With the Dencun upgrade of the Ethereum mainnet getting closer, there has been an increasing discussion in the community about Layer2 scalability. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has stated that in order to qualify as Layer2, it must have stronger security properties than just multi-signature.
Tim Beiko, a core developer of Ethereum, announced yesterday on X that the Ethereum Goerli testnet has completed the Dencun upgrade, bringing us one step closer to the mainnet upgrade. The introduction of the EIP-4844 improvement proposal in the Dencun upgrade directly addresses Ethereum Layer2 scalability, sparking discussions on topics such as Rollups, modularity, and data availability layer.
In recent discussions, members of the Scroll team, a Layer2 scaling solution for Ethereum, expressed their belief on X that both Rollups and Validiums can be considered as Ethereum’s L2, even though they do not share the same security guarantees. Vitalik Buterin responded to this argument, stating that for a platform or technology to qualify as L2, it must have stronger security properties than just multi-signature, even if these security properties are not as comprehensive as Rollups. He also mentioned Validiums again and believes that they meet this standard. As for Optimiums, Vitalik Buterin thinks that they might also meet the standard but require stricter analysis to determine their exact security efficiency.
It is known that Validium has lower costs and higher throughput compared to Rollup technology. The main reason is that Rollup publishes transaction data on Ethereum, which incurs higher fees and limits throughput. On the other hand, Validium provides ZK (Zero-Knowledge) security guarantees but stores transaction data off-chain, which further reduces costs.
With the upcoming Dencun upgrade, Vitalik Buterin’s stance on various Layer2 solutions has attracted attention. In another tweet, he mentioned that while Rollups provide unconditional security guarantees, they cannot fully protect user assets if the data availability layer relies on external systems. In that case, the network should belong to Validium. Validium requires sacrificing decentralization but can utilize a decentralized data availability layer to ensure the system’s normal operation and increase network integrity.
It is worth noting that although Ethereum’s current roadmap is primarily focused on Rollups rather than Validium, Vitalik Buterin’s recent views indicate that he is not excluding Validium. On the contrary, he points out that Validium is the right choice for many blockchain applications as it can enhance security by adopting a well-designed distributed data availability layer.
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