- Crypto research firm Messari, in a report, compares the business models of four prominent L2s offering L3 deployment.
- Per the report, most L2 blockchains hope to drive value by serving as settlement chains for L3.
- Optimism’s Superchain comes first in overall performance but loses out on value capture.
With several Layer-3 blockchains surfacing, crypto market research firm Messari details how Layer-2 blockchains intend to derive value. According to the report posted on Twitter, L2 blockchains like Arbitrum, zkSync, StarkNet, and Polygon, built on Ethereum, hope to derive revenue by using their platforms as a deployment layer for L3.
L2 blockchains were designed to solve many of the problems experienced on L1 blockchains. Ethereum, which houses Arbitrum, zkSync, Polygon, Optimism, and StarkNet as L2 blockchains, is one of the earliest to adopt L2 blockchains.
But in the ever-evolving crypto world, change and development is constant. Hence, L3 blockchains emerged to solve some of the problems associated with L2 blockchains. Also, L3 blockchains allow users to create dedicated chains and customize their privacy, fee, token, permission, governance, etc.
Per the report, while L2s like Arbitrum, zkSync, and StarkNet’s business model is to primarily serve as a settlement layer, Polygon intends to draw revenue through MATIC staking. Thus, whoever wants to deploy an L3 on Polygon would have to stake some tokens to access the blockchain’s infrastructure.
The report also compared the L2 business models and effectiveness. While Arbitrum, zkSync, and StarkNet averaged decent performances, the report ranked Optimism’s Superchain as the best. Although, when it comes to value capture, Superchain comes behind the other blockchains, with Arbitrum’s Orbit in the lead. It is important to know that the Messari report is based on data from April 2023.
Last month, Offchain Labs, the development team behind Arbitrum, released new tools to help developers build on Arbitrum Orbit more conveniently. Also, L3 built on Orbit all settle to any of Arbitrum’s public L2 blockchains, including, Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, and Arbitrum Goerli.
Likewise, zkSync also launched a customizable tech stack to aid developers who want to create Layer 2 and Layer 3 networks on Ethereum. Called the “ZK Stack,” the stack provides a guide for building ZK-powered L2s and L3s.
Optimism also has a similar stack, OP Stack, which aids developers in creating L3 on its platform.
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