ETH L2 network Optimism takes this route to remove ‘sybil attackers’

The Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism launched a token and new governance model in April. The team is supposed to distribute the token via an entire season of airdrops. In fact, the team also saw it as a larger move toward a decentralized governance structure known as the (OP) Optimism Collective.

Last year, the platform even got rid of the ‘whitelist’ to bring Optimism one step closer to truly open, optimistic  Ethereum. But by doing so, it might have opened some cracks, which the team acknowledged and acted upon.

It’s all about bridging this gap

Ethereum L2 protocol Optimism announced that they’ve removed an additional 17k sybil addresses and recovered over 14 million OP. The team, in a 24 May tweet added,

“We’ve been carefully analyzing OP Airdrop #1 for sybil attackers that slipped through the cracks. We’re happy to announce that we’ve removed an additional 17k sybil addresses and recovered over 14 million OP.

Bye bye sybils!”

All of the OP recovered would get redistributed proportionally to other recipients of Airdrop #1. Or, as the team puts it, “It’s like an extra mini airdrop.”

Notably, a Sybil attack is a type of attack on a computer network service in which an attacker subverts the service’s reputation system by creating a large number of pseudonymous identities and uses them to gain a disproportionately large influence.

Further, the team thanked the community for their support.

Like our initial sybil filters for Airdrop #1, we’ve chosen not to publicize these additional filters. Teaching sybils how to become undetectable is not in anyone’s best interest.

— Optimism (✨?_?✨) (@optimismPBC) May 23, 2022

Optimism is one of Ethereum’s top Layer 2 scaling projects. According to an Arcane Research report, while transferring ETH can cost about $18.11, the same function cost less than $0.01 with Optimism.

Race to the top

The project saw significant growth over the past few months amid increased focus on Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling solutions. In April 2022, the network recorded around $662 million in Total Value Locked (TVL). But the month of May might see disappointment for the network as the TVL slipped to $500 million.

Source: L2Beat

Although Optimism is currently benefiting from a wave of hype, it’s still lagging behind its biggest competitor, Arbitrum, another Layer 2 solution of the Optimistic Rollup which holds $2.71 billion in TVL.