Original Title: "After Being 'Backstabbed' by Vitalik, L2s Rush to Remove the 'Cheap' Label, What Kind of Restructuring Will Follow?"
Original Author: Jae, PANews
When the founder questions his own ecosystem, a debate about the nature of scaling, the pace of decentralization, and future leadership is pushing L2 to a crossroads.
With Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin raising sharp questions about technical scaling paths, the L2 ecosystem is undergoing a profound "identity crisis." Leaders of projects such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and Starknet have spoken out in succession, engaging in a fierce and confrontational debate over the value proposition, business models, and ecological philosophy of L2.
Optimism: Acknowledge Engineering Obstacles, Embrace Modular Transformation
As a pioneer in the field of Optimism Rollup, Optimism's response appears pragmatic yet optimistic. Its co-founder Karl Floersch openly admitted that he is willing to accept the challenge of building a modular L2 stack that supports "full-spectrum decentralization."
Although Optimism has always been a firm advocate of decentralization, Floersch has not avoided the stark reality. He acknowledges that OP-based L2s still face three major engineering challenges in achieving full decentralization:
1. Long withdrawal cycle: The current fraud proof mechanism still requires a 7-day challenge period, leading to low capital efficiency and harming user experience.
2. Stage 2 proof systems are not yet ready: so-called "Stage 2 proof systems" on the market are not yet sufficient to securely manage hundreds of billions of dollars in assets without any human intervention.
3. Lack of cross-chain application development tools: Developers lack standardized tools for managing multi-chain applications, making ecosystem integration difficult.
Optimism's choice is "deep modularity"Floersch supports the native Rollup precompiled scheme emphasized by Vitalik and plans to integrate it into the OP Stack. This is equivalent to providing a "plug-and-play" base for all projects on the Superchain, inheriting the security of the Ethereum mainnet at a lower cost.
For Optimism, the way forward is no longer just to provide an execution environment, but to build a set of standardized protocol specifications with high interoperability. In this way,Optimism's competitive moat will shift from gas costs to developer experience and network effects, and its role will also transition from "scaling solution provider" to "ecosystem standard setter."
Arbitrum: Strongly Defending Expansion Sovereignty, Warns of "Institutional Migration" Risks
If Optimism is the moderate reformist, then Arbitrum is the hardline establishment.
Goldfeder expressed a firm stance in defense against the description of "downgrading" the scaling function of L2, believing that scaling remains an unshakable vital value of L2.
He emphasized that Arbitrum's choice of Ethereum as the settlement layer is based on its extremely high security and reasonable settlement costs.This is a business optimum, not a technical subordinate.
Goldfeder also used data to counter the argument that "L1 scaling can replace L2." During transaction peaks, Arbitrum and Base achieved throughput exceeding 1,000 TPS (transactions per second), while the Ethereum mainnet at the same time was only in the double digits.
Therefore, even if the mainnet is expanded, its fundamental nature as a general settlement layer determines that Ethereum will find it difficult to meet the extreme concurrency requirements of application scenarios such as social media, gaming, and high-frequency trading.
More intimidating is Goldfeder's warning of "institutional migration." He pointed out that a large number of institutions choose L2 due to the synergistic combination of Ethereum's security endorsement and L2's flexibility. If this symbiotic relationship breaks down, these institutions are very likely to shift to independent L1s or other ecosystems in pursuit of performance sovereignty.
This has moved beyond a technical debate and has risen to an ecological game.The underlying message of Arbitrum is: Denying the value of L2 scaling is undermining Ethereum's overall appeal.
Base: Break free from the cheap Ethereum label, pursue application differentiation
Base, incubated by Coinbase, provides a unique perspective connecting Web2 and Web3. Its co-founder Jesse Pollak agrees with Vitalik's view: L2 cannot just be "cheaper Ethereum."
As the mainnet gas fees continue to decline, this homogenized price war has lost its strategic significance. Base will focus on differentiated features to build moats, especially in user experience and product accessibility.
1. Eliminate Mnemonic Phrases: Base is actively promoting the application of account abstraction and related standards, allowing users to directly manage their wallets through FaceID or TouchID, eliminating reliance on mnemonic phrases and removing the biggest barrier to using Web3. This user experience cannot be achieved solely through L1 layer scaling.
2. Deeply integrated privacy features: For enterprise-level and sensitive applications, integrate more lightweight and efficient privacy computing tools, allowing users to enjoy blockchain transparency while effectively protecting personal data.
3. Incubate consumer applications: Through consumer application scenarios such as social media, gaming, and content creation, transform Base into a service layer面向 end users.
In general,Base's strategic positioning is to become the "retail front-end" of Web3, while Ethereum can confidently play the role of the "settlement back-end."
Although more focused on the application layer, Base has not neglected security at the lower levels. Pollak stated that Base is working toward "Stage 2," aiming to reduce reliance on centralized sequencers.
Ethereum ecosystem enters adjustment period, L2 moves toward functional differentiation
Interestingly, among all the responses, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson's stance was the most detached, even carrying a somewhat "prophetic" tone. He hinted that a ZK (zero-knowledge proof)-based native L2 like Starknet naturally aligns with Vitalik's described "specialized execution environment."
Ben-Sasson's view reveals a trend that the L2 ecosystem is shifting toward a "multifunctional hub."When Optimistic Rollup is still troubled by decentralized proofs, ZK-Rollup has already been ready to handle the complex computational demands that the mainnet cannot achieve.
The Ethereum ecosystem will also undergo a more profound division of functions.:
· L1: Aiming to enhance its own capabilities by increasing the Gas limit and optimizing data availability, providing solid underlying security for the entire ecosystem.
· L2: Farewell to "homogenized" competition, evolving from a mere "low-cost branch" into a "dedicated environment" serving specific technical and business needs, such as large-scale full-chain games, complex logic computation, high-performance transactions, etc. These application scenarios may have technical feasibility on L1, but cannot generate economic benefits.
This debate marks a major adjustment in the Ethereum ecosystem structure, and Vitalik's questions will force the entire L2 sector to undergo a revaluation of its value.
Ethereum is evolving from a "master-slave structure" into a multi-polar coexistence, functional complementary matrix system. The era of homogeneous expansion is coming to an end, and the era of differentiated innovation may have already arrived.
For investors and developers, the criteria for evaluating L2s are also undergoing a qualitative transformation: whoever can create "uniqueness" that cannot be provided by the mainnet will hold the ticket to the next five years.
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