Vitalik has long been committed to encouraging the development of Ethereum Layer 2, and over the past year, L2 has also expanded rapidly. In recent years, Vitalik has been supporting the addition of more complex functions to Layer 2 in order to maintain the purity of the Ethereum chain. However, this philosophy, which has been upheld for five years, is now being shaken.
This article includes viewpoints from industry KOLs/Builders on the development of Ethereum Layer 2:
Jason Chen (Independent Researcher)
Qi Zhou (Founder of EthStorage&QuarkChain)
Mindao (Founder of Dforce)
26×14-Merlin (Co-founder of 7updao)
According to Defillama data, currently Ethereum Mainnet accounts for 60% of the total value locked (TVL) in the entire network, while L2 Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism account for 3.94%, 1.27%, and 1.15% respectively. Among the top ten TVL rankings, Layer2 chains already occupy three spots.
This year, highly anticipated events such as the launch of StarkNet’s airdrop and Blast’s mainnet have pushed the market’s attention to Layer 2 to an unprecedented level. The ZK-EVM rollup ecosystem composed of StarkNet, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Scroll has developed rapidly and made significant progress in improving blockchain security and transaction speed.
Vitalik’s past attention and support for Layer 2 are evident, but now it seems that everything is starting to change.
On February 22nd, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin replied to a user’s tweet, saying, “Honestly, compared to five years ago, my confidence in the idea of ‘simplifying L1, even at the cost of building more complex L2’ has decreased threefold. The challenge is that when there is a trade-off between L1 bug risk and L2 bug risk, it is not clear if the latter is actually better!” He further explained, “If L1 has a problem, developers can recover within a day; but if L2 has a problem, it could result in significant loss of user assets. Therefore, it is worth adding some complex features to L1 to reduce the burden of L2 code and make L2 relatively simple.”
Just when the development of Layer 2 seemed to be thriving, why did Vitalik suddenly express such emotions? What caused Vitalik, who had previously strongly supported Layer 2 development, to change his perspective? Is it really because of security issues that triggered such emotions and changes, or is there another reason? In response to this, BlockBeats has compiled some viewpoints from industry KOLs/Builders on the development of Ethereum Layer 2:
Jason Chen:
Last May, Vitalik wrote an article titled “Maintaining the Simplicity of the Chain, Don’t Overload Ethereum’s Consensus.” Today, Vitalik expressed the idea of adding very complex features to Ethereum to reduce the burden on Layer 2. What prompted Vitalik’s change in thinking over the past year? I think a very important reason is the impact of modularity on the Ethereum system.
In fact, it is precisely because Ethereum wants to be the underlying chain that it has created space for modular development. To some extent, it can be said that it has cultivated its potential competitors. In my article last year, I also wrote that the ideal outcome for Ethereum is to become an underlying chain that no longer directly interacts with users, only focusing on consensus and DA (Decentralized Applications) as core value businesses, while leaving the complex business of achieving mass adoption to Layer 2, just like the relationship between the central bank and local banks. The central bank only focuses on regulation and control, while local banks handle deposit-taking and branch openings.
But what if the central bank has weak control over local banks? What if local banks no longer report to the central bank for settlement, or even issue their own local currencies?
Therefore, Ethereum has somewhat “divided” itself, and this process of division is also equivalent to proactive modularization, decoupling its capabilities for the development of third-party modules. It can be divided into execution layer, settlement layer, DA layer, and consensus layer according to the public chain hierarchy, with corresponding Fuel, DYM, and TIA for each layer, gradually “eating away” Ethereum.
The competitiveness of third-party modular businesses lies in speed, quality, and cost-effectiveness. Therefore, Ethereum must accelerate its own changes, including the KanKun upgrade to reduce Layer 2’s DA (Data Availability) costs, as well as the “legitimacy” in the name and the “ideological guidance” mentioned by Vitalik today.
In any case, the most core value of Ethereum is its security, which is unparalleled. This includes the subsequent Osaka upgrade that will further enhance Ethereum’s security by implementing stateless clients. This will be Ethereum’s most core competitiveness. The consensus layer cannot be modularized. With the KanKun upgrade reducing Layer 2’s gas costs by more than 10 times and strengthening the competitiveness of the DA layer, Ethereum is gradually reclaiming its territory layer by layer.
Qi Zhou:
Can ZKEVM, also known as Zero-Knowledge Execution Environment, mitigate the security risks of Layer 2? If bugs occur in the circuits shared by Layer 1 or Layer 2 ZKeVM and an attack on L2 is launched, then L1 will also be affected. Therefore, L1 repair programs (possibly RE-ORG) can intervene immediately to fix it.
Mindao:
Ethereum Layer 2 is redefining Layer 1, while Bitcoin Layer 2 is redefining Layer 2. The modularity, parallel EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), and economic safety output (repledging) of Layer 2 are all competing for the new public chain market and narrative, upgrading Layer 2 to become the new Layer 1. Bitcoin and Ethereum are becoming true Layer 0.
26×14-Merlin:
Vitalik is up to mischief again. By doing this, EVM will become more fragile, giving Sol and Sui more opportunities.
Related Reports:
Using the Barrel Theory to Analyze the Security Risks of Bitcoin/Ethereum Layer 2
How important is “data availability” to Layer 2 and its inseparability from the Ethereum mainnet?
The political reasons behind V God’s shout-out to ENS: Afraid of Layer 2 data availability being snatched by others?