Recently, the battlefield of Layer2 seems to have calmed down. The landscape of giants like Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync has been established, with some launching tokens and others building ecosystems. Many people feel that the story of Layer2 has come to an end, and it's time to look for new hotspots.
But today, I want to present a viewpoint that might make you frown: the war of Layer2 has never ended; it has merely evolved from the 'bottom layer protocol war' to the 'upper layer application war.' And the real crown does not belong to any generic L2 but to the 'super application chains' that emerge from them.
Don't understand? To put it simply: the competition between Android and iOS systems is about the same, but the competition for 'national applications' like WeChat, Douyin, and Genshin Impact within their respective systems is the key to where we spend our time each day.
1. Why 'application chains' instead of 'general chains'?
This stems from a fundamental contradiction: the dream of 'a single chain serving all applications' clashes with the reality that 'different applications have different needs'.
A decentralized exchange (DEX) needs extremely low transaction latency and gas fees.
A GameFi game requires extremely high TPS to handle massive in-game interactions.
A decentralized social media requires strong data storage and indexing capabilities.
Let them all crowd onto the same general chain (even if it's Layer 2), just like letting F1 race cars, heavy trucks, and bicycles all race on the same highway; nobody can race comfortably.
Application-specific chains (Appchains) solve this problem. They customize blockchains for specific applications, having their own validators, gas pricing models, and governance rules. They can sacrifice some decentralization for performance; they can also raise validation thresholds for security. 'Specialization' brings 'efficiency'.
2. Who is laying out the future of 'application chains'?
This silent war has long begun:
1. The 'support' from exchanges
Certain chains of 'An' and 'K' are essentially huge 'application chain incubators'. They attract developers to deploy applications on their chains with low fees and ready users. As these applications grow, they become vertical application chains. The ultimate ambition of exchanges is to become the galaxy center of the 'application chain universe'.
2. The 'empowerment' from public chains
The technical essence of Cosmos's IBC, Polkadot's parachains, and Avalanche's subnets is born to interconnect 'application chains'. They do not pursue how many applications they have on top of them, but rather how many application chains they can connect and empower. Their battlefield is 'inter-chain protocols', serving as the 'routers' for application chains.
3. The 'self-reliance' of super applications
Imagine if Uniswap feels too constrained on Ethereum; it completely has the capability to fork a 'Unichain' based on technologies like OP Stack or Arbitrum Orbit, optimized for trading to the extreme. When an application becomes powerful enough, transitioning from 'renting' to 'buying land and building' is the inevitable choice.
3. Where are our opportunities? Don't just trade 'shovels', discover 'gold mines'.
In the face of the 'application chain' trend, ordinary investors should not trade projects that build 'shovels' (underlying development tools), but rather:
1. Invest in the builders of 'on-chain kingdoms'
Look for those already having a large user base, rich cash flow, and clearly limited by the performance of existing public chains. Research whether they have plans or capabilities to migrate to application chains. If they successfully 'establish a nation', their value capture will upgrade from 'application tax' to 'kingdom minting tax'.
2. Pay attention to aggregators of 'cross-chain liquidity'
The more application chains there are, the more fragmented assets and users become. Whoever can efficiently and safely transfer assets and value from one chain to another will be the 'canal toll collector' of the new era. The value of cross-chain bridges and liquidity aggregation protocols will be reassessed.
3. Embrace 'modular' thinking
In the future, an application may consist of multiple modules: an A chain for settlement, a B chain for computation, and a C chain for storage. Focus on those that achieve excellence in a specific area (such as DA data availability) within modular blockchains. They may become indispensable 'LEGO bricks'.
The ultimate goal of blockchain may not be a 'world computer', but rather a 'continent of application chains'. There are countless digital city-states of varying sizes and characteristics. General Layer 2 serves as the highway network connecting them, while true wealth lies within those 'city-states' that can attract residents to settle and generate active economies.
For us, rather than struggling at highway toll booths (L2 tokens), it is better to discover those early city-states (super application chains) that have the potential to become 'Shanghai' or 'Shenzhen' and become their early residents.
If you are also excited about the future of 'application chains' and want to explore early value niches together, please follow me@币圈罗盘 #加密市场反弹 $BTC $ETH
