[Vitalik: Unless L2 can achieve 'extreme scalability' or innovation, the original vision is no longer applicable] BlockBeats news, February 3, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin posted on social media stating, 'With the Ethereum main chain (L1) itself scaling and the Gas limit plan significantly increasing, the originally envisioned "branded shards" for Layer 2 (L2) are no longer necessary. L2 cannot fully meet the characteristics that "branded shards" should have, and some projects may even remain at Stage 1 indefinitely to meet customer regulatory requirements. Therefore, L2 should be repositioned, no longer merely pursuing scalability, but instead offering unique additional features such as privacy-focused virtual machines, application-specific efficiency, extreme scalability, designs for non-financial applications like social/identity/AI, as well as functionalities like low latency or built-in oracles. Best practices for L2 include: at least maintaining Stage 1 standards (otherwise it essentially becomes an independent L1 with bridges) and striving for interoperability with Ethereum as much as possible, while exploring integration with native Rollup precompiles (ZK-EVM verification) to achieve secure, trustless cross-chain operations and synchronous composability. Users should clearly understand the guarantees provided by L2. The L2 ecosystem will offer diverse choices: chains that fully rely on Ethereum's trust and credibility, as well as chains with varying degrees of association, each focusing on different functionalities or application scenarios, truly achieving innovative additions rather than merely extending L1.'