From world computer to world ledger, will Ethereum become an on-chain central bank?
On June 20, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin retweeted a tweet from ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin, stating that “Ethereum L1 is the world’s ledger.”
This is also a rare statement from Vitalik regarding the recent discussion on Ethereum’s macro narrative.
As we all know, in the blockchain world, each public chain basically has a design positioning, which often lays the foundation for its technical architecture and ecological style.
For example, Ethereum, since its inception, has had the ultimate vision of building a "world computer": an open platform that can run any smart contract and carry various Web3 application logic. Vitalik has also clearly pointed out that Ethereum is not just a payment network, but also a general decentralized computing layer.
So now, what kind of narrative changes have taken place from "world computer" to "world ledger"?
01. Ethereum: The original intention of the world computer
In fact, it is not just Ethereum. Even Bitcoin, which originally proposed the vision of "Electronic Cash", has gradually lost its payment positioning as its size grows and the market evolves, turning to "digital gold" with value storage as its core.
Objectively speaking, this transformation itself is a pragmatic choice. After all, as a representative of crypto assets that have broken through the circle, BTC has been substantially included in the balance sheets of mainstream financial institutions and has gradually become one of the core assets of TradFi configuration.
Looking back at the development path of Ethereum, we will find that although the main line has not undergone a drastic change in the grand narrative, it has long been in a continuous dynamic evolution:
In the evolution of market cycles that began in 2016, Ethereum, as the leader of all smart contract platforms, has led the birth of a large number of on-chain use cases in the entire track, from ERC20 to DeFi, to NFT and blockchain games. Each round of hot spots has confirmed the charm of "on-chain computing power".
It can be said that smart contracts have always been its core, so Vitalik has repeatedly emphasized that Ethereum is a decentralized application platform, and its goal is to carry various Web3 native logics, not just asset transfers. But at the same time, we also see contradictions in reality.
The most criticized are naturally the performance issues such as high gas fees and low TPS, which have limited the large-scale implementation of truly complex computing logic. It is in this context that Rollup technology has gradually come into use since 2020. After 5 years of development, Ethereum has gradually established a "L1+L2" layered structure.
Under this architecture, especially in the past two years, there are more and more signs that Ethereum is showing signs of becoming a trusted, stable, sovereign-level "world ledger".
02. Narrative reconstruction under the L1+L2 division of labor
If we use one sentence to summarize this division of labor, "The Ethereum mainnet is responsible for security and settlement, and L2 undertakes high-frequency interactions" should be appropriate.
To put it bluntly, a clear division of labor has been formed within the Ethereum ecosystem, where the main network is responsible for providing infrastructure guarantees for security and final settlement, while L2 (such as Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, etc.) carries most of the high-frequency transactions and user operations.
This not only improves scalability, but also further strengthens ETH's value capture logic, naturally pushing the Ethereum mainnet toward the position of a "global decentralized ledger." The more L2s there are, the more successful they are, the more prosperous the ecosystem is, and the higher the value of the Ethereum mainnet as a unified large ledger.
After all, all L2 networks rely on it as a "central bank" level settlement layer.
As Web3 researcher Haotian said, EIP-1559 is undoubtedly a key turning point in the Ethereum narrative. It not only introduces the Base Fee and burning mechanism, but also deeply reshapes Ethereum's value capture method, making Ethereum no longer rely on the Gas income brought by a large number of transactions on the main network, but instead relies on L2 to achieve continuous "tax payment".
In other words, in the past, users were the direct customers of the main network, but now L2 has become an agent for each operation, responsible for providing services to users, collecting fees, and ultimately "handing over" fees to the main network in exchange for settlement rights. This mechanism design is very similar to the "tax farmer system" in history:
- The mainnet becomes the final trusted ledger for transaction clearing and settlement, similar to a central bank;
- L2 is like a commercial bank, responsible for high-frequency services for users;
- When each L2 transaction returns to the main network for verification, ETH will be burned to pay for the security of the ledger;
It can be said that Ethereum has not given up its vision of becoming a "world computer", but its L1+L2 division of labor architecture and development path are guiding it to become a "world ledger" first.
03. The Realistic Implementation of the “World Ledger”
Another interesting observation dimension is that each round of ETH value explosion actually stems from the use of the main network as a ledger.
For example, the ERC20 wave in 2017 was the clearing and settlement layer for issuing tokens, and the DeFi Summer in 2020 was the fund settlement platform under the combination of smart contracts. If this recent round of outbreaks occurs again due to the tokenization of US stocks and the listing of financial assets such as RWA on the chain, Ethereum will still be the trusted ledger.
Because for TradFi, computing power is certainly important, but what really determines whether to migrate to the chain is always the "trust, finality and security" of the ledger - this is the core foothold of compliant assets.
This is also why platforms like Robinhood have chosen to launch US stock token trading services based on L2 such as Arbitrum. Behind this is not only recognition of the performance of the Rollup architecture, but more importantly, these transactions will eventually return to the Ethereum mainnet for settlement.
This also shows that the performance, security and compliance capabilities of the existing L2 solution are sufficient to meet the trading needs of traditional financial core assets. In a sense, this round of "U.S. stocks on the chain" wave has actually strengthened Ethereum's positioning as a global financial clearing and settlement infrastructure, and further verified the feasibility and practical needs of its "world ledger" role.
This is the realistic evolution path of Ethereum from "world computer" to "world ledger" - it no longer just promises future on-chain application scenarios, but is chosen by more and more mainstream assets in the real world as the settlement endpoint.
From this perspective, this trend is not only a confirmation of the value of Ethereum L1, but will also profoundly reconstruct the value capture logic of L2 and promote the true integration of technology and financial infrastructure in the entire Ethereum ecosystem.
In a nutshell, the narratives that can really drive this chain towards 100 million users are not just about what Ethereum can do, but also about:
What the real world is willing to do with Ethereum.
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