Educational purpose: This article explains concepts and risks. It is not individualized financial, legal, tax, or investment advice.
Layer 2 systems process activity away from a base blockchain and publish enough information back to the base layer to support verification or dispute resolution.
Rollups in plain language
Optimistic rollups assume batches are valid unless challenged. Zero-knowledge rollups attach cryptographic proofs. Both approaches aim to reduce the amount of work each base-layer participant must perform.
The trade-offs
Users should examine withdrawal delays, upgrade keys, sequencer design, data availability, bridge architecture, and the maturity of fraud-proof or validity-proof systems. “Layer 2” is a category, not a guarantee of identical security.