From Fragmentation to Unity: Vitalik's L2 Strategy Reflection and the Native Rollup Era

Recently, the Ethereum community has been actively discussing Vitalik Buterin’s public reflection on the network’s scalability roadmap. Vitalik openly states that the strategy set five years ago—using L2 as the primary scalability solution—no longer aligns with the current capabilities of Ethereum L1. Initially, the market interpreted this as a “rejection of L2,” but a deeper analysis reveals that Vitalik is actually proposing a “strategic correction”: not abandoning L2, but clarifying the division of responsibilities. L1 returns to its role as the most secure settlement layer, while L2 focuses on differentiation and specialization, with renewed emphasis on the main protocol itself.

This paradigm shift has profound implications for the Ethereum ecosystem, especially with the emergence of Native Rollup as a future solution that combines Based Rollup with pre-confirmation mechanisms. This transformation marks a new era of network expansion—not just increasing capacity, but integrating endogenous security and deeper interoperability.

Is L2 Still Relevant? From Extreme Expansion to Protocol Security

Objectively, in previous cycles, L2 was indeed Ethereum’s “savior.” When gas fees could reach dozens of dollars, Layer 2 solutions were almost the only reasonable way out. L2 handled expansion and low costs, while L1 ensured security and data availability.

However, reality has evolved far beyond initial projections. Recent data from L2BEAT shows that the number of L2s has surpassed hundreds, but growth in quantity does not match progress in decentralization. This is the core issue Vitalik emphasized since 2022: most Rollups still rely on centralized operations and human intervention to guarantee security. They have not yet reached what is called “Phase 2”—full decentralization.

Moreover, L2 growth introduces another structural problem: increasing liquidity fragmentation. Traffic that was once concentrated on Ethereum has gradually split, forming disconnected “value islands.” Each new chain added deepens the reduction of organic connections between systems—contradicting the original goal of expansion.

From this perspective, Vitalik stresses that the next step for L2 is not more chains, but deeper integration with the main network. The goal is clear: through security mechanisms derived from the protocol itself, strengthen L1 as the most secure global settlement layer. In this context, security, neutrality, and predictability become core assets of Ethereum again, while L2 focuses on innovation in specific segments—such as privacy environments, extreme scalability, or AI agents.

This view aligns with statements from Ethereum Foundation executives at Consensus 2026, emphasizing that L1 should host the most critical activities, while L2 pursues differentiation for a better user experience.

Native Rollup: Convergence of Based Rollup and Pre-Confirmation

In fact, this reflection on L2 leads to the expectation that Native Rollup will shine in 2026. If the keyword of the past five years was “Rollup-Centric,” the current question is more concrete: Can Rollup ‘grow inside Ethereum’ rather than depend on external layers?

The lively discussion about Native Rollup within the Ethereum community essentially expands the concept of Based Rollup—if Native Rollup is the ultimate goal, then Based Rollup is the most realistic path to get there. The biggest difference from traditional L2s like Arbitrum and Optimism is that Based Rollup completely abandons independent, centralized sequencers, with direct ordering from L1 nodes.

This means the verification logic of Rollup is integrated by the Ethereum protocol at the L1 level, combining extreme performance optimization with protocol-level security previously separated. The result: users experience the most direct interaction, and most importantly—the biggest L2 problem is solved: synchronous composability. In a single Based Rollup block, you can directly access L1 liquidity and achieve atomic cross-layer transactions.

However, Based Rollup faces real challenges. If it fully follows L1’s pace (12 seconds per slot), the experience can feel sluggish. The system still needs to wait about 13 minutes (2 epochs) for full finality—too slow for financial scenarios.

The solution, as Vitalik recommends, is a hybrid structure combining sequential low-latency blocks, producing blocks at the end of slots, and utilizing pre-confirmation mechanisms to achieve synchronous composability.

In this context, pre-confirmation means that when a transaction is submitted to L1, certain roles (like the proposer) commit that the transaction will be included. This aligns with Ethereum’s “L1 Fast Confirmation Rules” in the interoperability roadmap—aiming to enable cross-chain applications to receive “strong and verifiable” confirmation signals within 15–30 seconds, without waiting 13 minutes for full finality.

Mechanically, this is not a new consensus but reuses validator voting that occurs in each slot. Once a block gathers enough validator votes spread across the network, even if not yet finalized, it is considered “highly unlikely to be reverted.” This confirmation level provides a strong signal before finality, crucial for cross-chain systems that cannot wait for absolute certainty to proceed.

The Three Pillars of Ethereum’s Future Growth

Looking toward 2026, Ethereum’s main trajectory is shifting from “extreme expansion” to “protocol unification, endogenous security, and deep interoperability.” Some L2 solution executives have already expressed intentions to adopt Native Rollup paths to enhance ecosystem consistency. This is a significant signal: the ecosystem is simplifying, moving from chasing “more chains” to “protocol unity.”

As this develops, a new challenge emerges—no longer chains, but wallets and entry barriers for users. This confirms the insights from imToken: when infrastructure becomes invisible, the real scale is determined by the user experience at the entry point.

The future of Ethereum will focus not only on TPS or blob capacity but on three more meaningful directions:

1. Native Account Abstraction and Lower Entry Barriers

Ethereum is pushing for native Account Abstraction (AA), where smart contract wallets become the default. Complex recovery phrases and EOA addresses will be fully replaced. For wallets like imToken, this means entry costs into the crypto world will be as cheap as signing up for a social media account—fundamental for mass adoption.

2. Privacy and ZK-EVM

Privacy features are no longer fringe needs. As ZK-EVM matures, Ethereum will provide on-chain privacy protections necessary for commercial applications while maintaining transparency. This will be a core competitive advantage in the race among public chains.

3. On-Chain Sovereignty for AI Agents

By 2026, transaction initiators may no longer be humans but AI agents. The challenge is to build trustless interaction standards: how to ensure AI agents act according to user intent, not third-party control? Decentralized settlement layers like Ethereum will become the most reliable arbiters in the AI economy.

Conclusion: Returning to Fundamentals

Back to the initial question: is Vitalik truly “rejecting” L2? No. What is rejected is the narrative of excessive fragmentation disconnected from the main network, with chains running independently. This is not an end but a new beginning. Moving away from the illusion of “brand fragmentation,” returning to Native Rollup and pre-confirmation mechanisms essentially reinforces Ethereum L1’s position as the global trust foundation.

But this also means that only innovations rooted in Ethereum’s core principles and breathing with the main network can survive and thrive in the next era of exploration.