Layer-2 (L2) Networks are merging around dominant technical piles instead of working on universal standards, reveals research by Onchain Explorer Blockscout.
Creeks with Decrypt In a video interview, Ulyana Skladchikova, head of the product; And Kirill Fedoseev, head of research on the Open-Source Explorer, revealed how a shift to technical “clustering” takes place, despite the overall transaction growth.
“We see chains coming together a bit around a few big players and interpop those groups,” said Skladchikova.
For example, the Op-Stapel has emerged as a dominant player in the L2 sector, where most networks use his tooling, real-time facts van Rollup.wtf quoted by block scout shows. This pile is a series of open-source standards that are mainly used on the Optimism network And are ‘super chaves’.
Such a trend indicates a “consolidation” around L2 networks, said Skladchikova Decrypt.
This also shows how “bridge abstraction”, which refers to the process of simplifying how users can move assets between different chains, can become a challenge for L2 players in the long term.
Instead of contributing to a universal standard, large L2 players develop their own interoperability solutions that can cause ‘ux -friction for users’, making it difficult to’ navigate and transfer funds between networks’, said Blockscout, ‘Blockcout saidIn a statement, respond to follow -up questions.
Data paradox
But the data present a paradox: although the transaction volumes on L2 networks such as base have risen, the native bridging between L1 and L2 has decreased by approximately 80% since the beginning of 2024, the native bridging between L1 and L2 by about 80%. Decrypt Shows.
This points to an emerging challenge about “chain clustering”, a phenomenon in which related networks try to form shared standards to communicate with each other to facilitate interoperability.
“There will be chain clusters around every large ecosystem player,” Fedoseev told Decrypt.
Monthly active users per L2 chain rose 250% in the fall 2024 and reached more than 14,000 before he stabilized around 11,000.
Such patron signals have adopted approval instead of temporary interest driven by AirDrops or Speculation, block scout noted in a separate research document that is shared with Decrypt.
“Early hype does not always translate into sustainable use.” Block scout wrote. “When users migrate from a larger location to a new chain, this means better future sustainability.”
With the pectra upgrade of Ethereum, these consolidation patterns suggest that L2s optimize for specific possibilities that work in chains, instead of trying to be general scale solutions.
If this becomes the case: “We have this one homogeneous interop solution that everyone will just use,” said Skladchikova.
Published by Sebastian Sinclair
