Abstract contributor: L2 will compete with Ethereum in the short term, but in the long run it will help it beat other L1s

Regarding the view of Base protocol leader Jesse Pollak that "Ethereum and L2 are not in a zero-sum competition", Abstract Chain contributor cygaar wrote in X: "This may be a somewhat controversial view, but I do believe that L2 will compete with Ethereum L1 in the short term. Many workloads that once existed on L1 (NFT, transactions, DeFi, games) have moved to L2, resulting in a reduction in fees generated/destroyed on L1 in the past few years. However, the reason I say "short term" is that I believe L2 is the only way for the Ethereum ecosystem and ETH assets to compete with a large number of new L1s. One of the greatest features of Ethereum is its emphasis on decentralization. Unfortunately, most users don't care about decentralization until it's too late. L2 provides Ethereum with a way to maintain a highly decentralized platform while still being able to support fast and cheap transactions that compete with alt-L1. What Jesse is saying here is that in the long run, it is hoped that L2 will be able to serve so much traffic that some of the fees currently generated by Ethereum will exceed L2 Fees incurred before they came along. I tend to believe this is true. All in all, I think it’s fair to acknowledge that L2 does reduce the value accrual of L1 in the short term. However, I believe L2 is good for Ethereum in the long run and will be the way Ethereum beats many of the new L1s that emerge. ”