Vitalik Refers to L2's Original Vision as "Outdated," Sparking Debate: The original roadmap is no longer viable, calling for a new path

By: theblockbeats.news|2026/02/04 14:00:29

BlockBeats News, February 4th, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin posted stating that with Ethereum's main chain (L1) significantly scaling itself and raising the Gas limit, the Layer 2 (L2) originally envisioned as "brand sharding" is no longer necessary. L2 cannot fully meet the expected features of "brand sharding," and some projects may even remain indefinitely in phase 1 to meet client regulatory requirements. Therefore, L2 should be repositioned to no longer just pursue scaling but to provide unique additional features such as a privacy-focused virtual machine, application-specific efficiency, extreme scaling, non-financial application designs like social/identity/AI, low latency, or built-in oracles.

The Ethereum community's reaction to Vitalik's L2 view has been somewhat polarized. On the one hand, some users agree with his shift, believing that the L2 narrative aims to mask the shortcomings of L1 scaling and emphasizing that L1's progress makes L2 redundant. They also point out that L2 is often centralized, has fragmented liquidity, and introduces additional risks, far from a true "secure extension." Among them, Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams stated, "This is a 'turning point,' and I'm glad someone is finally saying this – strong ETH is not possible without a strong L1." In addition, The Block founder Mike Dudas said, "I beat Vitalik to this point by 3 years; I'm glad we're finally admitting it."

On the other hand, some Ethereum community users are concerned that this move will undermine L2 project confidence and funding, leading to community divisions. They believe L2 can still provide value, especially in specific use cases (such as high-throughput applications). In the Chinese community, the notion of "Vitalik abandoning the L2 path" is widely circulated, but a more accurate understanding is: not abandonment but redefinition.

Paradigm General Partner Dan Robinson said, "Ethereum L1 has indeed made progress in increasing throughput, but I believe its scaling roadmap is far from aggressive enough in reducing latency and addressing MEV. As long as L1 does not have a clear roadmap to shorten block times to less than 6 seconds or replace the current PBS-based block construction auction mechanism, L2 still has significant room to play a role and complement." In addition, Avalanche founder Emin Gün Sirer stated, "We said this years ago and have developed technology that is years ahead of other projects."

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