Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin calls for stricter standards in layer-2 scaling solutions

Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum co-founder, has come up with the next big paradigm in the form of scalability options for the Ethereum ecosystem. Lately, on 28th March, in his latest blog, Buterin emphasized that more efforts should be highly decentralized and scalability should also be made as Ethereum periods move to a new age.

Raising the bar for rollups

Nevertheless, Buterin prefers the recent Ethereum term upgrade, which made it possible to operate rollups in layer 2 and, simultaneously, the network significantly lowered fees. He mentioned that Ethereum is now in the transition phase, moving away from layer-1 (L1), mainly characterized by rapid progress at its base layer. Despite the slow progress in L1, layer-2 scaling solutions have brought immense environmental advancements.

Buterin emphasizes developing and maintaining high-quality projects that seek to be listed in the rollups within the Ethereum System. He forwarded that the final countdown for the rollup projects still required certain standards to be titled. Such an approach involves generating at least stage 1 of decentralization, which is a stage that Buterin uses in the classification system. Stage 1 implies that the network has shown significant progress in its security and scalability features yet has not achieved full decentralization.

Amongst a host of Ethereum’s scaling solutions, none of them have been fully operationalized so far. Buterin, therefore, pointed out that there is still a need for improvement. The steps include, in particular, building a larger capacity for blobs, getting rid of storage bloat, and optimizing rollup performance. 

However, he further identifies proper data sources, sampling methods, and optimization techniques as vital issues in developing layer-2 solutions. Next, he also sketched the process of reaching step 2 decentralization, where rollups rely on the underlying codes, and intervention is only considered if code discrepancy is proven.

The Ethereum roadmap

However, Buterin talked about The Roadmap to Ethereum, the current one being called “The Surge,” which is aimed at the scalability improvements of the technology through rollups and state channels. The subsequent block of this checklist, commonly known as “The Scourge,” will define the issues around censorship resistance, decentralization, and protocol risk, for example, the Miner Extractable Value (MEV).

In the end, Buterin encouraged developers to take a long-term view and design applications incorporating layer-2 scaling choices, user privacy, account abstraction, and the engagement of communities beyond the platform. He emphasized that Ethereum has shifted from a simple digital money network to a comprehensive, decentralized technological framework, making the network one of the leading elements in the industry.

Vitalik Buterin’s position that layer-2 scaling solutions must meet higher standards recalls Ethereum as the network that never ceases to develop but strives for scalability and decentralization. As Ethereum unfolds its strategy, developers are urged to orient their undertakings in a manner consistent with the evolving universe of the platform. They must also be prepared to harness innovation and community-driven solutions for this ecosystem to keep up with the accelerated pace of change.