Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is signaling a major shift in how Ethereum should scale, dialing back the long-standing emphasis on layer-2 networks and instead highlighting the growing role of Ethereum’s mainnet and native rollups.
In a recent post on X, Buterin said the original vision for layer-2s “no longer makes sense,” arguing that many have failed to meaningfully decentralize or inherit Ethereum’s security guarantees. Rather than extending Ethereum’s security model, several layer-2s continue to rely on multisig bridges, which undermines the goal of truly scaling Ethereum itself.
According to Buterin, improvements to Ethereum’s base layer — including gas limit increases and upcoming native rollups — mean the network no longer needs to rely so heavily on external scaling solutions.
Why Vitalik Buterin Says Layer-2s Failed to Deliver on Ethereum’s Vision
Layer-2s were originally designed to handle most Ethereum transactions off-chain while still benefiting from Ethereum’s security, censorship resistance, and finality. In theory, this would allow Ethereum to scale without sacrificing decentralization.
In practice, Buterin says many layer-2s fall short. When a high-throughput EVM is connected to Ethereum through a multisig bridge rather than being fully secured by the mainnet, it doesn’t truly scale Ethereum — it simply creates a separate system with weaker guarantees.
Because of this, Buterin believes layer-2s should stop marketing themselves primarily as Ethereum scalability solutions. Instead, he suggests they focus on specialized use cases such as privacy, identity, financial applications, social platforms, or AI-driven systems where customization matters more than raw throughput.
This perspective aligns with growing sentiment among some Ethereum developers who want renewed focus on strengthening the base layer. Former Consensys researcher Max Resnick, now part of the Solana ecosystem, has previously argued that Ethereum missed opportunities by not prioritizing mainnet scaling sooner.
Native Rollups and Gas Limit Increases Take Center Stage
Buterin now sees native rollups — rollups integrated directly into Ethereum — as a critical piece of the network’s future. Unlike traditional rollups that operate externally and post data back to Ethereum, native rollups would be verified directly by Ethereum validators, preserving full security guarantees.
This approach becomes especially powerful once zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) proofs are incorporated into the base layer, allowing Ethereum to validate massive transaction volumes efficiently.
At the same time, Ethereum developers are actively discussing further gas limit increases. After a recent hard fork adjusted blob parameters, proposals have emerged to raise the gas limit from 60 million to 80 million. Such a change would immediately allow more transactions and smart contract executions per block, improving throughput and potentially lowering fees.
Looking further ahead, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has outlined a long-term roadmap targeting 10,000 transactions per second on the Ethereum mainnet over the next decade — a dramatic leap from today’s roughly 15–30 TPS.
