You can quickly identify the type of discussion that dominated crypto Twitter in 2023 and early 2024 by scrolling back through previous entries. Arbitrum Maxis was debating with supporters of optimism, while zkSync evangelists were defending their technology against optimistic rollups. Supporters of Polygon are pushing their more recent zkEVM while simultaneously protecting their PoS chain.
Each tribe was adamant that their proposed Layer 2 would become the dominant scaling solution for Ethereum, and the discussion had the ferocity of a holy conflict. After 2025, the problem became more apparent in 2026. When the fight came to a close, none of the candidates that most people had been debating emerged victorious.
| Topic Snapshot | Details |
|---|---|
| Subject | Outcome of the Ethereum Layer 2 scaling competition |
| Major Competitors | Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, zkSync, Polygon zkEVM, Starknet |
| Underlying Network | Ethereum mainnet |
| Breakout Network | Base, developed and operated by Coinbase |
| Surprise Winner | Ethereum users themselves through dramatically lower fees |
| Strategic Framework | Optimism’s “Superchain” thesis uniting OP Stack chains |
| Average Transaction Cost Reduction | From dollars to fractions of a cent on most L2s |
| Major Upgrade Catalyst | EIP-4844 proto-danksharding implementation |
| Total Value Locked Range | Tens of billions across leading L2 networks |
| Industry Tracking Body | L2Beat and DefiLlama analytics platforms |
| Key Cultural Shift | From competition narrative to interoperability priority |
In any meaningful sense, the typical Ethereum user has been the real winner. Transaction fees have dropped to levels that would have looked unattainable three years ago due to the merger of several rival Layer 2 networks and the deployment of EIP-4844, the proto-danksharding update that significantly lowered data availability costs.
These days, it usually costs a few cents at most to send tokens, swap on a decentralized exchange, or communicate with a smart contract on a large Layer 2. Less than that, most of the time. The Ethereum ecosystem has successfully fulfilled its promise of scalability, not because one network has prevailed but rather because all of them are under intense pressure to optimize.
In terms of commerce, Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2, has become the breakthrough story. The network layered Coinbase’s massive user base and brand trust on top of the operational discipline of a major American exchange and the OP Stack technology that underpins Optimism. Even several members of Base’s internal staff were taken aback by the adoption figures that followed. wallets that are active. daily exchanges.
The entire value is locked. Particularly for a network that debuted somewhat later than Arbitrum and Optimism, the trajectory has been exceptionally steep. Speaking with members of the Ethereum developer community, it seems that Base illustrated a crucial aspect of how scaling networks truly succeed in real-world scenarios. Technology is important. Distribution is more important.
Arbitrum has maintained its great performance even if it is no longer the only front-runner. In terms of total value locked, it is still among the biggest L2s. It has a developed developer ecosystem. Its DeFi protocols are sophisticated and proven. By creating a network of OP Stack chains that share security and interoperability while enabling various brands and use cases to function independently, Optimism, for its part, has implemented the Superchain concept flawlessly.
Once thought of as marketing jargon, the Superchain theory has evolved into actual infrastructure. The OP Stack has been used for the launch of World Chain, Soneium, and other significant initiatives because the framework is effective.
The quest for zero-knowledge rollups has been more challenging. Theoretical security and privacy benefits were promised by zkSync, Starknet, and Polygon’s zkEVM, however the optimistic rollups fall short. Although the technology has advanced, user acceptance has not happened as quickly as anticipated. The cause is more related to the evolution of the larger ecosystem than it is to the technology itself. Wherever there were applications, users went.
Wherever users were, developers followed. The network effects multiplied in ways that were difficult to overcome by pure technological supremacy once the optimistic rollups gained early pace. Speaking with proponents of ZK technology, there’s a sense that while their time may still come, factors other than cryptographic elegance have formed the current competitive scene.
The Ethereum mainnet itself has taken on a different role than the early scaling discussions predicted, despite being frequently written off as being too costly for regular users. The actual user activity currently takes place on the Layer 2 networks above the base layer, which primarily serves as a settlement and security layer. For high-value transactions,
L2 batch settlement, and applications that particularly need mainnet-level security guarantees, block space on the mainnet has evolved into a premium product. It’s economics. As the asset that safeguards the entire stack, ETH has maintained its worth. The larger ecosystem receives continuous funding from the fees that return to the mainnet from L2 activity.
Optimism has been promoting the Superchain story for years, and it has really taken up in the business. The reasoning is simple. User experience issues, inefficiencies in liquidity, and security threats are caused by fragmentation among dozens of rival L2s.
Many of these issues are concurrently resolved by a single framework that permits different chains to share infrastructure while retaining their unique identities. It’s still unclear if the Superchain will take the lead or if rival strategies like the Polygon AggLayer or Avail’s data availability network will ultimately shape the future. It is more obvious that the days of each L2 functioning as a completely isolated island seem to be coming to an end.
The cultural change that has coincided with this technological advancement is difficult to ignore. The maximalist tribalism that characterized L2 speech in 2023 has significantly subsided. Instead of being the exception, developers now frequently work on many chains.
Once centered around particular networks, conferences, podcasts, and online communities now spend more time discussing shared standards, cross-chain interoperability, and enhancements to the developer experience. It’s not quite kumbaya. There is still fierce competition for users, money, and attention. However, the frame has developed.
One of the most honest criticisms the industry may leve at itself is that the advancements in user experience have lagged behind the underlying technologies. It is still more difficult than it should be to bridge assets between L2s. Users still need to actively switch networks while using wallet interfaces. Newcomers are confused by the differences in gas tokens between chains.
The infrastructure has significantly improved. The last touch needed to make cryptocurrency truly accessible to the general public is still lacking. One of the more significant unanswered problems for the larger ecosystem is whether the upcoming generation of wallets and account abstraction tools can resolve this.
