Ethereum is implementing sharding; L1 sharding or all about rollups?

Debate on sharding and roll-up

In a new blog post, Vitalik broke down the differences between the Layer 2 and Ethereum sharding visions. While the article on L2 and execution sharding has sparked a discussion about rollups versus sharding. This is how it happens😜.

(The picture was made by Bankless)

Ethereum is getting busy over time. Sharding is how it plans to scale up, but there are two ways to shard: L1 Sharding and L2 Sharding (Rollups).Here's an analogy from X , although I can't say it's entirely accurate.

In the opening, Vitalik asserts a significant viewpoint: "In a very real technical sense, Ethereum is implementing sharding, with rollups functioning as shards." Besides, he forecasts, "Looking ahead 5 to 10 years, I anticipate that all rollups will transition to being ZK rollups.

In contrast to this, core dev #MultiversX Sovereign Chain @SasuRobert responded, stating that Sharding focuses on composability and scaling. He noted ETH2.0 roadmap's sharding lacks strong composability. Composability and collaboration are Web3 superpowers, distinct from web2, which need to be enhanced. Vitalik promptly replied. Here’s the original post.

A brief introduction to MultiversX, The Sovereign Chain adopts a fully sharded architecture for scalability, enabling developers to customize decentralized app deployment via smart contracts. It aims to offer an SDK for creating efficient chains linked to the global @MultiversX network. Sovereign Chain in a way appears to be attempting to address Vitalik's blockchain trilemma: security, scalability, and decentralization.

Interestingly, @avizurlo, CPO of project @nil_foundation has made a more neutral perspective. The project aims to enhance Ethereum's scalability.

He responded, "For Ethereum, the rollup-centric roadmap is the same as execution sharding... For L2, the two are very different.” Sharding has several clear advantages over a rollup-centric roadmap, including scalability, shared security, and integrated user experience.The rollup-centric Ethereum ecosytem has no standard interoperability, shared security, nor a unified network. Execution sharding does. However, He believes that Ethereum's role as a base layer is too important to take risks with. @nil_foundation is seeking scalable alternatives, aiming to achieve Ethereum sharding without altering the base layer. He cited, "many strong teams continue to work on sharding," including @NEARProtocol, @MultiversX, and @ton_blockchain. Here’s the original post.

Interestingly, talks around sharding ongoing. Vitalik kept talking later shared on warpcast: "One crucial distinction between shards and rollups that I haven't addressed is upgradeability: shards would autonomously upgrade their EVM, while rollups require their own governance. But could we modify that?" He introduced further insights on warpcast.

"Rollups that wish to be EVM-compatible could point to the ZK-EVM v-keys provided by the precompile. Rollups that wish to do their own thing could stay with their own v-keys. Potentially, rollups could even be almost compatible: the v-keys could provide a standard interface for extending the EVM with other features."

Vitalik stands as a supporter of rollups. To demonstrate his support, he took on the role of a block proposer on the @taikoxyz mainnet and proposed the first block. he attached, "I'm excited to see that Taiko is launching as a based rollup… and I appreciate them being among the first to go in this direction. "

A brief introduction to Taiko. It is a Contestable Rollup based on Ethereum, featuring an equivalent ZK-EVM. Most of the project's members have relevant experience in the field of zkRollups.

Debates are actually great for making sharding happen.