Optimism’s native token, OP, is now available on Okcoin. Here’s how the project and the token work, in simple terms. 🌞
TL;DR
- What? You can now deposit, withdraw, and trade OP on Okcoin.
- Who? All Okcoin customers except for residents of the EU, the UK, Singapore, and Brunei.
- When? Deposits are live as of July 5. Withdrawals and trading are live as of July 6. 🎉
What’s OP token?
The variable and often high transaction (gas) costs of Ethereum have been a major topic of discussion over the past few years. Many traders find themselves paying upwards of $150 on one transaction. While there are hundreds of cheaper smart contract platforms to choose from (such as Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot), many don’t because they believe strongly in the future of Ethereum.
As Ethereum grew in popularity, so too did the need for layer 2 scaling solutions (decentralized protocols that increase a blockchain’s processing capacity and relieve network congestion). Optimism is one such solution, making Ethereum transactions cheaper and faster. Using a construction called optimistic roll ups, Optimism is able to combine hundreds of smaller transactions into a single larger transaction. To do this, transaction data is stored on-chain while computation is carried out off-chain.
The key use case for OP, beyond providing financial support to developers and projects, is governance. The Token House and the Citizens’ House are the two components that make up the Optimism Collective — a massive experiment in decentralized governance. Together, the collective drives the long term vision of the protocol. The protocol, just announced in May 2022, already has a market value of $115 million, and it intends to keep expanding via more airdrops in the future.
