World launches PBH on testnet to prioritize human transactions and decentralization
Optimism Weekly Overview - February 25, 2025
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Superchain Ecosystem Numbers
DeFi total value locked (TVL) across Superchain: $4.3B (-2.27%)
Assets onchain: $18.6B (+1.09%)
Daily average transaction volume: 11.7M (+0.86%)
Base: 7.6M
Soneium: 946.6K (+17.43%)
OP Mainnet: 914.2K (+0.67%)
World: 672.6K (+1.0%)
Lisk: 635.8K (+1.76%)
Revenue-generating deployers on:
Zora: 112 (+0.9%)
OP Mainnet: 1206 (+0.08%)
Superchain transaction fee total savings vs L1s:
OP Mainnet: 7,594 ETH
Base: 24,695 ETH
Zora: 1,557 ETH
Compared to Ethereum, L2 Superchain users saved a total of 33.85K ETH, or $82.13M on txn fees this week.
The percentages and metrics are pulled from the Superchain Health Dashboard and are calculated from its change over a 7-day time frame, unless noted otherwise.
Spotlight on Optimism’s Superchain
Highlighting some of the biggest updates on Optimism’s Superchain this week.
🔴What’s happening: World ID launched Priority Blockspace for Humans (PBH) on World Chain’s testnet.
🔴Why it matters: In web2 and web3, there’s a prevalence of bots across e-commerce, gaming, and finance. Half of the world's web traffic is created by bots and 60-73% of all US stock market trading is algorithmic, according to Select USA. In 2024, 70% of stablecoin activity was created by automated trading bots, according to CEX.io.
These imbalances create an unfair playing field where regular users struggle to get their transactions processed against bots – and without paying excessive fees.
But World, Sam Altman’s crypto project formerly known as Worldcoin, is on a mission to fix this. It’s creating systems where verified humans get priority, or “top-of-block” access, to blockchain transactions instead of bots. Its human-centric layer-2 blockchain, World Chain, which is built on the Superchain, aims to alleviate trading congestion by reducing high gas fees needed to get blockspace.
During times of high volume, congestion leads to MEV bot exploits that make trading expensive. Bots take advantage of average users who are prioritizing for high priority and slippage fees.
To solve for this, World’s PBH aims to reserve specific blockspace for verified human transactions, while still keeping the network open and permissionless. The World team compares it like an express lane on a highway, by creating priority access (for real users), while the main roadway remains open to all traffic. The system also includes safeguarding mechanisms to maintain stability, with innovations like rollup-boost by Flashbots that allows blocks to be created through alternative pathways if needed. This prevents any disruption to the network, even if the human-priority system encounters issues.
🔴What it means for the broader ecosystem: While the PBH launch affects the World Chain ecosystem and its users, it has the ability to create a broader ripple effect across other blockchains – and those within the Superchain ecosystem. By prioritizing human transactions in a segmented way, it makes the technology more accessible to real users.
This initiative can help to encourage more equitable systems, while still maintaining decentralization principles. This can also extend beyond just the current implementation of transaction ordering. In the future, verifying activity as human can be essential for blockchains wanting to ensure genuine user participation, especially as chains look to onboard non web3 native users.
World is also looking at creating support for AI agents acting on behalf of verified humans within PBH. This can also create a foundation for managing the relationship between humans and automated actors in digital economies.
In general, the network seems to be seeking technological advancements on both sides of the coin, ensuring that it remains accessible to human participants, while also accommodating for new innovations.
What’s poppin’ on the Superchain
Total number of weekly active addresses by chain:
Base: 5.12M
OP Mainnet: 592.76K
Soneium: 576.29K
Ink: 121.51K
World Chain: 104.62K
World has launched a mini-app “Learn” with interactive courses on tools in its network
Zora announced all posts on its platform automatically become tradeable ERC-20 tokens
Check out the Superchain Interop Devnet Ecosystem Explorer by Routescan
Read about Soneium’s 100M ASTR campaign to drive user growth in the ecosystem
Check out the Superchain’s interoperability with Superbridge’s ETH and SuperchainERC20 token transfer bridge on testnet
From the Optimism Collective
Highlighting the companies, communities and citizens bound to the Optimism Collective.
Ethereum Foundation released it’s Open Intents Framework to provide Ethereum-wide interop and improve cross-chain capabilities with 30+ teams committed, including Optimism
Tune in to this livestream with Cantina, OP Labs and Alchemy to learn about the future of wallets with EIP-7702
Learn about Optimism’s vision and goals for 2025 in this video
Watch the Optimism Bounty Presentation at ETHDenver that dives into hackathon bounties around Superchain Interop Devnet
Explore the Moonwell Virtual Accounts to access a checking account from anywhere, launched in partnership with Bridge and Optimism Foundation
For more Optimism Collective weekly updates, look here.
Get into the OP Stack
Want to dive into the ecosystem full-time? Find the latest job postings here or get involved at an event below.
At ETHDenver?
Join the Superchain community at Superchain Space on Feb 25, hosted by Superchain.Eco in collaboration with the Optimism Foundation
Stop by Ink’s five-day hacker house and visit the House of Ink, that started on Feb. 22
Sign up for the Base ecosystem side events and workshops here
Into rock climbing? Join the Unichain climbing experience
Sign up here to participate in Optimism’s Futarchy Experiment
Interested in building on the Superchain? Check out the Retro Funding Missions to be rewarded from a pool of 16M OP
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This information is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research.