Vitalik Buterin’s Layer2 Wisdom: Lean In, Don’t Rebuild!

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Well, now, if you’ve ever wondered what the great Vitalik Buterin has to say about Layer2s, you’re in luck. The co-founder of Ethereum, a man who knows a thing or two about blockchain, has some sage advice for all the builders out there. 🤔

In a recent X post, Buterin opines on the curious phenomenon of alternative Layer1s eventually turning into Layer2s. He reckons that on-chain builders should “lean into the L1’s offerings” to make the most of what Layer2s can be. It’s like using a sturdy oak tree for your treehouse instead of trying to grow a new one from scratch. 🌳

According to Buterin, developers should stop reinventing the wheel. Instead, they should take advantage of Ethereum’s L1 strengths, such as security, censorship resistance, proofs, and data availability. “Why build a new fortress when you’ve got a castle right there?” he might say. 🏰

By offloading these responsibilities to Ethereum’s Layer1 technology, future Layer2s can stay lightweight and robust, rather than becoming overcomplicated. “Reduce your logic to just being a sequencer and a prover (if based, just a prover) over the core execution,” Buterin advises. It’s like keeping your kitchen simple so you can focus on cooking up a storm. 🍳

He believes that L2s should minimize their complexity and focus more on ordering transactions through sequencing and generating cryptographic proofs, such as ZK-proofs or fraud proofs, to show that the transaction execution is valid. “This is the combination of trust minimization and efficiency that the 2010s enterprise blockchain crew wanted, but was never able to achieve,” Buterin notes, adding that Ethereum L2s can now make it a reality. 🚀

Vitalik Buterin on Decentralization

Aside from simplicity and decentralization, Buterin also emphasized the real-world benefit of utilizing Ethereum L1 for building L2s. “We’ve already seen successful examples of the L1’s features protecting users’ rights if something on the L2 goes wrong,” he points out. It’s like having a safety net when you’re tightrope walking. 🧗‍♂️

Earlier this month at the annual Ethereum Community Conference, Buterin called out the fake decentralization in a lot of crypto projects. He observed that many startups build decentralized applications with centralized front-ends, which he dubbed as “straw houses.” It’s like building a fortress with a cardboard door. 🏠

Moreover, Buterin pointed to a number of tests to see whether an app was truly built to be secure and decentralized. One of them was the “walkaway test,” which showed whether an app would still function if its core team dissolved. “If it falls apart when the builders leave, it’s not truly decentralized,” he quipped. 🏃‍♂️💨

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2025-07-15 15:27