ethereum and the EVM that are present in Optimism, such as differing code, design patterns, and transaction-per-block models. It will also add support for EIP-1559, chain re-orgs, and other Ethereum features present on Layer 1.
While Optimism prepares for the Bedrock upgrade, zero-knowledge rollup solutions like Matter Labs’ ZKSync Era have been gaining attention and surpassing Optimism in terms of network activity. Data from L2beat shows that ZKSync Era has witnessed higher transaction volumes and average transactions per second (TPS) in recent times.
The upcoming Bedrock upgrade is expected to strengthen Optimism’s position in the layer 2 scaling landscape by offering reduced fees, improved security, and better compatibility with Ethereum. It remains to be seen how this upgrade will impact Optimism’s competitiveness against other scaling solutions in the market.
