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![](\"https:\/\/media.crypto.news\/2023\/06\/Oasis.app-Adds-Layer-2-Support-On-Optimism02.webp\")
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Optimism\u2019s OP mainnet has begun a four-week experiment that lets users boost transaction priority by staking at least 100,000 OP, marking the first time its sequencer has deviated from pure gas-fee ordering.<\/p>\n
\n Summary<\/span>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to an official announcement from Optimism, OP mainnet has \u201cadjusted its transaction sorting rules for the first time,\u201d adding an experimental stake\u2011based priority track to the long\u2011standing \u201chighest priority gas fee first\u201d mechanism that currently governs the network\u2019s sequencer. OP users can now voluntarily participate in a four\u2011week pilot, running through June 23, by staking no less than 100,000 OP into the new PolicyEngine Staking contract.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The goal, as outlined in Optimism governance discussions, is to test whether stake\u2011based ordering can dampen toxic arbitrage traffic, create new demand for OP, and give sophisticated users a more predictable way to secure blockspace during volatile periods. For now, the experiment runs in parallel to the existing priority gas auction (PGA), and transaction ordering for non\u2011participants remains unchanged, preserving standard fee\u2011based competition for block inclusion.<\/p>\n The pilot is structured in two distinct phases, each probing a different piece of the ordering puzzle. In phase one, covering the first week, all participating addresses that meet the 100,000 OP threshold are treated equally under a strict first\u2011in, first\u2011out (FIFO) rule, meaning that \u201cexceeding the minimum staking amount will not affect priority,\u201d according to Optimism\u2019s description of the rollout.<\/p>\n From weeks two through four, the mechanism shifts to a \u201cpriority gas multiplier\u201d that is explicitly \u201cweighted by staking duration,\u201d so that the longer an address has locked its OP in the PolicyEngine contract, the higher its effective gas\u2011priority weight becomes when competing for ordering. In practice, this gives long\u2011term stakers an edge in securing inclusion for latency\u2011sensitive flows such as arbitrage, liquidations or high\u2011frequency trading strategies, a design that resembles the way some exchanges reward resting liquidity over opportunistic takers.<\/p>\n Crucially, the rest of the network stays on the familiar rails. Users who do not opt into the experiment continue to be ordered solely by the PGA system that OP mainnet has used \u201cfor many years,\u201d with no change in how standard wallet transactions compete on gas price alone. That parallel track helps isolate the behavioral impact of the new staking queue while reducing the risk that a flawed design could disrupt day\u2011to\u2011day activity on one of Ethereum\u2019s most used layer\u20112s.<\/p>\n The Optimism pilot lands at a moment when Ethereum layer\u20112s are experimenting aggressively with new ways to price and allocate blockspace, from shared sequencer proposals to intent\u2011based architectures and order\u2011flow auctions. Similar to how liquid staking protocols such as\u00a0Lido Finance<\/a>\u00a0have used incentives to pull staked assets onto networks like Optimism and Arbitrum, OP\u2019s PolicyEngine design explicitly tries to turn governance tokens into a lever for transaction priority rather than just voting power or emissions farming.<\/p>\n The OP ecosystem has also been positioning itself as a core venue for both DeFi and speculative flows, vying with other layer\u20112 and sidechain environments that pitch lower fees or specialized features. That competition has helped drive experimentation across the stack, from token economics to sequencer design, and echoes earlier phases of infrastructure innovation that saw protocols from Bitcoin to Ethereum re\u2011think everything from fee markets to MEV capture.<\/p>\n For now, the stake\u2011priority experiment is explicitly time\u2011boxed. Optimism has said that after the four\u2011week window, OP mainnet will revert to its standard PGA\u2011only ordering, while governance and core contributors digest the on\u2011chain data and decide whether stake\u2011weighted ordering should return in a more permanent form. If the numbers show meaningfully better outcomes for users without unacceptable centralization or fairness trade\u2011offs, the pilot could become a template for how other rollups treat blockspace as a policy instrument, not just a commodity to be auctioned.<\/p>\n Within the broader crypto market, OP trades alongside other major assets such as\u00a0bitcoin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ethereum<\/a>, with investors increasingly weighing not only tokenomics but also how aggressively each ecosystem pushes on scalability and user experience. As more networks, from Ethereum staking leaders like Lido to emergent layer\u20112 experiments highlighted in recent\u00a0crypto.news coverage<\/a>, try to differentiate on design, Optimism\u2019s stake\u2011priority gamble will be closely watched by anyone who believes the next phase of competition will be fought at the sequencer, not just in the application layer.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n
Two-phase design: FIFO to stake\u2011weighted gas<\/h2>\n
Broader L2 and staking context<\/h2>\n