zkrollups

If Ethereum is suddenly cheap and fast again, do we still need Layer 2?
That question sounds provocative — but it reflects a real shift happening inside the Ethereum ecosystem.
Over the past few years, Layer 2 solutions emerged as the clear answer to Ethereum’s biggest weakness: scalability. When gas fees on Ethereum surged to $50–$200 during peak 2021 congestion, the network became unusable for retail users. Throughput hovered around ~15 transactions per second. The bottleneck was obvious.
Layer 2 was not optional. It was necessary.
Today, however, the landscape looks different.

Ethereum Layer 1 Is No Longer the Same
Following upgrades such as EIP-4844 (proto-danksharding), Ethereum significantly reduced data costs for rollups and improved overall efficiency. Gas fees that once spiked aggressively now often sit at a fraction of their previous highs during normal conditions.
At the same time:
Rollup data posting costs decreased.L1 throughput increased via higher gas limits.Settlement efficiency improved.
This creates a new reality: Ethereum Layer 1 is no longer the fragile bottleneck it once was.
And that is precisely why recent comments from Vitalik Buterin resonate. He has suggested that Layer 2s cannot rely solely on being “the cheaper Ethereum.” Many L2s still depend on centralized sequencers or upgrade multisigs, meaning their decentralization is incomplete.
That criticism is not an attack — it is a structural observation.

The Original Narrative: “L1 Is Expensive, L2 Is the Fix”
Projects like:
ArbitrumOptimismzkSync
gained traction because they dramatically reduced transaction costs. At their peak growth phases, these networks processed more daily transactions than Ethereum L1 itself.
Total Value Locked (TVL) across Ethereum L2 ecosystems has reached billions of dollars, proving real adoption rather than speculation alone.
But here is the shift:
If Ethereum L1 becomes sufficiently efficient for many use cases, then “cheap transactions” alone are no longer a durable moat.

Opinion + Fact: What Actually Changed?
Fact: Ethereum’s roadmap has always been rollup-centric.
The goal was never for L2 to temporarily fix L1. It was to make L2 the primary execution layer, with L1 acting as settlement and data availability.
Opinion: What is fading is not Layer 2 itself — but the oversimplified narrative that L2 exists only because L1 failed.
Ethereum did not eliminate Layer 2’s purpose. It strengthened the foundation that L2 depends on.
In modular blockchain design:
L1 = security + settlementL2 = execution + scalability
Even if L1 becomes cheaper, global-scale adoption (hundreds of millions of users) cannot realistically rely on a single execution layer without sacrificing decentralization.
The Real Evolution
Vitalik’s stance is logical from a systems-design perspective:
If L2 wants to remain relevant, it must:
Remove centralization bottlenecksAchieve stronger trust-minimizationDifferentiate via privacy, app-specific design, or performance specialization
Layer 2 is not dying. It is being forced to mature.
The market may interpret this as narrative rotation. Technically, however, it is architectural refinement.
And that distinction matters.
Because when the next demand spike arrives — and history suggests it will — scalability will once again separate infrastructure that is merely convenient from infrastructure that is structurally necessary.
#Layer2 #EthereumLayer2 #Rollups #ZKRollups #OptimisticRollups
“Layer 2 isn’t fading — it’s being forced to prove why it deserves to exist.”