Ultrafast Ethereum Layer 2 MegaETH has launched a mainnet targeting 100,000 transactions per second, Coindesk reported on Sunday.

MegaETH bills itself as a “real-time blockchain” and provides faster speeds than the existing Ethereum network.

MegaETH raised $450 million through a token sale in October last year, and Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin (비탈릭 부테린) and Joe Lubin (조 루빈) participated as investors. Its native token, MEGA, is set to enter circulation gradually alongside the mainnet launch, and lockups will be released in stages depending on network usage.

The MegaETH project, unlike existing rollups, has adopted a method of securing the network through “proof nodes.” It verifies security on its own nodes rather than relying on Ethereum’s data availability layer, but some have pointed out it may be difficult to avoid controversy over centralisation. Coindesk reported that a security model using cloud services could undermine decentralisation and that some have said it is closer to an independent chain than a rollup.

More recently, Buterin has highlighted the need to scale Layer 1, stressing that “Ethereum should not rely only on Layer 2.”

Some experts believe MegaETH is unlikely to become an alternative to rollup-based Layer 2s. With the Ethereum ecosystem adopting Layer 2 expansion as its basic strategy, analysts say it remains uncertain whether MegaETH’s centralised model will become mainstream.