The Polaris Release

Later today (2/14/22, 8:00-9:00pm UTC), the Polaris release will begin. There will be no downtime on L1 or L2. Here's what’s included in this release:

• SCCP-163: Update Optimism Chainlink Oracles to OCR
• SIP-199: SOL synth on Optimism with shorting functionality

SOL (SIP-209) is one of the most liquid markets in all of crypto and listing this synth on Optimism will benefit traders on Synthetix and within the ecosystem as a whole. By listing an Alt-L1 token like SOL, we can attract traders from new communities to use Synthetix and ecosystem projects on Optimism.

The OCR (SCCP-163) protocol upgrade allows chainlink nodes to aggregate their observations into a single report off-chain using a secure P2P network. A single node then submits a transaction with the aggregated report to the chain. Each report consists of many nodes' observations and has to be signed by a quorum of nodes. These signatures are verified on-chain. This upgrade paves the way for many new synths on Optimism. Read more about OCR on the chainlink website.

This release is called Polaris, which like all releases, is named after a star (in order of visual magnitude). If you've got any comments or questions about the release, please join the conversation in Discord.