• Plasma aimed to increase efficiency by taking the bulk of the data off the main chain.
• Vitalik Buterin claimed that validity proofs could help in plugging the limitations of Plasma.

As Ethereum [ETH] congestion reached record levels, the need for effective scaling solutions was higher than ever in the blockchain industry.

Vitalik bats for Plasma chains

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin talked about the largely ignored advantages of layer-2 scaling solution Plasma in a recently published blog post, and urged Web3 developers to re-explore the technology.

Proposed by Buterin himself in 2017, Plasma aimed to increase efficiency by taking the bulk of the data off the main chain. The data is then redistributed onto a series of smaller chains called sidechains.

Due to this, it was the best choice for high-throughput payment transactions.

These were the shortcomings

However, the solution fell behind the competition due to its limitations in enabling smart contract deployment, something that rollups like Optimism [OP] and Arbitrum [ARB] allow.

Moreover, Plasma sacrifices some aspects of security in favor of greater scalability. Highlighted by Vitalik Buterin as well, each Plasma sidechain was independent and responsible for its own security. This made them vulnerable to hacks if there wasn’t enough mining power to secure them.

On the other hand, rollups, as we know, post all the information about executed transactions on the main chain. Therefore, rollups have been known to have much higher security than Plasma chains.

What is the future?

However, validity proofs could help in plugging the limitations of Plasma, said the inventor of Ethereum.

He added,

“Plasma can be a significant security upgrade for chains that would otherwise be validiums. The fact that ZK-EVMs are finally coming to fruition this year makes it an excellent opportunity to re-explore this design space.”

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Recall that Polygon [MATIC] introduced a proposal earlier to upgrade the PoS network to a zkEVM validium

While admitting that rollups were the “gold standard” in scaling solutions, Buterin called for a revisit of Plasma technology because of its advantages in throughput and cost-effectiveness.