Sandeep Nailwal Warns Anti-L2 Sentiment Could “Break the Social Fabric” of Ethereum

Sandeep Nailwal Warns Ethereum Fragmentation As Anti-L2 Pressure Increases Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has sounded the alarm that increased opposition to Ethereum’s layer-2 (L2) solutions risks seriously compromising the network’s underlying community tenets. In his appearance on Chain Reaction on March 28, Nailwal said recent market movement and ETH price stagnation have fueled rhetoric that can be perilous in the sense of being predicated on incorrect assumptions. If Ethereum goes down, the layer-2s won’t,” Nailwal emphasized, adding that pressuring Ethereum developers to prioritize price or politics over technology could “destroy the social fabric of Ethereum.” Vitalik Buterin’s Leadership in Uniting Ethereum Nailwal credited Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin with maintaining Ethereum’s growing ecosystem intact. Calling Buterin the “DNA of Ethereum,” he credited him with attracting high-talent developers and having a decentralized yet unified vision for Ethereum’s future. Reframing the Layer-1 vs Layer-2 Dichotomy Nailwal argued that the L1 vs L2 binary forgets the greater context. Instead, he asked the community to consider Ethereum a settlement layer like Bitcoin. “All other chains,” he said, “are execution layers,” which will eventually meet specific app requirements and deposit their final state into Ethereum or Bitcoin. This vision supports a future of app-blockchains economically anchored to Ethereum’s foundation layer, locking up its value with final settlement activity. Critics of Ethereum Are Missing the Long Game Despite concerns about plummeting L1 revenue—down 99% through September 2024—Nailwal scoffed at the idea that scaling networks harmed Ethereum. He pointed out that these execution layers expand the network’s reach, not diminish it. No other network is real competition to Ethereum, save perhaps Bitcoin—if it ever gets smart contract capabilities,” he added. The future of Ethereum, Nailwal suggests, hinges not on internal conflict but on collaborative growth, where L2s are not competitors but necessary extensions of Ethereum’s initial vision.