Ethereum enthusiast and blockchain expert, Ryan Berckmans, recently expressed doubts about Solana’s potential to become a global blockchain backbone. Berckmans outlined five key issues that he believes are holding Solana back compared to Ethereum.
Firstly, Berckmans noted the lack of client diversity in Solana. Currently, Solana relies on a single production client called “agave rust,” and the development of a second client named “Firedancer” is facing delays. Berckmans argued that true client diversity would require at least three independent production clients, which Ethereum already has.
Secondly, Berckmans highlighted the high bandwidth requirements of Solana’s infrastructure. He stated that Solana demands very high upload speeds, with a recommended 10Gbps, which he believes introduces centralization risks. This limitation hinders Solana’s ability to operate in diverse and decentralized environments, which is crucial for a global backbone.
Thirdly, Berckmans criticized Solana’s history of network outages. He pointed out that Solana lacks a protocol-level fallback mechanism to continue block production during outages. In Berckmans’ opinion, a global financial infrastructure must remain operational without interruptions.
Another issue raised by Berckmans is the economic centralization of Solana. He highlighted that only about 2% of Solana’s initial coin offering (ICO) was sold publicly, with the remaining 98% distributed internally. In comparison, Ethereum’s larger initial public offering (IPO) and years of mining have resulted in a wider distribution of ETH.
Lastly, Berckmans emphasized Solana’s focus on execution scaling over decentralization. He argued that Ethereum’s approach of using Layer 2 (L2) consensus via zero-knowledge (zk) proof aggregation is superior, as it allows for hundreds of thousands of chains to reach consensus on Ethereum without sacrificing decentralization.
Berckmans acknowledged that Solana initially aimed to create a fast and low-cost blockchain for global use. However, he believes that Solana’s current infrastructure and strategic approach are fundamentally flawed for this role. On the other hand, he sees Ethereum’s backbone strategy, which focuses on supporting L2s and decentralized Layer 1 (L1) applications, as the optimal model for the new global financial system.
It is important to note that this article does not provide investment advice.