Optimism is another popular blockchain in the DeFi (decentralized finance) space. Like Uniswap and many similar projects, Optimism was initially built on top of Ethereum as a layer-2 solution. This way, the developers took off the extra load of the second biggest blockchain platform onto Optimism. However, all transactions on it are secured on Ethereum.
Like Uniswap and many other projects, it is an online market maker. The title comes from the philosophical principles that led the founders while creating the blockchain – Optimism, pragmatism, sustainability, and simplicity. Optimism was built to relieve Ethereum’s transaction throughput and reduce the cost of transactions for users.
Optimism (OP) is included in the top 30 list of cryptocurrencies and is traded on various leading crypto exchanges, including OKX, Bybit, and the most significant platform by trading volume – Binance.
Optimism chain and OP token
Optimism started with the creation of Plasma Group in early 2019. This was a non-profit organization founded to research Ethereum scalability. No details about who the founders were has been disclosed. A few months later, Plasma Group borrowed concepts from the Ethereum founder’s (Vitalik Buterin) rollup design into its similar product, creating Optimism Rollup.
At the start of 2020, Plasma Group rolled out the alpha version of the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM) with an open-sourced code. By then, the creating company had changed its name from Plasma Group to Optimism Public Benefit Corporation. The OVM is a compatible execution environment for Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and the former was the very first implementation of a network with layer-2 optimistic rollups.
In 2021, Optimism finally soft-launched its mainnet, which contained several layers with centralized defense to protect its early users. However, the release of the mainnet for public use was delayed since the creators wanted to seek help from the community. In the summer of 2021, they launched a Retroactive Public Goods Funding (RetroPGF) program, with its first round held in the fall of that year. Public goods funding helps raise funds for a product based on the value and impact it has already given to the community.
OP token airdrops during mainnet expansion
In August 2021, applications were opened to the OVM beta, which helped to expand the Optimism mainnet. Next month, the developers rolled out a vital upgrade that turned the OVM into a total equivalent of the EVM – this allowed for running “one-click deploy” EVM protocols on Optimism in the almost identical way as on Ethereum. In December 2021, Optimism finally released the official public mainnet. This allowed third-party developer teams to create smart contracts for it.
In the spring of 2022, Optimism decided to add “community ownership and governance” to support its further development. In April, the OP token launch was announced. In May, OP tokens were distributed among the community to incentivize 24 projects running on Optimism. In the same month, the first airdrop for the community took place as OP tokens were distributed among almost 249,000 wallets using multiple criteria for eligibility.
That was followed by several significant upgrades the Optimism developer team rolled out over the next couple of years. Those included the “Bedrock” upgrade and the OP Stack. Then came another RetroPGF fundraising round, and OP tokens were distributed to various projects again. In early 2023, the second airdrop took place, with OP spreading around roughly 308,000 wallets.
Optimism Price Prediction 2024
Throughout 2023, Optimism underwent several other upgrades – OP Chains, Bedrock (after which Optimism was rebranded as OP Mainnet), another RetroPGF took place, and several OP airdrops were performed to Optimism-based projects.
One of the most critical events for optimism was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US. Coinbase launched its own layer-2 solution on Ethereum called Base, and Optimism’s OP Stack powers it.
In January 2024, another critical upgrade, Canyon, went live on the Optimism chain. By then, Base had launched on OP Mainnet and other projects - Zora Network, Public Goods Network, and Redstone. All of these are essential fundamental drivers for OP price growth.
Besides, OP token adoption is expanding thanks to new listings. Today, HashKey Exchange has listed OP and announced that event on its X account. OP can now be traded on this platform against USD.
According to various factors, both fundamental and technical analysis, OP is expected to reach $5.28 while trading at 4.57% at press time. However, now that Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high and has rebounded, analysts are noticing an explosive growth of top-line altcoins, including OP. Therefore, its price by the year's end significantly exceeds the above forecast.
