Scheduled for release on June 6, Optimism’s Bedrock update is expected to provide significant network improvements amid intense rivalry in the layer-2 area.
The Optimism layer-2 scaling solution intends to lower transaction costs, improve network security, and increase interoperability with Ethereum with the Bedrock update. This significant network improvement was proposed in May 2022 and passed with a majority vote in the Optimism Token House.
The Optimism team announced on Twitter on June 5 that the network would be down for two to four hours on June 6 due to the update procedure. According to a companion blog post, users cannot initiate or receive any transaction during this time, and the OP Mainnet chain will not advance.
The Bedrock update introduces several improvements. The OP Labs protocol development team at Optimism predicts a massive 47% decrease in transaction costs. Incorporating layer-1 (L1) transactions into rollups is simplified, even in the presence of L1 reorganizations, thanks to optimized batch compression and the use of Ethereum as a data availability layer.
The introduction of Bedrock will also drastically reduce the time it takes to make a deposit, with Optimism’s confirmation time for deposits decreasing from about 10 minutes to only 3 minutes. In contrast to the older “one transaction per block” concept, the newer node software version allows many transactions to be executed inside a single rollup block.
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a critical piece of software responsible for running Ethereum smart contracts, and Bedrock guarantees it is compatible with the newer version of EVM. With the Bedrock update, Optimism will no longer diverge from Ethereum and the EVM regarding code, design patterns, or transaction-per-block models. In addition, Bedrock adds L1 compatibility for features like EIP-1559 and chain reorganizations.
ZkEVMs, or EVM-compatible zero-knowledge rollups, are a growing threat to Optimism. According to L2beat findings, Matter Labs’ latest ZkEVM, ZKSync Era, has more network activity than Optimism. ZKSync Era has had 7.85 million trades in the last 30 days, more than Optimism’s 7.66 million. The average number of transactions processed by ZKSync Era in the previous 24 hours was 6.80 TPS, while the average number of transactions processed by Optimism was 2.98 TPS.
By offering upgrades that increase efficiency, decrease costs, and fortify interoperability with the more extensive Ethereum network, Optimism hopes to strengthen its place in the Layer 2 ecosystem as it prepares for its Bedrock update.