Ethereum is on the move in terms of development and price with the recent successful deployment of a number of layer-2 (L2) scaling solutions.
Scaling has long been an issue that has plagued the Ethereum ecosystem; however, that has not stopped developers rolling out new solutions and platforms for it.
Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin [@VitalikButerin], recently tweeted on the initial launch of a number of scaling solutions:
While everyone wasn’t looking, the initial deployment of ethereum’s layer 2 scaling strategy has *basically* succeeded. What’s left is refinement and deployment.
One of the larger announcements has been the launch of the Tether stablecoin on the OMG Network. The OMG Network, formerly known as OmiseGO, is an ERC-20 based platform that uses the Plasma L2 scaling solution to achieve much faster transactions than Ethereum.
Plasma is an off-chain scaling solution that was proposed by Buterin and Joseph Poon in 2017. It allows for the creation of ‘child’ blockchains attached to the main Ethereum blockchain to relieve the workload on it.
Bitfinex has been one of the first exchanges to integrate Tether with OMG. Bitfinex CTO, Paolo Ardoino, stated that migrating USDT value transfers to the OMG Network saves costs, drives performance improvements, and relieves pressure on the root chain.
There have been several other L2 implementations recently, as highlighted in the thread, and they all improve the overall scalability of the Ethereum network as it continues to evolve.