Optimism Optimistic ☀️🌈

February 25, 2021: Gas tank half full with projected March launch

Here are today’s trends to watch from Curve Market Cap:

Could gas fees be solved as soon as next month? There’s reason for optimism! Optimism announced a $25MM raise from the Who’s Who of Silicon Valley.

The Block @TheBlock__

NEW: Ethereum scaling startup Optimism raises $25 million Series A led by a16z

theblockcrypto.comEthereum scaling startup Optimism raises $25 million Series A led by a16zOptimism, a startup focused on the scalability of the Ethereum blockchain network, has raised a $25 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Chris Dixon @cdixon

Investing in Optimism

a16z.comInvesting in Optimism - Andreessen HorowitzThe Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution uses optimistic rollups to achieve lower fees, lower latency, and greater throughput compared to Layer 1 alone.

Much like Ayatollah and American hostages, the funds persuaded Optimism to swiftly release their mainnet.

Optimism @optimismPBC

We just hired the dopest rockstars in town and they've expedited our timeline. Mainnet will be open to the public in March (more details soon). Read about the people who're making this possible⭐

We’ve discussed L2 solutions a lot, and while the community is most excited about the swift withdraw time of ZK Rollups, most are pragmatic about the utility of Optimism today. The reaction towards the heavy hitting team was jubilant:

Dan Elitzer 🌱 @delitzer

The @optimismPBC is stacked beyond belief. Congrats to all the new hires who get to work with @jinglanW @karl_dot_tech @ben_chain and each other. Oh, and public mainnet next month!!! https://t.co/qvdDZQDBnk

Optimism @optimismPBC

We just hired the dopest rockstars in town and they've expedited our timeline. Mainnet will be open to the public in March (more details soon). Read about the people who're making this possible⭐ https://t.co/IKdf64rTPh

Liam Horne @liamihorne

I think this is our year to really deliver real scale for Ethereum — and the team @jinglanW, @karl_dot_tech, and @ben_chain are building is going to deliver it. They have been along for this journey since the beginning and they will not stop until the job is done.

All things considered, the news is probably worst for competitive sidechains:

maxdesalle.com @maxdesalle

Optimism launching in March is probably the most bullish news in the past few months for Ethereum and the most bearish for alternative layer-1s.

If you squint, you’ll note $BNB price lost a point against $ETH over the past day

Ethereum Jesus ⟠ 🙌🏻 @EthereumJesus

The stars are aligning for Ethereum’s mega bull run. ✨ Hold my beer BS Chain. 🍺 -Currently +100,000 ETH2 Validators -Optimism Mainnet (March) -The Rise of Layer 2’s -Berlin Hard Fork (April) -London Hard Fork, EIP-1559 (July) Ethereum 2.0 Phase 1, Shard Chains (EOY 2021) 🚀🌝

state.eth.1559 @statelayer

optimism is launching a LOT sooner than i expected imo this means ethereum can have its own BSC-esque retail mania because of low fees, while the bullrun is still going strong. optimism supporters will be launching tons of projects, making optimism the new wild west for yield

state.eth.1559 @statelayer

cheap and composable smart contracts with the same level of security as ETH L1? weeks, not months 🔴 https://t.co/TmbUhAbjY1

Loopring, a zkRollup based solution, is already scaling nicely, suggesting that L2 solutions of all flavors are already outcompeting sidechains:

Matthew Finestone | 3body.eth @finestonematt

The cold hard truth: Eth killers will not kill Ethereum. They will not even scathe Ethereum L2s. A single L2, the Loopring zkRollup, is earning more in fees each day than EKs do in a week or month. [And paying those fees to Ethereum for security.]

The momentum within Ethereum, despite gas burdens, is eye-popping:

Ryan Watkins @RyanWatkins_

Ethereum is on pace to settle $1.6 trillion in transactions for Q1 2021. In the last 12 months it has settled $2.1 trillion in transactions. Incredible scale for a technology that critics claimed couldn’t scale.

Of course, if you can’t wait another month to save on gas, we’d recommend you join our upcoming Pool Party!

Join our Telegram group and help us discuss the important business:

Curve Market Cap @CurveCap

Which fictional token would you prefer as a reward for joining our first Pool Party?

---

For more info, check our live market data at https://curvemarketcap.com/ or our subscribe to our daily newsletter at https://curve.substack.com/. Newsletter is an independent roundup of interesting trends in cryptocurrency, never financial advice. Author stakes $CRV and owns a little $ETH.