What is Optimism (OP) and the Superchain?

Optimism is an Ethereum layer 2 network, now called OP Mainnet, that processes transactions off Ethereum and publishes the data back to it to cut costs. It is built on the OP Stack, a shared open source toolkit that other teams also use to launch their own chains. The OP token is used to govern the Optimism Collective, the community that oversees this ecosystem.

What is the OP Stack?

The OP Stack is described in Optimism's docs as a standardized, shared and open source development stack for running a production layer 2 blockchain. It is a set of components rather than one program. Chains built with it are rollups: they execute transactions on their own network and publish compressed transaction data to a parent chain, usually Ethereum, so anyone can rebuild their history.

OP Stack chains are EVM equivalent, meaning existing Ethereum smart contracts and tools work without changes apart from a documented list of exceptions. The stack is modular, so a chain can swap out one layer, such as data availability or sequencing, without rebuilding everything else.

What is the Superchain?

The Superchain is a growing family of OP Stack rollups that follow a common standard. According to an Alchemy guide, these chains share bridges, governance, upgrades and security with OP Mainnet, and use the same bridge contract design to Ethereum. Named members include Base, Ink, Soneium, Unichain and World Chain.

The long term goal, in Optimism's own words from an August 2024 post, is that the Superchain "needs to feel like one chain." Work on native interoperability, which would let these chains pass messages and tokens to each other without going through Ethereum, is still in active development as of October 2026, according to Optimism's docs.

What is the OP token used for?

OP is a governance token. Holders can vote directly or delegate their voting power to someone else. Optimism uses a two-house system. The Token House represents OP holders and uses token-weighted voting. The Citizens' House represents users, apps and chains on a one member, one vote basis. Both houses can veto certain protocol upgrades, which creates a system of checks and balances. Voting runs in three week cycles. The Optimism Foundation, a Cayman Islands foundation company, supports the Collective and its technology.

The token went live on May 31, 2022, with a first airdrop to early users. The Block reported a total supply of 4.29 billion OP at launch, with about 214 million OP available to roughly 231,000 addresses in that first drop. Optimism said it removed more than 17,000 sybil addresses before the claims began. See what is a crypto airdrop for how drops like this work.

How is Optimism different from Arbitrum?

Both are optimistic rollups that settle on Ethereum. The main differences are in software and structure. Arbitrum runs its own Nitro stack and is governed by ARB holders in a single DAO. Optimism focuses on the shared OP Stack and the Superchain, where many independent chains follow one standard, and it splits governance between token holders and citizens.