Bartek Kiepuszewski, co-founder of L2Beat, a portal for tracking ethereum layer 2 activities, is concerned about the security and consistency of existing off-chain scaling solutions, and suggests that without evidence of fraud, there is room for fraud and irregularities.
Focus on optimism and Manta: What's happening?
Taking X on December 20, Kiepuszewski observed that some layer 2 solutions, such as Manta and Optimism, rely on sequencers to publish data to ethereum. However, without evidence of fraud, there is no way to verify that the data published by Sequencer on the ethereum mainnet is accurate or complete.
In the co-founder's opinion, every time a sequencer publishes the batch of transactions to the mainnet, there is no layer 1 state or event change. In Kiepuszewski's assessment, this is a worrying challenge that needs to be addressed to ensure that everything published is valid.
As an illustration, the co-founder cited recent transactions published by Optimism and MantaNetwork, two popular Layer 2 scaling solutions for ethereum. Kiepuszewski analyzed that Optimism recently sent a complete “data blob” containing all Layer 2 transactions.
On the other hand, it was observed that MantaNetwork allegedly published the “root hash of a data blob” on CelestiaOrg. The problem, the co-founder added, is that despite these operations, ethereum could not determine whether its hashes were valid or not.
The co-founder maintains that this could be a recipe for trouble, as the lack of transparency in Sequencer's operations presents a major concern, especially for users who track the mainnet but do not operate its layer 2 nodes.
ethereum Layer-2 controls billions without functional fraud-proof systems
Technically, as it stands, sequencers play a vital role in ensuring that transactions submitted by users of any layer 2 scaling platform like Optimism or Arbitrum are processed and confirmed for validity before being transmitted to the ethereum mainnet. .
However, while ethereum's Layer 2 scaling solutions currently manage more than $15 billion, according to L2Beat data, without public evidence of fraud, what sequencers publish to the mainnet is unclear.
According to L2Beat data, Manta Network has disabled its fraud-proof system while still developing on Optimism. At the same time, Arbitrum's fraud-proof system is still not permission-free, as validators must be whitelisted.
In total, in most leading Layer 2 protocols that manage millions in total value locked (TVL), there is no public system to monitor sequencers and whether they are sending valid details to the mainnet.
Featured image from Canva, TradingView chart
