Optimism Supports USDC As SushiSwap Turns to Arbitrum

Optimism has successfully integrated USDC into its solutions, letting users transfer the stablecoin on the layer 2 network.

The Optimism Ethereum scaling solution has begun supporting the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, according to a tweet published on Aug 11. Users can now transfer USDC tokens through the layer 2 scaling solution. To begin depositing, users can simply select USDC on the Optimism Gateway.

The integration means that transferring and interacting with USDC will be much faster and at lower costs. This could have an enormous impact on the market, as fees and transaction times have bogged down DeFi.

Optimistic Ethereum is a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that has already displayed tremendous results. Several DeFi protocols have already begun integrating the solution, including Synthetix, which added three synths in July. Opium Network revealed an optimistic oracle for DeFi in April 2021, which changed the way oracles are used for price and data feeds.

It’s not all good news for Optimism this week though. Sushiswap CTO Joseph Delong laid into the company for what it perceived as preferential treatment. He took to Twitter to talk about his issues and had strong words for the project’s leadership.

SushiSwap CTO bashes optimism

That Twitter thread sparked off an intense discussion. Sushiswap said that it would take a “wait and see approach that prefers credibly neutral platforms” and then referred to Arbitrum. The latter also uses the Optimistic rollup to scale the Ethereum network.

Delong said that Optimism’s leadership favored Uniswap over SushiSwap. He recalls that after deploying to Optimism’s Kovan test net and getting the whole process ready, they were told that Uniswap “had to go first.”

The SushiSwap team reportedly asked if “they were going to be treated equally on deployment.” The CTO’s parting words were harsh, asking other projects to do the same as SushiSwap “until Optimism makes any attempt at credible neutrality as an operator.”

Optimism has responded directly to Delong’s comments, saying that it was whitelisting projects as quickly as possible while still maintaining the safety of an alpha system. It then said that Uniswap was deployed first because “they engaged with us 1.5 years ago, long before Sushiswap.” and “First in, first out is not ‘playing favorites.’”

Recently, Arbitrum launched its Aribtrum One ecological portal, which includes over 70 decentralized apps (dApps), wallets, or tools. It is working on expanding this ecosystem and is heavily focused on being developer-friendly.