The Optimization Foundation has indicated that it is going to release a new governance structure and token as part of its efforts to increase scalability and cost efficiency of the largest blockchain for smart contracts. 

The token, Optimism Collective (OP), was unveiled on Tuesday in a post that also outlined its mission and mandate. It is a large-scale experience in digital democratic governance, and pools together a band of communities and stakeholders who believe in Ethereum technical capabilities. 

OP will be governed by two important components: the Token House and Citizen’s House. The Citizen’s House will help to facilitate the process of redistributing retroactive public goods funding by the network. On the other hand, the Token House, which will be established via new airdrops, will be responsible for voting on the protocol upgrades and initiatives. 

Ethereum Preparing for the Next Chapter

In a statement from @optimismPBC on April 26th, Ethereum is preparing for the next chapter. “We are ready to scale not only Ethereum, but also the values that thrust it onto the global stage to begin with,” read the statement from OptimismPBC.

Optimism Foundation observed that there is a growing call for better scalability, especially for smart contract functionalities. The demand is getting answered by layer-1 competitors, who are all prone to the harsh flaws of centralization when they exit Ethereum for abandoning the blockchain’s security and values. 

Although Ethereum continues to dominate the developer scene, competitors are growing at a faster pace, according to the Electric Capital, a crypto research firm’s January report. The report further shows that developer activity is moving rapidly for projects such as BNB Smart Chain (BNB), Solana (SOL), and Polkadot (DOT). 

In other news, Ethereum’s share of the decentralized finance (DeFi) market, when measured by the total locked value, declined significantly, according to DeFi Llama. 

Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (POS) is on its way. While the delays have seen the implementation pushed further by a couple of months, the first-ever shadow fork was implemented on April 11th to pre-check the assumptions on the merge on the way.