Open Sourcing the Superchain (with Optimism)

with @jinglejamOP @eddylazzarin @rhhackett

Hello and welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next era of the internet by the team at a16z crypto, that includes me, host Robert Hackett.

Today’s episode features Jing Wang, CEO and executive director of the Optimism Foundation, along with a16z crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin. We discuss the peculiarities of open source software — including the incentives that bind contributors together, tradeoffs between the freedom to customize versus sticking to standards, and the challenges in setting up and running a foundation

We also cover the nuances of governance and accountability, the importance of vibes, the indispensability of shipping products (versus debating roadmaps), and, the vision behind the so-called “superchain”.

As head of the Optimism Foundation, Wang helps stewards the Optimism collective — a band of decentralized companies, communities, contributors, and others who are using a suite of open source software – called the OP Stack — to scale the Ethereum blockchain network. The OP Stack also powers a number of popular "layer two" rollups — including Base, which we covered in last week's episode with its creator and lead, Coinbase’s head of protocols Jesse Pollak.

Be sure also to check out the a16z crypto YouTube channel for video podcast episodes, as well as talks from our recent startup accelerator programs CSX featuring Jing, Optimism co-founder Karl Floersch, and more.

Resources for references in this episode:

• More on Optimism: 
  • open source code 
  • software licenses
  • the OP Stack
• More on the Optimism superchain collective, including:
  • Coinbase's Base
  • Redstone
  • Worldcoin
• "Understanding Dencun, the biggest upgrade to Ethereum since The Merge" by Noah Citron and Valeria Nikolaenko (a16z crypto, March 2024)
  • More on Ethereum upgrade EIP-4844 (Github)
• "Layer 2, rollups, and building onchain (with Base)" by Jesse Pollak, Eddy Lazzarin, and Robert Hackett (a16z crypto, May 2024)
• "Composability is to software as compound interest is to finance" by Chris Dixon (a16z crypto, October 2021)
• "The Nature of the Firm" by Ronald Coase (Economica, November 1937)
• "Weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation" [Intro 6.2 footnote] (Congress.gov)

As a reminder none of the following should be taken as tax, business, legal, or investment advice. See a16zcrypto.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.