Vitalik waves the flag to shrink the boundaries of Rollup, what does it mean for Ethereum?

Original author: Haotian, crypto researcher

When the entire Ethereum Layer2 ecosystem is in trouble, @VitalikButerin's article looking forward to the future of Ethereum Surge, either explicitly or implicitly talked about several potential development changes. The mission of shrinking Layer2 standards and boundaries, enriching and integrating the Layer2 ecosystem seems to be imminent. Next, let me talk about my understanding:

1) Rollup Centric Roadmap replaces sharding

The layer2 protocol has evolved from the state channel in 2015 to Plasma in 2017, and finally to Rollup in 2019. The development of Rollup into the mainstream is the result of the continuous evolution of the Ethereum ecosystem, so that the original Sharding sharding plan has also changed.

Obviously, the two powerful paths of Rollup and Sharding have been fully integrated, which means that the Sharding plan has been shelved and replaced, and the final Rollup Centric roadmap is the final expansion strategy.

Because the central idea of sharding is to let nodes verify and store only a small part of transactions, rather than all transactions, this is consistent with the effect of Rollup, which processes most transactions in the off-chain environment and only presents the verifiable results on the chain. If the big Rollup strategy is chosen, there is no need to promote sharding.

2) The Rollup roadmap solves the triple dilemma better than other alt-layer1

The expansion of the blockchain public chain has the impossible triangle problem of decentralization, scalability, and security. Some alt-layer1 high-performance chains claim to have solved this triple dilemma through engineering optimization of software and hardware. In fact, this is also achieved at the expense of the decentralized characteristics of the client node.

Although Vitalik did not say it explicitly, it actually alluded to Solana. Although Solana has recently launched a new client Firedancer, it will take a long time to reach the level of decentralization of Ethereum client nodes.

Vitalik believes that in the next stage of the Rollup strategic path, the combination of data availability sampling (DAS) and SNARKs can effectively solve the impossible triangle problem. The reason is that the client only needs to download a small amount of data and perform a very small amount of calculation to verify the accuracy of the transaction status, so that the transactions under Rollup can be infinitely magnified in theory, and the main network only needs to sample and verify the Blob data.

This may be the real advantage of Rollup Centric over other alt-layer1 public chains. It realizes the possibility of high scalability without sacrificing the impossible triangle problem. Its ultimate goal is to achieve L1+L2 100,000+ TPS while the data processing capacity of each slot reaches 16M.

3) Rollup standards and specifications need to be shrunk urgently. To resist foreign aggression, we must first stabilize the internal situation?

At present, the entire Ethereum layer2 is criticized for a large problem, even to the extent that layer2 drags down the delay of Ethereum's outbreak. From the perspective of the secondary market, it is not difficult to understand that the market value growth of ETH itself is already very weak, and it has to bring a bunch of high-market-value VC "sell-pressure coins" such as $ARB, $OP, $STRK, and $ZK? Whether the relationship between Rollup layer2 and Ethereum is "feeding" or "sucking blood" is worth discussing.

In fact, to solve this dilemma, Vitalik has already given a signal: redefine layer2. 1. Layer2 must fully inherit the characteristics of Ethereum mainnet, which is trustless, open, and censorship-resistant. In simple terms, it must rely on Ethereum's DA capabilities, and the security level must reach the stage1 level (with Trustless fraud proof guarantee).

Previously, Stack stacking strategy, Rollup As A Service, modular third-party DA, shared sequencer, etc. gave the layer2 market great freedom, diversity and scalability. Before and after the Cancun upgrade, the Layer2 market was flourishing. Everyone expected that the explosive growth of Layer2 would drive the prosperity of the application market, thereby "paying taxes" to feed back the value growth of the Ethereum main chain.

However, the reality is contrary to expectations. The borderless DA and low-cost chain issuance threshold have led to the emergence of a large number of Layer2s. Instead of feeding back, they have shared part of the expected growth of the Ethereum ecosystem through airdrops and coin issuance expectations.

Therefore, Vitalik waved the flag to shrink the boundaries of Rollup, which will allow the central strategy of Layer2 Rollup Centric to truly form a synergy, which is undoubtedly a big negative for the expected business model under the commercial stack of @CelestiaOrg's third-party DA and @alt_layer's RaaS. For most Layer2s in the market, fully embracing the Ethereum mainnet and making a path planning for differentiated expected growth is the optimal solution.

As the first new Layer2 that practices decentralized sequencer and is good at differentiated development, @MetisL2 has also developed fraud proofs and migrated Ethereum Blob to cater to Ethereum strategies. Recently, Layer2 small-cap tokens, led by $METIS, have seen a general surge, which may indirectly confirm this point.

4) After the Cancun upgrade, the imagination space of the Ethereum ecosystem is still very large

Previously, many people discussed that after the Cancun upgrade, the substantial technical upgrade benefits of Ethereum would end, and the only way to go next is to rely on the expansion of the application ecosystem? In fact, it is not.

1. The dual-route debate of Layer2 OP VS ZK has not yet been decided. Originally, relying on the ZK Endgame theory, ZK's direction of Layer2 was regarded as politically correct and lively, but Ethereum's later development possibilities in data availability sampling, data compression technology, and SNARKs will "blur" and level the technical route differences between OP and ZK;

2. The importance of Layer2 cross-chain interoperability is highlighted. The Rollup Centric strategy emphasizes that the Ethereum ecosystem is a whole. Previously, Layer2 each developed infra under the banner of technical advantages, resulting in a situation where there are too many general Layer2s and no one cares about specific layer2s. Now that Layer2 has been unified from involution to basic infra, whoever can integrate the entire ecosystem with interoperability will have the chance to take the lead in the next stage of Layer2 competition;

3. Layer2 architecture cannot be limited to pure Rollup. Vitalik previously published an article discussing the possibility of ZK+Plasma. On the surface, it seems to be a flag-waving to Vitalik's entrepreneurship, but what he actually wants to express is that Layer2 should be based on the application type. Rollup, Plasma, and Validium all have specific preferred application directions. For example, Pasma can ensure that the state of the ledger is effectively tracked and recorded in the payment scenario, and has a better security launch mechanism, which is suitable for payment applications. The hybrid architecture of Plasma/Rollup can achieve better scalability and privacy, and the theoretical TPS can reach about 260,000.

4. Amplify the performance of the Ethereum mainnet. I have previously discussed that if Rollup is not developed well in the short term, the performance of the Ethereum mainnet can be optimized to highlight its position. For example, further improving the efficiency of client software, reducing the Gas cost of specific opcodes and precompiled, multi-dimensional Gas pricing, EVM-MAX proposals, etc. These are not limited to Surge, and there will be greater optimization in the future Splurge stage.

That’s all.

In short, Ethereum Layer2 has gone from being a grassroots development to gradually forming a unified Rollup route, and then to the prosperous involution of RaaS with a hundred flowers blooming, and now it has returned to strategic contraction and reshuffle, which is in line with the several major evolutionary stages that a set of mature business formats must go through. Therefore, the pessimism and concerns in the past are normal, and it is far from the time to conclude that Ethereum is not working.

Keep Optimistic, Bullish Ethereum!

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