Andre Cronje, the co-founder of Sonic Labs and a highly regarded figure in the DeFi space, recently sparked a contentious thread criticizing the practicality of layer-2 (L2) appchains.
Andre Cronje, the co-founder of Sonic Labs and a highly regarded figure in the DeFi space, recently sparked a contentious thread criticizing the practicality of layer-2 (L2) appchains.
On Oct. 13, Cronje voiced his concerns over appchains designed as blockchains made for special decentralized applications or functions. He claimed their major drawbacks are high infrastructure costs, fragmented liquidity, and limited developer support—all inhibitors to mainstream adoption.
Cronje's critique is informed by personal experience. He revealed that his team's infrastructure expenses have already reached $14 million this year alone. These endless costs, he argues, are what make the developers eventually get distracted from the core applications and users, ultimately stunting innovation and growth in the space.
Cronje also raised red flags regarding liquidity fragmentation in appchains, arguing that liquidity is forcibly pushed onto centralized bridges vulnerable to attacks.
Following Cronje’s remarks, Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, offered a solution-oriented response. Boiron introduced the concept of AggLayer, an interoperable network of appchains he says can effectively solve many of the liquidity issues Cronje has pointed out.
Others added to the discussion on liquidity that the current version of rollups does indeed feature native bridges and native market makers, while zero-knowledge proofs are getting better and will help further optimize cross-chain fund movements.
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