Popular Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Optimism airdropped its new OP governance token to nearly 249,000 eligible wallets on Wednesday morning Asia time.

See related article: Vitalik Buterin: Layer 2 is the future of Ethereum scaling

Fast facts

• The airdrop was first announced in an April blog post which outlined plans for the network to launch a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) which will grant OP holders a vote within the community.
  

• According to the blog post, this is intended to be the first in “an entire season of airdrops,” though the dates for future drops were not disclosed.
  

• The stated intention of the DAO is to fund “public good” projects, such as open-source software, by using revenue generated from Optimism transaction fees.
  

• Layer-2 scaling solutions sit on top of existing blockchain infrastructure and are designed to lower the cost and increase the speed of transacting on the network.
  

• Optimism works by combining many separate transactions into a single bundle and then sending it through Ethereum’s network as a single transaction.

See related article: Polygon launches Miden for Ethereum scaling