Scroll co-founder: “I don’t think the partnership with Binance is a ‘bow to a centralized exchange for the sake of listing.’ It’s much more than just a listing; it’s a strategic decision to grow and expand support. Although the decision is indeed difficult. Here are some thoughts on the matter:

1) Binance support for stablecoin deposits and withdrawals is very important.

This is a major factor for us, especially given the high demand from ecosystem projects and developers in developing countries. Having been to Africa, I saw that many people there use Binance - for many, it is more important than Ethereum.

If we want to create a competitive ecosystem with global reach, compete with Tron in these markets, and attract different types of users to the Ethereum ecosystem, support from major CEXs is essential. At the moment, no zk-layer 2 supports stablecoins, and it's a vicious circle - they are waiting for mass adoption, and adoption is only possible with such support.

We are taking a proactive path for long-term growth. If there was no demand from the ecosystem and developers, I would be categorically against it for the sake of one listing. Also, there is support that I can’t talk about yet, but this step is much more important than a simple listing.

2) The situation is currently uncertain.

When ETH, Arbitrum and Optimism launched, CEXs were not as strong and it was easier to get their support. Tron worked well in this regard - it got all the support from CEXs and covered the costs of stablecoin transfers, creating a network effect around it.

Layer 2 solutions are becoming standard now and the market is moving fast. Crypto users don't like infrastructure, so now is not the best time to get deep support. We can try to get listed without an agreement, but deep support will take months (for example, Celo was launched several years ago, but only recently got support for native USDT, and only then Binance accepted it).

With this scenario, we must decide whether to move quickly now or wait another 6-12 months in the hope of support.

3) Launchpool money comes from the growth budget, not from the community.

We have reserved 15% for community airdrops, and the Launchpool allocation is in the growth and ecosystem category, and does not impact the share our contributors will receive. We believe this will support global expansion as part of our growth strategy. This can be compared to how Apple charges apps for using their platform - it is not much considering the adoption rate they provide. Our community will receive significantly more through consistent airdrops, as Optimism did.

In fact, there are already over a million users participating in this process, and to ensure fairness, pre-listing purchases are capped at 2,500 SCR per user. This is like an airdrop to attract new users, although some of the big players on Binance can earn more - but that's the tradeoff we accept.

A final thought on long-term growth.

I believe that layer 2 solutions need to grow organically. Arbitrum and Base are doing a great job, but none of the layer 2 platforms have fully achieved this yet. We need to be very pragmatic in the next phase if we want this industry to really impact the real world.

The token distribution is not a one-time event, it is a growth tool that also helps decentralize the protocol and governance. After the initial sale, we expect the community that trusts us to hold the tokens and the distribution will stabilize. Even now, the mood before the launch is divided - some are pessimistic and expect the price to fall, while others, on the contrary, are waiting for the decline to buy tokens and are confident in our future progress.

These are complex market dynamics and we are focused on our technology roadmap and the next phase of growth and ecosystem building.”