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Vitalik Declarers 'New Path' for Ethereum L2s
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin states the original L2 vision 'no longer makes sense.' What does this mean for the future of scaling?
Miguel Treviño•
TL;DR:
- The News: Vitalik Buterin argues that the current, fragmented world of Layer 2s "no longer makes sense" and needs to evolve.
- The Vision: The pivot is toward "branded shards"—unifying L2s into a single, synchronous ecosystem with shared standards.
- The UX Goal: Users should no longer need to worry about bridging or which chain they are on; it should feel like "One Ethereum."
- The Zelf Alignment: Zelf is built for this unified future, providing a ZK-Identity that travels seamlessly across all layers and shards.
Vitalik Buterin has dropped a bombshell on the Ethereum ecosystem: The original vision for Layer 2s (L2s) is dead.
In a visionary new post, the Ethereum co-founder argues that the segmented, competitive landscape of current L2s "no longer makes sense" and that the network needs to pivot toward a unified future.
The Problem: Fragmentation
The initial promise of L2s (like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base) was to scale Ethereum by handling transactions off-chain. While they succeeded in lowering fees, they created a new problem: Fragmentation.
- Liquidity is trapped in silos.
- User experience is clunky (bridging is a nightmare).
- L2s are competing against Ethereum rather than with it.
Vitalik notes that "L1 is scaling faster than expected," while L2s are lagging in their move to full decentralization ("Stage 2").
The Solution: "Branded Shards"
Vitalik's proposal is a paradigm shift: Treat L2s not as separate chains, but as "branded shards" of Ethereum.
Instead of isolated islands, imagine a world of synchronous composability—where a transaction on one L2 can interact seamlessly with another, just like on the mainnet. This would require:
- Native Rollup Precompiles: Baking rollup logic directly into the Ethereum protocol.
- Unified Standards: Forcing L2s to speak the same language.
This aligns seamlessly with the concept of "One Ethereum," removing the friction that currently hampers mass adoption.
Zelf: The User Layer for a Unified Ethereum
At Zelf, we have always built for this unified future. We don't want our users to worry about which "chain" or "shard" they are on.
Technology should be invisible.
- Unified Identity: Your Zelf ZK-Identity travels with you across all shards and layers. You are you, everywhere.
- Abstracted Complexity: Whether the backend is a "branded shard" or mainnet, Zelf provides a single, smooth interface for managing your wealth.
- Security First: As Ethereum moves to this new "sharded" model, security becomes even more paramount. Zelf's biometric authentication ensures that your access to this complex network remains simple and secure.
Vitalik is charting the path for the network. Zelf is building the vehicle to get you there.
Join the future of Ethereum.
