Thread
1/ Still longing $SOL while haters spinelessly pile onto the downside momentum. When @solana recovers, it's not me that will be haunted by the thought, "Instead of jeering, I could have been buying $SOL ~$10."
2/ @VitalikButerin recently asked me what I like about @Solana and so I'll share with the public an adapted & threaded-version of what I wrote to him 🧵
3/ In terms of what I like most about @solana, firstly for me it has its own unique flavor of hardcore devotees & nerds, which means the innovation is independent from what I find in @ethereum and @cosmos, where @placeholdervc is also significantly active.
4/ Some of the devotees are hardware junkies, others are network optimization nerds, the validator community is crazy committed, and generally, a layer deeper than the financial opportunists are builders that get truly excited by @aeyakovenko's vision.
5/ Which brings me to @aeyakovenko — while he’s more pragmatic than Vitalik or Ethan @ Cosmos, which can lead some to think he betrays crypto’s ideals, I think of him as having an original vision for bringing blockchains to billions that he’s wholeheartedly committed to.
6/ And @aeyakovenko's ideological commitment is what’s needed to lead a community through boom/bust cycles, which crypto endures every few years as the ecosystem speed runs history in a digital context.
7/ In terms of the ecosystem, the dapp builders in @solana are often a blend of Web2 & Web3, which means they understand the crypto-backend, but have the skills to produce front-ends that speak to the mainstream - crypto needs more of this.
8/ That said, because @solana's ecosystem is not solely crypto diehards, it's rockier in a bear as some of the Web2 folks lose their nerve.
But in terms of building easy-to-use products, & delivering those products to the masses, I’m inspired by what I see from Solana teams.
But in terms of building easy-to-use products, & delivering those products to the masses, I’m inspired by what I see from Solana teams.
9/ @Solana-based teams that @placeholdervc works directly with include @vaultapp_ (former founders of @FanDuel), @orca_so (team has Ethereum roots), @solendprotocol (team also has Ethereum roots), and @buildwithnation.
10/ All of these teams are ideals driven, working to build a product that their communities love, and as showcased by @clockwrrk's post, they are all working towards an ethical @solana ecosystem:
11/ And as an example, @orca_so reserved less for insiders than most bluechip #Ethereum #DeFi teams. Many @solana teams have NOT gone for the Alameda high-FDV scam launch, and thankfully the ecosystem is rooting out any further of that behavior:
12/ In terms of the tech itself, the SVM is novel & performant and I see it becoming a dev standard w/ projects like @Nitro_Labs & @EclipseFND, to name a few.
The SVM can spread more quickly than the EVM did bc the modular stack makes it easier to roll out on diff DA layers.
The SVM can spread more quickly than the EVM did bc the modular stack makes it easier to roll out on diff DA layers.
13/ Meanwhile, @aeyakovenko & the core engineers are maniacally focused on ironing out the Solana network's kinks, making progress on fees, reliability, speed, and decentralization.
14/ It’s meaningful to me that with Firedancer from @jump_, Solana will be the only network with two node implementations other than Ethereum (correct me if I’m wrong!): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh6Yn2Odyr4
15/ While it has competitors, I anticipate @solana will be *the* blockchain ecosystem known for consensus near the speed of light -- in part because it is the OG to pursue this vision -- and that will attract builders that prioritize speed w/ sufficient decentralization.
15/ @rajgokal and his team remain focused on how to serve the broader set of Solana builders, while not having Labs or the Foundation crowd out innovation, and more broadly I'm seeing amazing comradery & conversation amongst the core builders.
16/ Not nearly as many committed teams are leaving @solana as the screaming masses on cryptowitter would make it seem. Instead, they're doubling down and discussing + working together to make the Solana ecosystem better.
17/ Furthermore, many dapps were homegrown on @solana, because everything about building on the network is quite different from building for the #EVM. And so what's built on Solana is stickier than most people realize, imo.
18/ In reality, cryptotwitter is perhaps most driven by price, which can lead to many foolish investing decisions if that's your core information feed.
19/ Stepping back for a moment, I understand why some long-time committed crypto-folks are taking this opportunity to step on @solana's neck. Some of them view Solana as betraying crypto's ideals. Or... they feel threatened.
19/ To them, I'd say that having watched the birth of Ethereum and every chain after it, if you're close enough to the inside you know every ecosystem has warts around its founding. Every ecosystem lives in a glass house, because we're all human, and humans make mistakes.
20/ The key for me is are you earnestly working to make things better? To learn from your mistakes? To relentlessly improve yourself, and the world? If you are, I'm all for you, and I see much of that in the @solana ecosystem.
21/ But punching down on @solana with overgeneralizations, I find gross. Especially seeing it come from Ethereum folks who unfairly endured the way Bitcoin Maxis punched down on us in 2018 & 2019. Have you learned nothing?
22/ Current punching-down sentiment around $SOL reminds me of $ETH in late 2018, when $BTC maxis were jeering that its trajectory was to $0.
We all know how that played out... it only motivated Ethereum more. Just as Solana folks are only getting further motivation currently...
We all know how that played out... it only motivated Ethereum more. Just as Solana folks are only getting further motivation currently...
23/ While @placeholdervc has been a long-time supporter of Bitcoin and Ethereum, we have chosen to support Cosmos and Solana with similar levels of conviction beginning in 2022 because we believe they offer unique, but valuable innovation ecosystems to the mix ✌️
