
Author: Haotian; Source: X, @tmel0211
In recent days, there have been more discussions around Ethereum layer2. SEC members expressed on the podcast that relying on centralized sorters will be regarded as “exchanges”, and Scroll also suddenly announced the suspension of decentralized DAO governance. In addition, many core developers of Optimism have resigned for a period of time.The market is more confused and anxious about Ethereum layer2, which is a terrible Ethereum technology debt!
Tell me about my subjective views:
1) The discussion of the decentralized Sequencer is obviously inappropriate now, because most mainstream layer2s such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base are centralized Sequencers. Vitalik Buterin proposed the technical alignment route of stage0-stage2 and also proposed a pragmatic promotion path of 1-hour withdrawal. Although Metis has implemented a decentralized sorter, it is just playing on its own ecosystem at a small scale.
There is only one subtext for this kind of reality:Layer2’s decentralization problem has no solution yet.So it doesn’t make much sense to discuss whether it will be considered an exchange;
2) Scroll suspends decentralized DAO governance. The impact of this matter depends on how you interpret it.It can be said that Scroll, which could not realize the trust-free feature of decentralized Sequencer technology, could not even persist in decentralized DAO governance, and the “experiment” of decentralized layer2 zkEVM failed.
But it may not be all bad things. It may also be that when the team is working hard to promote commercialization, DAO governance has become a burden. Since Sequencer cannot achieve decentralization, the decentralization of DAO governance is just formalism. Why not just abandon the rebirth of nirvana in the direction of embracing flexibility and efficiency;
3) The resignation of the core development of the Optimism team are all manifestations of layer2 losing the dominance of market technology narratives. What we should really think about is why Hyperliquid and Stripe (Tempo) have chosen to build independent chains. Which chains that currently rely on the layer2 technical architecture? Will new chains such as Base, Robinhood, Upbit also withdraw from layer2 one day?By the way, there is also a L2 camp MegaETH waiting for the market to test.Is layer2 really lacking the nourishing soil for continuous growth?
All signs indicate that general layer2 will definitely lose in the confrontation between high-performance layer1.Relying solely on Ethereum’s security inheritance cannot support the ecological prosperity of layer2. Either transform to compete with Specific-layer2 and other layer1s, or wait for the blood sacrifice..
The process of liquidating Ethereum technical debt may be more cruel than everyone thinks.