Article source: On-chain observation
Recently, @drakefjustin's statement 'the golden age of Solana is over' has sparked heated discussions in the market. Previously, Ethereum's focus was on a Rollup-centered grand strategy, and Layer 2 performance will directly impact Ethereum. Now, the new direction for BeamChain is about to be finalized. In my opinion, for Ethereum to achieve synchronous enhancement of L1 and L2, it should focus on: 1) zkVM; 2) operable interactivity of Layer 2.
1) zkVMs
Justin stated that the Ethereum Foundation will gradually invest tens of millions of dollars in zkVMs projects, including zkRISC-V, Poseidon cryptographic analysis, L2beat for zkVMs, etc. This will undoubtedly provide a significant emotional boost for projects working on zkVMs in the market. Whether the golden age of Layer 2 can arrive is uncertain, but zkVMs hope for an initial silver age. Why is the Ethereum Foundation supporting zkVMs? I have analyzed it in the article below.
1) The upcoming roadmap for Ethereum, including Verge and Purge, will focus on realizing the underlying SNARKs.
2) The BeamChain proposed in Ethereum is also aimed at enhancing the consensus layer to connect vehicles to the SNARK-enabled VM execution environment.
3) The VM execution layer will be customized and pluggable. Excellent VMs of Layer 2 or other zkVMs may be mentioned at the execution layer level of Ethereum's mainnet.
Overall, the implementation of SNARKs in the mainnet will thoroughly replace zkVMs, which will be an inevitable choice for Ethereum to enhance its L1 mainnet.
Therefore, it is foreseeable that excellent upstream ZK virtual machine solutions in the direction of zkVMs will receive attention, including: the zkVM built by the @RiscZero team based on RISC-V and the zkVM built by @ProjectZKM based on the zkMIPs microprocessor instruction architecture, among others. In addition, some Layer 2s that have better performance optimization in their off-chain execution environments may be elevated and one day become mainnet-level execution layers, such as @Starknet, a hardcore technology team that always brings special surprises in the ZK field; @zksync, which has had a 'hard to explain' airdrop, but has commendable product strength and engineering implementation capabilities in the zk direction.
2) operable interactivity of Layer 2
Justin said that sellers in Solana are essentially Ethereum's Layer 2, and I agree with this viewpoint. In a previous article comparing ETH and SOL, I clearly expressed the opinion that Ethereum, in terms of ecological richness, application scenario expansion, and technological stability, is undoubtedly a top-tier public chain.
The current grand strategy of Ethereum Layer 2 is facing a scarcity of application scenarios and an excessive homogeneity in infrastructure, reflected in: 1) The previously validated application scenarios like DeFi and MEME are fermenting and landing on Ethereum at a slower pace, as public chains like Solana and Sui have snatched part of the market share by claiming they are more suitable for MEME dissemination and DeFi play; 2) The prevalence of Rollup As A Service and OP Stack, ZK Stack layer 3 large-scale business expansion strategies has led to severe homogeneity in Ethereum Layer 2 infrastructure. Although 'one-click chain deployment' has reduced the construction cost of chains, it has also resulted in excessive homogeneity of infrastructure, severely dividing the expectations of the Layer 2 market, which not only undermines everyone's expectations for the overall prospects of Layer 2 but may also threaten the market confidence in Ethereum L1. How to break through? Recently, in a series of articles by @VitalikButerin during the Devcon conference, it can be found that the answer is: operable interactivity of Layer 2.
The excessive homogeneity of Layer 2 has caused liquidity fragmentation, and it cannot meet the differentiated configuration needs of specific application scenarios. The strategic optimization direction of 'operable interactivity' will enhance both of these shortcomings simultaneously. On one hand, to unify liquidity, various Layer 2s will actively cater to the mainnet by optimizing data structures and utilizing the advantages of the mainnet Helios light client, promoting the standardization of cross-message chain advancement to enhance their operable interactivity capabilities; on the other hand, once operable interactivity capabilities are strengthened, differentiated characteristic applications will become the competitive advantage of the chain (focusing on categories like games, trading, MEME, etc., rather than an all-purpose chain). Therefore, each Layer 2 will intensify efforts to differentiate in order to build their own flagship applications.
