Ethereum layer-2 Blast network has cut its withdrawal times in half, from 14 days to 7 days, according to a July 16 X post from the network’s development team. The network previously required longer withdrawal times “in order to provide a buffer for Lido withdrawals.” The team claims that this longer wait time is no longer necessary.
The team posted the message from a new X account, @blast, which replaces the @blast_l2 account that it previously used. The previous account announced the new account’s existence in its profile.
In an associated thread, the team stated that Blast core contributors have been monitoring withdrawals for the past four months and have now concluded that “a smaller buffer would be sufficient to handle nearly all withdrawal activity.” It cautioned that some withdrawals may still take longer than seven days, although this should happen only “in rare circumstances.” Meanwhile, deposits from Ethereum to Blast will still only take “minutes” to process, the post stated.
The change in the protocol’s handle on X was noticed by some critics of Blast. Former Aave contributor and X user Jim speculated that it means Blast will not remain a layer-2 of Ethereum. “Blast changed their handle to @blast from @Blast_L2 and is now calling themselves the ‘fullstack chain,’” he stated. “[F]irst rollup that we’re seeing to leave Ethereum to be a standalone chain [...] it seems like ethereum alignment was a meme all along.”
Ethereum layer-2 networks inherit their security from Ethereum rather than its own nodes.
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Both Blast X accounts now provide a link to a June 26 “vision” statement that claims Blast will be a “full stack chain” in the future.
In an accompanying video, founder Tieshun Roquerre (also known as “Pacman”) states that an Ethereum layer-2 is “an implementation detail” and that “it does not matter” whether a network is regarded as an “L2” or not. However, he also claimed that Blast’s “current implementation detail is as an L2,” although this implementation could change “if it actually benefits the user and there is value to doing so.”
On June 26, the Blast network launched phase 1 of an airdrop for its BLAST token. The following day, the token's value rose by 40%. It has since declined to $0.017, slightly below its launch price of $0.02.
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