Ethereum's Layer 2 ecosystem has recorded its second consecutive month of record activity amid a bear market.
Ethereum’s second layer networks, which are sidechains focused on increasing the scalability of the main network, are growing significantly in usage and adoption, as evidenced by on-chain data analyzed by blockchain ecosystem data monitoring and analytics platform Dune Analytics.
According to data from this platform, the total amount of gas consumed by Ethereum to validate transactions on layer 2 of the network reached its first historical maximum, of 76.588 billion units, last October. So far this month, The total gas consumed to validate transactions on the second layer of Ethereum has exceeded 98.471 billion units, marking a new all-time high, for the second consecutive month.
The increase in the amount of gas consumed on Ethereum's layer two represents a 190% increase compared to the beginning of the year.
Source: Dune Analytics
Ethereum's second layer networks, such as Polygon Network, Arbitrum, and Optimism, have emerged as the main scaling solutions for the blockchain network. These sidechains allow users to transact on Ethereum with very low commission fees, while inheriting the high level of security characteristic of the mainnet.
More than $4.000 billion on Ethereum's second layer
Currently, the Ethereum second layer ecosystem has $4.370 billion in total locked value (Total Value Locked), with the second layer networks Polygon, Aribtrum and Optimism having the highest TVL in the entire ecosystem.
According to data from data platform L2Beat, Arbitrum is the layer-two network that currently holds more than 53% of the total value locked in Ethereum’s second-layer ecosystem, followed by Optimism at 27% and Polygon Network at almost 8%.
Source: L2Beat
It should be noted that, since mid-2022, the TVL of this ecosystem has been recovering, showing an increase of 18,5%, despite the fact that the bear market in cryptocurrencies continues.
On the other hand, analysts point out that the increase in the use of Ethereum scalability solutions is related to the huge reduction that these solutions offer in terms of commission rates, breaking one of the main barriers of the main network; especially when its use and demand increase, raising transaction costs.
Ethereum's massive scalability is on layer three
Matter Labs engineering director Anthony Rose told The Defiant that the increase in gas consumption to validate transactions on Ethereum layer two demonstrates the growing adoption this ecosystem is gaining every day.
However, according to Rose, layer-three or L3-based solutions are the future of Ethereum scalability. Rose commented that the layer-two ecosystem has been just “the first step towards massive scalability” of the network and that solutions developed on the third layer could take the reins to drive true Ethereum scalability as well as its interoperability across the blockchain ecosystem.
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