Vitalik Buterin Says Ethereum Scaling Should Move From L2s

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has reversed his long-held view that layer-2s should be the primary way to scale Ethereum, saying the approach “no longer makes sense.”

“We need a new path,” Buterin said in a post to X on Tuesday, arguing that many layer-2s have failed to decentralize and that the Ethereum mainnet is now sufficiently scaling, with improvements coming from gas limit increases and soon native rollups.

“Both of these facts, for their own separate reasons, mean that the original vision of L2s and their role in Ethereum no longer makes sense, and we need a new path.”

Layer-2s were envisioned as extensions of Ethereum, managing most transactions at high speed and low cost while inheriting Ethereum’s security.

Buterin said layer-2s were meant to partake in “Ethereum scaling” by creating block space that is fully secured by the Ethereum mainnet, in which all transactions become valid, uncensored and final; however, many layer-2s have failed to reach that standard, he said:

“If you create a 10000 TPS EVM where its connection to L1 is mediated by a multisig bridge, then you are not scaling Ethereum.”

Buterin said layer-2s — which include Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and Starknet — should instead pivot from scalability to focus on a particular niche, suggesting areas such as privacy, identity, finance, social apps and AI.

Ethereum’s technical roadmap had long focused on layer-2s as the primary avenue for scaling the network.

It also comes as some Ethereum developers have urged a focus on scaling the Ethereum mainnet.

Among them is Max Resnick, a former researcher at the Ethereum infrastructure firm Consensys, who moved to the Solana ecosystem after his push to prioritize scaling the Ethereum mainnet failed to gain enough support.