Several Layer 2 developers reacted after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the original vision of L2 as the primary scaling engine “no longer makes sense,” calling for a shift toward specialization.
In Wednesday’s post, Buterin argued that many L2s have failed to fully inherit Ethereum’s security due to continued reliance on multisig bridges, while the base layer is increasingly capable of supporting higher throughput through increased gas limits and future native rollups.
The comments sparked a response from Ethereum’s Layer 2 representatives, who broadly agreed that rollups need to evolve beyond cheaper versions of Ethereum, but differed on whether scaling should remain a key part of their role.
The Ethereum ecosystem is grappling with an evolving roadmap to boost base layer performance, while L2 layers are repositioning themselves as specialized environments serving distinct technical needs.
Ethereum L2 builders accept offset, they differ in the role of scaling
Karl Floersch, co-founder of the Optimism Foundation, he said in X’s post, where he welcomed the challenge of building a modular L2 stack that supports “the full spectrum of decentralization.”
He also admitted that there were grave obstacles. These include long phase-out windows, lack of production-ready Stage 2 trials, and insufficient tooling for cross-chain applications.
“Stage 2 is not ready for production,” Floersch wrote, adding that existing tests are not yet secure enough to serve major bridges. It also supported Ethereum’s native precompilation for rollups, a concept Buterin recently highlighted as a way to make trustless verification more accessible.
Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of developer Arbitrum Offchain Labs, he took it a more decisive stance in the long X thread. He argued that while the aggregate model has evolved, scaling remains a core value of L2.
Goldfeder said Arbitrum was not built as a “service for Ethereum,” but because Ethereum provides a secure and inexpensive settlement layer that makes large-scale rollups profitable.
He also dismissed the idea that a scaled Ethereum mainnet could replace the bandwidth currently supported by L2 networks. Goldfeder cited periods of high activity when Arbitrum and Base processed over 1,000 transactions per second, while Ethereum handled fewer.
He warned that if Ethereum is perceived as hostile to rollups, institutions may launch independent Layer 1 chains rather than deploying them on Ethereum.
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Basic frame differentiation, Starknet suggests alignment
Jesse Pollak, head of Base, said in Post X that Ethereum’s L1 scaling was a “victory for the entire ecosystem.” He agreed that L2 can’t just be “Ethereum but cheaper.”
Pollack he said Base focused on user and developer onboarding as it works towards decentralization in Stage 2, adding that differentiation through applications, account abstraction and privacy features is in line with the direction outlined by Buterin.
StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, whose company is developing the non-EVM Starknet rollup, offered a brief but keen reaction to X, writing: “Say Starknet without saying Starknet.”
Ben-Sasson’s comment suggested that some ZK-native L2s see themselves as already fitting the specialized role described by Buterin.
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