Optimism's Ethereum-based scaling solution has soft launched on mainnet

Ethereum • January 15, 2021, 6:08PM EST
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Optimism has launched its Layer 2 scaling solution, the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM) on the L2 Optimistic Ethereum (OΞ) mainnet, Synthetix announced Friday. 

The first trial run is with decentralized exchange protocol Synthetix, which is now live on the OΞ mainnet. This means holders can now stake the protocol's native token, SNX. 

According to the announcement, OΞ is the first scaling solution with "full cross-layer porting capabilities for smart contracts without rewriting them," meaning Synthetix will not have to change its code to get its smart contracts onto OVM. 

Prior to the release, the team behind Optimism said the mainnet release could result in outages and bugs. Thus, the team will hold the upgrade keys for the first six months in an effort to secure user funds. 

A public testnet is set to be released on March 15. 

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Saniya More profile picture Saniya More

Saniya More (pronounced: Saan-ya Mo-ray) is a quadrilingual journalist at The Block. She got her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and did her undergraduate degree at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Her work has appeared in CBS News, Bangkok Post, Thai Enquirer, Globalists, Byline Times and other publications. When she’s not chasing a story, you will most likely find her biking, tweeting, taking photos or creating Spotify playlists for every occasion.

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