Ethereum co-founder suggests what layer 3 protocols might look like

In the latest Ethereum news today, Ethereum's co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared new insights on what layer 3 protocols could look like.

Buterin articulated his vision for blockchains and presented the idea of layer 3 protocols in a lengthy blog update.

Buterin envisions blockchains embracing a new specification dubbed 'customised functionality' through L3 protocol integration.

Buterin proposes L3 protocols

Ethereum's co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, is still exploring new ways to perfect the Ethereum blockchain after the merge.

In a recent blog post, Buterin shared his vision for new L3 protocols and how these protocols could affect the Ethereum ecosystem at large. Stressing on the scalability factor of Ethereum, Buterin suggests that L3 protocols could play an elemental role in amping the network's processing to a whole new level.

Buterin adds that layer 3 protocols can make sense only if they have the potential to provide functionality to the existing layer 2 protocols, which are largely being used to enhance zero-knowledge roll-up technology.

If we can build a layer 2 protocol that anchors into layer 1 for security and adds scalability on top, then surely we can scale even more by building a layer 3 protocol that anchors into layer 2 for security and adds even more scalability on top of that.

Furthermore, the Ethereum co-founder states three distinctive L3 visions that, according to Buterin, can contribute to the network's overall scalability and momentum.

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Buterin proposes the first vision, titled 'customised functionality,' by giving an example of privacy. He, later on, accentuates how L3 protocols can act as separate layers that can tend to different functional needs of a blockchain.

In this vision, there is no attempt to provide "scalability squared"; rather, there is one layer of the stack that helps applications scale, and then separate layers for customised functionality needs of different use cases.

The blog further highlights Buterin's second vision, which emphasises the L3s' need to address customised scaling. Buterin adds that general-purpose scaling can exist alongside customised scaling factors if L3 is deployed in the near future. This will be particularly beneficial for applications that do not prefer to use the EVM (Ethereum virtual machines) to do heavy computation.

Customized scaling might come in different forms: specialised applications that use something other than the EVM to do their computation, rollups whose data compression is optimised around specific data formats for specific applications (including separating "data" from "proofs" and replacing proofs with a single SNARK per block entirely), etc.

Lastly, Buterin considers L3s to be particularly useful for 'weakly trusted' scaling through Validiums, a novel zk-rollup technology.

Buterin also agrees with the fact that building layer 3s may not necessarily improve the efficiency of the network since two L2s are capable enough to conduct cross-chain transactions in a cost-efficient manner.

One possible argument 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 rollup, which allows cross-domain operations within that ecosystem to happen very cheaply, without needing to go through the expensive layer 1.

Buterin's post on L3 innovation has come in light of Starkware launching newly produced recursive validity proofs. It is still unclear whether the L3s will have an official launch date. We will keep this space updated with new info.

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