Overview
- Buterin says the original vision of L2s as Ethereum's 'branded shards' no longer fits, arguing that multisig-bridged high-throughput chains are not truly 'scaling Ethereum.'
- He urges L2 teams to compete on clear, differentiated guarantees and features such as privacy, app-specific designs, or ultra-fast confirmations rather than lower fees alone.
- Many rollups remain short of full trust minimization, with some indicating they may not progress beyond stage 1 due to regulatory or customer-control requirements.
- On-chain data show divergence across L2s, with total value secured around $40.3 billion down 13.2% year over year even as activity rises to roughly 3,470 user operations per second.
- L2 leaders emphasize independence and specialization, interest grows in a native rollup path with ZK-EVM proof verification on Ethereum, and debate intensifies over corporate-controlled rollups such as Base and the economics of centralized sequencing.