Layers of a Blockchain

Layer 1 networks refer to blockchains while Layer 2 (L2) protocol refers to third party integration that can be used in conjunction with a Layer 1 blockchain.

L2 solutions pass part of the transaction load to an adjacent system that handles most of the network processing and, upon completion, reports back to the main blockchain. In this way, the main blockchain is “decongested”.

Overview

This dashboard analyzes how is user behavior different on Optimism (L2) compared to Ethereum’s mainnet (L1). More precisely, for multiple metrics there is a comparison based on the daily tendency and the total amount comprised within the selected timeframe (by default it shows the last 6 months). To dive deep into the subject, this dashboard is divided into four sections:

1. Transaction Level Data
2. Swap Activity (Sushiswap)
3. Miners and Block Analysis
4. NFT Space

Key Findings

• Transaction Level Data:
  • The average number of users on Optimism has been increasing since June, while Ethereum’s have remained similiar throughout the past 6 months.
  • However, the volume on Ethereum has had more volatility, with maximum peaks of 961k ETH/day.
  • The number of transactions on Optimism has increased recently, and it has kept a positive trend compared to Ethereum’s (which is fairly stable).
  • As an Ethereum L2, Optimism allows users to pay less fees than Ethereum. In total fees/day, the fees on Ethereum are 175 times higher than Optimism’s on average. That is subject to the number of transactions as well, so the important metric is the fees/transaction, which are 20 times lower on Optimism compared to Ethereum.
• Swap Activity (Sushiswap):
  • The pools with the most activity and liquidity are those that have either WETH, OP or stable coins. These can be considered as the strongest and most secure tokens on these chains.
  • The number of swaps has been slightly decreasing on Ethereum and increasing on Optimism.
  • The volume of Ethereum swaps follows the same downwards trend, while Optimism’s has been holding similar over the past months.
  • Despite the average ETH paid on fees being twice for swaps than for regular transactions on Optimism, this value is 30 times smaller than the swap fees paid on Ethereum.
• Miners and Block Analysis:
  • Both Ethereum and Optimism had a spike in blocks created after the Ethereum Merge (September 15th).
  • This was because the number of miners grew by 10 times, as the Proof-of-Work (PoW) miners were substituted by the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validators that staked their ETH to help secure the network. As there was no need for a big investement in physical equipment to create new blocks anymore, it was more achievable for users to become validators.
• NFT Space:

  • Despite the overall NFT space being on a bear market currently, Optimism has been holding quite well during the past months. Many Ethereum NFT users that recently started interacting with the L2 chain have been attracted to the NFT ecosystem of Optimism due to the low fees that it provides.

  • More collections per day have been sold since September due to the Ethereum Merge hype.

  • Despite the volume and the average sales price being lower than in previous months (due to the bear market), this has been compensated with augmented activity, as the number of buyers has increased.

  • Ethereum’s NFT prime moment seems to have faded away when the bear market started. There are no clear signals that it will go back to its ATH levels anytime soon.

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Transaction Level Data

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• The average number of users on Optimism has been increasing since June. On the other hand, the number of users on Ethereum has remained similiar throughout the past 6 months.

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• However, the volume on Ethereum has had more volatility, with maximum peaks of 961k ETH/day. Optimism gained all of its volume at the beginning of June, and despite a slight gradual decrease, there was a rise at the end of September.

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• Nevertheless, those numbers depend on the number of transactions. In order to see the real volume, we analyze the volume per transaction on each chain. In both, this metric has been decreasing slightly over time.

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• The transaction success rate is very similar on both chains (92% on Optimism compared to 96% on Ethereum).

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• The number of transactions on Optimism has increased recently, and it has kept a positive trend compared to Ethereum’s (which is fairly stable).

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• As an Ethereum L2, Optimism allows users to pay less fees than Ethereum. In total fees/day, the fees on Ethereum are 175 times higher than Optimism’s on average. That is subject to the number of transactions as well, so the important metric is the fees/transaction, which are 20 times lower on Optimism compared to Ethereum.

Swap Activity (Sushiswap)

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• Top 10 pools on Ethereum by:

  • Volume: 🥇USDC-WETH🥈WETH-USDT 🥉UST-WETH
  • Swaps: 🥇USDC-WETH🥈WETH-USDT 🥉SYN-WETH

• Top 10 pools on Optimism by:

  • Volume: 🥇WETH-USDT🥈WETH-OP 🥉WETH-DAI
  • Swaps: 🥇WETH-OP🥈WETH-USDC 🥉USDC-DAI

  The pools with the most activity and liquidity are those that have either WETH, OP or stable coins. These can be considered as the strongest and most secure tokens on these chains.

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• The number of swaps has been slightly decreasing on Ethereum and increasing on Optimism.

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• The volume of Ethereum swaps follows the same downwards trend, while Optimism’s has been holding similar over the past months.

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• Despite the average ETH paid on fees being twice for swaps than for regular transactions on Optimism, this value is 30 times smaller than the swap fees paid on Ethereum.

Miners and Block Analysis

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• Optimism is the chain with the highest number of blocks created during the past 6 months.

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• Both Ethereum and Optimism had a spike in blocks created after the Ethereum Merge (September 15th).

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• This was because the number of miners grew by 10 times, as the Proof-of-Work (PoW) miners were substituted by the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validators that staked their ETH to help secure the network. As there was no need for a big investement in physical equipment to create new blocks anymore, it was more achievable for users to become validators.

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• Ethereum’s fees are much higher than those on Optimism.

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NFT Space

• Despite the overall NFT space being on a bear market currently, Optimism has been holding quite well during the past months.

  
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• Many Ethereum NFT users that recently started interacting with the L2 chain have been attracted to the NFT ecosystem of Optimism due to the low fees that it provides.

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• More collections per day have been sold since September due to the Ethereum Merge hype.

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• Despite the volume and the average sales price being lower than in previous months, this has been compensated with augmented activity, as the number of buyers has increased.

• Moreover, the number of NFTs sold per wallet has decreased massively compared to number of NFTs bought per wallet. That is because the potential growth of Optimism has caused NFT owners to hold their assets with the expectancy of them being worth more in the future.

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• Ethereum’s NFT prime moment seems to have faded away when the bear market started. There are no clear signals that it will go back to its ATH levels anytime soon.

Conclusions

• Transaction Level Data:
  • The average number of users on Optimism has been increasing since June, while Ethereum’s have remained similiar throughout the past 6 months.
  • However, the volume on Ethereum has had more volatility, with maximum peaks of 961k ETH/day.
  • The number of transactions on Optimism has increased recently, and it has kept a positive trend compared to Ethereum’s (which is fairly stable).
  • As an Ethereum L2, Optimism allows users to pay less fees than Ethereum. In total fees/day, the fees on Ethereum are 175 times higher than Optimism’s on average. That is subject to the number of transactions as well, so the important metric is the fees/transaction, which are 20 times lower on Optimism compared to Ethereum.
• Swap Activity (Sushiswap):
  • The pools with the most activity and liquidity are those that have either WETH, OP or stable coins. These can be considered as the strongest and most secure tokens on these chains.
  • The number of swaps has been slightly decreasing on Ethereum and increasing on Optimism.
  • The volume of Ethereum swaps follows the same downwards trend, while Optimism’s has been holding similar over the past months.
  • Despite the average ETH paid on fees being twice for swaps than for regular transactions on Optimism, this value is 30 times smaller than the swap fees paid on Ethereum.
• Miners and Block Analysis:
  • Both Ethereum and Optimism had a spike in blocks created after the Ethereum Merge (September 15th).
  • This was because the number of miners grew by 10 times, as the Proof-of-Work (PoW) miners were substituted by the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validators that staked their ETH to help secure the network. As there was no need for a big investement in physical equipment to create new blocks anymore, it was more achievable for users to become validators.
• NFT Space:

  • Despite the overall NFT space being on a bear market currently, Optimism has been holding quite well during the past months. Many Ethereum NFT users that recently started interacting with the L2 chain have been attracted to the NFT ecosystem of Optimism due to the low fees that it provides.

  • More collections per day have been sold since September due to the Ethereum Merge hype.

  • Despite the volume and the average sales price being lower than in previous months (due to the bear market), this has been compensated with augmented activity, as the number of buyers has increased.

  • Ethereum’s NFT prime moment seems to have faded away when the bear market started. There are no clear signals that it will go back to its ATH levels anytime soon.

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Methodology

• The data used in this analysis was collected by combining the information on the fact_transactions, fact_blocks and ez_nft_sales tables of the core schema of the Ethereum and Optimism databases.

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• Each of these were used for the first, third and fourth scenarios analyzed in this dashboard.

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• The Sushiswap schema was also used on both chains to obtain the swap data of this exchange.