Solana And Ethereum: Diverging Philosophies On Smart Contracts

According to Odaily, Jesse Pollak, head of the Base protocol, commented on Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko's statement about the limited number of essential smart contracts. Pollak highlighted a philosophical difference between Solana and Ethereum regarding the use of smart contracts. He noted that in the Solana ecosystem, there is a belief that only about six contracts are worth writing, leading to their reuse and less focus on contract verification, open-source development, and expansion. Solana aims to create a decentralized Nasdaq with a focus on capital markets. In contrast, the Ethereum ecosystem views the potential of smart contracts as vast, with an emphasis on open-source, verified, and scalable contracts. Ethereum's mission is to build a global economy encompassing all its components, including capital markets. Pollak expressed interest in observing how these philosophies will evolve in the coming years, acknowledging opportunities in both approaches. Earlier, Yakovenko responded to Ethereum community members who suggested that Layer 2 (L2) solutions are the most sustainable business model for block sales. He argued that multiple L2s are unnecessary if a single L2 can handle parallel execution and utilize all available blobspace for various use cases. Yakovenko emphasized that there are not infinitely useful smart contracts or execution environments, asserting that only about six essential smart contracts exist. He criticized the notion of unlimited developer options, stating that it increases business risk, citing examples like the ERC20 interface and additional governance systems. Yakovenko further elaborated in the comments, stating that across all blockchains, the primary uses today are tokens, NFTs, and automated market makers (AMMs), followed by bonding curves, lending, oracles, central limit order books (CLOBs), and perpetuals. He noted that these factors have not yet become decisive drivers for product-market fit.