Solana Now an "Ethereum L2 With Wormhole Eigenlayer"

Solana (SOL) co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko blew up Crypto X with a recent admission when he noted that the protocol is now already an “Ethereum L2 with the Wormhole Eigenlayer.”

Lightning the Solana versus Ethereum Rivalry

Though the shared X post from Anatoly Yakovenko is a technology-based communication, it has a major but subtle aim to lighten the ongoing rivalry between Solana and its bigger rival, Ethereum (ETH).

According to the Solana co-founder, a major overlap exists between some of the validators operating decentralized applications that exist as a connecting bridge between both protocols.

“There is a huge overlap between solana validators and Lido eth L1 operators and wormhole operators. They are all effectively under heavy “re-staking” incentives not to withhold data or mess with the state root between the chains,” his post reads.

While Yakovenko’s initial post on the subject was shared on December 25, media reports failed to see the initial ironic intention behind the post. By all means, Solana is bigger as a protocol when compared to the next capitalized Ethereum L2, Polygon and it has a thriving ecosystem that will undoubtedly prevent it from staying under the shadows of Ethereum.

Over the past few months, there have been a lot of controversial community talks between members of the Solana and Ethereum communities in which some of the former try to elevate their technologies over the latter. This narrative was deepened as Solana started flipping Ethereum in key performance metrics.

Yakovenko has time and again tried to caution the community against such narratives and this latest post might be another way to show both can co-exist.

Equal Ecosystem Criticism

Within the space of 2 weeks, the duo of Ethereum and Solana have faced intense criticism from some market analysts who took out time to highlight the flaws of both protocols.

Peter Brandt recently took on Ethereum, noting that he has shorted the coin as he believes it is on its way to a low of $650. He based his bearish assumptions on the fact that Ethereum is unfriendly to use as a result of expensive network or gas fees. Solana on the other hand got its first major critic in Fred Krueger who said many of the innovations being pushed out by the protocol are “pure science fiction.”

While neither of the blockchain protocols is perfect, Yakovenko’s post is an indication that both can truly exist together with more benefit to the broader crypto ecosystem.