According to BlockBeats, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has recently shared his insights on blockchain expansion strategies. He pointed out that 'Layer 2' and 'sharding' are often portrayed as opposing strategies in public discussions. However, upon delving into the underlying technology, one would find that the actual expansion methods are identical. Both involve some form of data sharding and both employ fraud proofs or ZK-SNARK proofs. They also both have solutions for cross rollup or shard communication.
The primary difference lies in who is responsible for building and updating these sections, and how much autonomy they possess. A Layer 2-centric ecosystem technically implements sharding in a very real sense, but it is a type of sharding that can create its own rules. This is incredibly powerful and can stimulate a great deal of creativity and independent innovation. However, it also presents key challenges, particularly in terms of coordination.
For a Layer 2-centric ecosystem like Ethereum to succeed, it needs to understand these challenges and address them head-on. This will enable it to reap as many benefits as possible from a Layer 1-centric ecosystem and get as close as possible to possessing the best features of both.