Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism and Solana differ in finality, fees and wallet behaviour. Deploy everywhere on day one and you own six QA matrices; deploy thoughtfully and you own one codebase with a deployment registry.
The decision matrix
- Deploy first where your users and liquidity already are — usually Ethereum or an L2 with cheap fees.
- Abstract differences behind chain configs: confirmations, gas strategy, block times, wallet quirks.
- Bridge only when asset movement justifies the risk; otherwise redeploy and index.
- QA per chain for reorg windows, L2 sequencing delays and Solana confirmation levels.
One codebase, six configs, unified indexing. Sprawl is a choice — choose otherwise.
Related: Indexing realtime data · Wallet UX · Integration services