2026-01-08 08:55:38

Ethereum co-founder recently posted an interesting technical question: should we solely focus on reducing latency, or prioritize improving bandwidth and scalability?

His answer is straightforward—compared to extreme latency, enhancing scalability and bandwidth is more critical for the long-term security of decentralization. The logic behind this is quite profound. Latency, in simple terms, is affected by constraints such as the speed of light, node distribution, censorship resistance costs, and economic incentives, which fundamentally cannot be optimized infinitely. Conversely, if we pursue ultra-low latency gaming server experiences blindly, it can lead us astray.

He emphasizes that Ethereum should be positioned as a "global heartbeat" rather than a race for response speed. This analogy is quite vivid—the mainnet needs reliability and censorship resistance on a global scale, not millisecond-level quick responses.

So what about applications that pursue faster responses? The answer lies in L2 and off-chain solutions. These scaling layers can handle latency-sensitive scenarios while maintaining a secure connection with the mainnet. This division of labor is the long-term development direction for the Web3 ecosystem—mainnet focuses on security and decentralization fundamentals, while scaling layers handle performance demands.

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PensionDestroyer

· 01-10 22:16

The analogy of the global heartbeat is brilliant; finally, someone has explained this thoroughly. --- The path of L2 will be taken sooner or later. Instead of fighting for that millisecond advantage, it's better to strengthen the fundamentals. --- It's easy to say, but actually giving up the temptation of low latency? Most people can't do it. --- Brilliant, using biological analogies to explain blockchain architecture—this industry needs this kind of thinking. --- Think of the mainnet as the heartbeat, L2 as the limbs; only with division of labor can we go far. --- I'm impressed by the physical constraint of the speed of light; indeed, no one can change that. --- Listing the anti-censorship cost as a hindrance to latency? That perspective is quite novel.

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DiamondHands

· 01-10 20:29

That's right, more important than TPS is not getting bottlenecked. L2 solutions should showcase their strengths, while the mainnet just needs to hold its ground.

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DaoResearcher

· 01-08 09:23

According to the discussion in Chapter 2 of the white paper, V God’s explanation this time has definitively proven a point from a game theory perspective: delay optimization is essentially a pseudo-proposition. It is worth noting that the combination of the speed of light constraint and mismatched economic incentives results in millisecond-level competitions that are fundamentally a waste of resource allocation.

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GasWaster

· 01-08 09:22

That's right. Instead of stressing over delays, it's better to strengthen the fundamentals. L2 is the way to go.

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GasFeeVictim

· 01-08 09:15

Well said, finally someone has exposed this misconception. Merely chasing delays is a false proposition; it can't compete with centralized servers. Instead of suicidal pursuit, it's better to strengthen the foundation. L2 sharding is the true way.

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StableCoinKaren

· 01-08 08:56

That's so true, finally someone has explained this thoroughly. Not all chains need to compete on latency; this logic should have been understood long ago.

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