This post is taking part in the Lens x Kiwi Writing Contest
One of the reasons I decided to take up this writing contest was a recent debate on L2s vs network extensions. The discussion quickly got quite toxic and many people started bringing down L2s, which resulted in a backlash against Solana and using the term "network extensions". All of this made me think about what L2s are, what they represent, and what their purpose and value are.
I remember walking down to my dorm with my housemate, discussing an app someone made for their CS thesis. It was a simple app where people could do tasks for a small payment, in cash or crypto. It was on Ethereum. I didn't really know much except for the fact that it exists and it is a blockchain. I had no idea about how different it is from Bitcoin, how it works, about smart contracts, or even about the ETH price. Later that year we had to implement a blockchain for one of the CS classes, but that was it.
My next encounter with Ethereum happened when I stumbled upon SuperRare on Instagram. I learned about NFTs and how you can mint them, the concept was cool and seemed sound. Then the defi summer happened and now I was head first into it. After making some digital art and minting it on Foundation my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to figure out how it works under the hood. I quickly got a gist of solidity and a couple of months later I had my first job as a blockchain dev. As far as I remember, the first L2s appeared shortly after.
The culture then was quite collaborative, everyone was still figuring out what they were doing, and building an NFT marketplace was the first project a newbie solidity dev would do. There weren't that many L2s to be worried about interoperability and liquidity fragmentation. But was it better? I don’t think so. Today we have so many L2s with different architectures, features, cultures, and tones of voice. And while some may call them parasitic, I deeply disagree. Yes, they fragment liquidity, but this problem is not stopping us. It is driving progress. We now have Wormhole, Axelar, LayerZero, and if your desired chain is not supported, you can deploy your warp route on Hyperlane. Yes, maybe the experience is still wonky at times, but we have the tools to solve the liquidity fragmentation and the tendency in the space is for devex (and UX) to improve.
So here comes the question, how do we continue on this trend of improvement and maximize interoperability?
I am usually not the one to push towards standardization since in my opinion it just makes everything as bad as the worst example of what we are trying to standardize. But in this case, we could come up with a common messaging protocol, that could be used between the L2s, if deemed more convenient than a custom solution. Think of it as not making every phone have a USB-C port, but instead compelling to add one for shared convenience. And of course, keep the debate open on how to improve it.
Another key component, that I, as a devrel, think is extremely important is collaborative developer education and onboarding. This could be a joint hackathon, shared learning resources, or collaboration on cross-L2 developer tooling and SDKs. This approach could reduce the barrier of entry for developers and foster a more interconnected ecosystem. Many devrels are already striving to collaborate on a personal level, but a more concentrated effort to organize such collaboration between projects could help even more.
The same ultimately goes for joining research efforts. Healthy competition is important and it is easy to market Project B as Project A but better, but since we are all in the same boat in the ultimate fight for decentralization, privacy, and permissionless access, we sometimes should strive to put our differences aside for the common good. Besides, this is relevant not only to L2s, but to other L1s. It is not Solana vs Ethereum, it’s blockchain vs SWIFT. And while we involve ourselves in unnecessarily toxic discussions, competing banks have no problem talking to one another. Why not join research efforts to bring parallelization to Ethereum and interoperable EVM to Solana?
That being said, the key to effective collaboration is acknowledging our differences, be it cultural or technological. As Vitalik noted in his essay, being culturally different is a great benefit to the Ethereum ecosystem. It encourages improvement, allowing users an alternative in case they find themselves unhappy with their current choice. We have a unique chance to be like the United States as they were initially conceived, serving a common goal, but being independent to make decisions. And as history has shown, this approach is the fastest path to prosperity. Otherwise, can we really hope for a decentralized future?