In the US- Layer 1=US Treasury, Layer 2= Cash hence in crypto Layer 1= Bitcoin Layer 2= Lightning Network

A super nice guy came into my shop today. He was a cryptographer for the US Navy for 4 years. We got to talking about Bitcoin. He wouldn't say he was a maximalist. He did say that the label maximalist was invented by Ethereum developers to disparage Bitcoin.

I asked him what he thought about the future of cryptocurrency in general and he gave the analogy that I used in the title. He equates the Treasury to the base layer and the cash that is used in commerce as layer two. Then he compared that to Bitcoin as the base layer and lightning as the cash flow. He is pretty convinced of the future because of his cryptography knowledge and experience.