We understand your feedback about the buyback program in the context of the overall emissions schedule. The main point of the buyback program is to link the OP token to the growth of the Superchain and demonstrate a meaningful shift in the role of the token. We still have a large OP and ETH treasury to use to incentivize growth for many years to come; this buyback does not come at the expense of ecosystem growth, but instead links demand for blockspace to the OP token. This is an important part of the OP token narrative and something prominent tokenholders have expressed is important to them. We are also taking additional steps to slow the rate of emissions, for example, by pausing the Retro Funding program (~775M OP allocated; more here.)
We agree that building a sustainable business is the most important thing for Optimism to focus on right now. You can expect comms on 2026 goals and objectives in the next few weeks. This proposal is a small part of a bigger plan for the coming year, and the focus continues to be on building the best platform for enterprises to come onchain.
OTC vs. onchain execution won’t be repeated here as it’s covered in above responses.