In the past, everyone talked about L2 and pretended to be very academic, with intimidating terms like data availability, ordering, finality; now I keep it simple: who are you really working for, and where does the money come from. Where you store data determines who you pay "rent" to; who does the ordering decides who gets to eat first (and maybe snatch some snacks along the way); how fast finality is determines whether you dare to put in real amounts.

Recently, those new L1/L2 projects are incentivizing to pull TVL, basically using subsidies to trick people into taking sides first. It's normal for old users to complain about "mining, selling, and dumping": cash flow hasn't been established, and even if governance is lively, it's just a voting toy. Don't get confused by the terminology; the main point is—ultimately, is there stable revenue, and can it return to the protocol, rather than always relying on token issuance to survive.