Vitalik Buterin is calling time on Ethereum’s long-standing layer 2 vision. In a post on Tuesday, the Ethereum co-founder said the original idea that L2s would act as secure extensions of the main network “no longer makes sense,” arguing that many have failed to properly decentralize or inherit Ethereum’s security.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

“If you create a 10,000 TPS EVM where its connection to L1 is mediated by a multisig bridge, then you are not scaling Ethereum,” Buterin wrote. In his view, too many major L2s still rely on centralized sequencers or multisig-controlled bridges, meaning users ultimately trust intermediaries rather than Ethereum itself.

The critique comes as Ethereum’s base layer has quietly improved. Gas limits are rising, fees are far lower than in prior cycles, and developers are preparing for native rollups — rollups embedded directly into Ethereum, with transaction execution verified by Ethereum validators. Combined with future zkEVM integration, Buterin sees this as a more durable path to scaling.

Rather than competing on raw throughput, Buterin argued L2s should pivot toward specialization: privacy, identity, finance, social apps, AI, or ultra-low-latency use cases. “Our job should be to make it clear to users what guarantees they have,” he said, “and to build the strongest Ethereum we can.”

The message marks a clear shift: Ethereum first, rollups second, and fewer illusions about what “inherits security” actually means.