Introduction

What is L2?

Layer 2 (L2) is a collective term to describe a specific set of Ethereum scaling solutions. A layer 2 is a separate blockchain that extends Ethereum and inherits the security guarantees of Ethereum.

Why L2?

Three desirable properties of a blockchain are that it is decentralized, secure, and scalable. The blockchain trilemma states that a simple blockchain architecture can only achieve two out of three. Want a secure and decentralized blockchain? You need to sacrifice scalability.

The success of Ethereum and the demand to use it has caused gas prices to rise substantially. Therefore the need for scaling solutions has increased in demand as well. This is where layer 2 networks come in such as Optimism, Arbitrum.

Source: ETH L2

Methodology

In this dashboard I am going to review several metrics in order to establish the brigth or dark future of layer-2 chain solutions as Optimism. Therefore, I will compare Optimism, Arbitrum and Polygon as L2 solutions and try to see how the market share is distributed.

Three sifferent sections will appear in this report:

1. Transactions Analysis

   1. Tx count
   2. Tx Succes rate
   3. ETH bridged by native bridge
   4. Transactions per second (TPS)

2. Users and fees

   1. Active users
   2. Total and average fees

3. Top projects

   1. Optimism/Arbitrum/Polygon top projects interactions

Transactions Analysis

Users and fees (ETH)

• Regarding tx count Polygon is clearly #1 compared to Optimism and Arbitrum. Aprox. Polygon has 10 times more tx than other L2 solutions (20M tx). Optimism and Arbitrum have seen a postive trend since end July. Optimism accounts for +1M tx and Arbitrum accounts for almost 1M tx during 2022.
• As per succes rate on their tx Arbitrum is #1 with a rate of 97%. Optimism has 93% while Polygon 91%. As more tx more probability not to succeed on all of them.
• Talking about ETH bridged we can say that Arbitrum and Polygon are figthing for #1 while Optimism seems to have lower volume during first part of the year but more and more volume nowadays.
• As per TPS, Polygon is nº1 by far. Arbitrum have dobled Optimism TPS.

Only looking at Tx metrics seems that Optimism is losing participation of L2 solutions cake.

• As per active users Optimism is the last L2 solution compared to Arbitrum and Polygon. Polygon has x20 more active users than OP and x10 than Arbitrum.
• When talking about fees:
  • Optimism has the higher values on average fees per transaction ($0,27). Arbitrum is not that far from Optimism in the vast majority of days. However, Polygon has increadibly low fees. around 1/2 of Optimism ones.
  • If we talk about total fees recolected Polygon is nº1 as they have much more tx than other L2 solutions.

Top projects

• This section sis about TOP projects that user interacted the most.

• For Optimism:

  • Hop protocol account for more than 35% of Optimism tx followed by perpetual protocol qith 21% of tx.

• For Arbitrum:

  • Hop protocol in this L2 solution has more than 50% of the marketshare. Being specific hop protocol account for more than 66% of tx.

• For Polygon:

  • Aave and uniswap are their Top projects with 40% and 24% of tx.

• Must be said that interactions with projects had a positive trend since the start of the year in 3 L2 solutions.