When Optimism developers flee and Scroll abandons governance: How long can the myth of "security inheritance" in Layer 2 last?

In the past few days, there have been more discussions around Ethereum's layer2, with SEC members saying in a podcast that relying on centralized sequencers should be regarded as "exchanges", and Scroll also suddenly announced the suspension of decentralized DAO governance, and Optimism has seen many core developers leave for a while. The market is a little more hesitant and anxious about Ethereum layer 2, this terrible Ethereum technical debt!

Share personal subjective views:

1. The issue of Decentralization Sequencer is clearly not timely to discuss now, as most mainstream layer 2s like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, etc. are centralized Sequencers, and this problem

Vitalik Buterin proposed the technical alignment roadmap from stage 0 to stage 2, and also suggested a pragmatic path for one-hour withdrawals. Although Metis has implemented a decentralized sequencer, it is only being used on a small scale within its own ecosystem.

This reality has only one implication: the decentralization issue of layer 2 is temporarily unsolvable. Therefore, discussing whether it will be recognized as an exchange is not very meaningful;

2. Scroll has paused the decentralized DAO governance, and the impact of this matter depends on how you interpret it. It can be said that the originally unachievable trustless characteristics of the decentralized Sequencer technology of Scroll have also been unable to sustain decentralized DAO governance, resulting in the failure of the decentralized layer2 zkEVM "experiment."

But it may not all be a bad thing; it could be that the team is pushing for commercialization, and DAO governance has become a burden. Since the Sequencer cannot achieve decentralization, the decentralization of DAO governance is merely formalism. Why not directly abandon it in the direction of embracing flexibility and efficiency for a rebirth?

3. The resignation of the core developers from the Optimism team is just a superficial event indicating that layer 2 is losing its dominance in the market's technical narrative. What we should really consider is why Hyperliquid and Stripe (Tempo) have chosen to develop independent chains. Will the chains that currently rely on layer 2 technology, such as Base, and new chains like Robinhood and Upbit, also withdraw from layer 2 one day?

By the way, there is also the L2 camp's Megaeth waiting for market validation. Does layer2 really lack the nourishing soil for sustained growth?

Various signs indicate that general-purpose layer 2 will certainly lose in the confrontation against high-performance layer 1. Relying solely on the security inheritance of Ethereum cannot support the ecological prosperity of layer 2. It must either transform into a specific layer 2 to compete with other layer 1s or wait for a blood sacrifice.

The process of settling Ethereum technical debts may be more brutal than everyone imagines.