Ethereum developers discuss development challenges, reveal Ethereum has deviated from the right track

Ethereum developer Max Resnick recently discussed Ethereum's development dilemma on a podcast program, touching on issues such as whether Ethereum has deviated from its roadmap, the relationship between Layer 2 and Layer 1, and the centralization of sequencers. He bluntly stated that Ethereum's development has strayed from its original path, suggesting that in his view, Ethereum's mainnet and Layer 2 no longer have a mutually beneficial relationship. He even warned that Layer 2 could potentially be the "Ethereum killer."

Developers Admit Ethereum Hasn't Done the Right Thing in a Long Time

In the past, our understanding of Layer 2 was to execute transactions off-chain and then send them back to the mainnet for verification. Layer 2 relieves the burden on the mainnet, while the mainnet provides security for Layer 2. However, Max Resnick straightforwardly pointed out that the current Layer 2 and the Ethereum mainnet are fundamentally in competition. He said, "But I think these L2s are actually direct competitors to Ethereum now. How can you call something that directly competes with Ethereum a part of Ethereum? It doesn't make sense to me, they are competing for the same set of users on the same set of applications."

He expressed that in his view, the Ethereum mainnet is already good enough, although there is still much room for improvement. He pointed out that past hard forks have revolved around Optimistic Rollups, but he believes that Layer 1 should still be the priority. The author adds: for example, EIP-4844 reduces Layer 2 costs.

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Throughout this interview, a concept was continuously emphasized. Max Resnick believes that the Ethereum mainnet should continue to increase its capacity and speed up transactions to catch up with these Layer 2 solutions. He said, "Even if we can't be better than them, we will have more security, better mechanism designs, and ultimately the combination of these advantages can help us win. For example, especially compared to Solana, I think we have many advantages in other aspects, but if we refuse to compete on speed and throughput, we will lose no matter what, because these are the two core functions of blockchain, and users don't want to wait 12 seconds to get on the chain."

He believes that since The Merge, the Ethereum team hasn't been doing things right, and introducing blob to reduce transaction fees is indeed a good thing. However, given that Ethereum's resources are limited, prioritizing reducing Layer 2 costs is a deviation from the roadmap, as there are more important things to do in his view.

No Conflict of Interest within Ethereum, Shockingly Many in the Optimistic Camp Work Part-Time

Max Resnick also revealed that many members of the Ethereum development team are working part-time on Optimistic Rollup projects. He mentioned that the Ethereum roadmap can now be referred to as the Optimistic Roadmap rather than the ZK roadmap. "I think we have been influenced by some people, for example, a core development team member is working on the development of EIP-4844, but at the same time, he is also working on another Optimistic L2 project, while the people working on ZK L2 projects are not involved in pushing this part of the roadmap. Currently, it is almost entirely the people from Optimistic L2 who are pushing the roadmap, which is favorable to them."

Max Resnick stated that the Ethereum roadmap has been adjusted primarily due to underestimating the evolution of ZK technology.

"We thought ZK Rollups would take another ten years, but it actually only takes about two years. Based on this, we made some decisions on the roadmap, but now we should take a step back and reevaluate whether the decisions made at that time were correct, especially in the case of misestimating the progress of ZK technology."

He also pointed out that although Ethereum mainnet fees have reached a balance recently, efforts must continue to be made in expanding. Even if there are killer applications on the chain, costs and execution speed must be maintained steadily. If the path of rollups is to be taken, the cost of verifying ZK proofs on the chain must be made lower, rather than continuing to lower data costs.

L2 Parasitizing L1, Division of Labor for Mutual Benefit

However, Max Resnick's core idea is not completely against Layer 2. His focus is on the sequence and division of labor between the chains. He believes that transactions like buying coffee or small transfers can be compressed using Layer 2, but fundamentally, Layer 1 should be where people transact. He consistently emphasizes that enhancing the performance of the Ethereum mainnet is essential so that transactions can truly be executed on the mainnet. Applications like Uniswap should not be forced to build their own application chains because the mainnet is too difficult to use, or to create a push for people to use Layer 2 without security guarantees.

He believes that the current relationship between Layer 1 and Layer 2 is more like parasitism, where Layer 2 directly takes away the mainnet's user base and DeFi and executes with its centralized sequencers. However, if the mainnet is upgraded to a more DeFi-friendly environment while delegating less sensitive transactions like buying coffee to Layer 2, Layer 2 can truly help alleviate the pressure on Ethereum, allowing the mainnet to better fulfill its mission. This is true mutual benefit.

In simpler terms, he believes that the mainnet and Layer 2 need to differentiate in transaction categories to end the tense competitive relationship. Layer 1 should focus on improving mainnet efficiency to the level of Layer 2, and the more features Layer 2 inherits from Ethereum (such as decentralized sequencers), the closer it gets to Ethereum.

No Reason to Convince L2 Giants to Give Up the Sequencer Business, Based Rollup to the Rescue

Regarding the recent Optimism superchain project, Max pointed out its extreme centralization. At the same time, he noted that Layer 2 solutions like Base and Arbitrum have made a lot of money from sequencers. They will not give up this lucrative business and embrace decentralization.

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Regarding the solution of decentralized sequencers, Max mentioned Based Rollup. Based Rollup, also known as L1-sequenced Rollup, is a Rollup where sequencing is entirely handled by L1. Although Based Rollup has alignment and can smoothly transition from L1 to L2 and vice versa, one drawback is that the block time is consistent with L1, which is approximately 12 seconds per block in the current Ethereum network.

However, Max also admitted that there is currently no good reason to convince Layer 2 solutions like Base and Arbitrum to give up the profitable sequencer business, and at this stage, one can only hope for social pressure.

The ideal endgame of Max's Rollups roadmap: every Rollup is a Based Rollup, but it is a "Super Based Rollup". This should be the long-term goal that Ethereum should strive for: maximizing user welfare. When everyone agrees on this point, I would be more willing to call them part of Ethereum.