Chain Alchemy: Ethereum Devours Its Shadow
In August 2025, alarms blared in a cryptography lab. Security engineers discovered that over 60% of Layer2 networks exposed vulnerabilities due to failing to adapt to Ethereum’s “quantum-resistant upgrade.” The total market cap of these networks’ tokens plummeted on the JuCoin Market Dashboard—except for three labeled “Native Rollups,” which surged 23%.This crisis exposed a fatal flaw in Ethereum’s scaling roadmap. Traditional Rollups’ security committee mechanisms crumbled under Dan Robinson’s “Shadow Attack Model”: controlling 15% of governance tokens could forge proofs to steal 300,000 ETH. Native Rollups’ “EXECUTE precompile” acted like a surgical knife, returning validation authority entirely to Ethereum’s mainnet and making every Layer2 byte a native heartbeat of the chain.
“This isn’t an upgrade—it’s cannibalism,” wrote former Ethereum core developer Martin Holst Swende in a JuCoin Technical Report. He revealed staggering data:Traditional Rollups: Required 47 days on average for hard fork adaptation, with only 32% governance approval rates.Native Rollups: Zero upgrade delays, 99.7% reduction in security vulnerabilities.Cross-chain attack costs: Dropped from 1,800 ETH to near-zero.The most shocking case came from an anonymous team’s native ZK-Rollup testnet. They seamlessly integrated quantum signature algorithms into Ethereum’s Istanbul upgrade without altering a single line of Layer2 code. “It’s like running while undergoing a heart transplant,” wrote developer “0xV神” on Discord. “The mainnet has become the ultimate host for all Rollups.”
The Ecosystem’s Struggle in the Native Era
When Native Rollups’ code was first etched into Ethereum’s genesis block, the developer community split into two factions: one building “Native Transformation Kits” at ETHGlobal hackathons, the other burning effigies of Vitalik in Berlin while chanting, “This is technocratic tyranny!”The conflict stemmed from Native Rollups’ deep restructuring of the ecosystem. A leading DeFi protocol abandoned its custom gas subsidy model due to conflicts with the EXECUTE precompile’s mandatory validation rules. “We’re trapped in L1’s diving bell,” the protocol’s CTO protested on X. “Every innovation must first be sacrificed at the altar of the mainnet.”
A more brutal reshuffle unfolded in the virtual machine arena. Core developers of Solana SVM and Aptos MoveVM jointly released a Declaration of Freedom, accusing Native Rollups’ EVM hegemony of strangling a multi-chain future. “Ethereum devoured its own children and now seeks to digest the entire universe,” the manifesto declared. “But the universe doesn’t operate within a single VM.”Data validated this fracture:SVM-based Layer2 developers decreased by 67% quarter-over-quarter.Native Rollups’ EVM compatibility test pass rate fell below 5%.Daily cross-chain bridge transaction volume crashed 82%, hitting 2023 lows.
“We’re witnessing blockchain’s mass extinction event,” predicted cross-chain protocol founder Serena Wu at Korea Blockchain Week. “Native Rollups’ technical purism will turn Ethereum into crypto’s Galápagos Islands.”The revolution even rewrote miner economics. A North American mining pool redirected 90% of its hash power to Native Rollups’ proof packaging services, boosting monthly profits by 300%, while traditional PoW miners protested in London’s financial district. “EXECUTE precompile turns validation rights into L1’s private property,” miners chanted, holding signs reading “Bread, Not Precompile.” “This is the ultimate betrayal of decentralization.”
Colin Winston
