Scaling blockchains with Layer 2 technologies

Scaling blockchains is a challenge because they sacrifice computational and storage efficiency for high trust guarantees. Users can trust that the transactions they make will be valid in the future, and developers can trust that their code will always be available for users to interact with.

This is because data on blockchains has enormously high levels of redundancy. Transactions have to be processed by every node participating in the upkeep of the blockchain, and the expanding data set of transactions has to be stored forever. Preserving low barriers of entry into this process keeps blockchains decentralized.