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We should stop thinking about L2s as literally being "branded shards" of Ethereum, with the social status and responsibilities that this entails. Instead, we can think of L2s as being a full spectrum, which includes both chains backed by the full faith and credit of Ethereum with various unique properties (eg. not just EVM), as well as a whole array of options at different levels of connection to Ethereum, that each person (or bot) is free to care about or not care about depending on their needs.
What would I do today if I were an L2?
* Identify a value add other than "scaling". Examples: (i) non-EVM specialized features/VMs around privacy, (ii) efficiency specialized around a particular application, (iii) truly extreme levels of scaling that even a greatly expanded L1 will not do, (iv) a totally different design for non-financial applications, eg. social, identity, AI, (v) ultra-low-latency and other sequencing properties, (vi) maybe built-in oracles or decentralized dispute resolution or other "non-computationally-verifiable" features * Be stage 1 at the minimum (otherwise you really are just a separate L1 with a bridge, and you should just call yourself that) if you're doing things with ETH or other ethereum-issued assets * Support maximum interoperability with Ethereum, though this will differ for each one (eg. what if you're not EVM, or even not financial?)
From Ethereum's side, over the past few months I've become more convinced of the value of the native rollup precompile, particuarly once we have enshrined ZK-EVM proofs that we need anyway to scale L1. This is a precompile that verifies a ZK-EVM proof, and it's "part of Ethereum", so (i) it auto-upgrades along with Ethereum, and (ii) if the precompile has a bug, Ethereum will hard-fork to fix the bug. $ETH $BTC $BNB
There have recently been some discussions on the ongoing role of L2s in the Ethereum ecosystem, especially in the face of two facts:
* L2s' progress to stage 2 (and, secondarily, on interop) has been far slower and more difficult than originally expected * L1 itself is scaling, fees are very low, and gaslimits are projected to increase greatly in 2026
Both of these facts, for their own separate reasons, mean that the original vision of L2s and their role in Ethereum no longer makes sense, and we need a new path.
First, let us recap the original vision. Ethereum needs to scale. The definition of "Ethereum scaling" is the existence of large quantities of block space that is backed by the full faith and credit of Ethereum - that is, block space where, if you do things (including with ETH) inside that block space, your activities are guaranteed to be valid, uncensored, unreverted, untouched, as long as Ethereum itself functions. If you create a 10000 TPS EVM where its connection to L1 is mediated by a multisig bridge, then you are not scaling Ethereum.
This vision no longer makes sense. L1 does not need L2s to be "branded shards", because L1 is itself scaling. And L2s are not able or willing to satisfy the properties that a true "branded shard" would require. I've even seen at least one explicitly saying that they may never want to go beyond stage 1, not just for technical reasons around ZK-EVM safety, but also because their customers' regulatory needs require them to have ultimate control. This may be doing the right thing for your customers. But it should be obvious that if you are doing this, then you are not "scaling Ethereum" in the sense meant by the rollup-centric roadmap. But that's fine! it's fine because Ethereum itself is now scaling directly on L1, with large planned increases to its gas limit this year and the years ahead. #ETHTrendAnalysis
despite the L1 scaling, users stay on L2s because they’ve built great ecosystems.
that wouldn’t have happened on the L1. the business model is owning your chain.
without L2s, they would have built competing L1s instead.
scaling the L1 to 10k TPS won’t cut it anyway. Lighter alone almost uses that much.
in many cases, builders & users will continue to go where it’s cheapest & fastest. that won’t be the L1.
a single chain can’t scale. multiple chains create fragmentation.
the problem has always been fragmentation, and it can only be solved with L2s.
a seamless cross-chain experience can’t happen with multiple L1s.
we need chain abstraction. we need synchronous composability. we needed it yesterday.
that’s the biggest failure of the EF, and blaming L2s for being slow to reach stage 2 is partly their fault.
L2s have no incentive to do it themselves. most users aren’t demanding it.
the EF should force them to do it in any way possible
by incentivizing & making it easy for L2s to become one with Ethereum.
- to be interoperable with the L1 & other L2s. - to inherit Ethereum’s decentralization & security. - to move away from multisigs. - for wallets to integrate interoperability & chain abstraction.
native & based rollups are good solutions. but where are they? they’ve been talked about for years.
scaling the L1 still makes sense. it helps interoperability and makes current use cases like DeFi more usable. it increases usage & attracts builders.
tokenize on the L1, move on seamless L2 rails. $ETH
THIS GUY IS UP $2.5 MILLION ON $PUNCH - NOW HE’S SELLING
Three top accounts holding over $2.18M PUNCH are all connected to each other, and they have already sold over $250K of PUNCH from a connected wallet.
punchkun.sol bought almost 10% of the supply of PUNCH for only $8K and sent PUNCH to hyperwynn.sol - who sent PUNCH to 7RSgC, who sent PUNCH to 6u9jy, who sold $250K worth of PUNCH. Will this whale keep selling? $SOL #TradeCryptosOnX
ORANG MISKIN MAKIN TERTEKAN, 8 ORANG INI PEGANG RIBUAN TRILIUN DI INDONESIA
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