2 years ago
Blockchains are usually referred to arsenic either a Layer-1 oregon Layer-2 solution. Layer-1s are the basal furniture of an ecosystem specified arsenic Ethereum, Cardano, oregon Solana. Layer-2 solutions are anchored to Layer-1 blockchains and supply scalability.
Layer-3s tin besides exist; however, you cannot stack different furniture connected apical of Layer 2 to adhd adjacent much scalability, Ethereum laminitis Vitalik Buterin wrote successful a blog post connected Sept. 17.
There are respective challenges with stacking 2 likewise designed layers connected apical of each other, Buterin wrote. For instance, limits to information availability and reliance connected Layer-1 bandwidth for exigency withdrawals tin hinder the stacking of 2 layers.
Buterin said that rollups connected apical of rollups could not supply higher scalability than Layer-2 solutions. Rollups compress the magnitude of information a transaction needs to store connected the Layer-1 blockchain to guarantee the transaction tin beryllium accessed and verified.
In the lawsuit of a elemental token transfer, the information is reduced from 100 to 16 bytes. For ZK-SNARK transactions that sphere privacy, transaction information is compressed from 600 bytes to 80 bytes, Buterin said.
But information tin lone beryllium compressed once, Buterin wrote. If further compression is possible, the logic of the 2nd compressor tin beryllium integrated into the archetypal truthful that the information tin beryllium compressed conscionable erstwhile with the aforesaid results. This is wherefore rollups connected apical of rollups cannot “provide ample gains successful scalability,” helium wrote.
Three visions of L3 use-cases
StarkWare, which operates StarkNet, a ZK-rollup that serves arsenic a Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution, laid retired 3 antithetic visions of however Layer-3s could beryllium used. Buterin considers each 3 visions arsenic “fundamentally reasonable.”
In the archetypal scenario, Layer-3s tin beryllium utilized for customized functions specified arsenic privacy. The purpose would not beryllium to supply further scalability successful specified a case. The Layer-2 would supply scalability to applications, and a Layer-3 would service the customized functionality needed for antithetic usage cases.
In the 2nd vision, the Layer-2 offers general-purpose scaling, and the Layer-3 provides customized scaling done specialized applications. The Layer-3 would compute information done means different than the EVM oregon rollups, whose information compression is optimized according to circumstantial information formats.
In the 3rd vision, Layer-3s tin supply weakly-trusted scaling done Validiums, which usage SNARKs to verify computation. Data availability, here, is the work of a trusted 3rd party. Buterin said that though Validiums connection a little information people than rollups, they are “highly underrated” and “vastly cheaper.”
Layer-3s tin hole confirmation clip vs fixed outgo tradeoffs of rollups
While rollup transactions are cheap, rollups person to wage a precocious fixed outgo each clip they taxable a batch of transactions to a Layer-1. For optimistic rollups that tally connected apical of Layer-1s, the fixed outgo tin beryllium arsenic precocious arsenic 21,000-Layer-1-gas per batch, portion for ZK rollups, the outgo tin spell up to 400,000-gas per batch, according to Buterin.
If rollups hold longer to taxable much transactions successful 1 batch to little the cost, it increases batch intervals. This means that users person to hold a precise agelong to get a confirmation of their transactions.
For a ZK rollup with a processing powerfulness of 5tps to taxable a batch of transactions successful each Ethereum artifact (every 12 seconds), state per transaction would scope 10,368. However, if the batch interval accrued to 1 minute, the state per transaction reduces to 2,368.
In the lawsuit of a ZK rollup wrong a ZK rollup, the state per transaction comes down to 501 with batch intervals of 12 seconds. Hence, Layer-3s tin hole the clip and outgo tradeoff for rollups.
What is and isn’t a layer?
According to Buterin, stacking the aforesaid scaling solutions connected apical of each different does not “work well,” which is wherefore the rollup connected apical of rollup exemplary does not marque sense. However, helium argues that a three-layer operation wherever the 2nd and 3rd layers are assigned antithetic purposes and functions tin work.
However, determination is an unsolved semantic statement implicit what tin beryllium considered arsenic a furniture and what cannot, Buterin said. He provided his ain explanation of what properties represent a Layer-2:
- “Their intent is to summation scalability
- They travel the “blockchain wrong a blockchain” pattern: they person their ain mechanics for processing transactions and their ain interior state
- They inherit the afloat information of the Ethereum chain”
By B uterin’s definition, optimistic and ZK rollups are Layer-2s, but validiums, impervious aggregations schemes, on-chain privateness systems, and Solidity autumn extracurricular the definition. While immoderate of them tin beryllium referred to arsenic Layer-3, not each of them should be, helium wrote.
Buterin added that “it seems premature to settee definitions portion the architecture of the multi-rollup ecosystem is acold from acceptable successful stone” and astir of the Layer-3 discussions are inactive theoretical.
But arsenic the Layer-2 scaling ecosystem matures, Buterin expects much blase and simpler Layer-3 constructions to play a larger role.
The station Vitalik Buterns reveals Layer-3s to person “bigger role” arsenic Layer-2 scaling ecosystem matures appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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