Opinion By: Barna Kiss, CEO OF MALDA
An concept just lately floated by some outstanding thinkers within the Ethereum area to reclaim worth for the mainnet is the taxing of its Layer-2s. The way forward for Ethereum doesn’t rely upon coverage however on enabling frictionless capital motion between the L2s in query. Tariffing rollups could seem a neat approach to reclaim worth for the mainnet. In observe, it might fragment the ecosystem, drain liquidity, push customers towards centralized platforms, and keep away from decentralized finance altogether. In a permissionless system, capital flows to the place it’s handled greatest, and Ethereum’s rollups mistreat it.
Liquidity fragmentation is Ethereum’s actual menace
In conventional finance, the hyperlink between fluidity and progress is effectively established. Decrease boundaries to capital inflows result in increased funding. Take the European Union’s pre-Brexit single market. Funding flows slowed when the UK’s exit fragmented entry to capital swimming pools, as economists monitoring cross-border exercise famous. Ethereum faces a decentralized parallel.
Rollups, significantly these which might be optimistic and ZK-based, impose delays of as much as per week on withdrawals and supply solely patchy cross-rollup liquidity. The result’s a fragmented system by which adoption slows, and capital is underused.
Builders are left with two poor decisions. Both they give attention to one rollup and restrict their viewers, or fragment liquidity throughout a number of and settle for inefficiencies. Neither choice serves the ecosystem’s long-term pursuits. A big alternative lies, due to this fact, with protocols that take away these frictions. They’ll appeal to extra capital, function extra effectively, and ship higher experiences.
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Capital motion should be abstracted away from the end-user. Bridges and withdrawal queues ought to turn out to be protocol-level issues, not consumer issues. It’s possible for liquidity deployed on one rollup to fulfill demand on one other, with background rebalancing making certain solvency and effectivity. What right now appears advanced will be made invisible.
This design shift from reactive bridging to intent-based liquidity coordination would restore composability and protect decentralization. Extra importantly, it might uphold Ethereum’s core rules of constructing open programs with out central gatekeepers. With out it, customers will proceed to depend on centralized exchanges to bypass friction, compromising self-custody for comfort. This isn’t only a technical problem — it’s a philosophical one.
Designing round friction is the aggressive edge
Designing round capital effectivity is changing into a aggressive edge. Tomorrow’s DeFi protocols is not going to merely compete on charges or yield. They’ll compete on how effectively they’ll entry liquidity throughout a fractured panorama. The winners will probably be these that may fulfill a consumer’s request wherever the consumer is with out requiring them to maneuver funds manually. The consequence will probably be higher UX, extra productive capital, and better community stickiness.
Some underlying applied sciences are starting to handle the issue. Ethereum-native rollups, deliberate after a tough fork in 2026, promise nearer integration, and whereas they’re nonetheless not prepared for deployment, primarily based rollups supply tighter alignment with Ethereum by sharing sequencing and enhancing settlement whereas sacrificing some independence. Within the meantime, optimistic rollups are racing to implement zero-knowledge proofs to hurry up exits. These improvements scale back friction, however they don’t seem to be sufficient on their very own. Scale will come from purposes designed round these constraints, not from the bottom layers alone.
Zk-Rollups are significantly effectively suited to this. Their cryptographic construction permits for low-latency and trust-minimized messaging between chains. This makes them ideally suited for purposes like funds, decentralized buying and selling, and real-time monetary merchandise, all of which demand pace and certainty. If Ethereum could make such cross-rollup flows seamless, it is not going to simply scale. It’s going to turn out to be the spine of a extra environment friendly monetary system.
That final result shouldn’t be assured. Tariffing rollups could serve short-term objectives, however in the long term, they’d weaken the very community Ethereum goals to strengthen. Solana, for instance, already presents composability inside a single area. Whereas Ethereum’s modular strategy is arguably extra strong, it can not afford to disregard the usability price of fragmentation.
Ethereum’s best power is its neutrality. That ought to embrace the power of capital to maneuver freely inside its ecosystem. The long run is not going to be constructed by taxing rollups. It will likely be constructed by enabling them to perform as one financial engine.
Opinion By: Barna Kiss, CEO of Malda.
This text is for normal data functions and isn’t meant to be and shouldn’t be taken as authorized or funding recommendation. The views, ideas, and opinions expressed listed below are the writer’s alone and don’t essentially replicate or signify the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
