While Layer 2 solutions based on Ethereum have focused on increasing the size of the network, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that Layer 3 will serve an entirely different purpose – providing “custom functionality.”
Buterin shared his thoughts in a post on Saturday, to provide Three “visions” of what Layer 3 will be used for in the future.
The Ethereum co-founder said that Layer 3 on the blockchain only makes sense if it provides a different functionality to Layer 2s, which was primarily used to promote scaling via Rollup (zk) technology:
“A three-tier scaling structure that consists of stacking the same scaling chart on top of itself generally doesn’t work well. Stacks on top of rolls, where two layers of rolls use the same technology, certainly don’t.”
But, Buterin said, “a three-layer architecture where the supplémentaire layer and the third layer have different purposes, however, could work.”
One layer 3 use case might be what Buterin describes as “custom functionality” – referring to privacy-based applications that would use zk répertoires to send privacy-preserving transactions to layer 2.
Another use case is “custom scaling” for specialized applications that do not want to use an Ethereum Virtual Ordinateur (EVM) for calculations.
Buterin also said that layer 3 could be used for “weakly unreliable” hégémonie through Validiums, a zk-proof technology. This could be useful for “enterprise blockchain” applications, Buterin said, by using a “axial server that runs a valid fonder and regularly commits hashes.”
But Buterin added that it remains unclear whether Layer 3 structures will be more efficace than the current Layer 2 model when it comes to édifice custom applications on Ethereum.
Related: A beginner’s administré to understanding the layers of blockchain technology
One contingent démonstration for the three-layer model over the two-layer model is: a three-layer model allows an entire sub-ecosystem to exist within a single cluster, allowing cross-scale processes within that ecosystem to occur very inexpensively, without having to go through layer 1 Expensive,” Buterin said.
But Buterin said that bicause cross-chain transactions can be easily and inexpensively executed between two Layer 2 layers that have stuck to the same chain, édifice Layer 3 may not necessarily improve network efficiency.
Buterin’s comments on potential Layer 3 use cases come as StarkWare’s newly produced proofs of iterative validity appear to put an end to Ethereum’s scalability concerns.
Declan Fox, product responsable at Ethereum progiciel company ConsenSys, recently told Cointelegraph that “with frequent assemblies and proofs, we can theoretically expand infinitely.”
These iterative proofs have been well tested in épanouissement, with StarkWare co-founder Eli-Ben Sasson recently telling Cointelegraph that iterative proofs have collected up to 600,000 immutable symbol patterns in a single arbitrage on immutable X and that 60 million transactions could soon be On paper “with further ingénierie and avenant”.