Vitalik Buterin’s New Layer 2 Standard: From Training Wheels to Stage 1+
The initiative that Buterin is advocating for revolves around a milestone-based schema that classifies rollups into three distinct stages based on their dependency on human intervention versus fully automated, trust-minimized systems.
Rollups, which are designed to process transactions off the main ethereum blockchain to enhance speed and reduce costs, often start with significant manual oversight to manage bugs or unforeseen issues.
New Standards: Can Projects Keep Up?
Notably, Buterin highlighted that several zero-knowledge rollup (ZK-rollup) teams are on track to reach Stage 1 by the end of the year, a milestone he views as crucial for the broader adoption and trust in ethereum’s scaling solutions.
However, he cautioned against hastily discarding these protective measures before there is confidence in the security of the proof systems.
He stressed that while his involvement in multisigs has been incident-free in terms of liveness failures, the industry must move towards a future where code, not humans, is the ultimate arbiter.
Based on most community comments, the ideal endpoint for rollup technology is Stage 2, where no group of actors can alter the state dictated by the rollup’s code, regardless of their unanimity.
Buterin’s proposal aligns with a broader push within the ethereum community to prioritize security and trust in decentralized finance (DeFi), especially now that Buterin himself is in the midst of a scandal and the community is pressuring him because of his large ethereum sales.
According to a recent report, Buterin has been linked to a series of ETH sales totaling 950 ETH, valued at approximately $2.28 million, since August 30.
His associated wallet, which received 3,800 ETH worth around $9.8 million, has been executing sales in smaller, strategic batches rather than large transactions. The most recent sale involved 190 ETH, converted to $441,971 in USDC, bringing the total sold to 950 ETH.
However, Buterin has commented on the transactions today, which the community has been expecting.
He claimed the transaction was another donation as part of his philanthropic decisions.
