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Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum [ETH] recently spoke of the argument if development should be focused on first or second level functionalities in blockchains. He talked about the compromises that come with it and offered his opinion on what should be done.
He started by offering a definition of what the first and second level solutions are. Level 1 solutions are those that are embedded in the blockchain layer itself, as opposed to level 2 solutions that are built at the top of the blockchain without changing the rules of the blockchain itself.
A notable example of a level 1 solution was the activation of a segregated Testimony on the Bitcoin blockchain [BTC] that required a change in the Bitcoin consensus rules. A Level 2 solution would be the Lightning Network, a payment channel system built over the Bitcoin blockchain.
Buterin said that this contrast was mainly observed in debates concerning blockchain downsizing, in circumstances such as sharding or blocking the size increase as solutions of level 1 and payment channels or Plasma on the side of level 2 Toward the progress of blockchain towards the future, Buterin said that:
"I think that when the blockchains become more and more mature, level 1 will necessarily stabilize, and level 2 will increasingly take on the weight of innovation. continues and changes. "
He continued to work out his reasons for saying it, with the main reason that Level 1 solutions require changes in the protocol, which in turn points to the blockchain government.
its decentralized nature, the blockchain is inherently difficult to govern. Although a set of rules will help the parties involved to reach consensus, it is difficult to come to a conclusion without disagreement. On this, Vitalik stated:
"It has not yet been shown that, in the long run, highly" activist "blockchain governance can continue without causing ongoing political uncertainty or collapse in centralization."
Vitalik claimed that because of the constant change has been seen in spaces like these, it is a "bad idea" to create features in the basic level of the blockchain. He described these as having a "high level of governance in mind" as those responsible would have to constantly change it to stay in line with developments in the respective space.
Illustrated this point with an example of the modifications needed to be done by Ethereum during the hard Byzantium fork last year to adopt elliptical curve operations. The fork has allowed Ethereum to adopt technologies such as concise tests and zero-knowledge ring signature, but now they are rendered obsolete by the BLS-12-381 technology, bringing the need for another hard fork.
The path to creating a better testing environment for various proposed changes will be conducted using "level 2 execution engines", said Buterin. This would work by using technologies such as zero knowledge tests to process the resource transactions sent to a bridge contract.
This will essentially allow the basic blockchain to become a layer dedicated to data availability. Buterin said:
"… it is the responsibility of the users of that specific execution engine to make sure it is sustainable, and if they do not, the consequences are contained within the users of that particular execution engine." [19659006] This would effectively lead to the movement of layer 1 until it became a stable platform for level 2 solutions. However, Buterin stressed that the first layer should be able to handle the data availability problems required by the solutions of the level 2. In addition, he also stated that there is a "minimum level of complexity" required for the base layer in order to allow the construction of applications on it.
Although basic and current updates need to be conducted Must be developed with direct compatibility in mind, level 2 will occupy "an increasingly large part of innovation over time," Buterin said.
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