Solana CEO and co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko is not worried about an increasingly competitive landscape for smart contract-focused blockchains. In a recent CNBC interview, Yakovenko noted that Solana has a significant edge over its competitors, especially in terms of decentralization.
The Solana co-founder referred to the famous blockchain trilemma, which argues that it is difficult for a public blockchain to be cheap, fast, and decentralized at the same time. Yakovenko argued that most new entrants into the space [have] sacrificed some of those aspects and still trail Solana by a significant mile.
He said in the interview, “Solana is the second-largest network by full-node count behind Ethereum out of those smart contract platforms. So far, all the new networks that have launched are somewhere between 100 and 200 nodes which is much lower in the decentralization spectrum.”
Still speaking on how Solana compares with other smart contract blockchains, Yakovenko suggested that a smaller version of the Solana network would easily compete with others in terms of performance differences.
Solana Eyes More Financial Institutions Building On Its Network
The Solana co-founder also weighed in on recent news that global payments giant Visa would now tap the layer-1 blockchain to settle USDC payments for merchants. Yakovenko expressed delight at Visa’s latest move and hopes it moves other financial institutions to “consider the [Solana] network as well.
He added, “I think right now is probably the best time to start experimenting with using programmable money because it is still a very early technology that hasn’t been established yet. I’m hoping to see more financial institutions start building on Solana.”
Yakovenko also expressed conviction that Visa’s move and greater involvement by established financial institutions would help bring blockchain’s immense benefits to consumers. “I’d love to see every major financial institution launch their own pilot payments program, launch their own stablecoins, and push this innovation to the consumers,” Yakovenko concluded.
