Increasingly firms are interested in the thought of launching their very own Ethereum layer 2 community. Most of them shouldn’t hassle. There’s already a staggering variety of them — over 150. Fairly a number of of those are centralized and linked to a single enterprise and a number of other firms similar to Robinhood have not too long ago introduced plans to launch their very own layer 2 networks.
The sights for launching an Ethereum layer 2 community are vital, particularly when in comparison with launching your personal layer 1 (basis layer) blockchain. Layer 1 networks should compete with networks like Ethereum and Solana in an already intensely aggressive and crowded market. Layer 2 networks that run on prime of Ethereum additionally face an intensely aggressive market however can concurrently draw upon the power of the Ethereum ecosystem, because of deep integration into Ethereum itself.
With Ethereum having turned 10 in July, it stays the dominant good contract blockchain and it’s the largest single dwelling for digital property, real-world property (RWA), stablecoins and decentralized finance purposes. Ethereum’s share of the general decentralized finance ecosystem has been secure at about 50% for 3 years now. When layer 2 networks are included within the complete, it seems to be rising modestly.
The temptation to launch your personal Ethereum layer 2 community is simple to grasp — they seem like a helpful idea with nice economics. A layer 2 community on prime of Ethereum presents a little bit of “better of each worlds” performance: you possibly can management your personal ecosystem inside your layer 2 however retain integration with and entry to the general Ethereum ecosystem. Centralized layer 2 networks can set their very own worth buildings and have practically all the identical controls as a stand-alone personal blockchain similar to deciding who has entry to the community and how much information will probably be seen to others.
This comes with a value. Layer 2 networks should buy transaction processing house on the Ethereum mainnet to finalize their transactions (often known as blob house) — however these prices are prone to be decrease than these related to beginning a community from scratch and competing head-on with Ethereum. Actually, based on Token Terminal, the prices of growing a layer 2 are remarkably low. For Base, a layer 2 community run by Coinbase, throughout June of 2025, the community generated $4.9 million in charge income and spent simply $50,000 on layer 1 settlement charges.
Certainly, the layer 1 settlement charges on Ethereum are so low they’ve set off a fiery debate inside the community ecosystem about whether or not they’re too low, and that layer 2 networks symbolize a switch of advantages from layer 1 stakeholders to layer 2 networks. It’s doubtless this can end in some re-balancing of charges, however even a 10x improve in charges shouldn’t be prone to alter the basically good worth proposition that comes with scaling with layer 2 networks.
Moreover, the latest announcement by Robinhood that they are going to be constructing their very own layer 2 community on Ethereum basically validates the general layer 2 thesis inside Ethereum: layer 2 networks usually are not solely scaling possibility, in addition they allow quite a lot of enterprise fashions that can entice a variety of firms to hitch the community.The layer 2 ecosystem is prone to have a spread of contributors from the totally decentralized to the utterly centralized.
And this brings us to the important thing query: does your organization want its personal layer 2 community? Likelihood is, you don’t. The true worth proposition of a blockchain ecosystem is the flexibility to work in cooperation with others with none one celebration controlling the community. If you happen to’re a producing firm, for instance, you wish to work along with your suppliers and prospects on a stage taking part in subject along with your opponents. Blockchains let everybody take part with out favoring anyone participant. In the long term, working collectively on a stage taking part in subject is less expensive and preferable to attempting to combine into totally different methods managed by every one among your key prospects or suppliers.
Whereas some layer 2 networks look very worthwhile proper now, that is solely true if you happen to can generate good transaction quantity. Most of the layer 2 networks working are doing little to no enterprise as they wrestle to distinguish themselves in a crowded market. In keeping with L2Beat, most of those networks have lower than $1mm in TVL bridged in from Ethereum and are averaging lower than one person operation per second.
So when does an organization want its personal layer 2 community? My speculation is that this works greatest for companies that may mixture vital transaction quantity into the community and whose prospects should not have the means or the person quantity to make their very own direct connection to Ethereum. Proper now, that largely means monetary companies companies which have hundreds or hundreds of thousands of retail prospects, from Coinbase to Kraken to Robinhood. Extra companies will certainly comply with. Having a layer 2 community could be seen, sooner or later, the best way we checked out having a seat on the New York Inventory Change. Brokerage companies would need them, however a automotive maker wouldn’t discover worth in it.
Three questions could be helpful in figuring out if a agency ought to launch its personal Ethereum layer 2 community: first, is the corporate capable of mixture a major quantity of its personal transactions or shoppers in comparison with different networks? Second, is transacting on-chain central to the corporate’s core enterprise mannequin (e.g., are you an middleman, particularly a monetary one which presently transacts on conventional monetary rails). Lastly, does your layer 2 strategy supply a differentiated worth proposition in comparison with the various different community choices on the market? If you happen to can say sure to all three choices, this can be a attainable path ahead.
For many different kinds of companies, they might discover the optimum worth proposition to be connecting on to Ethereum, or one of many different open layer 2 networks. It is going to be less expensive and extra personal than going by way of an aggregator who will be capable to mark up your transaction prices and see your transaction move and less expensive than working your personal community.
I believe, nonetheless, that earlier than we’re finished, fairly a number of companies that don’t have any have to run their very own layer 2 will launch one anyway for a similar causes many companies launched personal chains prior to now.
Regardless of how reliably they’ve failed, the attraction of personal blockchains was all the time arduous to counter. The attract of “controlling your future” and “taxing the ecosystem” was arduous to withstand. Public chains, with their openness, interoperability, and permissionless nature can look scary to enterprise customers who would like extra management.
To the identical consumers who wished personal chains, centralized layer 2 networks seem like a midway home that will appear interesting. Not like personal chains, I don’t assume they’re all doomed to fail, however I do suspect only some will succeed. Historical past retains repeating itself – largely as a result of we’re not excellent at being attentive to it. Right here we go once more.
Disclaimer: These are the non-public views of the creator and don’t symbolize the views of EY.