Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently proposed a thought-provoking vision: Ethereum should become the "Linux" of the digital society. This analogy immediately caused a significant ripple across the entire crypto community.

From a visionary perspective, this idea is indeed grand. Vitalik pointed out that Linux's greatness lies in its open-source, free nature, yet it has become the cornerstone of global infrastructure. Ethereum's goal is similar—making the mainnet the most fundamental "trust root" in the digital society. Core functions involving autonomy such as finance, identity, and governance should all be built on Ethereum. The Ethereum Foundation's clear objective is to develop it into the value operating system of the internet.

But what about the reality? The situation is much more complex. There are 127 Layer-2 scaling chains in the backyard, engaged in fierce competition. In theory, L2 is a scalability solution, but in practice, it’s a not-so-garm war.

First, the race is overly crowded. On the surface, there are many options, but traffic and revenue are almost monopolized by a few leading L2s, showing a typical winner-takes-all pattern. Second, revenue collapse. Intense competition has caused most L2s to see a cliff-like decline in income, creating enormous survival pressure. Lastly, fragmented user experience. Each chain is like an isolated island, and cross-chain asset operations are quite complex, which actually worsens user experience.

This raises a deeper question: Are L2s truly helping Ethereum break through bottlenecks, or are they secretly splitting the ecosystem? When Vitalik talks about a unified trust foundation, the chaos among L2s might tear the ecosystem into disconnected fragments. Will this internal strife ultimately forge a more powerful, diverse system, or will it dismantle this grand vision from within?

The core issue Ethereum needs to address is: how to get these 127 chains to truly work together, rather than fighting each other and consuming resources. The answer may determine the future trajectory of the Ethereum ecosystem.