Ethereum Co-Founder Lubin Emphasizes Layer-2 Scaling, MegaETH Aims for 100,000 TPS

Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin recently shared his vision for the future of the Ethereum blockchain network at the Digital Asset Summit. He emphasized the importance of layer-2 (L2) scaling networks, which he believes will continue to be central to the Ethereum ecosystem. Lubin highlighted that applications will require next-generation databases powered by high-throughput blockchain technologies. He mentioned that the Ethereum ecosystem is mature enough to support new kinds of databases and layer-2 networks, such as Linea and the emerging MegaETH.

Lubin also noted that newer layer-1 chains will face significant challenges in competing with Ethereum, which already boasts a robust architecture and strong security guarantees. He believes that the Ethereum network's established infrastructure and security features will make it difficult for new layer-1 chains to gain traction.

Investors have expressed concerns about the layer-2 approach, criticizing Ethereum's layer-2 networks for draining revenues from the layer-1 network while contributing minimal economic value. Despite these criticisms, the Dencun upgrade in March 2024 significantly reduced Ethereum's average gas fee by 95%, leading to a 99% collapse in revenue on the Ethereum base layer by September 2024. This reduction in transaction fees has caused the price of Ether (ETH) to decline, with some analysts predicting further price decreases in 2025.

Lubin's comments come at a time when the Ethereum Foundation (EF) has been regrouping and outlining its priorities, emphasizing values such as decentralization and reliability. The EF recently announced the creation of the Silviculture Society, an independent group providing informal advice on key ecosystem development issues. Additionally, the EF announced leadership changes, with Xiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stanczak becoming the new executive directors.

Vitalik Buterin, another co-founder of Ethereum, reminded the community of the original vision of the ecosystem as a global distributed computing machine. He described Ethereum as a worldwide computer that is regularly updated and improved, with L2 solutions acting as GPUs. Buterin identified several priority changes, including increased decentralization, resistance to censorship, quantum resilience, improving scalability, and developing decentralized applications (dapps) like social networks and payment services.

One of the innovative projects in the Ethereum ecosystem is MegaETH, a Layer 2 solution with claimed instant transaction finalization and a speed of 100,000 transactions per second (TPS). The project was inspired by Buterin's work on a hypothetical network with 10,000 TPS that could remain trusted and censorship-resistant even with centralized blockchain creation. MegaETH is a modular rollup with parallel execution of transactions and a unique single sequencer decentralization architecture with a third-party data availability (DA) layer from EigenDA. The network reached a speed of 15,000 TPS in private testing and aims to double this figure once the patented parallelization mechanism is activated.

MegaETH's public testnet is set to launch in the coming weeks, and the network has already raised significant funding. In its first approach, MegaLabs managed to raise a total of $20 million. In a stage held on December 13, the ICO team raised an additional $10 million in just three minutes. A third round of fundraising through the sale of Fluffle's NFT collection gained approximately $28 million. The team aims to reduce latency by offering computing capabilities close to the performance of centralized Web2 servers and uses RAM to store the entire state, allowing MegaETH to process requests faster than traditional solutions limited by the speed of SSD storage.

Experts highlight the key differentiating features of MegaETH, including a new state tree structure, optimized storage, parallel execution, efficient state synchronization, and Streaming EVM. The network has four main roles: sequencers, proof nodes, full nodes, and replication nodes. The sequencer is responsible for sequencing and executing user transactions, while proof nodes check blocks in a flexible order without storing states about the transaction. Replication nodes receive updates from the sequencer and apply changes by updating their local states, and full nodes verify each transaction to match blocks.

MegaETH developers initially turned to an alternative way of data placement - EigenDA from EigenLayer. Although the security mechanisms have not yet been subjected to real stress tests, it allows publishing blocks with a throughput of more than 100 MB/s, which significantly speeds up information processing and its transfer upon user request. Despite some concerns, MegaETH's public face and head of development under the nickname Bread noted Ethereum's excessive focus on decentralization, which has put L2 leaders like Base's Jesse Pollack in a desperate position. The pursuit of decentralization has forced them to find ways to scale faster. Although some consider third-party data placement and the lack of consensus of multiple sequencers to be a problem, the blockchain device is equipped with decentralized second-order nodes. The combination of three P2P nodes provides distributed transaction verification and reduces the hardware requirements of node operators.

The test network of the "innovative" rollup launched on March 10, 2025. The third round of fundraising took place through the sale of SBT, which realized 5,000 NFTs at a price of 1 ETH. It is envisioned that 5% of the future token issue will be distributed to 10,000 NFT holders. Based on the latest estimate, the cost of the project is at least $540 million. The team will release a total of 10,000 SBT in two rounds to active whitelisted users, who can unlock customizable items that will allow them to personalize their rabbits. Each NFT will have several stages of development, evolving based on the owner's activity on the MegaETH network. The higher the stage, the higher the reward.

To attract developers and entrepreneurs, the team runs the MegaMafia program. This initiative includes support from the MegaLabs team, as well as participation in project meetings and hackathons. Due to MegaETH's compatibility with EVM, dapps like Uniswap and Aave can be easily ported to this network. However, the main plan is to grow the ecosystem with new applications that can take full advantage of the high speed and bandwidth. MegaMafia is working on several projects, including the high-speed decentralized exchange GTE, Valhalla's derivatives trading platforms, and Euphoria, a platform that turns trading into a game by allowing users to click on a chart to bet against its movement. Other innovative applications include Sweep, a streaming platform similar to Twitch that offers users to bet on various events, and Autonomous World Engine - a 3D world in the style of Roblox, where you can earn coins. Early integration with testnet will allow you to evaluate the prospects of the project and see for yourself the speed, convenience, and level of intuitive design of projects.