PANews reported on July 17 that according to Cointelegraph, Ethereum Layer2 network Blast announced on the X platform that it has cut its withdrawal time in half, from 14 days to 7 days. The network previously required longer withdrawal times "in order to provide a buffer for Lido withdrawals", and this long wait is no longer necessary. The team posted the message through the new X account @blast, which replaced the previously used @blast_l2 account. The previous account announced the existence of the new account in its profile.
In a related post, the team said that Blast core contributors have been monitoring withdrawals for the past four months and have now concluded that "the smaller buffer is sufficient to handle almost all withdrawal activity." It warned that some withdrawals may still take longer than seven days, although this will only happen in "rare cases." Meanwhile, deposits from Ethereum to Blast still only take "a few minutes" to process.
Some Blast critics have noticed the protocol’s name change on X. Former Aave contributor and X user Jim speculated that this means Blast will no longer be Ethereum’s Layer 2. “Blast changed its name from @Blast_L2 to @blast and now calls itself the ‘full stack chain’, which is the first rollup we have seen to leave Ethereum and become an independent chain… It seems that Ethereum consistency is always just a gimmick.” Both Blast X accounts now provide links to the June 26 “vision” statement, which claims that Blast will become a “full stack chain” in the future.