Been wrestling with the L1 versus L2 question for years now. Honestly? It boils down to two things.

First up: counterparty risk. Think about it—if you're Robinhood, would you really feel comfortable trusting Coinbase's sequencer? That's not a trivial concern. You're essentially putting your infrastructure fate in someone else's hands. The trust equation gets complicated fast when competitors control critical infrastructure.

Second: are you building a platform or shipping a product? This matters more than people realize.

If you're going the product route, L1 makes sense. You own the full stack, control your destiny, and don't have dependencies on external sequencers or bridges. Sure, it's harder to bootstrap, but the autonomy is worth it.

L2s work when you're building a platform play and can tolerate the inherent counterparty dependencies. But that trust assumption? It's load-bearing.

The architecture choice isn't just technical—it's strategic.