Optimism Co-Founders: What Happened to the L2s?

Summary

Ben Jones and Karl Floersch, co-founders of Optimism, discuss the L2 reckoning and Optimism's pivot to an enterprise chain-as-a-service model with major exchange clients. Karl makes the case that Ethereum's real competitor is Bitcoin as a store of value, while L2s compete with execution chains. The conversation also covers token dynamics, AI in development, and the long-term vision for composable block space as a universal backend.

• L2 hype faded because many chains lacked differentiated products and fundamentals.
• Optimism evolved from a single L2 chain to selling managed block space as an enterprise SAAS, with significant revenue from exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and OKX.
• Op Mainnet still serves as a launching pad for projects that may later migrate to their own chain.
• Karl argues Ethereum's primary competitor is Bitcoin as a decentralized store of value, not Solana or Hyperliquid, and ETH is currently undervalued.
• The founders believe many specialized chains will interoperate, making custom block space analogous to owning a website.
• Having a token provides a treasury but can be emotionally brutal; the team focuses on fundamentals over price.
• AI tools dramatically accelerate coding but require methodical engineering to avoid technical debt.
• Crypto's ultimate goal is to become the backend for all web platforms, offering no-compromise decentralization once complexity is reduced.