Are L2s Ethereum? on Bankless

Ethereum is so much more than a cryptocurrency. It’s a “world computer,” and the “value layer” of the internet. It lets people build apps and products with money baked into the code. If you believe that web3 is going to continue to grow, then you likely believe that over time, Ethereum will become the settlement layer of a new internet.

There exists no meaningful technical barrier between BTC vs. the field. Most other networks are obviously even technically more advanced. But we’re focused on the dollars and cents outcome here. Will any of these other assets be used in a similar manner over time as BTC, justifying valuations far in excess of their intrinsic value from producing in... See more

For our purposes here, we will just draw a simple distinction between L1s and L2s:

• L1 – Network relies on its own dedicated operators.


• L2 – Network relies on the operators of another network. It may or may not have its own dedicated operators in addition to these.

Put differently, Ethereum’s inability to successfully migrate a meaningful chunk of its users onto the Layer 2 chains will likely result in continued market share loss to alternative Layer 1s as they continue to offer cheap and fast transaction execution and rapidly growing dApp ecosystems. This would directly reduce network activity over time and ... See more

-Compound, for example, is a lending protocol built on ETH with $10b+ of crypto available for borrowing. The creators could go away tomorrow and the code will still run.