Why Is This Proposal Important?

If the newly published proposal passes, Ethereum’s (ETH) second-largest Layer 2 solution might have its modularity, decentralization, speed and security enhanced.

First-ever upgrade proposal by Optimism Collective: What is Bedrock?

Per the statement shared by Optimism Collective, a novel governance body of the Optimism (OP) ecosystem, the network might activate its Bedrock upgrade next March.

The Optimism Foundation has proposed the first protocol upgrade to the Optimism Collective: Bedrock. 🛏️🪨

See the full proposal here: https://t.co/ulJcbGKFsk

— Optimism Governance (@OptimismGov) February 1, 2023

This is the first upgrade of this scale proposed by Optimism Collective in a new way. Largely, the upgrade is designed to advance the architecture design of Optimism. Bedrock is set to separate the OP Stack into three components: consensus, execution and settlement.

Besides that, it will advance Optimism/Ethereum compatibility: with Bedrock activated, an Ethereum (ETH) execution client can be converted into an Optimism (OP) execution client effortlessly.

The upgrade also advances the procedure of withdrawals from the bridge. The new two-phase procedure takes into account the lessons from the devastating DeFi hacks of 2021-2022.

Bedrock might be activated on March 15, 2023

The Bedrock upgrade will set new standards for Ethereum’s L2 segment in terms of throughput, transactional latency, operational costs and synchronization speed.

Should the proposal be approved by the community, the upgrade will be rolled out as soon as March 15, 2023. The voting procedure starts on Feb. 6. Optimism’s key testnet, Goerli, has already been updated, the statement goes.

As of press time, Optimism (OP) is responsible for 32.44% of Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem’s total value locked (TVL). With $1.86 billion locked, it is only lagging behind Arbitrum, which sees $2.86 billion locked in all of its dApps.