Once again, Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has expressed his concerns about Layer 2 scaling solutions being too difficult.
On Wednesday, Buterin called for a more balanced approach to the development of blockchain ecosystems in social media, highlighting the potential risks of complex Layer 2 networks.
The prevailing belief among members of the blockchain community is that Layer 1 networks should rely on simplicity to reduce the risk of critical errors and attack vectors. As a result, Layer 2 networks, which were designed to provide scalable solutions, are no longer responsible for handling more complex functions.
Buterin highlighted the potential consequences of critical errors in Layer 2 networks.
He said that while the strength of Layer 1 blockchain could be recovered relatively quickly in the event of consensus failure, failures in Layer 2 networks could result in the permanent loss of users’ money.
Buterin proposed an alternative strategy that could reduce the burden on Layer 2 networks by adding sophisticated functions to Layer 1 networks. This would allow them to keep things simple.
“If there is a consensus error at the L1 level, it will take a day for the main developers to fight, but in the end everything will be fine. People can permanently lose money as a result of an L2 error.”
Over the past year and a half, Ethereum’s Layer 2 ecosystem has grown significantly, with total blocked value(TVL) exceeding $27 billion.
L2beat claims that in October 2023, transaction activity on Layer 2 networks exceeded that on the Ethereum core network . These networks now routinely process five times more transactions than before.
As reported, Ethereum-based Arbitrum ‘s Layer 2 network now has 49.17% of the Layer 2 network market, well ahead of Optimism Mainnet, which is second on the list with 28.85% of the market.
In addition, the network has seen a steady increase in the number of TVLs since at least October last year, according to data from the DeFi tracking site DefiLlama. It has increased by about 50% from $1.66 billion in October to its current value of $2.51 billion.
The upcoming Ethereum Dencun update, which will include changes to EIP-4844, is expected to reduce the cost of rollup transactions and help Tier 2 solutions such as Arbitrum by reducing gas costs and increasing network capacity.
