Is Ethereum Becoming A Network Of Rollups?
Ethereum's rollup-centric vision turns L1 into a secure base and L2s into execution layers. Explore how this reshapes blockchain scaling in the future.
Key takeaways
- Layer 1 is designed to be a trust foundation. Scaling happens above it, not within it.
- Rollups extend Ethereum's capacity without compromising its security model, but operate as independent chains, which creates fragmentation.
- The rollup-centric roadmap is being actively revised. Vitalik Buterin has acknowledged that L2 decentralization has lagged far behind expectations.
- Infrastructure like EIP-4844, based rollups, and cross-chain interoperability standards are the connective tissue that will determine whether this vision coheres into something users experience as "one Ethereum."
Yes, Ethereum is becoming an internet of rollups, and it has been heading in that direction since 2020. Ethereum's strategy positions Layer 1 as a secure settlement and data availability foundation, while multiple Layer 2 rollups handle execution. Together, they form a scalable, interconnected ecosystem – a network of rollups rather than a single monolithic chain.
But the path there is proving more complex than anyone expected.
What Does "A Network of Rollups" Actually Mean?
| Quick answer: It means Ethereum is no longer designed to do everything on one chain. Instead, the base layer focuses on security and consensus, while rollups, separate chains that settle back to Ethereum, handle the actual computation and user activity. |
This idea was formally proposed by Vitalik Buterin in October 2020 in a post titled "A rollup-centric Ethereum roadmap". The core principle is that, rather than forcing all transactions through a congested Layer 1, Ethereum would become the trust anchor for a constellation of high-throughput Layer 2 networks.
Think of it like a banking system. Ethereum's mainnet is the central bank, which is slow, deliberate, and highly secure. Rollups are the commercial banks, which are faster, more accessible, but ultimately backed by the reserves of the institution beneath them.
In this model:
- Layer 1 handles data availability, finality, and consensus
- Layer 2 rollups handle transaction execution at scale
- Users interact mostly with rollups, while Ethereum provides the underlying trust
Why Ethereum Chose Rollups Over a Single Massive Chain
| Quick answer: Ethereum chose rollups because scaling a single chain directly forces a trade-off between speed and security that the protocol is unwilling to make. Offloading execution to rollups lets Ethereum grow without compromising the decentralization that makes it trustworthy. |
Blockchains face a fundamental trade-off known as the scalability trilemma: a network can typically optimize for only two of three properties, including security, decentralization, and scalability. Increasing L1 throughput by raising the gas limit or block size risks centralizing the validator set, which would undermine the very properties that make Ethereum trustworthy.
As Buterin himself noted, "the easiest way to scale is to simply increase the gas limit; however, this risks centralizing the L1." Rollups offer a way around this: by moving computation off-chain and only posting compressed proofs or data back to mainnet, they scale execution without touching L1's security model.
The numbers make this concrete.
- Ethereum L1 processes roughly 15–30 transactions per second.
- By contrast, rollups collectively reached a combined 5,600 TPS average for the first time in 2025, according to the Ethereum Foundation's year-end summary, all while settling on the same secure base layer.
Optimistic vs ZK-Rollups: Who's Building the Network?
Quick answer:
Both types are active contributors to Ethereum's rollup network, with distinct technical approaches. |
1. Optimistic Rollups
These assume all transactions are valid by default. If someone suspects fraud, they can submit a fraud proof within a challenge window, typically seven days. This simplicity made them faster to build and deploy.
Major players: Arbitrum One, Base (Coinbase), Optimism
According to Dune Analytics data from 2025, Base alone captured approximately 70.9% of total rollup profits, with Arbitrum at 14.9% and Optimism at roughly 5.4%.
2. ZK-Rollups
These use zero-knowledge proofs to cryptographically verify every transaction batch before submission to L1. No waiting period is required. Validity is proven mathematically. This enables faster rollup finality and stronger security guarantees.
Major players: zkSync, Scroll, Starknet, Linea
As of mid-2025, L2BEAT tracked 26 active Ethereum-based rollups, though the broader ecosystem includes many more at various stages of development.
Both types are essential. Optimistic rollups dominate by volume today, while ZK-rollups are gaining ground as prover technology matures and EVM compatibility improves.
The Infrastructure Making It Possible
| At a glance: Three technical pillars, including blob data, based sequencing, and interoperability standards, are what actually turn the rollup vision into working infrastructure. |
- EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding)
Activated in the Cancun-Deneb upgrade in March 2024, EIP-4844 introduced blobs – temporary data containers optimized for rollup use. Before this, rollups posted transaction data to Ethereum as expensive calldata. Blobs are cheaper and purpose-built for L2s, resulting in significantly lower fees across the ecosystem almost immediately after launch.
- Danksharding
The full implementation of data sharding remains in progress. When complete, Danksharding is expected to unlock 100,000+ TPS capacity across the Ethereum ecosystem by enabling massive parallel data availability. The December 2025 Fusaka upgrade introduced PeerDAS, ramping blob capacity to 8x and driving L2 costs down further.
- Based Rollups
First proposed by Ethereum researcher Justin Drake in 2023, based rollups hand transaction sequencing back to Ethereum's existing validator network, rather than relying on a separate, often centralized sequencer. This improves censorship resistance and creates a path for L2 economics to flow back to ETH stakers rather than being captured entirely by rollup operators.
Taiko is the most prominent early adopter of this model.
- ERC-7683 and the Open Intents Framework
Interoperability has its own infrastructure layer. ERC-7683 standardized order and settlement interfaces across chains, enabling smoother cross-chain execution. In February 2025, over 30 teams announced the Open Intents Framework (OIF), aimed at making cross-rollup interactions faster and cheaper. The Ethereum Interop Layer (EIL) launched on testnet in November 2025, marking a concrete step toward a unified L2 experience.
The Fragmentation Problem – and How Ethereum Is Solving It
| At a glance: Having too many rollups has created a fragmented ecosystem where liquidity is siloed, bridges carry real risk, and users must manually navigate between chains. Ethereum is addressing this through shared sequencing, ZK-based bridging, and cross-chain interoperability standards – all aimed at making the multi-rollup environment feel like a single, unified network. |
More than 140 live L2 networks have created isolated liquidity pools, complex bridge risks, and a user experience that feels nothing like "one Ethereum."
"The network-of-rollups vision is architecturally elegant and practically frustrating, often at the same time. On paper, Ethereum becomes a secure foundation with specialized execution layers handling everything from DeFi to gaming. In practice, users face a maze of bridges, wallet networks, and gas tokens just to move between chains. The real breakthrough will come when switching between Arbitrum and zkSync feels as invisible as switching browser tabs. Ethereum has a coherence problem. And that's actually a more interesting one to solve."
– ByteByByte, CryptoThreads
DeFi protocols that once executed atomically on one chain now require multi-step processes vulnerable to MEV extraction at each layer. Sygnum Bank's 2025 research described the situation plainly: what started as a clever scaling fix "has morphed into a messy web of isolated L2s, risky bridge solutions, and development teams competing for the same users."
The solutions emerging are both technical and social:
- Shared sequencing coordinates transaction ordering across multiple rollups, enabling atomic cross-chain transactions
- ZK-based bridging enables faster, trust-minimized asset transfers between chains
- Unified wallet experiences abstract away the underlying chain from the end user entirely
The vision being pursued is a rollup mesh.
What's Still Missing Before the Vision Is Complete?
| At a glance: The gap between Ethereum's rollup vision and its current state comes down to two stubborn problems: centralized sequencers and incomplete decentralization. |
In February 2026, Vitalik Buterin publicly re-evaluated the rollup-centric roadmap, acknowledging that L2s had decentralized "far slower" than expected while Ethereum's base layer had itself made meaningful scaling progress.
He stated that "the original vision of L2s and their role in Ethereum no longer makes sense" in its original form, noting that despite dozens of L2 launches, very few had reached even Stage 1 decentralization on his rollup maturity framework.
Stage 1 requires meaningful governance decentralization and permissionless fraud proofs. As of early 2026, Base became one of the few major L2s to reach Stage 1, after decentralizing its security council and launching permissionless fault proofs. Most others remain at Stage 0, meaning a centralized security council could still override transactions.
The economic misalignment is also stark.
- Base generated approximately $93 million from sequencer fees in a single year
- Arbitrum earned around $42 million
- Optimism, $26 million.
Most of that revenue stays with rollup operators, not Ethereum validators or the broader ecosystem. This is the tension the current roadmap is trying to resolve.
The Road to a Unified Rollup Ecosystem
| At a glance: Ethereum's rollup future is being actively rebuilt around a more nuanced vision where L2s provide genuine value beyond just scaling. |
Buterin's revised view, shared in early 2026, moves away from treating L2s as "branded shards" of Ethereum and toward a spectrum where some chains would inherit Ethereum's full trust model, others would offer unique properties (privacy, custom VMs, specific use cases) while maintaining lighter connections to L1.
In parallel, Buterin published the Lean Ethereum roadmap in July 2026, naming privacy and quantum safety as first-class protocol goals alongside scalability. The plan proposes replacing quantum-vulnerable cryptographic components with post-quantum alternatives, and targets 100TB scalable state by 2030 using STARK-based verification.
Near-term milestones:
- Fusaka (December 2025): PeerDAS live, blob capacity 8x, L1 gas limit raised to 60M
- Glasterdam (2026): next major hard fork continuing L1/L2 alignment
- Full Danksharding: enables 100,000+ TPS across the ecosystem, timeline ongoing
- EIL mainnet: Ethereum Interop Layer moves toward production, enabling native cross-rollup communication
The long-term goal, as Buterin framed it in "The Surge," is for users to not need to know what chain they're on – bridging, gas, and layer switching fully abstracted away.
Sources and Further Reading
- Vitalik Buterin – "A Rollup-Centric Ethereum Roadmap" https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/a-rollup-centric-ethereum-roadmap/4698
- Ethereum.org – "Zero-Knowledge Rollups" https://ethereum.org/developers/docs/scaling/zk-rollups/
- Ethereum.org – "Scaling Roadmap" https://ethereum.org/roadmap/scaling/
- L2BEAT – "Ethereum Layer 2 Risk & Activity Overview" https://l2beat.com/scaling/summary
- Conduit – "2025 State of Rollups" https://www.conduit.xyz/blog/2025-state-of-rollups/
- Fidelity Digital Assets – "Fusaka Upgrade: Scaling Meets Value Accrual" https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/research-and-insights/fusaka-upgrade-scaling-meets-value-accrual
FAQs About Ethereum Network Of Rollups
In terms of transaction volume, some already are. Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism collectively process more transactions than Ethereum L1. But they derive their legitimacy from Ethereum's security model. The moment a rollup stops settling on Ethereum, it becomes a separate chain.
