The Next Major Update of Optimistic Ethereum

Written by: Optimism
Translated by: ETH Chinese Station

It feels like a century has passed since we launched unipig. In this article, we will announce the most significant update since the establishment of Optimistic Ethereum.

With the release of this update, we have taken a big step towards bringing native Ethereum to L2. Developers will be able to deploy contracts with a single click, and the tools everyone is accustomed to will also run on Layer 2. All of this is built around the most secure client codebase of Ethereum.

The rollout of the update will begin in a few weeks.

More than EVM Compatibility

Building core infrastructure is not easy, and testing new technologies takes time—just ask any experienced Ethereum developer, and you'll know that current tools have evolved significantly compared to the early days.

The challenges of building an EVM-compatible rollup are even greater: supporting the entire Ethereum stack in new technology. The cost of re-implementing secure EVM functionality is high; every additional line of code brings the risk of vulnerabilities.

That's why we constantly ask ourselves, "How can we scale Ethereum with the fewest lines of code?" We first became enamored with removing code when a contributor replaced our 5,000 lines of code transpiler with just 300 lines. Now, the tables have turned, and we are removing his code.

With years of in-depth understanding of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), we took some time to reassess our initial assumptions and see what could be improved. The result we arrived at is that our rollup can not only be EVM-compatible but can also upgrade to achieve the same effect as EVM. By strictly adhering to the Ethereum Yellow Paper, any code written based on Geth can now be deployed on the rollup without changes—even advanced features like tracing and gas. This upgrade removed our custom compiler and eliminated over 25,000 lines of other code to simply use existing code.

Our minimalist philosophy also provides unique scalability at the social layer. By building on top of the existing Ethereum client (Geth), we inherit any improvements made to the Ethereum client code, and vice versa—this is a win-win for the entire Ethereum ecosystem. Our ultimate goal is to enable alternative node implementations (such as OpenEthereum or Erigon) within 1,000 lines of code.

What Does This Update Mean?

This means we will achieve one-click deployment in October, with a complete change set available here. We will announce the final release date on Twitter and Discord within the next week, so stay tuned.

Projects that have always wanted to deploy but couldn't run with a custom compiler will be able to deploy directly without modifying their code. Additionally, any tools that can run on Ethereum will be able to run on Optimistic Ethereum. This means developers will be able to use DappTools, Vyper, Tenderly, Hardhat, and more on L2.

In this release, our current security model will undergo no changes—OE will still operate in a single sequencer model. If readers want to help us decentralize the protocol, then you should…

Build the Future of Ethereum with Us

This upgrade also marks the beginning of a new chapter for Optimistic Ethereum. The method of removing code can only be executed correctly when understood, but we don't just want you to understand—we want you to contribute!

Our development code has always been public, but after this upgrade, we will implement transparency in our R&D stack. The newly created specification repository, optimistic-specs repo, will serve as the latest source of truth for our protocol. There, everyone can find specifications, ongoing research, and the development roadmap, and we welcome anyone to contribute!

A special thanks to the Protolambda, Lightclient, and Magmo teams for their valuable expertise and early contributions, who wrote some PoCs and specifications.

Source link: medium.com