Vitalik refers to L2's original vision as "outdated," sparking debate: The original roadmap is no longer viable, calling for a new path

On February 4, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted a message stating that with notable advancements in Ethereum’s mainnet (L1) scaling and gas limit plans, Layer 2 (L2) solutions originally framed as a scaling strategy via rollups are no longer necessary. L2s cannot fully deliver on the “rollups as a scaling strategy” promise, and some projects may remain in Phase 1 permanently to meet user compliance needs. Thus, L2s should be repositioned away from solely prioritizing scaling, and instead offer unique value-add features: privacy-centric virtual machines, application-specific efficiency gains, extreme scalability, design for social, identity, AI, and other non-financial use cases, plus low latency or native oracles. Reactions in the Ethereum community to Buterin’s L2 perspective are split. On one side, some users agree with this shift, arguing the L2 narrative was an attempt to paper over L1’s scaling shortcomings and that L1’s progress has rendered L2 redundant. They also note L2s are often centralized, suffer from fragmented liquidity, and introduce extra risks—far from true “trustless scaling.” Ryan Sean Adams, co-founder of Bankless, commented: “This is the inflection point—glad someone finally said it. A strong ETH relies on a strong L1.” Mike Dudas, founder of The Block, added: “I’ve been ahead of Vitalik on this for three years—glad we’re finally acknowledging it.” On the other side, some community members worry this could erode confidence and funding for L2 projects, leading to fragmentation. They maintain L2s still offer value, particularly for specific use cases (like high-throughput apps). In Chinese crypto circles, the idea that “Vitalik is abandoning the L2 path” has spread widely, but a more precise take is: this isn’t about abandoning L2—it’s about redefining it. Dan Robinson, partner at Paradigm, noted: “Ethereum’s L1 has indeed advanced in throughput, but its scaling roadmap falls short of being aggressive enough on reducing latency and tackling MEV. As long as L1 lacks a clear roadmap to cut block times below 6 seconds or replace the current PBS-based block construction auction system, L2 will still have massive opportunities and a complementary role to fill.” Emin Gün Sirer, founder of Avalanche, chimed in: “We’ve been saying this for years—and we’ve built technology that’s years ahead of other projects.”