Since its launch last week, the Degen Chain network has garnered attention from speculators, drawing both praise and criticism. Degen Chain, developed using Arbitrum Orbit by infrastructure provider Syndicate, debuted on March 28 as a specialized ultra-low-cost network for the Degen token ($DEGEN), the community token for users of the Farcaster Web3 social media service. As Farcaster continues to set new user activity records and its parent company eyes a unicorn valuation, early Degen adopters have seen substantial returns, with one trader turning a small investment into over $2 million in profit.
While profiting from memecoins is not new to the crypto space, Degen Chain stands out as one of the first Layer 3 (L3) chains to achieve significant adoption. On Degen Chain, an ecosystem of memecoins denominated in $DEGEN has facilitated tens of millions of dollars in trading volume.
However, not everyone shares the enthusiasm for L3 networks like Degen Chain. Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron criticized the focus on L3s in a recent post on X, stating, “L3s exist only to take value away from Ethereum and onto the L2s on which the L3s are built. You do not need L3s to scale.” Boiron argues that L3 networks undermine the security and value of the Ethereum base layer, posing a risk to Ethereum’s security if all L3s settle to one L2.
Polygon Labs, renowned for its Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions such as Polygon and Polygon zkEVM chains, has distanced itself from L3 projects. Boiron emphasizes that Polygon Labs does not work on L3s, focusing instead on optimizing Ethereum’s scalability through Layer 2 solutions. While Polygon zkEVM faced brief downtime last weekend, it has since resumed operations.