Vitalik Buterin: The "stagnation" of Ethereum is a sign of its maturity, and technological innovation should shift towards L2 protocol networks.

Recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed the view at the Devconnect conference in Buenos Aires that the underlying protocol of Ethereum is entering a "stagnation" phase, but stability is more important than adaptability.

Facing a full house of listeners, Buterin admitted that over time, the rigidity of Ethereum is gradually increasing, but he believes this is positive for Ethereum as it reduces the probability of unexpected situations.

This statement sparked low murmurs among the more than 500 attendees, as it undoubtedly signifies a major adjustment in the development strategy for a protocol that has always centered on flexibility and experimentation.

Looking back at the development history of Ethereum, its flexibility has always been a major advantage, allowing developers to build freely, while the protocol itself has also continuously evolved to support new use cases. However, Buterin now emphasizes that for a network that safeguards hundreds of billions of dollars in value, stability is more important than adaptability.

Buterin also explained with a vivid metaphor: "A snug and warm piece of underwear may not be that eye-catching, but it is also less likely to get damaged." In his view, dullness is not a flaw of Ethereum, but rather a fundamental characteristic that it must possess.

Buterin also proposed a layered solidity concept, which allows locking the consensus layer to prevent changes while maintaining the openness and flexibility of the Ethereum virtual machine, and vice versa.

He also stated that retaining a certain degree of flexibility is not about stifling innovation, but rather about guiding innovation from the underlying protocol to more suitable scenarios, such as the surrounding Layer2 ecosystem.

In this vision, the focus of innovation is shifted to areas such as L2 layer integration, wallet development, privacy tools, and user-facing applications, rather than being obsessed with changes to the underlying protocol.

Currently, L2 layer networks have taken on most of the transaction processing tasks of Ethereum. In the future, as transactions continue to migrate to L2, L1 layer may focus more on its core functions of settlement and security.

In summary, Buterin believes that shifting attention from L1 to the surrounding ecosystem is beneficial. This strategic shift not only ensures the stability and reliability of the base layer but also reserves ample space for continuous innovation throughout the ecosystem.

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