Polygon Ceo: These Ethereum Projects Should Avoid Being Labeled As "Unnecessary".

Polygon CEO Marc Boiron argues that if all layer 3 networks were built on top of a single layer 2 network, Ethereum would not be able to gain value and would face security risks.

After Polygon CEO Marc Boiron asserted that layer 3 networks are not necessary for scaling Ethereum and exist only to siphon value from the main network, he ignited a debate on X over the weekend.

On April 1st, the Polygon CEO stated that Polygon Labs, a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, does not work on layer 3 networks because they are not needed to scale existing networks.

"Layer 3 networks exist solely to siphon value from Ethereum and transfer it to the layer 2 networks they are built on," he said.

However, Boiron's remarks did not go unchallenged. One participant remarked on the "value" of layer 2 networks in Ethereum, to which Boiron partially agreed and added:

"I do not agree that layer 2 value is Ethereum value. Take that to the extreme. If all layer 3 networks settle onto a single layer 2, Ethereum essentially gains no value, and therefore Ethereum security is at risk."

"Also, we don't care about what people do. They can build layer 3 on anything, including Polygon networks," he continued, adding, "We're not trying to siphon all value to Polygon networks, rather than fairly share it with Ethereum."

Boiron emphasized that Polygon's mission is to scale Ethereum using Ethereum Virtual Machine parallelization and privacy technologies when the right technology is available and no one else does it. He argued that "Layer 3s are not aligned with this mission."

Layer 3 protocols host application-specific decentralized applications by building on layer 2 networks and offer various solutions for scalability, performance, interoperability, customization, and cost.

Leading players in the L3 ecosystem include Orbs, Xai, zkSync Hyperchains, and Degen Chain, which was recently launched by Arbitrum Orbit. However, with only four L3 tokens listed on CoinGecko, the sector remains relatively small.

Meanwhile, Peter Haymond, Senior Partnership Manager at Offchain Labs, argues that L3s can offer many benefits without siphoning value from Ethereum.

Some of these benefits include the low cost of direct bridging from L2 compared to L1, low-cost proofs on-chain, custom gas tokens, and custom state transition functions.

On March 31st, Helus Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz appeared to agree with Marc Boiron in a separate post, stating, "L3s are essentially centralized servers settled on other centralized servers (L2s) - controlled by multisigs."

When Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sparked the L3 debate by stating in late 2022 that Layer 3s would serve a different purpose for scaling by providing "customized functionality." At that time, he emphasized that a third layer on the blockchain would only be meaningful if it provided a different function from Layer 2s.

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