Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, stated yesterday (26th) that through the integration of Wormhole Eigenlayer, Solana has the potential to become a Layer 2 solution for Ethereum. This strongly implies the possibility of interoperability between the two blockchains.
Yakovenko’s statement was in response to a tweet by Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Arbitrum, which pointed out that Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum (such as Arbitrum, Aztec, and Polygon) are Ethereum. Yakovenko responded by stating that Solana can become Ethereum’s Layer 2 through the support of Wormhole eigenlayer. He stated:
According to Yakovenko, this integration between Solana and Ethereum will further develop after the scalability upgrade of danksharding, making it possible for Solana blocks to be submitted to Ethereum’s data verification bridge contract. In response, Goldfeder stated that it would be a significant advancement if Solana can settle on Ethereum.
Furthermore, Yakovenko’s comments have sparked extensive discussions on the technical details and impact of this integration. The Chainlink community ambassador, ChainLinkGod.eth, raised a question about what would happen to the L2 network built on Ethereum in the event of a blockchain reorganization (reorg). He also inquired about whether Solana, as an L2, would follow Ethereum in the event of a reorg.
He further elaborated on a potential issue regarding double spending, where users may receive additional ETH from the bridge contract if Solana does not synchronize with Ethereum’s reorg. In this case, ChainLinkGod.eth believes that this is why Solana is not considered an Ethereum L2, even if all block data is submitted to Ethereum and verified by the bridge contract.
Yakovenko clarified that Solana would only mint wrapped tokens after Ethereum achieves full finality to address the potential issue of double spending. Regarding the viewpoint that Solana should not be considered an L2 if it does not follow Ethereum’s reorg, he believes that it should be determined by social consensus rather than explicitly defined in the bridge contract. He emphasized that using this subjective standard to define L2 is unreasonable.
Can Ethereum be Solana’s L2?
As early as July 2nd, Anatoly Yakovenko even proposed the idea that Ethereum could become Solana’s L2. He believes that this integration is not as far-fetched as people imagine. Yakovenko explains that L2 scaling solutions actually provide a bridging protocol with one-way security. In this definition, he believes that Ethereum as Solana’s Layer 2 means that SOL asset holders will have finality guarantees, allowing them to safely exit back to Solana even in cases of transaction double spending or invalid state transitions.
To achieve this setup, all Ethereum transactions would first need to be submitted to Solana, and a simplified payment verification (SPV) root would be submitted as evidence to achieve consensus on the network state. Additionally, a bridge timeout mechanism would be required to identify and address potential failures within the bridging protocol.
Yakovenko also highlighted the limitations and potential risks associated with this integration. For example, while holding SOL assets on the Ethereum blockchain is safe, lending or maintaining positions with them is not secure. One major risk is the possibility of Ethereum failures or social consensus forks within the Ethereum network. In such cases, Solana assets held on Ethereum may become detached from the consensus fork, rendering them practically worthless.
In conclusion, Yakovenko’s stance reflects a broader perspective on what constitutes a Layer 2 solution, challenging traditional boundaries and proposing a more fluid and interconnected blockchain ecosystem.