Ethereum is not a free lunch; L2 should pay rent.
Author: zak.eth, Co-founder of Corn
Translated by: Felix, PANews
The value of Ethereum is leaking to L2. Rollups extract fees, MEV, and liquidity, while ETH stakers are left behind. If this continues, Ethereum will become a foolish security layer, while L2 will print money.
L2 does not need to use ETH as gas, but they do need to pay for Ethereum's security. Currently, they pay almost no fees. This situation needs to change. Ethereum is not a free lunch. L2 should pay rent.
Base charged about $2.5 million in fees last month, while paying less than $11,000 to Ethereum. Optimism earns about $321 from L2 fees for every $1 it pays to ETH. L2 profits are astonishing, but ETH sees almost no value.
This is crazy.
Every rollup should contribute to Ethereum in one of the following ways:
ETH staking deposits: L2 sequencers should use ETH as collateral for participation.
Settlement fees: A portion of L2 fees should belong to Ethereum stakers.
MEV redistribution: MEV generated by L2 should be routed back to Ethereum.
If L2 does not use ETH as gas, they should still be required to stake ETH or deposit a portion of their token supply into an ETH treasury. This treasury would serve as an index for all rollup economies, making ETH the financial layer of the L2 ecosystem.
Ethereum validators should protect rollups, not just L1. L2 sequencers should be required to stake ETH, and re-staking should be used to extend Ethereum's security to all rollups. If L2 wants to gain Ethereum's trust, they need to pay for it.
Every L2 needs liquidity to transfer assets across chains. ETH should be the default settlement asset for all cross-rollup transactions. Native gas tokens are fine, but ETH needs to become the liquidity layer.
L2 does not have to be forced into a single model. They can use their own tokens, their own sequencers, and their own economics. But Ethereum needs to capture value, either through ETH staking, fees, or direct ties to rollup economies.
Currently, Ethereum is subsidizing L2, while L2 is extracting all the benefits. This is unsustainable. Either Ethereum enforces adjustments now, or it risks becoming an obsolete security layer for rollups.
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