ETHTaipei | Vitalik speaks in Chinese on "microphone test" and discusses the standardization needs of Layer 2

The five-day Ethereum developer event "ETHTaipei" kicked off today with a forum speech by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who spoke in Chinese for the first time saying "microphone test" after three days of hackathon activities. Vitalik's speech focused on Layer 2 (L2) technology, discussing topics such as L2 domain services, cross-chain transfers, and multi-addresses.

ETHTaipei | Vitalik Speech

In this presentation on "Standardization Required for L2," Vitalik first introduced the various stages of tasks for Ethereum after The Merge, such as The Surge, which enhances scalability through sharding technology, The Verge, which reduces the burden of transaction verification, and The Purge, which simplifies Ethereum protocol technical debt and data storage.

Next, Vitalik discussed the current development direction and challenges of L2, such as more universal domain name services, cross-L2 transactions, privacy issues, and social recovery technologies.

ETHTaipei | Vitalik Speech: L2 Domain Name Service

Vitalik first used ENS Ethereum domain name service as an example. When transferring through ENS, a customized and easily memorable domain name replaces the lengthy random address. However, the unstable gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet may make the ENS annual fee unaffordable, which then relies on L2.

If people are to use L2 more, can ENS be used on L2? And what if the transacting parties use different L2s?

In response, Vitalik introduced a protocol on Optimism called OptiNames in the testing phase. Through this protocol, users can register ENS subdomains for free and use them across various L2s and the Ethereum mainnet. Therefore, if a user already has an Ethereum domain name, they only need to register the same name on OptiNames.

ETHTaipei | Vitalik Speech: L2 Cross-Chain Transfer

With the increasingly diverse L2 ecosystem, the demand for cross-chain transfers between L2s is also growing. Before transferring between L2s, having to cross back to the mainnet first incurs time and friction costs.

Although there are protocols like Stargate that can achieve transfers between L2s, Vitalik believes it is still not standardized enough. His ideal L2 transfer should include many features of Uniswap, such as:

• Accessible to anyone, even callable directly by smart contracts
• Fully decentralized, allowing people to trust its existence for decades to come

ETHTaipei | Vitalik Speech: Social Recovery and Multi-Address Issues

Having accounts on multiple L2s like Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon can lead to various issues. For example, when a user needs to change keys, should all L2 keys be changed at once, and can it be done in one operation?

Additionally, if someone sends assets to a user on an L2 they have never used, can the user change keys to control those assets?

In response, Vitalik proposed a solution where key storage contracts are stored in one L2, while the key addresses are on a completely different L2.

ETHTaipei | Vitalik Speech: Improving User Experience

In the conclusion of the speech, Vitalik summarized the current Ethereum development, noting good progress in various areas. Teams are actively developing scalability, privacy, and smart contract wallets. However, he emphasized the need to improve user experience (UX) to make protocols and products more adaptable to current and future users.