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Vitalik Buterin shares vision for layer 3 protocols

Vitalik Buterin shar

While layer-2 solutions based on Ethereum have been focused on hyperscaling the network.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes layer 3s will serve a far different purpose — providing customizable functionality.

Buterin shared his opinions in a post on September 17th, outlining three scenarios for how layer 3s will be utilized in the future.

According to the Ethereum co-founder, a third layer on the blockchain makes sense only if it serves a different purpose to layer 2s. The layer 3 protocol will be utilized to improve scaling via Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Rollup technology.

“A three-layer scaling structure that consists of stacking the same scaling technique on top of itself does not perform well in general. There is no doubt that rollups on top of rollups, where the two layers of rollups employ the same technology.”

However, a three-layer design in which the second and third layers serve separate goals, according to Buterin, can work.

Buterin defines customized functionality as one of layer 3's use cases, referring to privacy-based applications that would employ ZK proofs to submit privacy-preserving transactions to layer 2.

Another use case would be customized scaling for specialized applications that do not wish to compute using the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Buterin also stated that layer 3 might be utilized for "weakly-trusted" scaling using Validiums, a ZK-proof technology. Buterin believes that utilizing a centralized server that runs a validium prover and periodically commits hashes to the chain might be helpful for commercial blockchain applications.

However, Buterin said that it is still unclear whether layer-3 structures would be more efficient than the existing layer-2 model for constructing customized Ethereum applications.

“One possible argument for the three-layer model over the two-layer model is that a three-layer model allows an entire sub-ecosystem to exist within a single rollup. It allows cross-domain operations within that ecosystem to occur very cheaply without having to go through the expensive layer 1,” according to Buterin.

However, Buterin stated that this is due to the ease and low cost of executing cross-chain transactions between two layer-2s that have committed to the same chain. As a result, constructing layer 3s may not necessarily enhance network efficiency.

Buterin's comments on possible layer 3 use cases come as StarkWare's recently developed recursive validity proofs appear to have put an end to Ethereum's scalability concerns.

Declan Fox, Product Manager at Ethereum software firm ConsenSys, recently told a local media outlet that we can potentially scale infinitely with recursive rollups and proofs.

StarkWare co-founder Eli-Ben Sasson has revealed that its recursive proofs have rolled up as many as 600,000 NFT mints in a single transaction on Immutable X. Also, that 60 million transactions might soon be on the cards with more engineering and refining.

Read also: What Does Grayscale BTC Volume Mean for Bitcoin Price?

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