*Forward the Original Title ‘Ethereum’s McDonald’s Moment: How Rollups Became the Franchise Model of Web3’

Ethereum Rollups Became the Franchise Model of Web3 — they are sovereign platforms, strategic products, and programmable economies. In many ways, they embody a modern franchise model: autonomous yet brand‑aligned, interoperable yet purpose‑built, flexible yet rooted in shared standards.

Ethereum as the Franchisor

Ethereum acts as the franchisor in this model. Like McDonald’s headquarters, it sets the brand, defines the foundational rules, and provides the infrastructure that makes scaling consistent and reliable. This includes:

• Global finality through Ethereum’s validator set
• A neutral and credible settlement layer
• Standardized tooling: Solidity, the EVM, wallets, bridges, RPCs
• A massive developer ecosystem and trust foundation

Ethereum’s value isn’t just technical — it’s institutional and cultural. It’s the “brand license” every rollup inherits when it plugs into L1. Users and builders trust Ethereum not only for its cryptography but also for its community, values, and decentralization.

Rollups as Franchise Branches

Rollup operators are the franchisees. They run their own “storefronts” (chains), customize their environment, and are responsible for success on the ground. They inherit Ethereum’s credibility but can:

• Customize the runtime: EVM, zkVM, WASM, or custom VMs
• Tailor fee structures: gasless UX, fiat‑pegged pricing, rebated models
• Implement governance: DAOs, multisigs, token voting, or social recovery
• Modify infrastructure: choose sequencers, DA layers, bridges, and proof systems
• Add features: identity layers, privacy‑preserving precompiles, AI agents, and more

In short, rollups are application‑specific economies with full control over their execution environment — anchored to Ethereum for trust and interoperability.

Just like McDonald’s… Each McDonald’s in the world feels familiar — but no two are exactly the same. A restaurant in Rome might use black‑and‑gold aesthetics to match ancient architecture. One in India may serve spicy paneer wraps. In France, you might sip espresso and eat macarons.

Similarly:

• A DeFi rollup may eliminate gas entirely and optimize for high‑frequency trading.
• A gaming rollup may use WASM for real‑time logic and UX abstraction.
• A social rollup may focus on throughput, on‑chain messaging, and identity.

Yet all of them are still “McRollups” — running Ethereum’s standards, settling back to Ethereum’s base layer, and interoperating via shared protocols.

The Rollup as a Product

Running a rollup isn’t like deploying a smart contract — it’s like launching a company, or more accurately, a full‑stack SaaS platform:

• You manage uptime: sequencers, DA, proofs, liveness.
• You recruit developers: by building SDKs, writing docs, and forming ecosystem funds.
• You support users: wallets, explorers, support flows, fiat on‑ramps.
• You own the economy: gas tokens, bridge fees, MEV tolls, governance mechanics.

The most successful rollup teams won’t treat their chain as mere infrastructure. They’ll treat it as a business — a vertically integrated product stack that’s the storefront, backend, distribution channel, and monetization engine, all composable with Ethereum but optimized for your users.

The Power of Shared Infrastructure

Despite their autonomy, rollups benefit from Ethereum’s shared ecosystem:

• Canonical bridges standardize interoperability.
• Shared sequencing layers (e.g. Superchain, AggLayer, Espresso) enable atomic cross‑chain interaction.
• DA networks (e.g. EigenDA, Celestia) lower costs while preserving Ethereum alignment.
• Tooling remains consistent across the ecosystem: developers don’t have to start over.

This allows for seamless user experiences — accounts, assets, and identities can move across rollups as easily as within one chain, if sync composability is achieved.

Sync Composability: Ethereum’s Strategic Imperative

If rollups are franchises, sync composability is the logistics, coordination, and communication network that transforms them from isolated branches into a unified, global chain of value. Without it, rollups are powerful but fragmented. With it, they become a cohesive, interoperable mesh of programmable economies.

What Is Sync Composability?

Synchronous composability allows smart contracts on different rollups to interact within a single transaction context — atomically and deterministically. In simpler terms:

• A contract on Rollup A can call a contract on Rollup B and receive the result immediately.
• Users can interact with apps across multiple rollups as if they were on one chain.
• Developers don’t need to architect async bridges or wait for delayed confirmations.

It turns rollups into modular components of one cohesive system, rather than siloed chains stitched together with bridges.

Without Sync Composability

• Rollups become economic silos.
• Liquidity fragments across chains.
• Users endure clunky bridge UX and wait times.
• Developers must implement asynchronous flows that degrade the experience.
• dApps lose the magic of atomic, composable logic.

This risks breaking Ethereum’s superpower: seamless composability.

With Sync Composability

• Contracts interact across rollups instantly.
• Cross‑domain flash loans, DAOs, and multi‑chain apps become trivial.
• Liquidity flows freely.
• Users don’t even realize they’re crossing domains.
• Ethereum feels like one chain with many flavors.

Sync composability doesn’t just improve the experience — it unlocks entirely new types of dApps that would be impossible otherwise.

How Sync Composability Works (Under the Hood)

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• Shared coordination networks: Deterministically order transactions across multiple rollups (e.g. Optimism Superchain, Espresso, Astria).
• Shared DA layers: Rollups post and consume data from a common source, ensuring all chains have visibility (e.g. EigenDA, Celestia).
• Canonical messaging layers: Secure, verifiable cross‑chain message passing that supports atomicity.
• Ethereum settlement: All rollups eventually settle to Ethereum, where finality, data validity, and dispute resolution converge.

Together, these components create a unified execution context across sovereign rollups.

Real‑World Use Cases

• DeFi Arbitrage: Borrow from Aave on Rollup A → Trade on Rollup B → Repay — all in one transaction.
• Cross‑Rollup NFTs: Mint on one rollup, play in a game on another, and trade on a third — all instantly.
• DAOs: Proposals and execution actions span multiple rollups, from treasury ops to governance logic.
• Unified UX: Users interact with rollup‑native apps without switching wallets or bridging tokens.

⚠️ The Danger of No Sync Composability: Rollup Exit Velocity

As rollups grow in users, capital, and brand power, their incentive to stay Ethereum‑aligned weakens — unless Ethereum provides the infrastructure to keep them composable.

Rollup Escape Trajectory

Without synchronous composability, Ethereum risks losing the very rollups it helped bootstrap. As these rollups mature — accumulating users, liquidity, and developer mindshare — they become increasingly self‑sufficient. Their need to rely on Ethereum’s base layer diminishes.

At some point, the logic becomes compelling:

“If we don’t benefit from shared liquidity or shared execution, why continue paying the costs of Ethereum finality?”

This is the escape trajectory. As more rollups reach this threshold, they may:

• Build their own full‑stack solutions (sequencers, DA, bridges).
• Anchor to alternative settlement layers.
• Prioritize vertical integration over ecosystem alignment.

With each exit, Ethereum’s network effects weaken. Without composability, Ethereum stops being the connective tissue of Web3 and risks becoming just another L1, while rollups evolve into cloud platforms — sovereign, isolated, and increasingly indifferent to Ethereum’s future.

Sync Composability = Ethereum’s Economic Defense Layer

Ethereum doesn’t retain rollups by locking them in. It retains them by making composability so valuable that leaving becomes irrational:

• Shared liquidity = stronger markets.
• Shared UX = better user retention.
• Shared infrastructure = faster dev cycles.
• Shared state = deeper integrations.

This mirrors Web2 network effects: the more composable rollups become, the more attractive the ecosystem is.

Final Thought

Ethereum rollups are more than L2s. They are franchised economic zones, where founders become platform operators and users become citizens of sovereign‑yet‑connected digital states. They are:

• Autonomous in logic.
• Customizable in UX.
• Monetizable in sequencing and infrastructure.
• Aligned through Ethereum’s finality and values.

It’s not just “your app, your chain.” It’s your chain, your market, your economy — on Ethereum’s rails.

Welcome to the age of McRollups.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [Medium]. Forward the Original Title‘Ethereum’s McDonald’s Moment: How Rollups Became the Franchise Model of Web3’. All copyrights belong to the original author [Alon Muroch]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
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