Ethereum Layer 2 Optimism launches token airdrop

Optimism first introduced OP in April with its announcement of its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) named ‘the Optimism Collective’, which would be an ‘experiment in digital governance at scale’ alongside its native token OP serving as its community’s governance token for protocol upgrades, project incentives and other aspects of the network. The DAO plans on using the proceeds from Optimism transaction fees to fund grants designed for ‘public goods’ like open-source software.  

The team also promised there will be ‘an entire season of airdrops’ following its first 4.29 billion supply in its first airdrop, details of the airdrops are to be announced.

‘We have NOT officially announced yet, but we’re already experiencing an all-time high demand,’ the official Optimism account wrote on Twitter. ‘We knew everyone would be excited, but holy cow — y’all just couldn’t wait for #OPSummer.’

Optimism was developed to scale Ethereum by building out the network’s Layer 2 ecosystem, which will work by processing transactions outside the Ethereum mainnet via Optimistic Rollups (a cryptographic technologies that bundles transactions in a single transaction to reduce the traffic on Ethereum’s mainnet, similar to zk-Rollups) and then injects them back into it. This significantly reduces transaction costs or gas fees. This offers a way to make transactions on Ethereum at a higher transaction speed and low cost with the benefits of the security of the Layer 1 network.

OP tokens are expected to play a significant role in the Layer 2 ecosystem because all OP holders hold the power to decide the future of the network. Optimism also plans to issue Soulbound NFT tokens to members of the Optimism Collective. 

Optimism’s airdrop came before announcements from crypto exchanges such as OKX and AAX stating their support for OP tokens. Many users claimed they have not been able to receive their tokens due to its high demand. 

Photo: optimism.io