One of the key questions, to me, is to ask: what does it mean to be a "layer" vs a totally other project? I'm not clear on the matter. For LN, the layer-ness is that transactions are grounded in the same asset, which seems preferable when the affordances work out.

But consider the shittiest of shitcons, Tron, which now seems to have genuine utility, as a kind of transport layer for Tether. It's an abuse of the term to say it's an L2 for Tether; but also you can't deny that you know what I'm talking about when I say that.

I expect more stuff like this, except that intersects w/ btc. Actually, Tether itself is irrevocably bound up with btc's fate. I'm still not sure how much this is because of the nature of technology unfolding (e.g., an alternate kind of determinism) and how much is bc of the strategic choices of USDT leadership.

That would be a fun thing to dig into, but I sadly don't know enough about the nuances of Tether to take it on.