Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is setting standards for Layer 2 (L2) projects, focusing on decentralization standards for rollup initiatives. In a tweet, he mentioned that he will publicly support projects that have achieved the “Stage 1 ” milestone or beyond.
Buterin made it clear that his choice extends to all types of interactions, such as blog posts and public speeches.
He mentioned that projects failing to meet Stage 1 criteria would no longer be referenced in his discussions or communications. Buterin emphasized that his personal investments in a project or friendships with its team members will not influence acknowledgment unless the project fulfills the criteria.
“Stage 1 or bust” ~ Vitalik Buterin
Buterin urges projects to meet Stage 1 by year-end
The Ethereum community has long relied on rollups and Layer 2 solutions that enable faster and cheaper transactions by bundling multiple operations on the Ethereum blockchain. However, Buterin now argues that the current ecosystem has been too lenient and accepts any project as long as it claims to be “on a path to decentralization.”
He thinks there should be a shift in this aspect by the end of the year to enforce stricter standards so that only projects that have genuinely progressed to Stage 1 are acknowledged as rollups.
The significance of Stage 1 defines the threshold for rollup legitimacy
Stage 1, as defined by Buterin, is more than just a benchmark. It is a milestone that demonstrates a project’s readiness to move beyond basic security frameworks. In this phase, the project must implement a system where at least 26% of its governing council is independent of the core rollup team, and 75% of the council must approve any override of the proof system.
Vitalik Buterin pointed out that a number of Zero Knowledge (Zk) rollup teams are set to reach Stage 1 before the end of the year. He also warned against eliminating the “training wheels,” noting that it’s crucial for the industry to prioritize security as the ecosystem progresses toward more secure systems.
Vitalik Buterin is already thinking about stage 2, where rollups would be primarily governed by code and only need intervention in exceptional situations. He mentioned that one way to ensure safety in this process is to utilize multiple prover implementations to verify transactions, thus reducing the chances of errors in state or computation.
