Editorial Notes (vol. 23) – Optimism Quests playbook

Wondering what the Optimism Quests initiative is? In this week’s Explore Screen update, we will take a look at which projects are included, how to participate in the quests to earn Optimism NFTs, and more!

Last week, on September 20th, Optimism announced the launch of their new campaign called Optimism Quests. If you are familiar with Arbitrum Odyssey, you’ll notice that Optimism's quests are rather similar. The initiative was launched to reward Optimism users with NFTs when they learn about popular applications deployed on the L2 scaling solution and complete the quizzes and tasks that follow. 

The launch of Optimism Quests has been very well received as evident in the surge of Optimism's daily transactions – the launch led to a 53% rise in daily transactions, which was the second-highest daily transactions count this year on Optimism.

To track the data of the Optimism Quests campaign, head over to this Dune dashboard, where you’ll find all relevant information – from daily user count to projects are gaining the most traction.

Let’s dive right into the projects and their quests!

Optimism Quests Playbook

Optimism Quests will last until January 17th, 2023. During this time, you have a chance to familiarize yourself with the ecosystem and its key dApps while getting rewarded with Optimism NFTs, which might grant you some perks in the future. 

There are a total of 18 NFTs you can earn. To get them, you’ll have to complete the tasks set by individual projects. On the Optimism Quests page, you’ll have to answer a short and simple quiz, perform a certain action in the dApp, and in some instances, follow the project on Twitter and join their Discord.

After each completed quest, you can head over to Galxe to claim your NFT.

Check out the projects that are participating in the campaign and learn more about their quests below.

New to Optimism?

Transfer or swap assets cross-chain, access unified liquidity pools, and more with Stargate.

Stargate is a community-driven organization building the first fully composable native asset bridge. DeFi users can swap native assets cross-chain on Stargate within a single transaction. For example, users can swap USDC on Ethereum for USDT on BNB or just bridge their tokens to another chain.

Quest:

• Bridge ≥ 100 USDC to or from Optimism on Stargate Finance.

Simply connect your wallet to Stargate and choose the tokens and networks you’d like to send funds between.

Save with PoolTogether and win prizes.

PoolTogether is a decentralized and open-source blockchain-based prize savings account. Replicating "no loss lotteries" and "prize savings accounts", all depositors are offered a chance to win prizes without needing to risk their deposited funds. This is possible because prizes are made up of the interest that accrues on all deposited funds.

Quest:

• Deposit ≥ 20 USDC into PoolTogether on Optimism and keep it deposited for at least 3 days.

Swap tokens and provide liquidity on Uniswap.

Uniswap is the largest DEX in the market, offering a number of features, including the ability to swap tokens and earn a yield on assets by contributing to token liquidity pools.

Quest:

• Swap ≥ $20 USD equivalent worth of tokens on Uniswap on at least 2 swaps.

Quix – the largest NFT marketplace on Optimism.

Quix is the largest NFT marketplace on Optimism. Its NFT marketplace includes features tailored to both creators and collectors. From the NFT Launchpad, which lets developers launch no-code smart contracts for free-to-mint NFT collections, to the in-app rarity ranking calculator, and the floor sweep tool.

Quest:

• Purchase an NFT on Quix (min purchase .0099 ETH)

To finish the whole quest you’ll also need to follow @qx_app on Twitter.

Dive deeper into DeFi

Provide liquidity to earn fees and trade with low slippage on Velodrome.

Simply put, Velodrome is a platform that enables liquidity providers (LPs) to earn rewards for staking liquidity on the protocol, traders to make low-slippage token swaps for pairs with deep liquidity, and other protocols on Optimism to incentivize liquidity for their own purposes in a capital-efficient manner.

Quest:

• Deposit ≥ $20 USD equivalent worth of tokens into a stable pool (e.g., USDC-DAI) on Velodrome and stake it  – to complete the mission, go to Velodrome’s liquidity pools.

Before you collect the NFT, follow @VelodromeFi on Twitter.

Bridge your tokens cross-chain with Synapse.

Synapse is a universal cross-chain liquidity network. Users can use Synapse to swap assets across the most widely used EVM-compatible blockchains. Synapse currently offers the deepest liquidity out of any of the other interoperability solutions.

Quest:

• Deposit ≥ $20 USD equivalent of ETH or stablecoins into the stableswap liquidity pool on Synapse

Borrow MAI interest-free and multiply your exposure to crypto with QiDao.

QiDao is a way for you to hold on to your crypto while still being able to spend its value. It allows you to borrow stablecoins (tokens pegged to $1) at 0% interest, without selling your crypto.

Quest:

• Open an OP or ETH vault and borrow ≥ 100 MAI on QiDao and maintain the vault for at least a week.

To finish the quest follow @QiDaoProtocol on Twitter and join their Discord.

Loan and borrow on Granary to access low fees and favorable deals.

Granary is a decentralized, user-driven borrowing and lending and borrowing platform inspired by AAVE. Through it, you can deposit and earn interest on a wide array of assets, borrow with your deposited assets as collateral, and access flash loans on Optimism.

Quest:

• Lend ≥ $50 USD equivalent worth of tokens on The Granary

• Borrow ≥ $20 USD equivalent worth of tokens on The Granary

Finish the quest by following @GranaryFinance on Twitter and joining their Discord.

Swap tokens, trade with limit orders, or provide liquidity to Rubicon Pools to earn some yield.

Rubicon is an order book protocol. It can be used to swap tokens, trade with limit orders, and provide liquidity in Rubicon Pools. The great thing about it being on Optimism are low transaction fees - typically less than $0.5, paid in ETH.

Quest:

• Swap > $20 USD equivalent worth of tokens on Rubicon

• Deposit > $20 USD equivalent worth of tokens into a liquidity pool on Rubicon

To complete the quest you’ll also have to follow @rubicondefi on Twitter and join their Discord.

Experience the best possible prices on small trades by swapping tokens Clipper.

Clipper is a decentralized exchange designed to have the lowest per-transaction costs for small-to-medium-sized crypto trades. It is structured to achieve optimal swap prices for smaller, self-made traders through its novel Formula Market Maker (FMM) DEX architecture.

Quest:

• Deposit > $20 USD equivalent of OP into the main liquidity pool

• Swap > $20 USD equivalent of OP in their main liquidity pool

• Swap > $20 USD equivalent of OP in any cove

When swapping, make sure to select “Core asset” for the first swap mission and then when completing the third mission, select “Cove asset”.

Besides finishing the above tasks you’ll also need to follow @Clipper_DEX and @Shipyardsw on Twitter, and join their Discord server.

Quickly and trustlessly send tokens across rollups and their shared L1 network with Hop.

Hop Protocol is a way to connect different scaling solutions, facilitating a better user experience when moving assets. Hop currently supports the transfer of funds such as ETH, USDC, MATIC, DAI, and USDT from and to the networks Mainnet, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, and xDai.

Quest:

• Supply liquidity to Hop on Optimism for a certain amount of time. There are multiple criteria – meet any of the following requirements:

  • USDC/DAI/USDT  – 100$ for 1 year / 200$ for 6 months / 400$ for 3 months / 1200$ for one month

  • ETH – 0.066 ETH for 1 year / 0.132 ETH for 6 months / 0.264 ETH for 3 months / 0.792 ETH for 1 month

Beethoven – a one-stop decentralized investment platform.

Beethoven X aims to be a one-stop decentralized investment platform on Fantom Opera and Optimism. They leverage the best  DeFi protocols to offer novel decentralized investment strategies. Instead of paying fees to portfolio managers to rebalance your portfolio, you collect fees from traders, who rebalance your portfolio by following arbitrage opportunities.

Quest:

• Deposit ≥ 0.05 ETH or rETH into the Rocket Fuel pool on Beethoven and stake it for at least 24 hours in October, November, and December.

Master options, perps, and more

Syntethix is a derivatives liquidity protocol providing the backbone for derivatives trading in DeFi.

Synthetix is a decentralized platform on Ethereum for the creation of Synths. Synths are derivative tokens providing exposure to a range of assets. They can be traded by leveraging the Synthetix protocol’s unique pooled collateral model. Trades between Synths generate a small fee that is distributed to SNX collateral providers.

Quest:

• Stake ≥ 100 SNX and claim weekly staking rewards at least twice on Synthetix. (You can buy SNX on any DEX on Optimism)

Lyra – a decentralized protocol for trading options on Optimism.

Lyra is an open protocol for trading options built on Optimism. It allows traders to buy and sell options that are accurately priced with the first market-based, skew-adjusted pricing model. Lyra also quantifies the risks incurred by liquidity providers and actively hedges them, encouraging more liquidity to enter the protocol.

Quest:

• Trade > $100 USD equivalent in premiums on Lyra

To complete the quest, follow @LyraFinance on Twitter.

Trade derivatives with zero slippage on Kwenta

Kwenta is a decentralized derivatives trading platform, offering real-world, on-chain synthetic assets using the power of the Synthetix protocol. You are able to trade with low gas fees and near-instant transactions, trade permissionlessly 100% on-chain, and enjoy low margin requirements.

Quest:

• Open a futures position of ≥ $100 USD equivalent on Kwenta

Finish the task by following @Kwenta_io on Twitter and joining their Discord.

Trade perps with leverage and deep liquidity on Perpetual Protocol

Perpetual Protocol is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that allows users to trade with leverage and low slippage. Perp V2 builds on top of Uniswap V3’s smart contracts, using Uniswap’s on-chain infrastructure as a key component, and offers you leverage up to 10x when trading or providing liquidity.

Quest:

• Open a trade with a position size ≥ 100 USDC on Perpetual Protocol

Trade perpetual swaps with leverage or bet against traders on Pika Protocol with Liquidity Vaults.

Pika allows you to trade multiple tokens with up to 50x leverage and very deep liquidity — the expected slippage for a $10k ETH-USD trade is 0.02%. If you prefer betting against the traders on the platform, you can deposit USDC to Pika's Vault. The vault pays for trader profits and receives trader losses. When traders lose, the vault wins.

Quest:

• ​​Open a margin trade with ≥ 30 USDC on Pika.

• Deposit ≥ 30 USDC liquidity into a liquidity pool on Pika and keep it locked for at least 3 days.

Easily participate in automated options strategies built by Polynomial.

Polynomial automates financial derivative strategies to create products that deliver passive yield on various assets. It uses deposited user funds to engage in a variety of automated on-chain option strategies that users can choose from netting users juicy, but not entirely risk-free yields.

Quest:

• Deposit into any of the v2 vaults on Polynomial

• Follow @PolynomialFi on Twitter or join their Discord

FAQ

What is Optimism?

Optimism is a fast, stable, and scalable L2 blockchain built by Ethereum developers, for Ethereum developers. Built as a minimal extension to existing Ethereum software, Optimism’s EVM-equivalent architecture scales your Ethereum apps without surprises. If it works on Ethereum, it works on Optimism at a fraction of the cost.

How many NFTs can I get during the Optimism Quest campaign?

There are a total of 18 Optimism NFTs during the first season of Optimism Quests.

How long will the Optimism Quests campaign last?

The campaign will end on January 17th, 2023. Supposedly, the team at Optimism has plans for additional seasons of the Quests after the first one is concluded.