Reasons why native Rollups were often avoided and Vitalik's strategic shift

What has become clear from Vitalik Buterin’s latest post is that he has significantly shifted his stance on native Rollups. His previous cautious approach was deeply rooted in concerns about technological maturity. At the core of this shift is the evolution of the entire ecosystem, particularly the acceleration of ZK technology and its implementations.

Maturity of ZK Technology and New Options for L2 Security

The main reason native Rollups were previously avoided was that pre-compile solutions faced a binary choice. L2 could either “enable fast asset withdrawals while bearing proof risks” or “depend on Ethereum’s security but require a 2-7 day withdrawal wait,” often forcing the latter. This constraint promoted the adoption of alternatives like multi-sig bridges, which ultimately reduced the overall system composability (interoperability).

However, the technological environment is rapidly changing. Ethereum’s roadmap to fully embrace ZK at the L1 level, along with the phased implementation of native Rollup pre-compiles, is beginning to align. This progress suggests that the previously significant barriers are gradually being addressed.

The Importance of Synchronous Composability and New Developments in Pre-compile Design

From Vitalik’s perspective, there is a growing movement within the community to recognize “synchronous composability” as a key value proposition of L2. Combining rollup-based solutions with low-latency pre-compile mechanisms is accelerating efforts to overcome traditional limitations.

In the specific implementation of native Rollup pre-compiles, Vitalik emphasizes that the design should not be approached recklessly. His ideal specification proposes that developers building “EVM with limited feature extensions” for rollups can directly reuse the native Rollup pre-compile EVM components and introduce customized proof systems only for new features. This approach enables environments where both can be connected in a standardized manner.

The underlying design philosophy here is to balance compatibility and flexibility. It is an attempt to address the complexities native Rollups have often faced through a phased approach. With the maturation of ZK-EVM and advances in pre-compile technology, a new stage in the L2 ecosystem is on the horizon.