- Snowden called Solana a centralized chain for meme coins and scams.
- The community was divided on Solana’s decentralization status.
As a seasoned crypto investor with years of experience navigating the volatile and often confusing world of digital currencies, I have to admit that the debate surrounding Solana’s [SOL] decentralization status has certainly piqued my interest.
Solana [SOL] hit the news this week following a raging debate on its decentralization status.
The remark made by former intelligence contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) and whistleblower, Edward Snowden, ignited a debate.
At the recently-concluded Token2049 conference held in Singapore, I had the opportunity to hear Edward Snowden’s insights on Solana. According to him, Solana has been centralized with a focus on efficiency, but it appears to be primarily populated by meme coins and suspicious activities.
“But nobody is using it, except for memecoins and scams. Because if anybody puts anything significant on it, then the states begin moving towards it.”
Snowden added,
The Solana system will feature mechanisms that could potentially allow others to seize control from you. It’s crucial to consider unfavorable or challenging scenarios, rather than just the straightforward, effortless ones at the outset.
Mixed views on Solana’s decentralization status
Key members of the Ethereum community have collectively acknowledged that Solana exhibits a more centralized structure compared to Ethereum. Specifically, Ryan Berkman concurred with Edward Snowden’s assessment, deeming it largely accurate. He based his agreement on the centralized nature of Solana’s validator client and the substantial costs associated with running such a validator node.
“Fact check: Mostly True, SOL prefers 10GBit/s upload. <1% has this. It’s a data center chain. Sol has 1 full client, no spec. It’s more of an app than a protocol. Validators pay lots to vote. In ~2.5yr, ~$1.2M stake to break even. Centralized!”
For context, validator execution client and geographical node distribution are just one aspect of evaluating blockchain’s decentralization status.
On the Solana network, validator execution is carried out using Agave as the primary client. However, this setup is considered a potential single point of failure compared to Ethereum’s system that utilizes six distinct clients.
According to Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius Labs specializing in solar solutions, there were approximately three active clients utilizing their platform.
SOL serves multiple clients, among them are Frankendancer, Jito, and Firedancer, all of which operate on the main network. However, Firedancer functions in a non-voting capacity. Additionally, Sig and Mythril (a self-verifying client) are upcoming additions to this list.
In a similar vein as Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana’s co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko mentioned that there were only two active users or clients in his perspective.
The Firedancer software has been launched on its primary network! However, it’s currently abstaining from voting and constructing blocks deliberately. Instead, it’s diligently verifying every change within the system. As a result, there are now two distinct versions of this software officially in use.
On the contrary, according to David Hoffman from Bankless, he disputes Yakovenko’s view. He bases this disagreement on the founder’s latest assertion that Agave is more of a backup for Firedancer rather than a multi-client configuration.
Apparently, Firedancer was meant to serve as the primary client, while the older one would step in only if necessary. This isn’t identical to a resilient system that can handle multiple clients simultaneously.
According to Chris Remus from Chainflow PoS, the geographical distribution of SOL‘s nodes shows a pattern comparable to other chains, with a concentration in the United States, Europe, and partially in Asia.
At the moment of publishing, Solana (SOL) was estimated at $141, marking a 5% decrease over the previous five trading days.
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2024-10-03 13:12