Ye Zhang, the co-founder of layer-2 community Scroll, has criticized the proposal to cost Ethereum Layer-2 networks. In a submit on X, Zhang described such proposals as dangerous for the community’s long-term progress.
In keeping with Zhang, imposing tariffs on Ethereum L2s to generate charges on the mainnet will harm the community’s future. In his opinion, this technique is just ultimate for centralized organizations, not decentralized networks like Ethereum.
He mentioned:
“Tariffing L2s is without doubt one of the most poisonous concepts for Ethereum’s future. It trades long-term scalability and ecosystem progress for short-term income — a technique match for centralized corps, not credibly impartial platforms.”
Zhang’s feedback are available in response to the rising calls from some sectors of the Ethereum neighborhood who imagine the community is struggling as a result of Layer-2 networks are extracting worth from the mainnet with out giving something again. Those that maintain this view level to the decline in exercise and charges on the mainnet even because the L2 grows in worth.
Curiously, a number of individuals maintain this view, together with Sonic (previously Fantom) co-founder Andre Cronje, who famous that L2s are why Ethereum has change into inflationary once more. Crypto entrepreneur Nic Carter additionally criticized the proliferation of tokens on Ethereum as the reason for the decline in ETH worth.
Ethereum has seen its exercise and charges tank after introducing blobs in 2024. Many of the exercise and charges now occur on the L2 community, whereas the mainnet solely serves as a knowledge availability and settlement layer. This has considerably harm ETH, with the token already down 43% this yr. Stakeholders, together with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, suggest that L2s ought to help L1 with the next proportion of their charges.
ETH’s future is as a retailer of worth
Nevertheless, Zhang believes many individuals don’t choose Ethereum utilizing the suitable metric. In keeping with him, Ethereum mustn’t assessed by its income and exercise as a result of the community shouldn’t be meant to be accruing all the worth. As a substitute, it’s a hub bringing a number of ecosystems collectively.
Zhang mentioned:
“Measuring ETH’s worth by Ethereum’s income misses the purpose. ETH’s actual power isn’t in protocol charges — it’s in changing into the hub asset throughout hundreds of roll-up ecosystems. That’s the longer term.”
In his view, ETH’s long-term potential is to be a retailer of worth asset moderately than a daily cryptocurrency. He defined that this may solely occur if Ethereum continues its growth as a roll-up hub, which can enhance its adoption and utilization of ETH.
He mentioned:
“Each aligned L2 expands Ethereum’s floor space and social consensus. A thousand scalable roll-ups with ETH as the middle > any monolithic chain.”
The crypto founder additionally famous that Ethereum shouldn’t be designed to be a vertically built-in community like Solana, which has SOL as its most important asset however is proscribed in scalability. Thus, ETH worth is to be a dominant asset throughout all of the L2s, and its worth will hold rising as Ethereum continues to allow L2 networks as an alternative of extracting worth from them.
Nevertheless, Zhang warned that the community may threat dropping its place if it imposes taxes on L2. Others appear to agree with this view. Lurebian on X famous that Ethereum is presently your best option for L2, however that would change if it imposes taxes on these roll-up networks.
