In February, Vitalik Buterin posted something that caused quite a stir in the Ethereum ecosystem. His main argument was that Ethereum’s main chain itself is expanding and plans to increase gas limits are growing, so Layer 2 solutions are no longer as necessary as we previously thought.

His view was that Layer 2 should be completely redefined. Not only for scaling, but also to provide special capabilities—such as privacy features, application-specific optimizations, and social and AI-related applications. It should go beyond being just a scaling tool.

Community reactions were divided into two camps. One side supported this evolving perspective. They said that the story around Layer 2 was actually an attempt to hide the failure of L1 scaling. Ryan Sean Adams, co-founder of Bankless, said this was a pivotal moment and that strong L1 is needed for a powerful Ethereum. Mike Dudas, founder of The Block, added that he had been talking about this since three years ago.

On the other hand, some community members are concerned that this statement could undermine the credibility of Layer 2 projects and hurt their fundraising efforts. They believe Layer 2 can still deliver value, especially for high-throughput applications.

Dan Robinson of Paradigm presented a more balanced view. He acknowledged that L1 has advanced, but until there are clear plans to reduce block time to six seconds or to address the MEV solution, many of Layer 2’s potential remains.

Emin Gün Sirer, founder of Avalanche, also commented that they had raised this issue years ago and have been at the forefront of technological development.