Polygon CEO Marc Boiron has sparked controversy with his recent comments about layer-3 networks and their role in scaling Ethereum. Boiron argues that layer-3s are unnecessary and only serve to drain value from the mainnet. However, his statements have been met with opposition.
In response to Boiron’s assertion, one individual pointed out that layer-2s on Ethereum are indeed valuable. Boiron partially agreed with this sentiment but emphasized that their goal is not to monopolize value on Polygon networks, but rather to share it fairly with Ethereum.
Boiron explained that Polygon’s mission is to scale Ethereum using the right technology, such as parallelization of the EVM and privacy measures. According to him, layer-3s do not align with this mission.
Layer-3 protocols are built on top of layer-2s and host application-specific DApps that offer various solutions for scaling, performance, interoperability, customization, and costs. Some notable players in the layer-3 ecosystem include Orbs, Xai, zkSync Hyperchains, and the recently launched Degen Chain on Arbitrum Orbit.
However, the layer-3 sector is still relatively small, with only four tokens listed on CoinGecko.
Peter Haymond, the senior partnership manager at Offchain Labs, argued that layer-3s have many benefits that do not detract from Ethereum’s value. These benefits include the low cost of native bridging from layer-2s, low cost of on-chain proofing, custom gas tokens, and specialized state transition functions.
Patrick McCorry, a researcher at the Arbitrum Foundation, expressed surprise at Boiron’s viewpoint.
Another individual who seemed to agree with Boiron’s stance was Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helus Labs. Mumtaz described layer-3s as centralized servers settling on other centralized servers (layer-2s) controlled by multisigs.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin ignited the layer-3 debate in late 2022 when he stated that layer-3s serve a different purpose by offering customized functionality. According to Buterin, a third layer on the blockchain only makes sense if it provides different functions than layer-2s.
In a separate discussion, the big question arose regarding what Satoshi Nakamoto thought about ZK-proofs.