Are Ethereum Layer-2s The Next Fraud Paradise? This Co-Founder Asks Hard Questions

Bartek Kiepuszewski, the co-founder of L2Beat, a portal for monitoring Ethereum layer-2 actions, is worried in regards to the safety and consistency of current off-chain scaling options, suggesting that with out fraud-proofs, there’s room for fraud and irregularities.

Focus On Optimism And Manta: What’s Going On?

Taking to X on December 20, Kiepuszewski observed that some layer-2 options, similar to Manta and Optimism, depend on sequencers to publish information to Ethereum. Nevertheless, with out fraud-proofs, there is no such thing as a technique to confirm that the info printed by the Sequencer on the Ethereum mainnet is correct or full. 

Within the co-founder’s view, every time a sequencer posts the batch of transactions on the principle internet, there is no such thing as a layer-1 state or occasion change. Per Kiepuszewski ‘s evaluation, this can be a worrying problem that needs to be addressed to make sure no matter is posted is legitimate. 

As an illustration, the co-founder cited latest transactions posted by Optimism and MantaNetwork, two standard layer-2 scaling options for Ethereum. Kiepuszewski analyzed that Optimism lately despatched a full “information blob” containing all layer-2 transactions. 

However, it was famous that MantaNetwork reportedly posted the “root hash of an information blob” to CelestiaOrg. The issue, the co-founder went on so as to add, is that regardless of these operations, Ethereum couldn’t decide whether or not their hashes had been legitimate or not.

The co-founder argues that this could possibly be a recipe for hassle because the lack of transparency on Sequencer’s operations presents a serious concern, particularly for customers monitoring the mainnet however not working their layer-2 nodes. 

Ethereum Layer-2s Command Billions With out Purposeful Fraud-Proof Techniques

Technically, within the present state, Sequencers play an important position in guaranteeing that transactions submitted by customers of any layer-2 scaling platform like Optimism or Arbitrum are processed and confirmed to be legitimate earlier than they’re transmitted to the Ethereum mainnet. 

Nevertheless, whereas Ethereum layer-2 scaling options at the moment handle over $15 billion, based mostly on L2Beat information, with out public fraud-proofs, what sequencers publish on the mainnet turns into unclear.

In keeping with L2Beat data, Manta Community has turned off its fraud-proof whereas nonetheless being developed on Optimism. On the similar time, Arbitrum ‘s fraud-proof system continues to be not permissionless since validators should be whitelisted. 

In all, in most main layer-2 protocols managing tens of millions in complete worth locked (TVL), there is no such thing as a public system to watch sequencers and whether or not they’re submitting legitimate particulars to the mainnet.

Function picture from Canva, chart from TradingView