Optimism
Last changed 2026-10-10 · Score recalculated — Rescored under Scoring v2, the published formula (avoid.net/scoring): 60 → 92. Problems weighed by who is responsible: concerns that are not fraud −15.6, incidents the subject suffered −6, problems around the subject, caused by others −1.7; legitimacy credit well known and widely used +25, long-running +10, regulated +5; fact-check adjustments (−8) now shown as page reliability, not in the score. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| Concerns that are not fraud | -15.6 |
| Incidents it suffered (e.g. hacks) | -6 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -1.7 |
| Well known and widely used | +25 |
| Long-running | +10 |
| Regulated | +5 |
| Sum | 82 |
Score: 92/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Summary
Optimism is an Ethereum Layer 2 optimistic rollup network operated by OP Labs PBC, with ecosystem governance stewarded by the Optimism Foundation. Launched on mainnet in January 2021, it issues the OP governance token and anchors the Superchain — a shared framework that powers Base, Zora, Mode, and more than two dozen other OP Stack-based chains. The network has a credible technical pedigree and documented decentralization progress, but retains meaningful centralization in its sequencer and upgrade-key infrastructure, and has experienced several notable security incidents.
Connected Entities
6 entities · 60 linked investigations- Wintermute→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Ethereum→mentioned with→Coinbase(60%)
- Optimism→mentioned with→Arbitrum(65%)
- Optimism→mentioned with→Wintermute(70%)
- Optimism→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- Optimism→mentioned with→Coinbase(60%)
- Coinbase→mentioned with→Optimism(80%)
- Ethereum→mentioned with→Vitalik Buterin(80%)
- Optimism→mentioned with→Vitalik Buterin(80%)
- Vitalik Buterin→mentioned with→Ethereum(65%)
- + 4 more
Timeline(18 events)
2019
Plasma Group non-profit founded by Jinglan Wang and Karl Floersch to advance Ethereum scaling research.
CoinDesk — Optimism's Jing Wang and the Widely Adopted OP Stack24 February 2021
OP Labs PBC closes $25 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
CoinDesk10 February 2022
Jay Freeman (saurik) discloses 'Unbridled Optimism' critical vulnerability in OVM 2.0, allowing unlimited ETH minting. Optimism awards a $2,000,042 bug bounty.
Jay Freeman — saurik.com16 March 2022
OP Labs PBC closes $150 million Series B co-led by Paradigm and a16z at a $1.65 billion valuation.
CoinDesk31 May 2022
OP token launched; Optimism Collective and bicameral governance (Token House + Citizens' House) announced.
Optimism Blog — Introducing the Optimism CollectiveJune 2022
Airdrop 1 distributes 200 million OP tokens to approximately 250,000 eligible addresses; 17,000 sybil addresses removed beforehand.
Optimism Documentation — Airdrop 19 June 2022
Wintermute provides incorrect L1 wallet address to Optimism; attacker deploys matching Gnosis Safe on L2 and steals 20 million OP tokens. Approximately 17 million eventually returned.
CoinDesk2023
Airdrop 2 distributes 11.7 million OP tokens to 307,965 governance-participating addresses.
Optimism DocumentationSeptember 2023
Airdrop 3 distributes 19.4 million OP tokens to 31,870 addresses focused on governance participation.
Boxmining — Optimism OP Token Airdrop GuideDecember 2023
Security Council's 14 inaugural members ratified by governance vote; upgrade key custody transferred to the 2-of-2 nested multisig structure.
Optimism Blog — Introducing the Security CouncilFebruary 2024
Delta network upgrade introduces Span Batches, reducing data costs across OP Chains.
Optimism 2024 Year in ReviewMarch 2024
Ecotone upgrade activates EIP-4844 blob data availability following Ethereum's Dencun upgrade, reducing OP Mainnet transaction fees by approximately 90%.
Messari — Optimism Q2 2024 Brief22 March 2024
Offchain Labs discloses two fraud proof vulnerabilities to OP Labs; both are patched on testnet by April 25, 2024 before public disclosure.
Unchained — Optimism Patches Issues With Testnet Fraud Proofs10 June 2024
Permissionless fault proofs activated on OP Mainnet; OP Mainnet achieves Stage 1 classification on L2BEAT.
Optimism 2024 Year in ReviewOctober 2024
Airdrop 5 distributes 10.3 million OP tokens to approximately 54,700 Superchain users.
The Block — Optimism rolls out fifth airdrop21 July 2025
Optimism Foundation and OP Labs PBC meet with SEC Crypto Task Force to discuss OP Stack and crypto asset regulation frameworks.
SEC.gov — Crypto Task Force Meeting Memo22 January 2026
Optimism DAO begins voting on proposal to allocate 50% of net sequencer revenue to monthly OP token buybacks; vote contested among delegates.
CoinDesk — Optimism community begins vote on OP token buybacksDecision Log
- slot 455370102 · hash 5Zk2SFExXURYf4JX3kwwEERsYdPE7PL96tsgSaMw7EAz
- slot 445508133 · hash HmjAACDhw1THAdTuTCAfaQPpcYjRphKKNUwQ8SGSPf6e
- slot 424180327 · hash AvHHVeN7MYj6z38SGt9Fe2xge24jXxc1ioDvGULSirWm
- slot 424180323 · hash CQqBUHDWmmLAPu3KV67CCDtpsRD2dmQcR1MefYsReBj3
- slot 423421661 · hash FjfhRM2aSHFQ3beJ39Z9aY2URzM6RhApLtoEw3yfDKK2
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (5 decisions). 20 of 22 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 5/31/2026, 5:41:27 PM
last updated: 10/10/2026, 6:49:58 PM
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