Ethereum scaling

These networks execute transactions off Ethereum's base layer and post the results back, which makes usage far cheaper. It pays to be precise with the vocabulary: a rollup publishes its data to Ethereum and inherits much of its security, while a sidechain with checkpoints does not, even though marketing sometimes presents the two as equivalent.

What to compare: In almost all of these cases gas is paid in ETH, so the native token is a governance token and chain activity does not mechanically benefit it. Check who controls the sequencer and the upgrade keys as well.