Vitalik: Layer2 Achieved Sharding and Potential for Further Enhancement
Vitalik: Layer2 is similar to sharding in terms of technology
The design centered around Layer2 is actually quite similar to the sharding approach that Ethereum has been pursuing in the past, and there are many aspects that can be improved, such as giving more autonomy to Layer2 developers and allowing for more innovation and flexibility in the ecosystem.
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Vitalik: Similarities between sharding and Layer2
Diversity in execution environments
Trade-offs between speed and security
Vitalik: Layer2 brings a more flexible environment
Vitalik seems to be leaning towards Layer2
Vitalik believes that Layer2 and sharding are often described as two strategies for blockchain scalability, but the underlying technologies for both approaches are actually the same.
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Design centered around Layer2 is similar to sharding technology
Users have some sort of data sharding, which can be thought of as users having fraud-proof or zero-knowledge proofs; users interact between different shards, and the corresponding users can interact between different rollups.
The main difference between Layer2 and sharding is: how much autonomy do different chains and shards have? How much room is left for developers to innovate?
Diversity in execution environments
In the past, Ethereum briefly attempted to improve the diversity of execution environments through sharding in 2019, such as allowing different shard regions to adopt completely different virtual machines and account models. However, it was eventually abandoned due to the technical difficulties. However, Layer2 can easily achieve much more.
Compared to sharding, Layer2 has more flexibility and room for innovation in execution environments.
Vitalik stated that Ethereum Layer2 includes rollups, valdium, and Plasmas, which currently serve as the execution environments for the ecosystem. Although the Ethereum community usually focuses on L2 with equivalent EVM, there are actually more innovative and diverse Layer2 solutions being developed:
Arbitrum Stylus: Provides an execution environment for Ethereum ecosystem WASM virtual machines, which can attract more diverse developers and applications.
Fuel: Uses a structure similar to Bitcoin’s UTXO to reduce the growth rate of the state ledger.
Aztec: Introduces new programming languages and designs, based on ZK-SNARK for privacy-protected smart contracts.
Compared to trying to create a super virtual machine that covers all possible designs, these specialized platforms will be more efficient.
Recommended reading:
Introduction to the execution layer network Fuel Network, how to provide an efficient computing environment through parallel computing and state reduction?
Recommended reason: This article discusses the design concept and architecture of Fuel Network, introduces how FuelVM solves the problem of blockchain state expansion through the UTXO model.
Trade-offs between speed and security
Sharding can provide users with higher security, and the transaction fees on the Ethereum mainnet are now less than one dollar, which is indeed competitive. However, not all applications require the level of security provided by Ethereum. For example, social media or games, even if the transaction fee is $0.01, it is still too high.
Different applications have different levels of security requirements.
These applications do not have to pay the same security costs. The design centered around Layer2 can achieve this, providing corresponding environments for different needs.
Recommended reading:
Introduction to Vitalik | Different approaches to Ethereum L2, what are the gains and advantages (Layer2 standards)
Recommended reason: This article discusses the various aspects of L2 systems, including Rollup, Validium, and Disconnected, such as security, cost, and technical characteristics, which can provide a better understanding of the statement “Different applications have different levels of security requirements.”
Another security-related trade-off is cross-chain between Layer2. Currently, the Ethereum ecosystem has optimistic rollups and ZK rollups, as well as various combinations of proof time windows. Currently, optimistic proofs must manage complex fraud-proof logic on the chain and propose assets to go through a one-week withdrawal challenge, which compromises the cross-chain performance of Layer2.
However, Vitalik believes that in the next 5 to 10 years, it is expected that all Rollups will be ZK Rollups, and there will be ultra-efficient proof systems with lookup capabilities, such as Binius and Circle STARKs, and the maturity of proof aggregation layer technology will enable L2 to efficiently provide final state roots in each block. Therefore, cross-chain transactions on Layer2 will not be a problem in the future.
Recommended reading:
Introduction to shared proof layer, why it is an important cornerstone of modular development?
Recommended reading: This article clearly introduces the importance and market opportunities of the shared proof layer (proof aggregation layer), and uses major existing projects such as Nebra, Avail Nexus, and AggLayer as case studies to explain the concept.
Finally, let’s discuss transaction speed. Ethereum produces one block every 12 seconds and is not willing to be too fast, as this would lead to excessive centralization of the network. On average, users submitting transactions need to wait about 6 to 7 seconds to be included in a block, which Vitalik believes is comparable to the time he has to wait when using a credit card for payment.
But many applications require higher speed, and L2 can meet this requirement. Many L2 solutions are already exploring block times in the range of hundreds of milliseconds. For example, Layer2 can provide higher speed through preconfirmation, where validators sign the transaction after it is submitted, declaring that it will be included in a specific block at a certain time. If the transaction is not included, the validator will be penalized, achieving more efficient soft verification.
Preconfirmation can be independent of settlement performance on the mainnet
Of course, all these designs can also be attempted on Layer1, where different shards with different security levels can be combined. However, this would increase the complexity of the protocol and may bring risks of consensus overload, as many larger-scale or faster-throughput methods have higher risks of centralization or require stronger governance designs, which would affect other parts of the protocol. By providing these trade-offs through Layer2, Ethereum can essentially avoid these risks.
Vitalik believes that a design centered around Rollups can bring better scalability to Ethereum than sharding.
In addition to technical comparisons, Vitalik believes that Layer2 also creates an incentive space that encourages developers to build and maintain Layer2 and encourages community support for Layer2.
Each L2 is independent, representing that developers can deploy new methods on it without permission and without the need to convince all core developers that the new methods are safe for the rest of the chain. New features can also be freely added to Layer2. Anyone can explore completely strange ideas, even if they are completely ignored by Ethereum core developers.
(Detailed explanation of Blur’s profit-oriented L2 network Blast: on-chain native interest rates, sustainable NFT contracts, etc.)
If a Layer2 that tries a new method fails, it is the responsibility of the developers and has a limited impact. In contrast, the functionality and pre-compiled designs of Layer1 are not like this. Any new update or method has to be evaluated for its impact on the network, as there may be unexpected consequences and effects.
Therefore, many EIP discussions often depend more on politics than Vitalik would like, regardless of what can be theoretically constructed.
Recommended reading:
Account abstraction EIP-3074 becomes a point of debate in the Ethereum community, and Vitalik proposes a new improvement proposal EIP-7702
Recommended reason: This article can provide a better understanding of the political aspects and struggles of Ethereum proposals through the controversy surrounding EIP-3074.
In summary, the unique incentive measures generated by the L1-centered ecosystem and the L2-centered ecosystem will greatly influence the content, quality, and order of construction.
Compared to sharding, which is based on a specific political stance in the Ethereum ecosystem, Layer2 can give developers more autonomy and allow for any innovation, even if they are not incorporated into EIP by Ethereum core developers.
Vitalik believes that the ecosystem centered around Layer2 is the true technical sense of sharding. In this kind of sharding, users can create their own networks with their own rules, which is very powerful for ecosystem development and can stimulate a large amount of innovation.
Vitalik is beginning to see the potential of a design centered around Rollups for bringing improvements to Ethereum.
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Further reading:
How will Ethereum Authentication Standard (EAS) become a universal standard for authentication?
Does the community want Ethereum to revert to PoW? Vitalik: Proof of Work is also centralized
