Cardano Founder Shares Take on Bitcoin L2 Potentials, Community Reacts

Charles Hoskinson, Cardano (ADA) founder does not think that Bitcoin L2 has enough potential, especially compared to the Ethereum and Cardano ecosystem.

The Bottleneck With Bitcoin L2s

In response to an update provided by the co-creator of the Stacks protocol, Muneeb Ali about the Satoshi Round Table that was held in Dubai, Hoskinson strongly believes that Bitcoin cannot support the vibrancy of a layer-2 scaling solution. He went on to explain that the BTC network can not change to accommodate the dynamic L2 environment. 

Buttressing his position on Bitcoin L2, Hoskinson talked about how the Ethereum and Cardano networks are constantly undergoing targeted upgrades. Oftentimes, these improvements are done to boost developers’ ability to deploy L2s that are effective, efficient, reliable, and secure. One such upgrade is the BLS support that the Cardano protocol is currently adding to Plutus V3.

Having been around for more than ten years, I have seen this narrative thrice. It follows the halving.

Every L2 venture will learn that it's impossible because Bitcoin cannot change enough to support the things required for a vibrant L2 environment. Both Ethereum and Cardano… https://t.co/56jbfCax4U

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) February 4, 2024

There are also different updates happening with the Cardano Mithril and Hydra projects. The Hydra team has been making significant progress including addressing issues in smoke tests and website publishing workflows. The plan is to ensure a more robust development environment and include more ‘dogfooding’ through the use of Mithril to synchronize nodes in smoke tests. 

For Mithril, the team is faced with the release of the initial version of the Mithril client NPM package. These kinds of advancements provide the appropriate technical requirements for evolution. Ethereum also has a vibrant community of L2 developers as they are appropriately catered for in Ethereum’s core protocol. 

Hoskinson does not see the chances of Bitcoin engaging in such numerous upgrades or adding any other functionality, thereby becoming a stale atmosphere to L2s.

The Fast Approaching Bitcoin Halving

In Hoskinson’s opinion, the entire talk about Bitcoin L2 is only one of those narratives that accompany a typical BTC halving event. He claimed to have witnessed such a scenario three times. 

It is fast becoming general knowledge that the next Bitcoin halving event is scheduled to happen in April, hence, the Cardano founder’s claim may be valid. This is because many innovators are aiming to capitalize on the hype that might trail the halving event to launch a series of Bitcoin L2s

Meanwhile, the statement from Hoskinson has sparked a reaction from the crypto community on X. Many of them voiced their support for Bitcoin, citing that the top network can do what other networks are doing without adding any other feature or functionality.