OP Stack

What is OP Stack?

According to the official explanation from OP Stack Docs, the OP Stack is the standardized, shared, and open-source development stack that powers Optimism, maintained by the Optimism Collective.

The OP Stack is the set of software that powers Optimism — currently in the form of the software behind Optimism Mainnet and eventually in the form of the Optimism Superchain and its governance.

With the advent of the Superchain concept, it has become increasingly important for Optimism to easily support the secure creation of new chains that can interoperate within the proposed Superchain ecosystem. As a result, the OP Stack is primarily focused around the creation of a shared, high-quality, and fully open-source system for creating new L2 blockchains. By coordinating on shared standards, the Optimism Collective can avoid rebuilding the same software in silos repeatedly.

Although the OP Stack today significantly simplifies the process of creating L2 blockchains, it’s important to note that this does not fundamentally define what the OP Stack is. The OP Stack is all of the software that powers Optimism. As Optimism evolves, so will the OP Stack.

The OP Stack can be thought of as software components that either help define a specific layer of the Optimism ecosystem or fill a role as a module within an existing layer. Although the current heart of the OP Stack is infrastructure for running L2 blockchains, the OP Stack theoretically extends to layers on top of the underlying blockchain including tools like block explorers, message passing mechanisms, governance systems, and more.

Layers are generally more tightly defined towards the bottom of the stack (like the Data Availability Layer) but become more loosely defined towards the top of the stack (like the Governance Layer).