ETH price is increasing, however, there are still issues related to transaction capacity. The Optimism startup, that once was the research-oriented Plasma Group, wants to address these problems.
The Ethereum network is constantly searching the ways of improving transaction volume. The startup Optimism is now trying to lead the charge. Since the network’s output is pretty much defined to approximately 15 transactions per second, Ethereum cannot become an extensive platform for automating functions, like supply chain management and loans, unless it scales.
Optimism is trying to use a layered approach, much similar to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. It is trying to boost the number of clients who can use the network with smart contracts.
Optimism was once called Plasma Group. It was focused on building a second layer for Ethereum the way Ether creator Vitalik Buterin described it in a 2017 paper. In January 2020, the team said it was changing from a research cumulate to a profit-bringing startup Optimism. They had a back-up of $3.5 million from Paradigm and IDEO CoLab Ventures.
‘The Death of Plasma’
Some experts claimed this transition to a for-profit startup is pretty much controversial. Dragonfly Capital partner Ashwin Ramachandran described this transition as “the death of Plasma.”
He said:
“It’s like this alien that morphed many times in many different forms and eventually died. At least in the form in which it initially launched.”
Be it as it may, the startup plans to start with an alpha testing environment dubbed the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM). The OVM is based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It is meant to give Optimism’s faster, second layer and the same smart-contract functionality of the basic blockchain.
Optimism co-founder Ben Jones said the second layer could assimilate optimistic rollups, for faster processing of transactions and some type of the quadratic funding auctions.
Earning Value Beyond Ether Mining
When talking about Bitcoin, it is good to know that Lightning Labs came out with a payment channel management service called Lightning Loop. Jones said network fees are “generally a flexible concept,” so a version of Plasma could also have similar demands for speed and channel management. The focus is on offering contributors more possibilities to earn value beyond mining Ether.
Dragonfly’s Ramachandran said he is “uncertain” about the second half of Optimism’s plan, quadratic funding that may include the addition of a network token beyond Ether.
Last week, the Ethereum price finally went higher the psychological barrier of $200. At the time of writing, Ether was rising by 1.81% to $223.27.
Audius Music for Musicians Monetizing Their Work
There is now a common belief that Ethereum has entered a bull market. Investors are expecting the price to keep rising.
Meanwhile, an Ethereum-based dApp, Audius Music, has been revealed on the AppStore’s Twitter account to its 4.5 million followers. The dApp is a platform for musicians to share their tracks with audience and monetize it without intermediaries. You could call it an alternative to SoundCloud and Spotify on a distributed ledger.
Also, let’s not forget that the original network parameters of the next Ethereum system-wide upgrade, Eth 2.0 is expected to be launched this year. We have already reported on February 7, 2020, that developers are 95% confident that the project will launch on the network’s fifth anniversary that will hold on July 30, 2020.