L2s Invested by Vitalik: A Step Towards Ethereum's Mainstream Adoption

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has been investing in Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions to help bring Ethereum to the mainstream.

One of the key reasons for this investment is to improve the scalability and usability of Ethereum for everyday users.

By investing in L2s, Vitalik aims to reduce the congestion and high gas fees that have historically plagued Ethereum, making it more accessible to a broader audience.

This investment is a significant step towards Ethereum's mainstream adoption and could potentially unlock new use cases and applications for the platform.

A fresh viewpoint: Ethereum Investment

Vitalik Buterin's vision for L2s has created a more pluralistic and diverse environment, allowing unique subcultures to thrive within the Ethereum community. This diversity is fostered by the cultural values of each subculture, such as cypherpunks, regens, and degens.

Different subcultures within Ethereum contribute to the ecosystem in distinct ways, and L2s support these subcultures by providing their own playing fields. This enables them to build communities and develop new tech, ultimately leading to a diversity of approaches.

L2s spur healthy competition within the Ethereum community, and there is value in trying to expand on the ideas that each one brings to the table.

For another approach, see: How to Buy Ethereum Stock

Starknet already has zero-knowledge validity proofs implemented in its smart contracts, but these proofs can be overridden by whitelisted operators.

Starknet may reach Stage 1 before Dec. 31, but it currently doesn’t make the cut because it doesn’t fulfill all of the criteria.

Applying the other criteria of a Stage 1 network would be relatively simple for Starknet, given that it already has validity proofs implemented.

From reading bridges to validation bridges, we're seeing a significant shift in how L2 solutions interact with the Ethereum mainnet.

Rollups, validiums, and disconnected systems are the three dominant L2 solutions in the EVM ecosystem, with rollups storing data on L1 and validiums using servers or isolated systems for this purpose.

The cost of native Ethereum data availability and an application's own needs are the two main factors that determine which L2 design to choose.

If the Ethereum mainnet were to revert, an L2 network could only read finalized blocks or revert as well, making two main models necessary to keep the L1/L2 system consistent.

Here's an interesting read: Who Invests in Two

A validating bridge is a cross-blockchain mechanism that can prove the validity of its underlying blockchain.

It checks not just consensus, but also a ZK-SNARK proving that the state of any new block was computed correctly, making it a more secure option.

The L1/L2 equilibrium is still vulnerable until some form of governance gadget on Ethereum can make the bridge contract on Ethereum aware of a hypothetical hard fork taking place.

L2s, like Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon, are getting more mature, with big numbers in ecosystem adoption, product innovation, and differentiation.

Vitalik Buterin thinks L2s need to keep working on trustless, merkle-proof-based CCIP resolvers to help usher in ENS subdomains that are registerable, updateable, and readable directly on L2s.

ENS is super-important, especially when it comes to making wallet address identification easier, and Vitalik wants to make it more affordable.

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) innovation was introduced in 2018, allowing users to replace long alpha-numeric codes with their name and the ".eth" suffix.

This integration will serve as a major growth push for Layer-2 protocols to function more effectively and attract new users into their ecosystems.