According to a report by “The Block,” OP Labs has released Fault proofs on the second-layer blockchain OP Mainnet, advancing the project in decentralization to Stage 1 Rollup.
The Fault proofs system allows Ether and ERC-20 tokens to be withdrawn from OP Mainnet without the need for a trusted third party, enabling users to challenge and delete invalid withdrawals.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 through Optimism’s governance structure, the implementation of Fault proofs received support from multiple core development teams in the Optimism ecosystem (or Superchain), including OP Labs, Base, and Sunnyside Labs, indicating a collaborative effort. Before this, OP Mainnet did not have Fault proofs online – requiring users to trust that operators would submit accurate state roots to the mainnet.
OP Mainnet and other Optimism ecosystem chains use Optimistic rollups as a scaling solution, aggregating 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, such as the Layer 2 network Base adopted by the US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase developed using OP Stack. The cryptocurrency project Worldcoin co-founded by OpenAI founder Sam Altman recently announced that “World Chain” is expected to 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 feature, starting with Base, Metal, Mode, and Zora.
Supervisory role of the Security Committee
Although open participation in the Fault proofs system has been launched, the Optimism Security Committee 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 Committee to effectively address system vulnerabilities, including the ability to reset withdrawals when 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, and similarly, the competitor Arbitrum, which also uses Optimistic rollups, has launched Fault proofs.