Optimism (OP) is a Layer 2 network that solves Ethereum’s scalability problems, giving users low fees and faster transactions. Scalability and low gas rates have always existed Ethereum‘s biggest problems. This is because, in the midst of crypto’s trilemma, where security, decentralization and scalability are not equal, Ethereum has chosen more security than decentralization and more decentralization than scalability to focus on. This is the reason Ethereum has many low 2s to solve the scalability issues.
Over the years, people have had to spend huge amounts of ETH gas to make a transaction, but back then no one cared because the value of ETH was small. For example, if you spend 0.001 ETH when ETH was worth $300, that means you spent $0.03 in gas fees, which was cheap.
This was also at a time when the network was less crowded, but over time the value of ETH increased from $300 to over $2,000. During a more busy period, users have found that it can cost more than $80 in gas fees to approve a transaction on the Ethereum chain.
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OP network is one of the Layer 2 solutions for ETH
What better way to solve this problem than by introducing the Ethereum Layer 2s, which will give you almost the same features as Ethereum, but is expected to be better at what Ethereum lacks. Ethereum is lacking in terms of scalability, some layers of layer 2 help fill the void, others do not. One layer 2 Ethereum chain that helps feel the emptiness is the Optimism chain.
Ethereum is great, but imagine if you don’t want to transact on-chain because you think the gas costs are too expensive. It’s like spending $50 in delivery fees to buy a $10 item. Although Ethereum has strong security, some people still dislike the expensive gas fees and decide to build on other chains.
Optimism (OP) Network benefits: Cheap gas rates and lightning-fast transaction speed
Optimism is an Ethereum combination known for its cheap gas fees and lightning-fast transaction speed. If you use the chain to transact, you will appreciate it immensely and will want to transact on the chain on a regular basis.
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If you were used to paying $10 in gas fees on the ETH network, you would appreciate the Optimism network more as you would spend less than $0.01 in gas fees. The Optimism Network is one of the most successful Ethereum Layer 2 chains, with a highly successful airdrop of its native token called Optimism (OP), which can be traded on centralized exchanges.
Important things to know about the Optimism Ecosystem:
Let’s explore the Optimism ecosystem so you know how to navigate and use the decentralized applications (DApps) on the network, which will help you avoid falling for fake sites and phishing links.
The Optimism mainnet chain uses Optimism ETH, opETH, for gas rates. Tokens on the chain are sometimes represented as opX, where X represents the token. For example, if you have Bitcoin in the Optimism chain, it will be shown as opBTC, so Ethereum in the Optimism chain is opETH.
How to buy, sell and trade tokens on the optimism chain or network:
To purchase a token on the Optimism chain you will need Optimism ETH; you can obtain OPETH in two ways: the centralized way or the decentralized way. Let’s talk about the centralized way first, because it doesn’t take much effort.
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If you have a Binance account, Bybit, Kucoin or HTX and have some USDT, you can exchange the USDT for ETH. Then withdraw the ETH on the Optimism network into your EVM wallet such as Metamask.
Decentralized Way to Buy Optimism (OP)
To get opETH the decentralized way, you need to know which wallets to use. Optimism network supports various EVM wallets. Here are some EVM wallets compatible with the Optimism network; we have Metamask, the universal EVM wallet, Trustwallet, Coinbase Web 3 wallet, Rainbow wallet, Brave wallet, Taho wallet, OKX Web 3.0 wallet, Rabby Wallet, Zerion wallet and many more. See here for the full list Optimism ecosystem portfolios.
How to build a bridge to the Optimism Network:
You should have your compatible one EVM wallet and your ETH in wallet ready, the next step is to bridge your ETH. There are several ways to bridge your ETH. You can use native ETH or any other layer 2 ETH, and you can obtain native ETH from centralized exchanges or via P2P from your local crypto vendor.
You can also get native ETH by purchasing directly from Metamask this way:
Go to Metamask Portfolio and connect your Metamask wallet or any EVM wallet. Choose your location and select a payment method. Then you can select the coin you want to do. This method gives you a variety of coins in different chains.
You can select ETH on the optimism chain and easily obtain the ETH on the optimism chain. This way it will be easier for you to get ETH on Optimism chain or any other chain without using a centralized crypto platform. The disadvantage of this is the spread; you can spend as little as $100 to end up with $75 worth of ETH, and the rest is used for fees.
However, if you already have native ETH or ETH on Arbitrum or another layer 2 chain, you can bridge in two ways.
Bridging using the Optimism native bridge: This allows you to bridge the gap between the available ETH networks and the Optimism network. This bridge primarily supports bridging native ETH to optimism, but does not primarily support other chains of the optimism chain. So it uses secondary bridging platform like hop protocol, stargate and more.
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The habits Optimism bridge is quite simple, but you must have native ETH in your wallet. Go to the site, connect your wallet to the site and view the deposit.
The review deposit shows that you have to pay a gas fee to the optimism chain. This gas fee is for the optimism chain, and after you pay it, you will have to pay another gas fee to initiate the transaction, depending on the gas fee congestion at that time.
For example, the gas fee congestion states that I have to pay an extra $8.51 because the Ethereum chain has high gas fees.
So if you do the math, you’ll find that we spent over $16 just to build the bridge from the Ethereum mainnet to the optimism chain. Therefore, we need to consider the other bridging option, which is bridging using the secondary bridging platforms.
There are several secondary bridging platforms you can use, and each has its own bridging fees.
Bridging using the Optimism app bridge: You can access all secondary bridging platforms on the Optimism app bridge https://www.optimism.io/apps/bridges. Even though most are cheaper than the native bridge option, you should do your research and find the cheapest one with the fastest transaction time.
Most are quite easy to use and some recommendations include Orbiter. finance, Bungee and Layerswap. Transactions on these platforms are quite cheap and can support bridging of other chains.
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Enter their sites from the Optimism bridging appschoose one of your choices, connect to your wallet, select which network you want to bridge to the optimism chain, approve and bridge.
How to find and trade tokens in the optimism chain:
With your optimism, ETH in your wallet, let’s trade. To trade the optimism chain you need to know what to trade. On the optimism chain, you can only trade tokens on the optimism chain. To find tokens on the optimism, you will have to use Dexscreener.
Dexscreener is an on-chain tracker used to monitor most EVM and non-EVM coins and tokens. However, we will now focus on the optimism chain, so navigate to the Optimism chain Dexscreener.
You can see different tokens that you can trade in the optimism chain. If you have a specific optimism token in mind, you can type its name into the search button. If you don’t know the name of the token but have the smart contract address, you can enter that too and the token will be displayed.
From Dexscreener you can also find the token contract address by clicking on the token name on Dexscreener.
For example, click on a token, scroll down and you will see the contract address, just like Smile in the red box.
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Now that you know how to get smart token contracts, it’s time to trade them. There are several DEXes to trade these tokens as shown below:
Check the Optimism Defi section to select which DEX you want to use. People usually use the Uniswap DEX, 1INCH DEX and Sushi Swap.
Let’s use SushiSwap to show you how to trade Optimism Tokens on the Optimism Network. Go to the SushiSwap change section. Connect your wallet and change the network to the Optimism Network.
To trade ETH for an optimism token, click on the denominator side, enter the token’s contract address, and approve the token. Now you can act.
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Conclusion
The Optimisim Network is just like any other decentralized network when it comes to trading and purchasing these tokens comes with its own unique risks. Many tokens on decentralized exchanges are new and therefore untested. So when you trade these tokens, you are always risking what you are willing to lose in case a project turns out to be a scam or a carpet.
Featured image from Smart Valor
Disclaimer: The article is for educational purposes only. It does not represent NewsBTC’s views on buying, selling or holding investments and of course investing involves risks. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use the information on this website entirely at your own risk.