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Ethereum 2.0 kicks off, but Layer2 is also the protagonist

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Layer 2 seems to be a more attractive "mechanical skeleton" for Ethereum and the encryption industry

Original title: "Ethereum 2.0 kicks off, but Layer2 is also the protagonist"

Original source: PANews

After a long period of twists and turns, the Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 beacon chain officially launched the genesis block at 8:00 pm on December 1, Beijing time.

For the Ethereum community, this is undoubtedly a crucial milestone: the curtain of the Ethereum 2.0 attack has officially opened, and the Ethereum The overall acceleration of Fangfang from PoW to PoS, the expansion vision of dozens of times is one step closer to realization.

But Ethereum 2.0 is expected to have a landing cycle of several years, a roadmap that has been changed several times, and the controversial migration cost. With an economy of nearly 80 billion US dollars, this "reborn" major upgrade still faces a lot of fog.

At the same time, various Layer 2 solutions represented by Rollup, Plasma, Validium, etc. have emerged in the Ethereum community, and they may be compared in terms of scalability The sharding concept of 2.0 has more advantages, or it is more predictable in terms of implementation cycle, or it is more friendly in terms of engineering difficulty.

In a word, at least in the short to medium term, Layer2 seems to be a more attractive "mechanical skeleton" for Ethereum and the encryption industry. It may even become a long-term solution in the future evolution of Ethereum.

This article aims to clarify the necessity and value of Layer 2 in the context of Ethereum 2.0, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Layer 2 solutions and the current ecological situation.

Layer2 may be transformed into a "plug-in facility" for Ethereum infrastructure

For a long time, the community Layer 2 is generally regarded as a transitional solution for a certain public chain to mature, and it is a "plug-in" where the performance of the main chain is not enough to support high-concurrency transaction processing. However, PANews found out after the Ethereum community meeting on November 18 that the Ethereum core development team has confirmed that the Layer 2 solution Rollup should be given priority over the original sharding idea. Vitalik made it clear:

(1) Temporarily no longer emphasize the importance of Phase 2, Phase 1 is dedicated to implementing data sharding (shard data) for rollup use;

(2) The beacon chain will have the execution function, that is, after the merger of Eth1-Eth2, the beacon chain block will directly contain transactions;

(3) Three major tasks after the implementation of Phase 0 : Light client support, data sharding, and merging will be promoted in parallel, and any module will be launched as soon as it is ready.

Ethereum 2.0 has a long road to landing, and important functions need to be completed one by one | Source: Tokamak Network

This actually reflects the core story of 2.0 The embarrassing status of "sharding" - as a project that is expected to take at least 2-3 years to land, it is currently estimated that it can at most bring a 64-fold increase in the TPS of the Ethereum network, while the existing Layer2 star program Rollup It can bring up to 100 times the improvement effect. Compared with the two, the strategic value of Layer 2 is needless to say, which is also the core reason for the above-mentioned Ethereum route adjustment.

In addition to technical indicators, the design philosophy between Layer2-Layer1 is the key consideration for creating the important position of Layer2.

Vitalik once wrote that: A common idea in the blockchain field is to keep Layer1 as simple as possible, and build more complex layers on it in the way of Layer2 function. Because changes at the infrastructure level (Layer1) are difficult and can easily lead to systemic damage. Therefore, he believes that in the short term, Ethereum needs to develop Layer 1 and Layer 2 in parallel, and in the long run, it needs to pay more attention to Layer 2.

If we place this design philosophy in the ETH2.0-Layer2 relationship, it may be inferred that Ethereum-Layer2 should maintain a long-term coexistence relationship , rather than short-term assistance, especially considering that many Layer2s have been publicly supported by important applications, such as Uniswap, Synthetix’s support for the Optimistic Rollup scheme, Tether’s support for the Plasma-based OMG Network, and Curve’s support for ZK Rollup Support, they are not only the current flagship application of the Ethereum ecosystem, but also the infrastructure supporting higher-level and complex gameplay in the future. Their attitude actually determines the position of Layer 2 in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Kevin Jeong, CEO of Tokamak Network, which focuses on customizing Layer2 solutions on demand, has a vivid analogy for this issue: "Vitalik compares Ethereum to a The Swiss Army Knife created by the blockchain industry. But even though it is a powerful and versatile tool kit, it is definitely not enough for chefs to use Swiss Knives in the kitchen. This is not to say that Swiss Knives are not easy to use, but Swiss Knife It’s really not enough.”

The long-term value of Layer2 to Ethereum is clear, but how is their current development progress? What are the internal pros and cons and what are the use cases?

Layer2 has its own advantages and disadvantages, Rollup has two flowers, and it is most likely to be widely used

PANews has previously written that the most prominent feature of Layer2 is that It does not have tight coupling, that is, the validity of the main chain ("beacon chain" in Ethereum 2.0) is not inseparable from the validity of the sub-chain. That is, a subchain block containing an invalid mainchain block and a mainchain block containing an invalid subchain block are by definition out of sync.

Currently, there are 6 main solutions for Layer 2 of Ethereum, namely state channel, side chain, Plasma, Validium, ZKRollup and Optimistic Rollup. Different Layer 2 solutions differ in whether they are hosted, whether they are calculated on the chain, whether they are stored on the chain, whether they use fraud proofs or zero-knowledge proofs, etc. PANews has made a detailed table for everyone to grasp.

It can be seen from the chart that different expansion schemes have their own advantages and disadvantages. For DApp projects based on Ethereum, in the Layer2 ecological pattern In the undecided situation, it may be the right choice to choose the Layer 2 solution according to the needs, and it is even possible to use multiple solutions at the same time according to different needs in the same scenario. Tokamak Network also continues this concept. In Kevin Jeong’s view, “The on-demand platform created by Tokamak Network can build a sustainable Layer 2 ecosystem. For blockchain projects, such on-demand configuration will also save a lot of time energy to maximize the value of the solution.”

For example, if a developer wants to create a social media DAPP, he needs to choose a high-throughput and scalable Layer2 bottom layer , After purchasing a Layer2 platform token building service, it is found that privacy needs to be enhanced, so it is necessary to find a privacy-enhancing protocol such as Aztec, and then purchase Aztec tokens to continue building, but it is limited to using Aztec. Tokamak Network makes decision-making more flexible. As an on-demand Layer2 platform, Tokamak Network can choose and add functions such as scalability, composability, privacy, or smart contracts, and does not need to make different decisions repeatedly Or buy tokens of different technical protocols.

According to the current discussions in the Ethereum community, the Rollup series solutions are generally supported by large manufacturers (large-scale applications), have fast development progress, and have ideal scalability The most likely to stand out first and gain broad support - the results of the latest round of meetings of the Ethereum community also confirmed this. It is particularly worth noting that Optimistic Rollup is expected to receive more support, mainly due to the support of DeFi giants. Synthetix has made it clear that it will adopt the Optimistic Rollup solution and is promoting related integration work. DeFi "one brother" Uniswap has also opened the Unipig DEx demo based on this solution on the official website for users to experience. In addition, the leading oracle machine Chainlink is also expected to adopt Optimistic Rollup.

Optimistic Rollup roadmap and Synthextix adoption time point | Source: Optimism

Layer2's benign and orderly competition and cooperation state and potential wide-ranging use cases make People are commendable, but in my opinion, this also brings a new big problem: the composability of DeFi will be greatly weakened. Taking the highly praised Rollup as an example, the two schemes of ZK and Op are currently unable to interoperate, which means that the already fragmented liquidity will be further intensified. However, for DeFi as a whole, Lego blocks are not only the foundation, but also higher The integration of dimensions should be the essence of Layer 2’s topic—imagine if Curve’s stable currency exchange advantages and Uniswap’s comprehensive liquidity advantages are connected, will the transaction volume of DEx be raised to a higher level?

All in all, the evolution of Ethereum 2.0 is undoubtedly a routine full of exploration and change. Continue to adjust the roadmap, but what is certain is that as the Ethereum ecology becomes a huge ecosystem, the possibility of basic transformation becomes smaller. In this context, Layer2 will be its long-term partner and infrastructure .