Thread by @optimismPBC

Introducing the future of Optimistic Ethereum: medium.com/ethereum-optim…

We said we had some big news and here it is. Today we're announcing the exciting work we've been doing to take Optimistic Ethereum to the next level.

With the next mainnet upgrade we're tossing out the custom Solidity compiler and introducing a truly native Ethereum experience on L2. You'll be able to deploy your contracts with a single click. Every piece of tooling you know and love will just work.

You're probably familiar with other L2s that offer a similar set of features. So what makes Optimistic Ethereum different? It all comes down to Optimism's philosophy that L2s need to be minimal, open, and accessible.

First, let’s talk about minimalism. Unlike other L2s, Optimistic Ethereum is designed as a small set of changes to existing Ethereum client code (Geth). This design choice gives users some major benefits.

For instance, every contract you want to deploy and every piece of tooling you love will *just work*. Even low-level stuff like Geth's debug_traceTransaction will work without a hitch.

OE's minimal design also means that it benefits directly from the years of work spent making Geth a robust and reliable piece of client software. Not only does OE inherit the economic security of Ethereum, it also inherits the software security of Ethereum.

Now let’s talk about openness. For L2s, a codebase that people can understand is a codebase that people can trust. A bug in L2 client software can be just as dangerous as a bug in a smart contract. The L2 development process has to be completely transparent.

Besides the obvious advantages of building on top of battle-tested software, OE’s minimal design also makes it more open. Users can actually audit the platform they're using. Any Ethereum expert can easily become an OE expert.

A tight coupling with Ethereum's clients means OE can pull in any improvements made to Ethereum and vice-versa. We'll also be able to quickly pull in major hardforks so the experience of building on OE always matches the experience on Ethereum. It's a win-win for everyone.

Finally, let’s talk about accessibility. This upcoming release represents a change in direction for the heart Optimistic Ethereum protocol. We've always built our software in the open. Now we're extending that philosophy to our protocol design.

We think OE can be the foundation for a shared open-source Rollup design that anyone can spin up. And we want you to contribute to it. Open software *always* wins.

We just launched a shiny new optimistic specs repo where we're collecting all of the documentation for this design. Anyone is more than welcome to contribute. If you're especially intrigued, you can also come join our new weekly public R&D calls as a listener or as a contributor.

Check out the repo for more information: github.com/ethereum-optim…

Lastly, we'd like to give a huge shoutout to @protolambda, @lightclients, and the @statechannels team for their early and crucial contributions to the future of the optimistic rollup. Go follow them!

Thanks for checking out this thread, and stay optimistic ❤️✨. And as always, Optimism is hiring. Check out our job listings! We probably have a role for you: jobs.lever.co/optimism