Original author: Stacy Muur
Original compilation: Deep Chao TechFlow
The L2 wars are heating up, and the future of Ethereum scaling is expected to revolve around L3, SuperChain, and Hyperchain. How to keep up with this trend? Let’s dive into the cutting edge of L2 development.
Why did it evolve into this pattern? While Ethereum operates as L1, it must have the ability to operate at the same scale as the Internet. However, no single L2 currently has this capability.
From a higher perspective, Web3 developers currently have three options:
• Deployed on Ethereum, but at the expense of scalability.
• Choose L2 solutions but risk dependence on specific ecosystems.
• Deploy and maintain your own chain, but may lead to liquidity fragmentation.
Additionally, achieving interoperability is a major challenge. Our efforts to address this challenge using cross-chain bridges have proven to be fragile and have been under attack by malicious actors. New challenges require innovative solutions. New challenges require innovative solutions.
The next wave of rollups, like OP Chains on Optimism, L3 on Arbitrum Orbit, or Super Chains on zkSync, will give individual entities with different goals the ability to create their own customized environments. You can think of it as deploying a new Rollup chain = creating a new web page.
Let’s take a closer look at the solutions offered by the core scaling players.
Optimism OP Stack
In October 2022, Optimism presented:
• OP Stack – A modular open source blueprint for creating scalable and interoperable blockchains of all types.
• Superchain – Tightly integrated and unified L2 built on OP Stack.
Simply put, OP Stack can be viewed as a “build L2” supermarket. It offers different levels (modules) that can be easily customized to meet the specific needs of a project.
By leveraging this approach, they can unlock the future potential of Hyperchain.
In early June, Optimism announced that they were migrating their L2 Rollup to Bedrock. This launch represents the first official launch of the OP stack, making OP mainnet the most cost-effective Ethereum L2 rollup for token swaps.
In addition, Bedrock has the following advantages:
• Reduced deposit time from 10 minutes to 3 minutes.
• Enhance proof modularity by supporting failure proofs and ZK proofs.
• Allows multiple transactions to be executed within a single Rollup "block".
After completing the Bedrock upgrade, Optimism's next step is to transition to Hyperchain.
Hyperchain is a decentralized network composed of L2 (OP chain) that will share security, communication layer and open source technology stack (OP stack).
What's next? The alpha part starts here.
• Optimism’s L2 Rollup chain – the first member of the super chain.
• Coinbase’s upcoming Base L2 – the second member expected to announce its mainnet launch this year.
• Worldcoin is also committed to building on the OP Stack.
• AEVOXYZ, a decentralized options exchange, recently partnered with Conduit to launch Rollup based on OP Stack.
• opBNB on BNB Chain also utilizes OP Stack.
• Zora Network developed by OurZORA is an L2 solution built on OP Stack.
Orbit decision
Arbitrum is currently the largest and most dominant L2 network in terms of TVL (Total Value Locked), with a total value of over $5.9 billion and a market share of over 60%.
Arbitrum offers 4 core products:
Arbitrum One: This is the first mainnet rollup of the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Arbitrum Nova: An AnyTrust solution designed for cost-sensitive projects with high transaction volume expectations.
Arbitrum Nitro: This technology software stack drives Arbitrum L2, making Rollup faster, cheaper, and more compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Arbitrum Orbit: This development framework allows the creation and deployment of L3 on the Arbitrum mainnet.
L3 Rollup, also known as Application Chain, plays a vital role in settling transactions to the Arbitrum Chain. They are the foundation for the next phase of Arbitrum’s expansion journey and are the solution to realize their vision.
Arbitrum places a strong emphasis on customizability. Orbit is designed to be compatible with upcoming Arbitrum Stylus upgrades. This compatibility opens up the possibility for developers to build dApps using C, C++, and Rust, and expands Arbitrum’s versatility and reach.
zkSync Hyperchain
Now, let’s turn to zkSync and its future vision for Ethereum scaling.
Hyperchains is zkSync’s vision of L3, conceived as a vast blockchain ecosystem of trustless and customizable links.
Simply put, Hyperchain refers to an independent ZK chain on Ethereum. These chains are connected to each other through a series of customizable and completely trustless super cross-chain bridge networks. This approach helps overcome vulnerabilities typically associated with non-native bridges.
StarkWare Fractal Scaling
Theoretically, the system could have an unlimited number of Hyperchains to represent the whole. This is what StarkWare needs to do as a pioneer of Fractal Scaling.
In summary, StarkWare's multi-layer network paper proposes that L2 is designed for general scaling, while L3 should be used for custom scaling. However, beyond the initial release of this paper, StarkWare has not made any further announcements.
Polygon 2.0
Polygon made their latest announcement in early June regarding the next phase of their L2 development. Polygon 2.0 aims to create a “value layer for the Internet.”
The solution is designed to improve interoperability between Polygon zkEVM, PoS and Supernet through a series of upgrades. By combining zero-knowledge technology with existing PoS mechanisms, Polygon aims to enhance security and privacy protection.
In Polygon 2.0, they aim to combine the best of both technologies. A recent announcement from the Polygon team revealed their plans to convert Polygon PoS to zkEVM validium by the end of Q1 2024.
In general, the evolution of Ethereum’s scaling solutions is a topic worthy of close attention in the next few months. Each L2 giant has given its own plan, but it is still unclear who will win in the end.