#EthereumLayer2Rethink?

Vitalik Buterin Calls for New Role for Layer-2 Networks

Ethereum’s scaling strategy is facing a major reassessment as co-founder Vitalik Buterin signals that the original vision for Layer-2 (L2) rollups may no longer be fully relevant in the evolving ecosystem. This announcement is prompting developers and investors to rethink how Ethereum and its L2 networks will grow together.

Buterin noted that Ethereum’s mainnet (Layer 1) is now scaling faster and cheaper than anticipated, with gas fees at extremely low levels and planned increases to gas limits increasing throughput. As a result, he argued that the traditional Layer-2 model — once framed as “branded shards” extending Ethereum’s capacity — “no longer makes sense” in its original form.

At the same time, data shows that while Layer-2 transaction activity has increased, the total value secured on many rollups has declined, and key decentralization milestones (such as fully trustless Stage-2 rollups) remain elusive for several L2 projects. This divergence highlights structural challenges in the existing L2 landscape.

Buterin and other core developers are now urging L2 teams to pivot beyond pure cost or throughput scaling and focus on specialized value propositions: privacy layers, application-specific virtual machines, ultra-low-latency execution, built-in oracles, and other innovations that complement Ethereum’s security and data layers.

The conversation has already sparked debate within the ecosystem, with some projects affirming the need for a pivot while others caution against undermining the social and technical fabric built around Ethereum’s Layer-2 ecosystem.