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Key Takeaways

Ethereums efficiency-focused Layer-2 (L2), Optimism, is now the leading protocol by developer activity and 7-day net flows following Ethereums Dencun upgrade. This move comes less than two years after the platforms launch.

It has beaten Cardano, Polkadot, and other reputable chains that have long-dominated the market. But can Ethereums upgrades continue to boost Optimisms capabilities and vice versa?

Developer activity on Ethereums L2 scaling platform, Optimism, has pushed it to the top of the rankings according to the latest data from Santiment.

Optimism is a comparatively young product. Within a couple of years since launching its Open Mainnet, its overtaken the likes of Polkadot, Kusama, Hedera, and even Cardano. According to DeFi Llama, the number of core developers and Github commits has now begun to skyrocket, whilst total-value-locked (TVL) continues a steady and healthy climb.

The Optimism protocol was already proving itself popular among L2s, as evidenced by the 300,000+ transactions a day processed on its mainnet throughout 2023, and the spike of activity on March 2024 following Ethereums Dencun upgrade.

L2 platforms on Ethereum, which were struggling under the weight of the networks bottlenecks, received a huge boost in efficiency following the Dencun (EIP-4844) upgrade.

Among Dencuns numerous upgrades were new ways of processing transactions and handling data. These were proto-danksharding and Data Blobs.

With these in place, gas fees for L2 transactions shrunk considerably. According to Dune, the gas volumes consumed to settle/proof L2 activity on Ethereum fell off a cliff following the upgrade.

Considering Optimism is an L2 designed to help other projects scale on Ethereum, it was already markedly cheaper than other protocols. The Dencun upgrade amplified that efficiency even further, which is a huge draw for developers.

With the Bitcoin Halving and Dencun upgrade behind us, investors are beginning to feel confident in the markets once more. Notably, Optimism is also leading the charge in terms of venture capital funding having secured $89 million in a recent private token sale.

Furthermore, the latest seven-day net flow data shows that Optimism is consuming a large portion of Ethereums net flows.

If Ethereum continues to focus on increasing its efficiency, Optimism may continue to dominate L2 developer activity.

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Optimism Leads New Crypto Wave as it Tops Developer Activity Table, Thanks to Ethereum Dencun Upgrade - CCN.com