crypto

Launching an L2 is like launching a website: it doesn’t really matter unless you’ve built something people want. 

There was outsized attention in the early days just for launching one, but that has rapidly diminished.

It’s just a part of the tech stack; but it’s not a thing in and of itself.

+1 — the L2 meta is people realizing that infrastructure is ultimately downstream of attention. Attention is all you need.

There will be a few chains like Base that are able to exist as platforms because of the distribution provided by their own "meta" apps, i.e. Coinbase and 100M KYC'd consumers.

Everyone else needs something extremely useful for end-users to drive volume. And even then, may make sense to just use the higher liquidity of a chain like Base.

Fat protocol thesis was a temporary, deployment phase phenomenon. There will still be infrastructure wins, but increasingly the value will accrue to apps (and protocols tightly coupled to apps).

Value in the L2 meta now comes from attention and end-user utility, with some chains like Base able to leverage their own apps for distribution. Other projects must provide high utility or use more liquid chains. The Fat protocol thesis is evolving towards app and protocol integration