Ethereum Foundation Shifts Focus to Mainnet Development Amid Layer 2 Skepticism

The Ethereum Foundation has published its first protocol update report since restructuring its organization. This report outlines the foundation's focus on mainnet development and its plans for Layer 1 growth.

Focusing on 'what only protocols can do,' the new protocol organization will handle essential tasks, such as Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), development networks (Devnets), and mainnet deployment. This strategy is part of a larger effort to concentrate development capabilities on maintaining the mainnet and core protocol research.

The foundation has prioritized mainnet stability (P0), Glamsterdam and Hegotá upgrades (P1), upcoming hard fork research (P2), and long-term research (P3). The short-term goal is to implement the Glamsterdam upgrade on the mainnet in the fourth quarter of this year.

The report also highlights the growth of skepticism about Layer 2 within the community. Critics argue that Layer 2 projects, such as Coinbase's Base, are not sufficiently contributing to the Ethereum ecosystem and are instead generating profits by utilizing Ethereum's security and network without returning value to the network.