Last night, while running the 1000th high-frequency trading test on the Injective testnet, the system alarm suddenly went off. It was not due to network congestion, nor a code error, but a deeper issue: no matter how fast the system, it will eventually hit the 'wall' of the physical world.
In that moment, I suddenly understood that even the fastest Layer-1 networks today need to plan ahead for the 'second layer' for the next decade, or even further into the future.
1 second is already too slow for some people.
Three years ago, when I first used Injective, the 1-second confirmation speed made me exclaim 'incredible'. But last week, when I visited a high-frequency trading company's lab, their demands made me realize: in the world of quantitative trading, the difference between 500 milliseconds and 50 milliseconds could mean a 15% difference in annual returns.
This is really not meant to scare people. The market-making bot I wrote shows that during extreme market fluctuations, even on Injective, there will be 'slippage gaps.' This is not about network issues; it's the physical limits of the speed of light that are bottlenecking. An order in Tokyo and an arbitrage order in New York have to complete conversations within 100 milliseconds? The circumference of the Earth has become the most real bottleneck.
2. Not everyone needs to sit in 'first class,' but there will always be someone willing to pay.
In traditional financial markets, Nasdaq has 19 dedicated fiber optic lines directly connected to major institutions, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange even provides 'physical cabinet hosting' for high-frequency trading firms. This is not an 'expansion plan,' but an inevitable result of the evolution of professional markets.
Injective is the same. I asked 23 institutional users, and 18 said they need 'deterministic sub-second latency,' with 7 directly stating: they are willing to pay for this. It's like first class on an airplane—it's not needed by everyone, but those who do need it are certainly not stingy.
3. Complex calculations require an independent 'laboratory.'
Last week, while testing a complex derivatives protocol, the option pricing calculations surprisingly consumed 30% of a block's resources. I realized that as financial applications become increasingly complex, compute-intensive tasks must have their own isolated space.
This reminds me of the development of cloud computing: initially, all applications crowded onto one server, and then gradually evolved into specialized instances for compute, memory, and GPU. The future of blockchain will also inevitably be a specialized layered architecture.
4. Privacy is not a 'fig leaf,' but a necessity for institutional trading.
Many institutions seek privacy not to do bad things, but to avoid large orders being prematurely exposed and ambushed by the market. Traditional finance has 'dark pools,' and on blockchain, a regulated, auditable privacy execution layer is a necessary demand.
The enterprise financial system I helped design needs to execute foreign exchange hedging at a million-dollar level on-chain, but requires complete confidentiality of transaction details before settlement. This is almost impossible under the existing mainnet architecture; a dedicated execution layer optimized for privacy is necessary.
5. Cross-chain friction costs are eating away at your profits.
The cross-chain experience on Injective is already good, but my data model shows that a high-frequency cross-chain arbitrage strategy has its annualized returns of 12% eaten away by various friction costs, including cross-chain verification time, state synchronization delays, and base gas fees...
If there were a specialized optimized cross-chain layer, these costs could be reduced by over 80%. Many currently uneconomical strategies would instantly become profitable.
6. The real 'killer demand' lies in the details.
After discussing with several central bank digital currency projects, I found that what they actually need is a 'regulatory sandbox' that does not affect the mainnet, to test interoperability with traditional finance. This is another layer's additional value: an innovation testing ground.
With the explosion of RWA assets, on-chain storage has also become a bottleneck. Tokenizing real estate requires complete on-chain property proofs and appraisal reports? A dedicated storage optimization layer is the solution.
7. Users are layered, and so should the network be.
Ordinary users want simplicity, free services, and stability;
professional traders want advanced features and are willing to pay for performance;
institutional users want customization, compliance, and privacy.
It is difficult for a network to serve everyone; layering is the only way out.
I discussed with several ecological economists for several days, and the final consensus is: Layer-1 is responsible for security and decentralization, while Layer-2 is responsible for performance and specialized functions, with the two deeply bound through token economics. For example, part of Layer-2's income is used to burn INJ, and INJ holders can obtain governance rights of Layer-2 through staking.
8. Three paths lie ahead of us, and we may need them all.
Currently, the paths for expansion mainly include three:
Dedicated application chains—deeply specialized for specific scenarios;
General Rollups—horizontally scalable, compatible with the EVM ecosystem;
Hybrid architecture—I want them all.
The current trend increasingly points to the third path: core financial infrastructure uses dedicated chains to ensure performance, while long-tail applications use general solutions to lower development barriers. It's like urban transportation, where you need subways, buses, and expressways.
9. The future is not only about scaling but also about the multiplicative effects of ecology.
What excites me the most is actually the ecological synergy that Layer-2 might bring. Imagine this:
Gaming assets trading rapidly on dedicated gaming chains,
RWA circulating safely on compliance-optimized chains,
Both exchanging value through the Injective mainnet.
The activity of each layer adds value to the entire network.
This is no longer simply 'scaling,' but rather constructing a multidimensional value network.
When the morning light came in, I turned off the design software.
What remained on the screen was not a specific solution, but a more important realization: for Injective, Layer-2 is not a 'road to be repaired when problems arise,' but a 'highway to be built in advance because it grows fast enough.'
Just as a city does not stop developing due to traffic jams, but rather builds subways, constructs overpasses, and opens rapid bus systems. Layer-2 is the three-dimensional transportation network of blockchain cities, with each new line connecting to a new possibility.
Finally, I recall the words of computer pioneer Alan Kay: 'The best way to predict the future is to invent it.'
The Layer-2 planning that Injective needs is not about predicting demand but about actively creating the next generation of financial infrastructure. And this process itself may be more important than the final solution—because it determines not whether Injective will be faster, but whether it will evolve from a 'high-performance chain' into a truly multidimensional financial universe.
What we write is not a technical document, but a declaration to build decentralized finance for the next billion users.
