Opinion: Vitalik's latest long article subtly sets boundaries and establishes standards for Ethereum L2

Author: Haotian

After reading Vitalik's analysis and summary of Ethereum layer2, did you think it was just popular science? Implicitly and explicitly, he is defining the boundaries and standards for Ethereum layer2. Here are some insights I gathered:

1) Aligning with Ethereum can gain ecological benefits, while some overly centralized projects connecting with Ethereum can also achieve consensus security. Thus, Ethereum layer2 has become a star-studded existence. (Vitalik's implication is that to become layer2, one must first understand the definition of layer2 and not mess around. A soul-searching question: among the various layer2 solutions emerging in the market, how many are truly focused on scalability? Most seem to be pursuing narratives.)

2) Plasma, Rollup, and Validium are all layer2 scaling solutions, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Rollup relies on Ethereum for the safest DA assets, but incurs higher costs. Validium abandons the reliance on DA, saving costs but affecting security; Plasma-type independent chains are very cheap but require third-party trust and cannot rely on Ethereum for security and consensus. Regarding this issue, Vitalik's view is that the DA cost problem is only temporary, and this issue will be resolved after the Cancun upgrade and danksharding; as for which solution to use, applications should consider their own characteristics—those leaning towards finance and asset protection should prefer Rollup-type layer2, while games or non-financial applications can use Validium and independent sidechains.

(The applicability of scaling solution types is actually quite clear, but currently, there is a uniformity of Rollup solutions, especially with OP Stack amplifying the one-click chain launch effect. However, layer2 chain launches should be adapted to application scenarios. As for Celestia's third-party DA + Rollup scaling method, it does not yet exist within the strict definition of layer2, so be careful not to go in the wrong direction.)

3) Ethereum layer2 has two key aspects: 1. The security of withdrawals to Ethereum; 2. The security of reading Ethereum. The core of withdrawal security undoubtedly points to the DA in Ethereum's Rollup solutions, while in the long term, the security of reading Ethereum points to some Validium solutions with independent security and consensus guarantees. According to this standard, ZK-Rollup has the highest security, followed by OP-Rollup, and then Validium and Plasma.

(This may seem contradictory but genuinely reflects Vitalik's anxiety—he fears developers trying to leverage Ethereum without substantial protection from it, while also wanting developers to be strong and independent without overly relying on Ethereum. Balancing decentralization and scalability is inherently difficult, and even Vitalik feels anxious.)

In summary, Vitalik's discussion, tinged with a technical tone, both delineates the boundaries of layer2 and points out a reasonable direction for developing layer2. Currently, Rollup is the mainstream for Ethereum layer2, primarily because the Ethereum ecosystem is still dominated by finance-related Dapps, with security consensus provided by the Ethereum mainnet, which makes sense; however, Vitalik actually intends to guide a more ideal Ethereum layer2 ecosystem that should adapt to various application scenarios with diverse layer2 forms. This is the truly unburdened and complementary scaling solution.