Vitalik Buterin Criticizes L2s: Mainnet is Sufficient

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced that he has changed his long-held view that layer-2s (L2s) should be the primary way to scale Ethereum. Stating that L2s have not become sufficiently decentralized and that the Ethereum mainnet has achieved sufficient scalability thanks to gas limit increases and native rollups that will soon be integrated, he said, “It’s no longer sensible, we need a new path.” Buterin emphasized that the original vision of L2s is insufficient for extreme scalability and that new approaches are needed.

Source: David Hoffman

Vitalik Buterin Defends Ethereum Mainnet Scaling

Ethereum developers are strengthening mainnet scaling by increasing the gas limit from 60 million to 80 million and adopting native rollups with zkEVM integration. Ethereum researcher Justin Drake had announced a plan targeting 10,000 TPS on the mainnet within 10 years. This is a strategy focused on preserving decentralization by reducing L2 dependency.

L2s Should Shift to Niche Areas: Arbitrum and Optimism

Buterin suggested that projects like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and Starknet, such as ARB detailed analysis, should focus on niche areas like privacy, identity, finance, social applications, and artificial intelligence instead of scalability. This direction will allow L2s to specialize within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Market Reactions and Solana Ecosystem Shift

Bankless host Ryan Sean Adams supports the view, while former Consensys researcher Max Resnick had switched to the SOL detailed analysis ecosystem for mainnet scaling. SOL is currently at $97.97, in a downtrend with a 24h -%4.42 drop. RSI 28.80 is giving an oversold signal, with strong support at S1 $96.01 (81/100 score). Resistances at R1 $108.27 and R2 $100.11. Investors can take positions with SOL futures. ETH is monitoring the L2 discussions.