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Upgradeability of Ethereum L2s
About the report
In recent years the Ethereum L2s ecosystem has grown tremendously in terms of the number of available systems, the number of different system architectures, and their complexity. As a direct consequence, a deeper understanding of the management mechanisms of these systems has grown increasingly important. Almost all present-day L2s are equipped with some form of upgrade mechanism, whether a code implementation upgrade or system parameters update. Given that these systems are in their relative infancy and continue to evolve, it's reasonable to expect that these upgrade mechanisms will remain an essential aspect of L2s for the foreseeable future.
This report is a snapshot of our current knowledge as of June 2023. In the report, we delve into various aspects of system upgradeability. We start with why and when we need Layer 2s to be upgradable, both from a user’s and an operator’s perspective. We go through different aspects that need to be considered when thinking about code upgradeability and managing system parameters, and we finish with our recommendations regarding the design of the systems architecture and safety measures. Attached at the end, you will find our analysis of 8 existing L2s and how they approached upgradeability and management. For every project, we focus primarily on the technical and organizational aspects, leaving away considerations regarding the governance structures and processes.