Optimism is an organization derived from the Plasma Group, which was developing scaling technology to expand the processing power of Ethereum, and is funded by a16z, a well-known investor in the virtual currency industry.

Optimism's governance involves two parallel voting systems called the Token House and the Citizen House. The Token House, which votes via OP tokens, decides on protocol upgrades and other matters. The Citizen House, which votes on Citizenship, a user-specific non-transferable NFT, determines the distribution of profits to the public good.

It is currently in the midst of an ever-expanding partnership with various web3 socials.