During a recent debate, Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, expressed skepticism about the decentralization and security of Ethereum’s layer-2 (L2) scaling solutions. He emphasized that these networks exhibit significant security vulnerabilities and highlight systemic centralization concerns, stating,

“The claim that layer-2s inherit ETH security is erroneous.”

Yakovenko pointed out that L2 solutions have expansive attack vectors and their large codebases make them difficult to audit for software flaws. Furthermore, he noted that user funds could potentially be transferred from L2s without user agreement, due to their reliance on multisignature custody.

He elaborated:

“5 years into the L2 roadmap, wormhole ETH on Solana has the same worst-case risks as ETH on base and generates as much revenue for ETH L1 stakers. It’s wrong no matter how you slice it.”

This conversation continues as developers, investors, and industry leaders debate the implications of these L2s on the Ethereum layer-1 blockchain overall. As of now, there are 129 verified Ethereum layer-2 networks, with concerns about whether the number exceeds market needs.

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In contrast, Igor Mandrigin, co-founder of Gateway.fm, argued that the expansion of L2 networks signifies a thriving and diverse ecosystem. Similarly, Anurag Arjun, co-founder of Polygon, highlighted that each Ethereum layer-2 represents a distinct high-throughput blockchain. However, concerns regarding a potential fragmentation of liquidity and revenue for the base layer persist.