Ethereum Foundation Outlines L2 Role Evolution: From "Scalability Tool" to "Differentiation Engine"

March 24 Today, the Ethereum Foundation released a **comprehensive breakdown** on how the roles of L1 and L2 have evolved. The core takeaway: as the ecosystem matures, L2’s primary goal has shifted—from “scaling Ethereum” to “delivering differentiated functionality, tailored services, and self-sovereign domains”—with scalability now taking a backseat. The Foundation redefined L1/L2 roles as follows: - **L1**: A permissionless, highly resilient global settlement layer. It handles shared state, liquidity, and acts as a DeFi hub. It must keep scaling while upholding censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security. - **L2**: While building its own on-chain economy, it extends Ethereum’s core attributes to a wider user base to create a “full-spectrum” ecosystem. The Foundation emphasized that L2s with the **strongest L1 integration** should prioritize synchronous composability, full interoperability, shared liquidity, and mechanisms like Stage 2. Many L2 solutions—with diverse business models and technical expertise—will continue playing critical roles by offering functionalities L1 lacks. The Foundation noted it will keep investing in technology to help L2s smoothly extend L1’s core attributes and securely access cross-layer liquidity. It also stressed the need for transparency and verifiability around L2s’ security attributes.