The North Star of the Platform group is for Ethereum to scale as a cohesive system and allow assured adoption by all customers. This doc is meant to share our perspective on the L1 <> L2 relationship, the roles of every layer, and the way we (as an ecosystem) are leveraging the strengths of L1 & L2 to create essentially the most compelling platform for all customers. A few of that is already clear in the present day, and a few of it will should be validated by means of ongoing experimentation and iteration with the group and customers 🙏.
On the L1 + L2 relationship
TL;DR:
Aim: all customers (people and establishments) ought to have a transparent path to leverage, prolong, and profit from the core properties that Ethereum gives.
The very best path to getting there leverages the distinctive capabilities of every layer, reinforces Ethereum’s core properties, and unlocks significant worth to finish customers by means of these properties.
The position of every layer has advanced because the ecosystem has grown:
Beforehand: the first goal of L2s was to scale Ethereum, and secondarily to offer area for differentiation and customization. The largest lever was on the scaling aspect.
At the moment: the first goal of L2s is to offer differentiated options, companies, customizations, go-to-market methods, and zones of management, whereas additionally providing additional scale. The largest lever in the present day is round differentiation, management and innovation.
Position of L1: function a really permissionless and maximally resilient international hub for settlement, shared state, liquidity, and DeFi.
A robust L1 that’s scaling with out compromising on CROPS (censorship-resistance, open supply, privateness, and safety) gives a greater basis for L2s
Position of L2s: ship priceless new options, customizations, and management to develop their very own onchain economies whereas additionally extending the core properties of Ethereum to extra customers.
A robust community of L2s reinforces the ecosystem and Ethereum’s heart of gravity
L2s are full spectrum and have a spread of relationships with L1 relying on their wants
Relationship to L1: These L2s in search of the tightest integration with L1 ought to push in the direction of synchronous composability, full interoperability, shared liquidity, Stage 2, and mechanisms like native rollups.
Scope: Many L2s with all kinds of enterprise fashions and/or technical specialization will proceed to play a serious position within the ecosystem. All will supply issues the L1 doesn’t.
The EF will proceed to spend money on applied sciences that permit L2s to extra seamlessly prolong the core properties of L1, and securely entry liquidity/capital throughout L1 and different L2s. L2s ought to keep transparency and verifiability of their safety properties. In different phrases, each side have an necessary position to play, and vibes ought to match substance.
Intro
Over the past 5 years an ecosystem of chains has grown up round Ethereum L1. There are lots of totally different properties these chains can select to increase from Ethereum: some inherit full decentralization (e.g. Stage 2 rollups), some inherit a subset of the safety properties (e.g. validiums, prividiums), and a few merely construct on the widespread EVM commonplace (with out being an L2). Many are nonetheless below improvement, usually starting as unbiased chains and steadily integrating extra deeply with Ethereum L1.
It’s time for the EF and the broader Ethereum ecosystem to replace our mannequin of how Ethereum L1 and this community of L2s ought to relate to one another. The final time this occurred was arguably 5 years in the past, when the rollup-centric roadmap was first proposed as a path to scaling Ethereum.
Since then, a lot has modified. The applied sciences that permit L2s to share Ethereum’s safety/liquidity and interoperate with it have matured and advanced. The aggressive benefits of L2s and their worth to customers has change into extra clear. L2s themselves have grown and matured, turning into ecosystems and communities in their very own proper. And the L1 scaling roadmap has advanced and are available into sharper focus. As an ecosystem we have to acknowledge what has modified and be taught from our ecosystem’s successes and failures.
Over the past many months, a clearer imaginative and prescient for the way forward for the Ethereum L1 <> L2 relationship has come into focus:
A thriving Ethereum ecosystem should be rooted on a powerful L1 basis.
Ethereum L1 will scale by orders of magnitude, whereas retaining most safety & decentralization, remaining the guts of the onchain financial system and a hub for DeFi.
There will likely be a rising ecosystem of unbiased and interoperable L2 chains, which can supply better customization, management, and options the L1 can’t. These L2s put down roots within the Ethereum ecosystem as a result of it’s your best option for his or her customers, their communities, or their companies.
L2 chains each compete and cooperate (that is good and wholesome) to supply a various vary of specialised blockspace, companies, and property..
The objective of this doc is to elucidate the L1 <> L2 imaginative and prescient in additional element, and lay out a path to constructing mutually-reinforcing relationships between Ethereum L1 and any chain that desires to place down roots and change into a part of the ecosystem.
What are the roles of L1 and L2s, and the way can they work collectively?
Ethereum L1 is the world’s main programmable blockchain. No different chain in the present day comes shut when it comes to adoption, developer consideration, decentralization, resilience, and hardness. Ethereum L1 is the guts of the DeFi ecosystem and options the deepest liquidity.
Ethereum L1 now has a transparent path to scaling whereas preserving decentralization and hardness. ZK expertise has accelerated quicker than anticipated, because of the work of many groups throughout the Ethereum ecosystem. Within the subsequent few years, we will scale Ethereum L1 by a number of orders of magnitude whereas staying true to its imaginative and prescient of a sequence that doesn’t compromise on its core values.
On the similar time, any single chain will likely be unable to satisfy the various wants of a worldwide onchain financial system. Even in a future the place Ethereum stays the world’s main blockchain and scales 1000x, there will likely be many various chains as a result of they supply specialization and customization that any L1 can’t:
Specialization round particular functions or use instances
Non-EVM options
Extra privateness ensures
Pricing mechanisms or tx inclusion logic
Extremely low latency or different sequencing properties
Excessive scaling properties L1s can’t match
Specialised economies, go-to-market, and development approaches
Modular designs that allow compliance or different enterprise wants
Different enhancements or improvements that may be iterated and shipped quicker than on L1
Governance methods to offer stakeholders granular management over their very own versatile execution setting on Ethereum
This presents a possibility for Ethereum L1 and Ethereum L2s to construct mutually helpful relationships, every specializing in complementary roles.
Why ought to different chains need to be L2s on Ethereum?
Excessive safety, low counterparty threat, and most decentralization at considerably lowered value: L2s obtain most safety & decentralization at a lot decrease prices than alt-L1s. Constructing and incentivizing a worldwide decentralized validator set is dear, time consuming, and tough. L2s can offload that duty to Ethereum L1, enabling them to “pay for utilization” somewhat than pay the big fastened prices to construct their very own L1 validator community.
Customers and builders: L2s achieve entry to extra customers and builders by means of safe interoperability with the most important L1 blockchain and the most important community of L2 chains (interoperability and crosschain UX will speed up because of ZK expertise, real-time proving, quicker L1 finality & L2 settlement, and maturation of agentic infrastructure).
Interoperability: L2s, if designed effectively, can achieve safe entry to L1 property and DeFi liquidity, person accounts on L1, and any companies that reside on L1, eg. oracles, ENS.
Go-to-market: The branding and reputational advantages from being a part of the Ethereum ecosystem, which has the strongest fame, safety observe document, and regulatory acceptance of any L1.
How does Ethereum L1 profit from these relationships? From our expertise and discussions with stakeholders across the ecosystem, we imagine that positioning Ethereum L1 on the centre of a rising community of L2s reinforces Ethereum and ETH’s distinctive position within the onchain financial system:
Creating demand for ETH, and offering trust-minimized, safe bridging between ETH and different property
ETH capabilities concurrently as a retailer of worth, cash, and an software all through Ethereum.
Extending community results round Ethereum (e.g. EVM, developer schooling, developer tooling, person onboarding, and interoperability between L2s)
Reinforcing Ethereum’s priceless place because the core of a multichain ecosystem, and the first settlement and liquidity layer of the onchain financial system
Offering extra enterprise improvement, development, and advertising efforts broadly for Ethereum
L2s assist obtain a core imaginative and prescient of the Ethereum ecosystem. By appearing as distribution engines (offering additional scaling) for Ethereum’s core properties (safety, resilience, and hardness), they assist to maximise the quantity of people that can get sustainable worth from Ethereum
The Ethereum ecosystem mustn’t take these advantages without any consideration. Some are debated inside the group, or are long-term theses that should be validated by means of experimentation, measurement, and evaluation. In the end the L1 <> L2 relationship should be mutually helpful for it to succeed. The primary 5 years of this relationship have shipped many successes and key constructing blocks for the long run.
What does this imply for L2s going ahead
What does this new imaginative and prescient imply for L2s, their groups, and their communities?
Listed below are our suggestions:
L2s ought to concentrate on methods which can be complementary to L1 and differentiate their platforms. Many L2s are already efficiently executing in the direction of this imaginative and prescient. Some have completed this with progressive new options, by focusing on particular use-cases (e.g. app chains), supplying new types of distribution, or with novel go-to-market methods. This has helped them create their very own distinct communities and prolonged the properties of Ethereum to tens of millions of latest customers.
L2s ought to really feel empowered to distinguish in any manner they will think about. We now have already seen differentiation in scalability, trustlessness, privateness, company compliance, business sector, group, and a spread of technical improvements. Different use instances that may perform effectively as L2s embrace public bulletin boards for cryptographic e-voting, and certificates transparency.
It’s a legitimate alternative for L2s to increase all or a subset of Ethereum’s properties, relying on their objectives. However they need to be certain that the safety properties they do and don’t present are simply understood by their customers.
L2s working in the direction of trust-minimization ought to not less than attain Stage 1 and move the “walkaway” check, which means customers can safely exit to L1 even within the presence of malicious operators or safety council failure.
L2s that select to be closest to L1 and totally inherit its properties ought to push in the direction of:
Reaching Stage 2Synchronous composability (whether or not read-only eg. L1SLOAD / L1STATICCALL, or read-write), each on the protocol layer and on the software layer (eg. even when exercise is on L2, do person accounts should be on L2? Even when trades are on L1, do property should be issued on L2?)Turning into a local rollup (permitting L2s to eliminate their safety councils)
L2s ought to proceed to work on mechanisms for interoperability and shared liquidity extra broadly, strengthening the system as a complete. We encourage groups to look into the Open Intents Framework and the Quick Affirmation Rule, discover designs that present entry to L1 capital with out leaving the L2, and in any other case contribute to ongoing synchronous composability workstreams.
L2s ought to proceed to function transparently, being clear with the ecosystem about their particular person safety properties and relationship to L1 (supported by L2Beat, taking part in an necessary position in making the L2 ecosystem clear and guaranteeing it improves over time).
What the EF is doing to assist construct that world:
To realize this imaginative and prescient of the L1<>L2 relationship, we all know the EF has a task to play. Right here’s what we’re doing:
Working to each scale the L1 and scale blobs with out sacrificing decentralization or hardness. At the moment blobs are solely ~30% full. There may be a number of headroom to develop, and we really feel snug rising blobs way more if wanted.
Supporting L2s specifically who’ve or want to deepen sturdy properties in core EF domains like privateness, safety, and trustlessness.
The Platform group, led by Josh Rudolf, to enhance the Ethereum platform as a complete and function an interface between L2s and the core protocol roadmap.
Bettering liquidity on L1, and make it simpler for L2s to entry that liquidity (quicker finality, withdrawals, and deposits).
Working intently with L2 groups to know their wants and mirror them in Protocol priorities, and bringing readability to the connection between L1 and L2. For this relationship to work, we have to perceive what’s working and what’s not, and work collectively. The objective is to all the time make clear and strengthen the worth proposition of being a part of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Investing R&D in the direction of the expertise that can allow “native rollups” — L2 chains that may be totally and trustlessly verified by L1, enabling synchronous composability and safe interoperability.
Working intently with L2Beat and others who assist to observe and validate the safety properties of L2s. We should be rigorous and sincere in regards to the properties of L2s and the diploma to which they share in L1’s safety, in order that customers and builders could make knowledgeable decisions.
Addressing the first draw back of a multichain ecosystem: fragmentation. We’ll work with the ecosystem (chains, wallets, infra suppliers) to construct higher interop options that repair UX and developer platform fragmentation. And now with a clearer imaginative and prescient for the L1<>L2 relationship, we will start to handle the fragmentation of Ethereum’s narrative.
Collectively, we are going to ship a worldwide, permissionless onchain financial system and the very best platform for all customers.
