On the 28th of August 2022, Optimism announced its Etherscan support on the Optimism Goerli testnet.
Optimism is a layer two platform built on the Ethereum blockchain to solve its problem of scalability and high transaction cost. It achieves this by executing transactions off-chain and storing the Merkle root of the transaction on Ethereum. Execution of these transactions is handled by third-party nodes called sequencers. They are responsible for compressing and publishing transactions on smart contracts at regular intervals.
To avoid malicious sequencers from posting fraudulent data, another group of nodes, Verifiers, check the transaction validity. If the records are flagged as fraudulent, the sequencer loses its funds in the system. Part of it is given to the verifier. Thus, Optimism incentivizes the sequencers and the verifiers to be diligent.
Etherscan is an explorer on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to search for, confirm and approve transactions recorded in smart contracts. It also allows users to view the contents and histories of wallets on the Ethereum blockchain.
With the anticipated Ethereum merge, developers choose to deprecate all the Ethereum testnets, focusing their efforts on just two. Goerli and Sepolia. This has led to applications like Optimism migrating from the Kovan testnet to the Goerli testnet, as Kovan has only two remaining validators keeping the system up.
Goerli runs a proof of authority (POA) protocol similar to Kovan. This would cause less friction during Optimism’s migration, which is slated to happen in 3 waves:
- Wave 1 – Infrastructure
- Wave 2 – Foundation applications
- Wave 3 – End-user application
With Etherscan going live, post-migration, optimism users can now explore the Optimism network for transactions, wallets, tokens, and prices. Optimism Kovan is to be fully decommissioned on 5th October 2022.
