L2s for Beginners
If you try to do anything onchain these days, you’re going to hear about L2s. You're going to have to use L2s. About a 100 different L2s. Some are built for Bitcoin, some for Ethereum. Even Solana has L2s. But what even is an L2? Why do we need them? And what are the key differences between them all? Without countless hours of studying, it can be easy to get lost in all of this. It’s a lot to take in, but the good news is that you don’t need to know every single detail about every single L2 in order to try a new one. So let’s get started!
What Are L2s?
Layer 2 blockchains, also known as L2s, are designed to solve scalability issues for Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum. As the number of Ethereum users increase, it becomes more expensive to transact while maintaining decentralization and security. This problem is infamously known as the “blockchain trilemma”. Simply put, you want your blockchain to be decentralized, secure, and scalable. But it’s only possible to achieve two at a time effectively. For example, you can be decentralized and scalable at the cost of security, or you can be scalable and secure at the cost of decentralization, and so on. L2s help solve this issue by allowing decentralized and secure blockchains to scale.
Ethereum currently processes a new block every 12 seconds. To be faster, the network would need to be more centralized, which is against Ethereum's purpose. In order to provide higher speeds, L2s rely on preconfirmation mechanisms that allow them to “preconfirm” transactions. There are many different preconfirmation mechanisms, but one of the most popular methods is called “rollups” where multiple transactions that happen on the L2 are “rolled-up” into one single transaction on the L1.
What this means for you…
Ultimately, what this means for you is cheaper fees and faster transactions. During times of congestion, simply sending assets to another wallet on Ethereum can cost over a dollar. With the introduction of L2s, users can potentially do hundreds of transactions for under a dollar total, in a fraction of the time it would have taken on the L1. This of course depends on which L2 you’re operating on, as they all have slightly different speeds, fees, and capabilities. So, let's do a little deep dive on some popular options!
Optimism is known as the “Superchain” - and for good reason. Ran by the Optimism Foundation, Optimism has more of a B2B approach where other teams can build on their native “OP Stack” to create L2s that become part of the broader Superchain ecosystem. This approach allows easy interoperability between L2s. In fact, without Optimism’s OP Stack SDK, many L2s would not exist! Although the OP Foundation has pivoted to B2B with their OP Stack, you can still bridge to OP Mainnet and play with the dApps over there like any other L2.
Optimism is natively integrated in our multichain browser wallet Enkrypt:
👉 Bridge to Optimism with Enkrypt
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Arbitrum, uniquely, is governed by a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). This means that there isn’t a single entity controlling the future of Arbitrum, but rather the holders of $ARB (Arbitrums native token) all together decide how the protocol is run. Want to submit a proposal to Arbitrum? Simply pay the submission fee and your proposal goes live for voting. As a voter, the more $ARB tokens you hold in your wallet, the more weight your votes have on proposals. On the backend, Arbitrum uses rollup technology to record batches of transactions on the Ethereum L1 and execute them on Arbitrum.
L3 blockchains are to L2s what L2s are to L1s. They offer even cheaper fees and are perfect for blockchain gaming, for example, where every in-game action is recorded onchain. Because the future is looking more and more like one where L3s are essential, Arbitrum recently released “Arbitrum Orbit”, allowing developers to easily create and launch their own L3s built on Arbitrum. Wanna check out Arbitrum? Enkrypt makes it easy!
Arbitrum is natively integrated in our multichain browser wallet Enkrypt:
👉 Bridge to Arbitrum with Enkrypt
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Prefer using your phone? We support Arbitrum on MEW mobile:
👉 Bridge to Arbitrum on MEW mobile
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The newest shiny L2 on the block is undoubtedly Base chain by Coinbase. Launching in 2023, Base chain made a splash with its (now annual) “Onchain Summer” - 30 days of fun onchain. Because Base has the crypto giant Coinbase behind it, a lot of their users are funneled directly from the Coinbase ecosystem. This dynamic has created one of the most lively and active Layer 2 ecosystems when compared to competitors. As far as the tech goes, Base is built on Optimism’s OP Stack. For this reason, Base is a part of the broader “Superchain” ecosystem. Although Base is barely a year old, it’s the most popular L2 by almost every metric. Explore Base chain with Enkrypt!
Base is natively integrated in our multichain browser wallet Enkrypt:
Prefer using your phone? We support Base on MEW mobile:
👉 Bridge to Base with MEW mobile
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zkSync Era uses zero-knowledge rollups (AKA zk-rollups) for fast and cheap transactions on the L2. To achieve this, zkSync uses complex mathematical proofs, also known as a validity proofs, to prove that transactions onchain are valid, while maintaining a level of privacy, which is where the name “zero-knowledge” comes from. Zk-rollups allow for certain things onchain to be verified while keeping other things (potentially sensitive information) private. For example, giving your ID to verify your identity can potentially leak other info about you, like your home address. Zk-rollups fix this. Sound like the L2 for you? Try it out below.
zkSync Era is natively integrated in our multichain browser wallet Enkrypt:
👉 Bridge to zkSync Era with Enkrypt
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Prefer using your phone? We support zkSync Era on MEW mobile:
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Polygon has what it calls its “Agglayer”, short for “aggregation layer”. Their philosophy is that with so many new L2s and L3s being created, liquidity is far too fragmented and interoperability is often difficult. Polygon’s AggLayer attempts to fix this problem by creating an environment where all layers can transact with each other easily. The AggLayer also gives devs the toolset to create new L2s more efficiently than ever before. As one of the first L2 projects ever created back in 2017, Polygon has lots to do onchain.
Polygon is natively integrated in our multichain browser wallet Enkrypt:
👉 Bridge to Polygon with Enkrypt
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Prefer using your phone? We support Polygon on MEW mobile:
👉 Bridge to Polygon with MEW mobile
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BNB Chain by Binance is the odd man out in that it’s not an Ethereum L2, although it is an EVM-compatible L1. Binance recently introduced opBNB, its Layer 2 solution for its own native BNB Chain, built with Optimism’s OP Stack.
We currently support BNB Chain on both MEW and Enkrypt. While it's an EVM like Ethereum and other chains in this article, instead of ERC-20 tokens BNB Smart Chain uses BEP-20 tokens.
Crypto can be confusing, we know. That’s why we’re here.
BNB Chain is natively integrated in our multichain browser wallet Enkrypt:
👉 Bridge to BNB Smart Chain with Enkrypt
👉 Swap on BNB Smart Chain with Enkrypt
Prefer using your phone? We support BNB Chain on MEW mobile:
👉 Bridge to BNB Smart Chain with MEW mobile
👉 Swap on BNB Smart Chain with MEW mobile
The future of L2s
As you may have noticed, the L2 ecosystem is still establishing its footing in the vast world of crypto. There are many options, each focused on a different niche and approaching the scalability issue from different angles. Some L2s prefer the OP Stack while others prefer zk-rollups. Some L2s are focused on real world assets (RWAs) while others want to build more generalized protocols. There are even Layer 1 chains that have migrated their tech stack to become a Layer 2 chain. One example is Celo, which we just so happen to support natively in Enkrypt, along with dozens more Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks!
Hopefully, this article shed some light on the Layer 2 ecosystem and encouraged you to try them out for yourself! Every Layer 2 network you just read about is supported by either our mobile wallet MEW or our multichain browser wallet Enkrypt (or both!). Want to collect MEW Universe NFTs and try some L2s on mobile? Download MEW here. If you’re curious to dive even deeper and discover everything that's onchain, download Enkrypt and experience over 50 networks natively integrated.