Ethereum (ETH) Co-Founder Ye Zhang Pushes Back Against Calls to Impose Fees on Layer-2 Networks

The co-founder of Ethereum layer-2 network Scroll has pushed back against calls for Ethereum to impose fees on layer-2 networks.

Ye Zhang, the co-founder of Ethereum layer-2 network Scroll, has pushed back against calls for Ethereum to impose fees on layer-2 networks.

In a lengthy post on Monday, Zhang argued that the proposal was harmful to Ethereum’s long-term vision. He described it as a “toxic” approach that prioritizes short-term revenue over lasting ecosystem value.

Instead of focusing on taxing L2 activity, Zhang suggested that Ethereum’s strength lies in being the central asset around which multiple Layer-2 (L2) ecosystems are built. He added that taxing these networks feels like a "corporation thinking" and goes against the decentralized spirit of Web3.

According to Zhang, people should not measure Ethereum’s value by protocol income. Rather, the network should be viewed as the economic foundation on which a vibrant rollup-centric ecosystem is flourishing.

“ETH's real strength isn't in protocol fees — it's in becoming the hub asset across thousands of rollup ecosystems. That's the future,” he stated.

Highlighting ETH's presence on major L2 platforms like Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, and Scroll, Zhang noted that even on networks like StarkNet, which don't use ETH for gas, the digital asset remains a key trading pair on decentralized exchanges.

Ethereum’s future

Considering this, Zhang outlined two possible directions for Ethereum.

In one scenario, ETH evolves into a trusted store of value and a central hub for rollup activity. Every aligned L2 expands Ethereum’s surface area and social consensus.

According to Zhang:

“A thousand scalable rollups with ETH as the center > any monolithic chain.”

On the other hand, if people decide to go all-in on taxing L2 activity, they might be tempted to switch to another data availability layer, reducing ETH's influence.

To avoid this, Zhang encouraged the community to focus on scaling execution and improving data availability infrastructure. He called for a 1000x improvement in blob capacity and encouraged building out shared tools like cross-rollup liquidity bridges and interoperability solutions.

Zhang concluded:

“ETH wins by being the gravity, not the toll booth.”