The Ethereum Foundation has introduced a new development designed to reshape how users and applications interact across the growing network of Layer-2 ecosystems. The Ethereum Interop Layer, now available for testing, aims to make Ethereum’s L2 landscape function as if it were a single chain, reducing friction caused by network fragmentation while improving liquidity and accessibility across the broader ecosystem.
The project is led by Ananya, research director on the Ethereum Foundation’s Account Abstraction team. It represents one of the most ambitious attempts to standardize user experience across Layer-2 solutions, many of which currently function as isolated environments with distinct liquidity, tooling and onboarding flows.
Tackling fragmentation across Layer-2 networks
Ethereum’s scaling roadmap has created a diverse ecosystem of L2 networks — including rollups, app-chains and high-performance computation layers — each designed to improve transaction throughput and lower costs. However, this progress has also come with unintended downsides: user assets, developer liquidity and decentralized applications have become increasingly siloed across parallel L2s.
The Ethereum Interop Layer attempts to address this fragmentation by providing an on-chain protocol that allows users and apps to interact with the wider ecosystem as if it were a unified environment. Instead of navigating multiple chains explicitly, the protocol abstracts the underlying network differences so that everyday interactions feel seamless.
The objective is not to merge L2 architectures, but to make user experience and liquidity movement frictionless, regardless of how many L2s coexist.
Wallet-first architecture
Unlike interoperability approaches that rely on traditional bridges or interchain messaging, the Interop Layer adopts a wallet-centric model. The system is built around the idea that a user should interact with assets and decentralized applications in a multichain context without needing to understand which specific L2 they occupy.
The protocol relies on ERC-4337, the account abstraction standard introduced in 2023. Account abstraction enables programmable wallet functionality that acts consistently across chains, allowing applications and services to automatically manage transfers, gas usage and routing decisions.
With the Interop Layer in place, wallets and decentralized apps can become multichain-native by default, without bespoke integration workloads for each network.
Removing the need for users to think about chains
The primary user-facing change introduced by the Interop Layer is simplicity. Under the proposed framework, users do not need to:
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Select or switch between networks
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Move assets manually using bridges
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Track separate token balances across L2s
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Understand rollup sequencing or settlement phases
Instead, the protocol handles execution and routing behind the scenes. This could eliminate many of the most frustrating points in the current Ethereum experience, especially for onboarding newcomers to the ecosystem.
Developers also benefit by being able to deploy decentralized applications without custom adjustments for each L2. A single application could be accessible across the ecosystem, allowing liquidity and usage to scale more efficiently.
Increasing liquidity and supporting adoption
One of the long-term motivations behind the Interop Layer is to support unified liquidity across Ethereum’s scaling environment. Today, liquidity is distributed across multiple chains, making it difficult for DeFi protocols to reach optimal efficiency without fragmented pools and bridge-based solutions.
By forming an interaction standard across L2s, the Interop Layer could help:
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Improve capital efficiency
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Strengthen DeFi markets by reducing liquidity dilution
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Support cross-ecosystem user flows
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Encourage application deployment across multiple networks
Researchers note that liquidity efficiency is critical for sustaining Ethereum’s scaling strategy. Although each L2 can optimize performance independently, a cohesive user experience is needed to maintain network advantages at scale.
Interop Layer now available for testing
The protocol is now live for public testing, giving developers an opportunity to experiment with real usage flows. According to the Ethereum Foundation, the design continues to evolve based on community feedback, with the goal of aligning the system as closely as possible with needs of users and application developers.
Testing is focused on:
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Transaction routing and reliability
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Wallet integration performance
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Cross-ecosystem asset movement
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Security and failure handling
The team emphasizes that the Interop Layer does not replace existing rollup architectures or settlement models. Instead, it offers a shared interface layer to smooth out the experience without compromising decentralization or security principles.
A step toward the next phase of Ethereum usability
Ethereum’s scaling roadmap has been largely defined by high-performance L2 solutions. While throughput has increased significantly, user and developer experience has lagged behind due to inconsistent tooling and fragmented liquidity. The Interop Layer is designed to address this missing piece of the scaling puzzle by matching performance improvements with usability improvements.
If the Interop Layer is widely adopted, the Ethereum ecosystem could evolve into a multichain environment that functions as a unified network from a user perspective. Analysts say this shift may help drive mass adoption by reducing the cognitive and financial barriers associated with interacting across multiple L2s.
Outlook
The Ethereum Foundation is continuing development and expects broader testing phases as the protocol matures. While timelines for full production readiness have not been announced, industry observers are closely following progress, noting that easier cross-L2 interaction could become a defining feature of Ethereum’s next phase.
For users, the Interop Layer promises a simpler way to access decentralized applications without juggling chain identifiers or fragmented assets. For developers, it introduces a path toward deploying applications that attract liquidity and usage across the entire Ethereum scaling landscape.
If successful, the Interop Layer could help Ethereum preserve decentralization while delivering an experience that feels unified, responsive and accessible.
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