> it seems like these new chains just exist to sustain the illusion of newness Vitalik has talked a lot about why he believes L2s to be the best answer to the

> it seems like these new chains just exist to sustain the illusion of newness Vitalik has talked a lot about why he believes L2s to be the best answer to the centralisation-security-scaleability trilemma. It's absolutely not just sustaining the illusion of newness, the L2s on the ethereum chain are aiming to provide the same security promises of the main chain, but with an order of magnitude reduction in transactions fees [1]. Something that is important for the wide adoption that blockchains originally claimed was their aim. There are already phenomenal L2 chains for specific purposes (transfers, decentralised exchanges etc), and the next generation of fully flexible L2 chains built on ZK technology are available (but with various 'use at your own risk' / alpha disclaimers for now) [2]. As for decentralisation, there is a spectrum of possibilities, but if the goal is to provide the next financial platform for the world, some level of decentralisation is not optional. For-profit corporations, subject to the whims of the market, the ego of a CEO and the latest management trend simply cannot guarantee the stability and longevity that a serious attempt at a financial platform would need. On top of that, there needs to be a credible claim that the platform is neutral to the apps that run on it. Can you name a big finance company you'd trust to do that? [1] https://l2fees.info/ [2] https://l2beat.com/scaling/summary