Optimism, a firm that’s building a Layer 2 scaling solution for the Ethereum network, says that the solution’s preliminary mainnet should be available by January 15th. The Optimism mainnet’s first trial run will be held in conjunction with decentralized exchange protocol Synthetix.
The solution aims to solve Ethereum’s scaling problem by forming a channel in which transactions can run more quickly and at a lower cost. Currently, Ethereum runs at about 1.2 million transactions per day; the average transaction fee is a whopping $15.
“Until we relinquish those keys, please do not consider this the full and final system.”
The Optimism mainnet’s first trial run will be held in conjunction with decentralized exchange protocol Synthetix. During the trial period, it will be possible for Synthetix to transform Ethereum smart contracts onto the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM). Once transferred to the OVM, will then be deployed on Optimism’s mainnet.
The Block also reported that OVM is almost fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which means that Synthetix won’t have to change its code to in order to deploy its smart contracts onto the Optimism Virtual Machine.
However, because the current run of project is a trial, the Optimism team is expecting bumps in the road: “the project team will hold upgrade keys for at least the first six months to ensure user funds’ safety,” Optimism said in a statement. Therefore, “until we relinquish those keys, please do not consider this the full and final system.”
The public version of the mainnet is current scheduled for release on March 15th. Several other projects within the Ethereum landscape, including Uniswap and Chainlink, are also slated to run trials of Optimism’s solution before then.
ETH is still haunted by scalability problems
Ethereum’s scalability issues have long called the network’s viability as the “backbone of the DeFi world” into question. In the past, this scalability issue has caused ETH bull runs over the last few months to be cut short.
During one such bull run toward the end of 2020, Stuart Popejoy, co-founder and president of blockchain infrastructure firm Kadena, told Finance Magnates that ““ETH 1.0 is clearly on a warpath to bleed millions of dollars in gas fees over the next couple weeks,” Stuart Popejoy said. “Eventually there will be a new equilibrium when enough gas gets emitted to bring prices back to reality.”
Currently, ETH is approaching a new all-time high. However, it’s possible that scalability issues could bring this rally, too, to a halt.
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