The Evolution Trends of Ethereum L2 and Public Chain Landscape

The Ethereum ecosystem is currently undergoing significant changes, with Layer 2 solutions such as Arbitrum and Optimism rapidly developing and gradually becoming an important part of the DeFi ecosystem. From multiple indicators, L2 networks show an upward trend in terms of activity and adoption.

Development of the DeFi Ecosystem

From the total locked value ( TVL ), Arbitrum currently ranks fifth, second only to Ethereum, BSC, Tron, and Polygon, surpassing public chains like Avalanche and Solana. Optimism ranks eighth, also exceeding most public chains.

In terms of 24-hour DeFi trading volume, Arbitrum ranks third, while Optimism ranks fifth. This somewhat reflects that the activity level of L2 networks has surpassed that of most public chains.

Ecological Project Development

The DeFi, NFT, and GameFi projects on the L2 network are already quite complete. Many mainstream DeFi protocols such as Aave, Uniswap, Synthetix, etc. are already providing services on the L2 network. At the same time, some native L2 projects have also emerged, such as the GameFi ecosystem TreasureDAO and the DeFi protocol GMX on Arbitrum.

According to statistics, there have been projects on Arbitrum and Optimism with active users exceeding 10,000 for several months. The main active projects include Uniswap, GMX, Hop, Perpetual, Synthetix, etc. Overall, the development of the L2 ecosystem has surpassed most public chains.

Active Addresses

From the daily active user data, BSC, Ethereum, and Solana are currently still higher than Arbitrum and Optimism, but the latter two show a significant upward trend. Arbitrum has risen from around 15,000 six months ago to around 40,000-50,000; Optimism has increased from less than 10,000 six months ago and is now stable at around 30,000-40,000.

It is expected that with the subsequent upgrades such as EIP-4844, the daily active users of L2 networks will have significant room for improvement. In the next 2-5 years, the ranking of L2 networks in this metric may change considerably.

Transaction Amount

Currently, the daily transaction volume of Ethereum is around 1 million, while both Arbitrum and Optimism are around 350,000. Over the past year, the transaction volume of L2 networks has shown an upward trend, while the Ethereum mainnet has remained relatively stable. It is expected that the transaction volume of L2 networks will soon stabilize and exceed that of Ethereum L1.

However, it is important to note that the transaction volume does not fully reflect the activity level of the chain. Low fees may lead to a larger number of low-quality transactions, so it is also necessary to combine the number of active dApp users and the interaction volume in the ecosystem for a comprehensive assessment.

Transaction Fees

Currently, the cost of sending Ether and exchanging tokens on the L2 network is quite cheap, ranging from a few cents to a few dimes. Compared to L1, the cost of sending Ether has decreased by more than 10 times.

Except for Solana, other public chains do not have a significant advantage in transaction fees compared to L2. More importantly, with the implementation of Proto-danksharding(EIP-4844) and danksharding, L2 network fees have the potential to decrease by several dozen times.

EIP-4844 will introduce dedicated space for rollup data, significantly reducing the cost of data publication. This means that L2 network fees may be lower than most monolithic public chains, which is expected to attract more users and developers.

Transaction Throughput ( TPS )

According to third-party tests, the TPS of Ethereum L1 is around 9, while mainstream public chains like BSC and Solana are around several hundred TPS. Theoretically, L2 networks can reach 1000-4000 TPS, and if subsequent upgrades are implemented, they are expected to exceed 100,000 TPS.

Although the actual performance may not fully reach the theoretical value, L2 networks are expected to compete with high-performance public chains in terms of TPS. With technological advancements, the TPS of L2 networks is expected to increase significantly, potentially gaining an advantage in the competition among public chains in the next 5-10 years.

Future Landscape Outlook

As the L2 ecosystem matures, its TVL, active users, and transaction volume are expected to surpass most public chains. Although the future will still be a multi-chain landscape, Ethereum and its L2 networks are likely to become the primary ecosystem.

However, we also need to be wary of potential technological paradigm shifts, which could have a disruptive impact on the current scalability of blockchain. At present, no public chain network is in its final form; the true landscape will only become clear when Web3 experiences large-scale explosion.

![How is the world of Web3 divided? An article interpreting the evolution of Ethereum Layer 2 and public chain patterns](https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-ef3b12fd4b567717ff28975ec7883957.webp01