  We present the discovery of the optical transient of the long-duration
gamma-ray burst GRB000630. The optical transient was detected with the Nordic
Optical Telescope 21.1 hours after the burst. At the time of discovery the
magnitude of the transient was R = 23.04+-0.08. The transient displayed a
power-law decline characterized by a decay slope of alpha = -1.035+-0.097. A
deep image obtained 25 days after the burst shows no indication of a
contribution from a supernova or a host galaxy at the position of the
transient. The closest detected galaxy is a R=24.68+-0.15 galaxy 2.0 arcsec
north of the transient.
  The magnitudes of the optical afterglows of GRB980329, GRB980613 and
GRB000630 were all R>=23 less than 24 hours from the burst epoch. We discuss
the implications of this for our understanding of GRBs without detected optical
transients. We conclude that i) based on the gamma-ray properties of the
current sample we cannot conclude that GRBs with no detected OTs belong to
another class of GRBs than GRBs with detected OTs and ii) the majority (>75%)
of GRBs for which searches for optical afterglow have been unsuccessful are
consistent with no detection if they were similar to bursts like GRB000630 at
optical wavelengths.
