Source: Cointelegraph Original: "{title}"
Author's View: Alon Muroch, Founder of SSV Labs
Despite Ethereum's continued lead in Total Value Locked (TVL), the outlook is not optimistic. Network activity is sharply declining, and momentum is waning. Ethereum is caught in a struggle for its future. Without meaningful change, Ethereum may become inaccessible to the builders and users it needs. Ethereum requires new ideas to help it out of this predicament, unify the ecosystem, and truly support innovation.
Embracing bApps
bApps refer to any applications or services that use the Ethereum validator set as a security guarantee. Inspired by the "based on" movement, bApps enable any project to launch directly from Ethereum's Layer 1 (L1), promoting interoperable, scalable, and cost-effective development.
High Risks and High Costs
The recent decline in network activity highlights deep-seated issues within Ethereum, ultimately rooted in user experience (UX) problems. The blockchain scaling race is not just about TVL and transactions per second (TPS); it is about the experience of co-creating an ecosystem with users and developers. The ease of development and the interoperability of the developer ecosystem and applications are crucial. Improving the developer experience is vital for enhancing user experience, which is key to driving adoption.
Today, developers face two choices. The first, more popular option is re-staking, which has become the default mechanism for securing new services by locking validator withdrawal keys or large amounts of capital. This leaves teams with a less convenient option: self-launching. Building a validator set from scratch is resource-intensive, technically complex, and often starts in a centralized manner. Both options limit builders and do not address the fragmentation issues we see in Ethereum today.
Not only developers but validators are also affected by this system. In the current re-staking setup, validators looking to earn more by supporting new services must re-stake, locking their withdrawal keys and taking on additional risks. By locking withdrawal keys to secure applications with slashing capital, validators face cascading risks that could impact Ethereum itself during large-scale implementation—this is a fundamental deviation from Ethereum's founding vision.
bApps are Safer
bApps provide a third, more accessible option for self-launching and re-staking. Using a security infrastructure significantly lowers the barrier for securely and sustainably building protocols of any scale while retaining Ethereum's traditional network effects. Validators are incentivized to join through risk-free earning opportunities; developers can afford security guarantees for building; and users benefit from a unified and interoperable ecosystem.
Key service tasks such as aggregation, bridging, and oracles do not require reinventing the wheel. They simply need to tap into existing, trusted security models. By using Ethereum validators as the primary security foundation, any service outside the protocol can inherit Ethereum L1's decentralization and anti-Sybil attack properties. This paradigm can also extend beyond Ethereum, allowing other L1 validators to secure bApps. This has the potential to transform bApps into a multi-chain security market, greatly reducing complexity (and costs) for developers and raising the standards of the entire ecosystem, providing a path forward based on "based on."
bApps empower validators to earn more through existing stakes. **By primarily using the non-slashable security of validators as a guarantee, validators can participate in many services through their existing Ethereum validator roles without needing to re-stake or provide additional stakes. This will encourage broader validator participation, especially from smaller or more cautious operators, which is crucial for independent stakers as an important ecological pillar.
bApps Unlock Scalability
bApps also fundamentally change Ethereum's current reliance on slashing capital for its launch ecosystem. In re-staking, one participant's earnings may directly correspond to another's losses, creating a zero-sum game. This builds a competitive dynamic where participants must increase or reallocate resources rather than share them, hindering new entrants by creating competition for limited attention and resources.
In contrast, the "based on" economy fosters an infinite game that transforms resource competition into a collaborative environment, where the addition of new applications, services, and participants enhances the overall value of the platform. Each new validator increases the security of bApps, while each new bApp provides new opportunities for validators. This infinitely scalable model breaks through the limitations of zero-sum games, enabling seamless launches, rewarding innovation, and building a more secure, inclusive, and resilient ecosystem.
Unifying Ethereum's Fragmented Ecosystem
To allow Ethereum to grow, the fragmentation issue must be addressed. Builders need building blocks that are secure, low-cost, interoperable, and scalable. Imagine the impact of cloud computing on Web2. bApps provide just that—by introducing an infinite game, they unlock scalability and offer a secure and affordable launch method for Ethereum's proof-of-stake network.
If Ethereum is to become the foundation of tomorrow's decentralized world, it must empower today's builders. The path forward is to address Ethereum's user and developer experience issues through infrastructure-based solutions. Adopting "based on" solutions is a clear answer.
Author's View: Alon Muroch, Founder of SSV Labs
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This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
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