Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Butlerian said that the original vision of L2S as the primary scaling engine “doesn’t make sense anymore,” calling for a shift toward specialization that many Layer 2 builders responded to.
In a post on Wednesday, Butrin argued that many L2Es have failed to fully inherit Ethereum’s security due to continued reliance on multisig bridges, while the base layer is capable of handling greater throughput through rapid gas limit increases and future native rollups.
These comments prompted a response from Ethereum layer 2s, who largely agreed that the rollup should evolve beyond being a cheap version of Ethereum but depended on whether scaling should be central to their role.
The Ethereum ecosystem is grappling with a shift roadmap aimed at making the base layer more capable, while L2S repositions itself as a specialized environment serving specific technical needs.
Ethereum L2 builders accept Shift, differing on the role of scaling
Carl Floresch, co-founder of the Optimism Foundation, said in an X-post that he welcomed the challenge of building a modular L2 stack that supports “the full spectrum of decentralization.”
He also admitted that there are major hurdles. These include long return windows, lack of production-ready Stage 2 proofs and inadequate tooling for cross-chain apps.
“Stage 2 is not ready for production,” Floresch wrote, adding that the current evidence is not yet secure enough to support larger bridges. They also support a native Ethereum preamble for rollups, a concept that Bitcoin recently pushed to make something accessible without trust.
Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of mediation developer Offchain Labs, took a more forceful stance in a long X thread. He argued that while the roll-up model has evolved, scaling remains a core value of L2S.
Goldfeeder said the intermediary was not created as a “service to Ethereum,” but because Ethereum provides a high-security, low-cost settlement layer that enables large-scale rollups.
They also pushed back on the idea that a scaled Ethereum maint could replace the throughput currently handled by L2 networks. GoldFeeder cited periods of high activity when more than a thousand transactions per second were processed on arbitrage and basis, while Ethereum handled the least.
He warned that if Ethereum is considered hostile to rollups, institutions may launch independent layer-one chains instead of deploying on Ethereum.
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Base frame differentiation, Starknet indicator alignment
Base head Jesse Pollack said in an X-post that Ethereum’s L1 scaling is “a win for the entire ecosystem.” He agreed that L2S could not only be “Ethereum but cheaper”.
Base has focused on onboarding users and developers as it works toward Stage 2 decentralization, Polk said, adding that the direction of differentiation through applications, account abstraction and privacy features is consistent with Bitrine’s indicated direction.
Starkware CEO Eli Ben Sasson, whose company developed the non-EVM Starknet rollup, offered a brief but pointed take on X, writing: “Say Starknet without saying Starknet.”
Ben-Sassen’s comment indicates that some Z-native L2s see themselves as already conforming to the specialized role described by Bittern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ZFEDQDKL8
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