• Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal believes that Ethereum will emerge as the dominant smart contract protocol, and other competing layer 1s will fall by the wayside.
• Nailwal said that user activity will happen on layer 2s that interact with the Ethereum base layer.
• On Feb. 21, Polygon announced cutting 20% of its workforce due to prevailing macroeconomic conditions.
Ethereum to Dominate Crypto Landscape
Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal believes that Ethereum will emerge as the dominant smart contract protocol, and other competing layer 1s will fall by the wayside. Speaking to Ran Neuner on the Crypto Banter YouTube channel, Nailwal described his future vision of the crypto landscape: „I don’t think there’s going to be a multi-layer 2 environment. There’ll be a layer 1 environment; there will be one single layer 1, which is Ethereum in my mind.“ User activity will happen on layer 2s that interact with the Ethereum base layer, said Nailwal.
Other Protocols Unlikely To Survive
Neuner asked whether protocols such as Solana, Aptos, Avalanche and Cardano would eventually disappear. Nailwal said that none of these protocols had demonstrated significant traction nor have their respective layer 2s — leading him to conclude that no other chain could compete with Ethereum: „I don’t see any significant traction on any of these chains.“ The video elicited a wide range of comments from users who disagreed with Nailwal’s assessment or pointed out his shortsightedness for dismissing the multi-chain future.
Polygon Woes
On Feb 21., Polygon announced cutting 20% of its workforce due to prevailing macroeconomic conditions despite remaining in a strong financial position with cash holdings of over $250 million and MATIC tokens valued at approximately $2.7 billion. Users also reported a delay in block production lasting around two hours on Feb 22., which Nailwal attributed to an issue with their native block explorer recommending users use OKLink instead in the meantime.
Reactions From The Community
The video elicited a wide range of comments — one user pointed out that layers 2s exist to patch the failings of the base layer and that “new layer 1s” require no patching while others spoke about Nailwal’s shortsightedness for dismissing a multi-chain future .
Conclusion
Ultimately , it remains unclear what direction blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are heading towards . While some like Sandeep may believe in only one chain dominating , others disagree . At this point , it is still anyone’ s guess as far as where things are headed .
