Ethereum Foundation Revises L1 and L2 Strategy

The Ethereum Foundation announced a revised strategic vision for its Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks on March 23, 2026, marking a significant evolution in the blockchain's architecture five years after adopting a rollup-centric scaling model. This update, detailed in an official blog post authored by foundation members Josh Rudolf, Julian Ma, and Josh Stark, redefines the interplay between the base Layer 1 chain and its Layer 2 extensions to address ecosystem growth, security, and fragmentation while prioritizing decentralization.

Under the new framework, Ethereum's Layer 1 will serve as the foundational settlement layer and primary hub for decentralized finance, maintaining its role as the most secure and decentralized component of the network. Officials emphasized that Layer 1 will not compromise on robustness, instead focusing on enhancements like zero-knowledge proofs and expanded data blobs to achieve orders-of-magnitude scaling. These technologies aim to reduce costs and improve efficiency without overloading the base layer, which currently handles critical functions such as final settlement, shared state, and deep liquidity. The foundation noted that blobs, introduced in...