Co-founder of Ethereum network, Vitalik Buterin, in his new article “Possible futures for the Ethereum protocol, part 2: The Surge”, discusses a proposed scaling of Ethereum’s Layer (L1) to enable maximum scalability of Layer2 (L2) operations. Buterin expresses the need to maintain high levels of L2 interoperability within Ethereum.
The co-founder raises the issue that L2 scaling solutions become less viable when they depend on a weak Ethereum network on L1. L1 provides a strong financial ecosystem, and weakening it would diminish incentives for operating on L2 compared to independent L1 platforms. Also, L2s may fail, and if the financial backbone is on a less secure L1, recovery and operations during such situations might prove challenging.
Vitalik Buterin emphasized the requirement to scale L1 as part of the solution, but points out that increasing the gas limit poses the risk of centralization. As a balanced strategy, Vitalik recommends enhancing Ethereum client software and introducing advanced technologies. EVM-MAX and SIMD, for instance, could aid in computation efficiency, while native rollups would allow parallel transaction execution to increase Ethereum’s scalability overall.
However, striking the right balance between innovation and retaining Ethereum’s key principles of decentralization and security becomes paramount as the ecosystem expands. Buterin clarifies, “Clearly, it’s absurd for everything to go on L1.” Yet, he emphasizes the significance of finding a guiding principle that avoids scenarios of increased gas limits by heavily damaging Ethereum’s L1 decentralization and yielding an almost similar outcome where “instead of 99% of activity being on L2, 90% of activity is on L2”.
Thus, Buterin maintains the importance of preserving L1’s unique features even with scalability enhancements. Also Read: Vitalik Buterin Proposes Improvements to Proof of Stake, Aiming for 1 ETH Validator Staking.
