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Viewpoint: In the Layer 2 era, the competition pattern of the new public chain has basically taken shape

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Other Layer 1s networks will eventually transform into Layer 2 networks on Ethereum

Original author: Anthony Sassano, co-founder of EthHub

Original compilation: Nanfeng, Unitimes

We all know that the main selling point of L2s networks on Ethereum is their huge benefit to users in terms of scalability, although I think this understates the utility L2s bring. This is because, they also provide other important features, such as near-instant transaction confirmation, allow for richer development work (not limited to Solidity and EVM), and best of all, L2s can make it secure Sex is "outsourced" to Ethereum L1.

Tweet source: https://twitter.com/sassal0x/status/1455705956537430016?s=20

So, what exactly does it mean to "outsource security to Ethereum"? In simple terms, this means that L2s structures don't have to worry about needing to reach consensus on the transactions they process and execute, because they outsource this work to Ethereum L1 to do it! This is what I often say "modular design", that is, the modular design in Ethereum In the stack, L2s is the execution/computation layer, while Ethereum L1 is the consensus/security layer,also (optionally as) data AvailabilityAvailability Layer (Note: The L2s network will selectively use Ethereum L1 as the data availability layer, such as the Rollups network; while the Validium solution chooses to put data availability off the chain ).

Of course, over time, L2s networks will need to have their sequencers (sequencers) and validators (validators) Achieving decentralization, but this is quite different and easier to achieve than creating and maintaining a decentralized consensus/security.

So I think the era of L1s is over and going forward we will most likely not see more L1s The network is deployed; instead we will only see blockchains built purely for data availability, such as Celestia and Polygon Avail; we may see some one-off L1s deployments that end up being worthless. I believe that the next years will be dominated by L2s networks that leverage the security, community and network effects of Ethereum's L1, resulting in their own rapid usage growth and adoption. The beauty of this approach is that the L2s network does not need to worry about the consensus/security layer at all, all they need to do is pay the Gas fee for storing the proofs (proofs) and/or data to Ethereum L1, Thereby providing security guarantees for themselves so that they can focus all their attention on improving their own execution/computation process.

A popular idea at the moment is that other L1s networks will eventually transform into L2 networks on Ethereum because it makes more sense . Now, while I agree with this, I very much doubt that those larger L1s ecosystems would consider doing this, after all they are pure ethereum competitors, and if they convert to L2s networks in ethereum, then they Basically admitting defeat to Ethereum. It would be as if the king of a rival nation had given up his crown and sworn allegiance to another new king - which is unlikely to happen (at least they are reluctant to do so).

Interestingly, by transitioning to a L2 network on Ethereum, other L1s ecosystems can actually benefit a lot, not just on a technical level The same is true on a social level: by transforming into an L2 network on Ethereum, they not only continue to retain their native tokens, communities, applications, etc., but also benefit from the entire Ethereum ecosystem without having to Worry about the consensus/security layer.

Some readers reading this may think that I am too inclined to the "Ethereum maximalist" (Ethereum maximalist) point of view , but I just think my overview in this article is the most pragmatic view. If the goal of an L1 network is to be as decentralized and secure as possible, then instead of trying to start from scratch, why not leverage other most decentralized and secure blockchains as their own consensus layer ? In addition, if some new L1 network is trying to bypass the limitations of Solidity and EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) , it can actually do it on Ethereum L2-from< From a b>technical level, I really can't see any downsides to launching itself as an Ethereum L2 network (rather than an L1 network).

Of course, the social dimension is another important factor, which is why Ethereum's competitors like to brag that they are better than Ethereum. The "better" aspect of the workshop. If it becomes an L2 network on Ethereum, then it is equivalent to giving up this marketing point, and may hurt the value growth of their native tokens, so I can understand why they want to continue to be an L1s network (although I think This strategy is now ineffective).

I'm really looking forward to seeing which L1 network will be converted to L2 first in the future, although I can't point to any candidates yet in this regard. There are currently many smaller L1s networks that might do this, but in practice if they convert to L2 networks, they will need to compete with both native L2s networks and some larger L1s networks, so it may be possible for them It's not worth it. Anyway, the next couple of years will be very interesting, the time of L2 has really arrived.