Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has expressed confidence that his blockchain can handle the growing demand for decentralized applications (dapps) without the need for layer 2 solutions like those employed by ethereum.
Solana does not need layer 2 solutions
In a post on X, Yakovenko argument That Solana's design, which uses a hybrid consensus mechanism, allows it to scale efficiently without relying on additional layers. The co-founder explained that his goal is to eventually synchronize a global atomic state machine “as fast as the laws of physics allow.” With this stance, Yakovenko appears to be downplaying the role of layer 2 off-chain options like Arbitrum and Base.
“Solana aims to synchronize a global atomic state machine as fast as the laws of physics allow,” Yakovenko said in “The same thing. They are external execution environments that cannot guarantee atomic composition with the rest of the layer 1 state.”
Despite the position Yakovenko takes, the co-founder said that the space is open for developers to create layer 2 solutions. However, it will not be necessary because the network can handle such demand without such solutions.
ethereum confident that layers 2 will be key to scaling
This stance contrasts with ethereum's approach, which increasingly relies on layer 2 solutions to alleviate congestion and high transaction fees. Layer 2 options such as Optimism and Arbitrum have gained popularity for their ability to offload transactions from the mainnet while maintaining compatibility with existing smart contracts.
To quantify its role in ethereum scaling, L2Beat data sample that Layer 2 solutions have a combined total value locked (TVL) of more than $20 billion. The largest of these is Arbitrum, which manages $10 billion in assets at the time of writing the January 5 report.
Although Yakovenko's comments reflect Solana's focus on providing a high-performance, low-cost environment for applications, there have been cases where the network froze, calling its reliability into question. To resolve this, the platform plans to update its client, adding Firedancer to increase node reliability and performance.
On the other hand, ethereum seems to be following the layer 2 route. During its call to developers, it was decided that ethereum's gas cap will not increase beyond the 30 million gwei level. This, analysts concludedit meant delaying on-chain scaling ambitions for off-chain methods, specifically off-chain and sidechain rails.
Featured image from Canva, TradingView chart
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