Innovations need assistance. As far back as the wheel, the greatest innovations have only scaled through a catalyst—the additional support needed to solve the initial roadblocks of a technology.
Layer 2s (L2s) are the catalyst for blockchain innovation, providing the additional support needed to solve the initial roadblocks of a technology. Layer 2s have become more of a redirection from a problem than a solution, and Bitcoin’s lack of L2s could be a blessing in disguise.
In order to bring more people access to the technology and products that can revolutionize our world, we have to have builders interested in scaling the main technology. Recent solutions like sBTC have looked at the struggles of other L2s and decided on a path to allow builders to create applications and economies, such as Bitcoin-native decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), that are directly backed by the security and stability of the Bitcoin base layer.
A flywheel economy simply cannot be sustained on the Bitcoin base layer, like on other smaller blockchains. Instead, robust ecosystems have to shift the value creation seamlessly between the base layer and L2s to be accessible and flexible enough for the next wave of adoption.
Developers need to create complimentary L2s that do not steal a base layer’s thunder. In other words, blockchains will solve the scaling problem when users are unable to distinguish between the base and scaling layers.
If there’s one thing true of technology across time and place: Everybody looks at the results, not the well-oiled machine.
In the next 10 years, we will still know about Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others, but we will not know about all the L2 solutions powering their mainstream usage. Layer 2s are the catalyst for blockchain innovation, providing the additional support needed to solve the initial roadblocks of a technology and allowing for the next wave of adoption.
Layer 2s: The Catalyst for Blockchain Innovation
