According to “The Block,” OP Labs has released fault proofs on the second layer blockchain OP Mainnet, advancing the project towards Stage 1 Rollup in terms of decentralization. The fault proof system allows Ether and ERC-20 tokens to be withdrawn from OP Mainnet without the need for a trusted third party, enabling users to challenge and remove invalid withdrawals. Fault proofs, as a mechanism on the Ethereum Layer 2 network, allow users to challenge potential fraud or erroneous transactions.
Prior to approval by Optimism’s governance structure, the implementation of fault proofs received support from multiple core development teams within the Optimism ecosystem, including OP Labs, Base, and Sunnyside Labs, indicating a collaborative effort. Before this, OP Mainnet did not have fault proofs implemented, requiring users to trust that operators would submit accurate state roots to the mainnet.
Both OP Mainnet and other Optimism ecosystem chains use Optimistic rollups as a scaling solution to aggregate Ethereum transactions off-chain to reduce processing costs. The development team of OP Mainnet, OP Labs, also operates a development software stack called “OP Stack,” through which developers can launch their own Layer 2 blockchain, similar to the Layer 2 network Base adopted by the US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The cryptocurrency project “Worldcoin,” co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, recently announced that its “World Chain” is expected to also be built using OP Stack.
Fault proofs are currently operational on OP Mainnet, and other OP Stack chains will also begin upgrading to include this functionality, starting with Base, Metal, Mode, and Zora. Despite the open participation of the fault proof system, the Optimism Security Council can still intervene in the event of system failures and restore the system to a licensed state as part of a secure and responsible rollout. Additional safeguards allow the Security Council to effectively address system vulnerabilities, including the ability to reset withdrawals if necessary.
OP Mainnet has a fully permissionless and decentralized “Stage 2” roadmap managed entirely through smart contracts. Most Optimistic rollup blockchains have yet to achieve decentralization of the network by incorporating fault proofs and maintaining decentralized contract upgrades. Similarly, the competitor using Optimistic rollups, Arbitrum, has also implemented fault proofs.