While Ethereum developers are strenuous at work on on-chain scaling solutions, including Sharding, Layer 2 is gaining momentum. According to L2BeatAs of September 6, all of these Layer 2 scaling solutions had close to $34 billion under management.

While they are popular, most of them are not only becoming centralized, but also have security concerns. Recently, the OP mainnet had to revert to a centralized, fault-tolerant system after bugs were found in the decentralized version.

Ethereum and its layers 2 are flawed

In lightweight of these weaknesses, Justin Boons, founder and CIO of venture capital firm Cyber ​​Capital, has issued a harsh critique of Ethereum, specifically its Layer 2 platforms. In a post on X, the founder he argues that Layer 2 services like Arbitrum and Base are inherently flawed and centralized.

Boons took on X, highlighting the shortcomings of Ethereum developers. The founder accuses them of not scaling out of the gate and how “parasitic” Layer 2 solutions are proving to be. Despite their merits, Boons argues that these off-chain solutions create unhealthy dependencies.

Interestingly, the founder added that Ethereum is becoming increasingly dependent on these solutions, even though they do not follow the main principle that governs the blockchain: decentralization.

Venture capitalists believe that Ethereum Layer 2 is leveraging the popularity of the mainnet not to accelerate adoption, but to make a profit.

Their decision to sacrifice decentralization (and therefore security) for the fullness of time will only serve to undermine the entire ecosystem. In his opinion, platforms like Base, Arbitrum, and OP Mainnet should not be considered “extensions” of the base layer due to their inherent weaknesses.

Dash will benefit from decentralization from the start

While Boons criticized Ethereum and its dominant scaling options, the founder endorsed Dash, one of the earliest blockchain platforms. In contrast to off-chain solutions, Dash, a venture capitalist he saidScaling was a priority from the start.

Specifically, Boons also singled out the blockchain’s decision to opt for a decentralized approach to governance. Their move, the founder added, “will benefit them” in the days to come.

Still, even though there are challenges with Layer 2, Ethereum developers are working to improve the mainnet. Ethereum 2.0 will provide on-chain scalability without sacrificing security and decentralization in a series of upgrades, from Verge to Splurge.

At the same time, the approval of the Ethereum spot ETF is a huge endorsement for the network. While the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not yet publicly endorsed ETH as a commodity, like Bitcoin, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) considers it a commodity.

While Dash is one of the earliest platforms, it has fallen into obscurity in recent years. It is outside the top 100 most valuable networks and has liquidity issues after being delisted from some centralized exchanges like HTX.

Featured image from Canva, Chart from TradingView