Vitalik Buterin's new perspective on fast withdrawals for L2 raises questions.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's recent remarks on L2 fast withdrawals have garnered widespread attention within the industry. He believes that achieving fast withdrawals within one hour is more important than reaching Stage 2, and the logic behind this adjustment in priority is worth exploring in depth.

First of all, the one-week withdrawal waiting period has indeed become a serious problem in practical applications. Not only does it lead to a poor user experience, but more critically, it significantly increases cross-chain costs. Taking intention-based bridging solutions like ERC-7683 as an example, liquidity providers have to bear a week of capital occupation costs, which directly results in higher cross-chain fees. The result is that users are forced to choose to trust multi-signature solutions with weaker assumptions, which is exactly contrary to the original intention of L2.

To address this issue, Vitalik proposed a 2-of-3 hybrid proof system that combines ZK, OP, and TEE technologies. Among them, ZK and TEE can provide immediacy, while TEE and OP both have sufficient production verification. Theoretically, any combination of two systems can ensure security, thus avoiding the time cost of simply waiting for ZK technology to mature completely.

Secondly, Vitalik's new statement seems to indicate that he is becoming more pragmatic. From a youth full of ideals of "decentralization" and "anti-censorship," he has transformed into a pragmatist who directly provides hard metrics: 1-hour withdrawals and 12-second finality. This shift essentially re-prioritizes the entire L2 track.

This transformation is essentially paving the way for the ultimate form of the "Rollup-Centric" grand strategy, aimed at making Ethereum L1 truly a unified settlement layer and liquidity hub. Once fast withdrawals and cross-chain aggregation are realized, the difficulty for other public chains to challenge the Ethereum ecosystem will significantly increase.

Vitalik's shift also reflects the market's real choices. The market places more emphasis on experience and practical benefits rather than decentralized technological slogans. This transition from "ideal-driven" to "result-oriented" reflects the entire Ethereum ecosystem evolving towards a more commercial and competitive direction.

However, to achieve the long-term goals of real-world experiences and infrastructure development, the Ethereum ecosystem is likely to engage in fierce competition in terms of the maturity of ZK technology and cost control.

Currently, although ZK technology is advancing rapidly, cost remains a realistic constraint. A ZK proof of 500k+ gas means that in the short term, only an hourly submission frequency can be achieved. To reach the ultimate goal of 12 seconds, breakthroughs in aggregation technology will also be necessary.

This logic is very clear: the cost of a single Rollup frequently submitting proofs is too high, but if multiple Rollup proofs can be aggregated into one, it becomes economically feasible when distributed across each time slot (12 seconds).

This also proposes a new technological route for the L2 competitive landscape. L2 projects that can achieve breakthroughs in ZK proof optimization may find their foothold, while those still focusing on Optimistic proofs may face directional challenges in future development.