Recently Coinbase launched Base and Binance launched opBNB. The common point here is that both Base and opBNb are built on Optimism’s OP Stack. However, it is clear that Arbitrum is there which is why the major traditional parties do not choose but they focus on Optimism. To solve this question, please join me in the article below.

To better understand Base and opBNB, people can refer to some of the articles below:

• What is Superchain? Overview of Optimism’s OP Stack, OP-Chain & Superchain
• What is opBNB? Binance Officially Joins Coinbase to Join Optimism’s Superchain
• What is Base? Base Cryptocurrency Overview

“Coinbase and Binance chose Optimism because Optimism’s technology is the best in the Optimistic Rollup and better than Arbitrum!”

This is a saying I have heard many, many times recently and I believe that most of us do not have an overview of this issue. In this article, I will provide everyone with more information and give some personal opinions on why Base and Binance chose to build Layer 2 on Optimism’s technology rather than Arbitrum.

If you are thinking that Optimism’s technology is better than Arbitrum’s, I have some information to share with you as follows:

• Optimism Bedrock is expected to upgrade with Arbitrum Nitro in Q4/2022. But Arbitrum Nitro was on time and Optimism Bedrock was a year late. Meanwhile, Arbitrum is preparing to upgrade its next Stylus at the time Optimism Bedrock is completed.
• Trading fees on Optimism are cheaper than Arbitrum. In fact, the number of users on Arbitrum is much higher than on Optimism, so the higher fees are quite understandable.

Why Did Binance and Coinbase Choose Optimism?

Optimism’s distinct vision

Among the many different development strategies of Layer 2, Optimism chose the Superchain direction. It can be said that Superchain’s model has many similarities with Cosmos’s Internet of Blockchain but is much more customizable. For Superchain, developers can build their own Layer 2 with the highest level of customization.

Completely different from Optimism, which focuses on building Superchain with OP Chain components, Arbitrum shares a vision of Layer 3 – where developers who want to participate in Arbitrum’s ecosystem have only 2 main options. :

• Build DApps on Arbitrum Nitro (future Arbitrum Stylus) and Arbitrum Nova.
• Build Layer 3 platforms based on various customizations on Arbitrum Nitro.

Obviously, if you want to build a platform where you can capture the best value for your tokens, Optimism is a better choice than Arbitrum. If you want to focus on user experience, Arbitrum is a bit better.

Not only that, Optimism also commits to regularly upgrading its network, so the OP Chains will also be upgraded at the same time. Projects in the Superchain ecosystem will not need to worry about technology updates in the long term.

Diversity of OP Stack

It can be said that OP Stack is the most customizable framework compared to competitors in the same industry such as Arbitrum’s framework or zkSync’s ZK Stack. Everyone can read the article again ZK Credo, ZK Stack, Hyperchains & Hyperbridges: ZkSync’s Ultimate Weapon for Layer 3 Wars and What is Arbitrum Orbit? Overview of Arbitrum’s Layer 3 Vision.

Obviously, OP Stack is a framework with the highest level of customization with:

• Consensus Layer
• Execution Layer
• Settlement Layer
• Layer 1
• Data Availability

OP Stack is diverse in all the components that make up a Blockchain Layer 1 or Layer 2. Assembling a Layer 2 or even a Layer 3 for developers becomes as easy as playing a simulation game. looks like that. In particular, OP Stack has a technology that is likely to become a trend in the near future, which is ZKP. That is also the reason that Coinbase and Binance chose OP Stack.

Optimism’s technology is at the forefront of Layer 2

It cannot be denied that Optimism is currently one of the leading Layer 2 platforms with TVL volume second only to Arbitrum. Besides, in terms of scalability including transaction speed and transaction fees on Optimism, it is also much better than Ethereum, even better than zkSync.

The Optimism development team all have a lot of experience and some people have worked at the Ethereum Foundation, so in the long term, we fully believe that the technology on Optimism will develop further in the future.

There is no other choice

In fact, Arbitrum is not completely open source. The source code for some parts of Arbitrum has been published and can be accessed on GitHub. However, some other parts of Arbitrum remain unpublished or are proprietary source code of Arbitrum Technologies, the company that developed the protocol.

This means that essentially projects have no other choice when they want to build a Layer 2 quickly, conveniently and simply other than Optimism.

Not only are Binance or Coinbase participating in the OP Stack ecosystem, but before that even Layer 2s such as Boba Network or Metis were developed based on Optimism’s source code.

Summary

Hopefully through the article, everyone can understand more about the reasons why OP Stack is chosen by many large traditional units to build their own Layer 2 platform.