🔗 Layer 1 Blockchains After the Speed Race: Four Tests That Decide Which Networks Last What Makes a Blockchain a Layer 1? A layer 1 sits at the bottom of the stack. It runs its own validator set, produces its own blocks and has the final word on which transactions happened. A layer 2, such as a rollup, executes transactions on a separate system and posts data or proofs back to a layer 1 for settlement, so its security is borrowed from the base chain. Bitcoin is a layer 1, and the Lightning Network that runs payment channels on top of it is a layer 2. By 2026 the layer 1 field had split into three groups that earn money in different ways: 🟠 General-purpose smart-contract chains such as Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Sui and Monad, which sell blockspace to any application. 🟠 Payment and stablecoin chains such as Tron and the newer corporate networks Arc and Tempo, built around moving dollars. 🟠 Application-specific chains built for one product. The clearest case is the leading on-chain perpetuals venue, which runs its own layer 1 and collects its revenue mainly at the application level.