Is It Weird Yet? | Layer 2 Review

Quick Reads and Hot Links Covering the People and Projects Who Are Scaling Ethereum

Oct 12, 2023

Dear Frens,

Back in 2017, Vinay Gupta — who had served as Ethereum’s release coordinator in 2015 — wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review called A Brief History of Blockchain. At that time, he pointed to blockchain scaling as being “on the horizon”. A scaled blockchain, he wrote, “is expected to be fast enough to power the internet of things and go head-to-head with the major payment middlemen (VISA and SWIFT) of the banking world.”

He went on to posit that “As the full potential of these breakthroughs hits society, things are sure to get a little weird. Self-driving cars and drones will use blockchains to pay for services like charging stations and landing pads. International currency transfers will go from taking days to an hour, and then to a few minutes, with a higher degree of reliability than the current system has been able to manage.”

In the six years since Gupta’s predictions, and particularly in the last six months, Layer 2 ‘solutions’ as they were initially dubbed (in a nod to their ability to ‘solve’ the scalability trilemma) have become simply ‘L2s’ and have exploded in popularity, usability, and maybe even fungibility. Even so, we seem to be a long way from some of the “weird” use cases Gupta suggested. However, as he noted in that same article, “Predictors usually overestimate how fast things will happen and underestimate the long-term impacts.”

All this is perhaps just to bring you fresh illumination on the cliché we know so well: we’re still early. We really, truly, are. Read on for the latest news and stats relating to L2s and if you feel inclined to continue the conversation with Bankless Publishing on X or Telegram we’d love to hear from you.

Contributors: Warrior, jengajojo, Tonytad, Boluwatife, thinkDecade, trewkat, HiroKennelly

This is an official newsletter of BanklessDAO. To unsubscribe, edit your settings.

🗞️ Ecosystem Updates

⛓️ Optimism Network Introduces Fault-Proof Testnet

🤓 The OP Stack’s Fault Proof System Is Live on OP Goerli

⚡ PayPal Explores Blockchain’s Layer 2 Solutions and NFTs

🟦 Arbitrum Foundation Partnership Seeks To Boost Arbitrum’s Presence in Japan

🔒 Ethereum Layer 2 Developer StarkWare Postpones First STRK Token Unlock to 2024

📈 Exploring Starknet: The Rising Star of Layer 2 Solutions for Ethereum

🔮 Airdrop Watchlist: Top Tokenless L2 Networks

🧢 Coinbase’s L2 Network Base Loses Over 16% TVL in a Week

📊 Messari: L2 Transactions Accounted For 61% Of All Ethereum Transactions in Q3

🏛 Governance

⭐ Featured Proposal

As in Season 4, the Optimism Collective is looking to focus attention with more Collective Intents. The Four Intents for Season 5 are:

Progress Towards Technical Decentralization
Grow the Superchain
TBD - Set by Community
Improve Governance Accessibility

The Token House is currently in a Reflection Period (September 28-December 22) with Season 5 to commence on January 4, 2024. During the Reflection Period, Optimism delegates will set Intent 3 based on community input. The Optimism Foundation has recommended this Intent be focused on the consumer or end-user.