Optimism Proposal Would Require 30-Day Notice for Upgrade Transfers

Optimism is considering a process that would let Standard Rollup governors transfer upgrade authority from the Security Council after 30 days’ public notice, changing who controls chain upgrades.

Published Nov. 5, the ratification proposal would add an “Upgrade Authority Transfer” policy to the Standard Rollup Charter. A Chain Governor could ask to move its chain’s upgrade authority from the Security Council to an address of the governor’s choosing.

The Optimism Foundation would review the request for validity and compliance with the governor’s commitments. It would then publish a notice naming the chain, its Chain ID and material Layer 1 contract addresses, and stating that a completed transfer would end the chain’s Standard Rollup status.

The Security Council would have to verify that the Foundation published the notice, that at least 30 days had elapsed from its publication and that the recipient address matched the one the Foundation provided for the governor. It could carry out the transfer only after those checks.

An individual transfer that meets the proposed conditions would not need a separate Optimism Governance approval. The charter amendment itself remains subject to acceptance of the governance proposal, and approval alone would not transfer authority or change a chain’s smart contracts or node software. A Chain Governor would still have to request a transfer.

The current charter makes Security Council authorization for upgrades a criterion for Standard Rollup status. If authority moves to another address, the chain would lose that status. Users and applications would then rely on the new upgrade key holder’s security model, while Optimism Governance and the council would lose the same practical ability to enforce charter policies through that upgrade authority.

Existing agreements and restrictions on when a Chain Governor may request a transfer would remain in force. The proposal would establish a formal charter process for transfers, which the current charter leaves to ad hoc governance action.

PR #74, the charter amendment, is listed as open and would merge only if the governance proposal is accepted.