Optimism successfully completes ‘Bedrock’ hard fork, reducing deposit times, layer-1 fees

The Optimism network has concluded its “Bedrock” upgrade on June 7, reducing deposit times, lowering layer-1 fees, and enacting additional security features, according to an announcement from network developer OP Labs. The upgrade is part of a series of reforms the developer says will help create a “Superchain” of scaleable Web3 networks based on Optimism’s OP Stack software.

✅OP Mainnet’s migration to Bedrock has concluded and the Bedrock sequencer has started up.

Key external OP Mainnet infrastructure is starting to come back online. You can track infrastructure status here:https://t.co/XTtaArdI03

— Optimism (✨_✨) (@optimismFND) June 6, 2023

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, OP Labs CEO Karl Floersch stated that Bedrock implements multiple gas optimizations the team discovered, reducing the network’s data availability fees on Ethereum by 40%. These reductions are passed on to the user in the form of lower gas fees on Optimism.

In addition, the upgrade allows the network to recognize chain reorganizations (reorgs) on Ethereum, reflecting these reorgs in the user’s Optimism balance. This allows deposit times to be reduced to one minute. Previously, deposits from Ethereum to Optimism took an average of ten minutes due to the need to gain finality on layer 1.

Bedrock also implements a two-step withdrawal process to help prevent bridge exploits.

Related: Hundred Finance loses $7 million in Optimism hack

In addition to these immediate changes, the new upgrade paves the way for further development of the OP Stack in the future, with the ultimate goal of building a multi-network “Superchain,” Floersch stated. It features “modular proof systems” that allow developers to create and customize their own blockchain networks. And the software’s validator component, called “op-geth,” has less than 1,000 lines of code that differ from Ethereum’s version, potentially making it easy for validators to switch to.

On Feb. 23, Coinbase’s Base network announced that it will become part of the Superchain as well. On May 24, it laid out a roadmap detailing its plans for mainnet launch.