From world computer to world ledger, will Ethereum become an on-chain central bank?

On June 20, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin replied to a tweet by ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin, stating “Ethereum Layer 1 (Ethereum L1) is the world ledger.”

This is also a rare statement from Vitalik regarding the recent discussions on the macro narrative of Ethereum.

As is well known, in the blockchain world, each public chain basically has a design positioning, which often lays the foundation for its technical architecture and ecological style.

For example, Ethereum, since its inception, has had the ultimate vision of building a “world computer”: an open platform that can run any smart contract and carry various Web3 application logic. Vitalik has also clearly pointed out that Ethereum is not just a payment network, but a general-purpose decentralized computing layer.

So today, what kind of narrative evolution has taken place from the ‘world computer’ to the ‘world ledger’?

01. Ethereum: The Original Intention of the World Computer

In fact, it’s not just Ethereum; even Bitcoin, which initially proposed the vision of “Electronic Cash,” has seen its payment position gradually fade with the growth in size and market evolution, shifting towards a core of value storage as “digital gold.”

Objectively speaking, this transformation itself is a pragmatic choice. After all, BTC, as a representative of crypto assets breaking boundaries, has been substantially incorporated into the balance sheets of mainstream financial institutions and is gradually becoming one of the core assets in TradFi allocations.

Looking back at the development path of Ethereum, we find that although the main line has not experienced dramatic changes in grand narratives, it has long been in a state of continuous dynamic evolution.

Since the market cycle evolution that started in 2016, Ethereum has been the leader among all smart contract platforms, leading to the birth of a large number of on-chain use cases across the entire track. From ERC20 to DeFi, and then to NFTs and blockchain games, each round of hotspots has confirmed the charm of “on-chain computing power.”

It can be said that smart contracts have always been at its core, which is why Vitalik has repeatedly emphasized that Ethereum is a decentralized application platform aimed at supporting various Web3 native logics, not just asset transfers. However, at the same time, we also see contradictions in reality.

The most criticized aspects are undoubtedly the high Gas fees and low TPS performance issues that have limited the large-scale implementation of truly complex computational logic. It is against this backdrop that Rollup technology has gradually come to the forefront since 2020. After five years of development, Ethereum has also gradually established a “L1+L2” layered structure.

In this architecture, especially over the past two years, there have been increasing signs that Ethereum is showing signs of becoming a trustworthy, stable, sovereign-level “world ledger.”

02, Narrative Reconstruction under the Division of L1+L2

If we were to summarize this division of labor in one sentence, “the Ethereum mainnet is responsible for security and settlement, while L2 handles high-frequency interactions” would be quite accurate.

In simple terms, the Ethereum ecosystem has now formed a clear division of labor, where the mainnet is responsible for providing security and infrastructure support for final settlement, while L2s (such as Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, etc.) carry most of the high-frequency trading and user operations.

This not only enhances scalability but also further strengthens the value capture logic of Ether, naturally positioning the Ethereum mainnet as a “global decentralized ledger.” The more L2s there are, the more successful and prosperous the ecosystem becomes, and the higher the value of the Ethereum mainnet as a unified ledger.

After all, all L2 networks rely on it as a “Central Bank” level settlement layer.

As Web3 researcher Haotian stated, EIP-1559 is undoubtedly a key turning point in the Ethereum narrative. It not only introduced the Base Fee and burning mechanism but also deeply reshaped the way Ethereum captures value, shifting it from relying on the Gas revenue generated from a large number of transactions on the mainnet to relying on L2 for continuous “taxation.”

In other words, in the past, users were direct customers of the mainnet, but now they have become L2’s respective agent operators, responsible for providing services to users and collecting fees, ultimately “remitting” fees to the mainnet in exchange for settlement rights. This mechanism design is very similar to the historical “tax farming system”:

• The mainnet becomes the ultimate trusted ledger for transaction clearing and settlement, similar to a Central Bank;
• L2 is like a commercial bank, responsible for high-frequency services aimed at users;
• And every L2 transaction that returns to the mainnet for verification will burn ETH, paying for the security of the ledger.

It can be said that Ethereum has not given up on the vision of being the “world computer”; rather, the division of labor architecture and development path of L1 + L2 is guiding it to first become the “world ledger.”

03, the realism of the “World Ledger” landing.

Another interesting observation is that each round of ETH value explosion actually comes from the mainnet being “put to use” in its role as a ledger.

Just like the ERC20 wave in 2017 served as the clearing and settlement layer for issuing tokens, the DeFi Summer in 2020 was a fund settlement platform under smart contract combinations. Recently, if this round explodes again due to the tokenization of US stocks, RWA, and other financial assets on-chain, Ethereum remains that trusted ledger.

Because for TradFi, computing power is certainly important, but what really determines whether to migrate on-chain is always the “trust, finality, and security” of the ledger — this is the most critical point for compliant assets.

This is also why platforms like Robinhood are choosing to launch US stock token trading services based on L2s like Arbitrum. Behind this choice is not only the recognition of the performance of the Rollup architecture, but more importantly, these transactions will ultimately return to the Ethereum mainnet for settlement.

This also indicates that the performance, security, and compliance capabilities of existing L2 solutions are sufficient to meet the trading needs of core assets in traditional finance. In a sense, this wave of “U.S. stocks on-chain” has actually reinforced Ethereum’s positioning as a global financial settlement infrastructure, further validating the feasibility and real demand for its role as a “world ledger.”

This is the realistic evolution path of Ethereum from “world computer” to “world ledger”—it no longer merely promises a future of on-chain applications, but is increasingly chosen by more and more mainstream assets in the real world as the settlement endpoint.

From this perspective, such trends are not only a confirmation of the value of Ethereum L1 but will also profoundly reconstruct the value capture logic of L2, driving the entire Ethereum ecosystem to truly connect between technology and financial infrastructure.

In short, the narratives that can truly drive this chain towards hundreds of millions of users are not just about what Ethereum can do, but rather about:

What the real world is willing to do with Ethereum.

Statement:

1. This article is reprinted from [TechFlow] The copyright belongs to the original author [TechFlow] If you have objections to the reprint, please contact Gate Learn TeamThe team will process it as quickly as possible according to the relevant procedures.
2. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
3. Other language versions of the article are translated by the Gate Learn team, unless otherwise stated.GateUnder such circumstances, it is not permitted to copy, disseminate, or plagiarize translated articles.