On February 4, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) networks, initially envisioned for "brand sharding," are becoming less essential as the Layer 1 (L1) scales and gas limits increase, as reported by BlockBeats. Buterin urged L2s to pivot from solely focusing on throughput to developing differentiated features, including privacy-focused virtual machines, application-specific efficiency, extreme scaling solutions, and non-financial designs for social, identity, or AI applications, alongside lower latency or built-in oracle capabilities. The announcement sparked varied community responses; some supported the view that L1 progress diminishes the need for many L2s, while others expressed concern over potential impacts on L2 project confidence and highlighted their continued utility for high-throughput scenarios. Paradigm's Dan Robinson and Avalanche's Emin Gün Sirer also weighed in on the discussion.