TechFlow news — On September 12, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on social media announcing that starting from 2025, he will raise the bar for publicly endorsing Layer 2 (L2) projects. Vitalik stated he will only mention in public forums—including blog posts and speeches—L2 projects that have reached Stage 1 or higher, with a possible short grace period for innovative new projects.
Vitalik emphasized that this standard will be strictly enforced, unaffected by investment ties or personal relationships. He revealed that several ZK-rollup teams have indicated they are on track to meet the Stage 1 criteria by the end of 2024. According to Vitalik’s definition, Stage 1 requires that a project's council must need more than 75% majority to override the proof system, and at least 26% of council members must come from outside the rollup team.
Vitalik noted that while security measures should not be prematurely abandoned, Stage 1 represents a reasonable and moderate milestone. Citing his own experience with multi-signature wallets that have operated for years without single points of failure, he believes the requirement of 26% external council membership is achievable.
