Metis is an Ethereum Layer-2 network based on Optimistic Rollup architecture that aims to enable the creation of more sophisticated decentralized organizations, known as decentralized autonomous companies. The platform seeks to address issues with existing scaling solutions, including reliance on central entities and slow cross-layer settlement. Metis's native token, METIS, serves as a staking reward, an incentive mechanism for users to police sequencer activity and a means for users to pay transaction fees.
Metis introduces the Metis Virtual Machine — a fork of the Optimism Virtual Machine. Whereas early OVM implementations typically rely on a single sequencer to push state changes to the Ethereum blockchain, the MVM randomly selects its sequencer from a pool for each block, with the goal of greater decentralization. Meanwhile, Polis middleware enables existing decentralized applications to migrate to Metis with little-to-no code changes.