Mainnet or layer 2: the first decision
Mainnet offers the strongest security and the deepest liquidity, but transaction costs can make consumer apps impractical. Rollups such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and zkSync Era cut fees sharply and inherit Ethereum's security to varying degrees, depending on their fraud proof or validity proof maturity and sequencer arrangements. Sequencer centralization and upgrade keys differ between rollups, so we review each candidate network's trust assumptions instead of treating all layer 2 options as equal.
Choose by user behavior. High-value, low-frequency settlement suits mainnet. Social, gaming and payments apps usually belong on a rollup. Since EIP-4844 introduced blobs, data costs for rollups have fallen, but withdrawal delays on optimistic rollups remain a user experience factor that needs explaining in the interface. Each contract ships with a specification written in plain language, covering roles, invariants and failure modes, which your auditors and your future engineers will both value.