Rivalries among Ethereum layer-2s threaten the ecosystem’s future, says Polygon CEO
Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron believes that the extreme rivalry between Ethereum layer-2 networks is the “largest downside” dealing with the second-largest digital asset by market capitalization.
In an April 7 put up on social media platform X, Boiron emphasised how the competitors between these networks has led to Ethereum cannibalizing itself constantly. He defined:
“Ethereum’s largest downside is cannibalizing itself constantly by way of all L2s competing over devs, customers and liquidity quite than competing exterior of the Ethereum ecosystem. Microeconomics 101 would inform you this can be a dangerous technique. I don’t have the reply but it surely must be addressed.”
A number of crypto neighborhood members share Boiron’s perspective, asserting that Layer 2 networks ought to goal these exterior the Ethereum ecosystem. Karthik Senthil, the enterprise associate at crypto hedge fund Lattice, mentioned:
“L2s solely develop into profitable in the event that they meaningfully develop the pie and entice the 99% of stuff (web2 included) that’s exterior Ethereum at this time. If we battle over the identical individuals which are already right here, nobody is profitable something.”
Notably, Boiron reposted a social media put up that urged the layer-2 networks to play the long-term sport and “champion one another wins.” The put up reads:
“As fragmentation and chain abstraction will quickly be solved, L2s ought to reshape their views on the worth of siphoning apps from one L2 to the opposite. Quickly a profitable utility on x-L2 will present a proportion uplift in worth to y-L2 . Stealing functions is a cannibalization of that worth.”
In the meantime, some neighborhood members argued that the competitors amongst layer-2s may finally improve Ethereum’s ecosystem.
Layer-2s reputation
Layer-2s are blockchain networks designed to reinforce Ethereum’s scalability. Over the previous years, they’ve gained vital reputation and adoption inside the crypto ecosystem.
Information from L2Beat reveals that the networks cumulatively course of 123 transactions per second, surpassing Ethereum’s mainchain by an element of 10.7. For context, Coinbase’s high-flying Base community and Arbitrum, the most important layer2 blockchain, recorded greater transactions per second than Ethereum mainnet previously day.
Moreover, originally of this month, the variety of energetic wallets using the networks surpassed 5 million. On the similar time, the full worth of property locked on these platforms has exceeded $42 billion, and there are indications that the development may proceed.