Solana Blockchain CEO Yakovenko Admits He’s Crypto-skeptic; here’s why

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With all of these big ideas and growth entering the crypto space, skepticism is what makes it possible, he said. Many market players see Solana as a competitor to the Ethereums blockchain platform. Yakovenko welcomes competition and compares it to playing hockey

Altcoin solana (SOL) has seen extreme growth over the past month, rising from $ 33.3 last month to an all-time high of $ 130.01 on August 31. But, believe it or not, Solana Labs founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko is a crypto-skeptic.

Aside from the SOL coin, Solana is best known for its decentralized blockchain platform, which centers on creating the cheapest, fastest and most censorship-resistant network possible, according to Yakovenko.

The four-year-old blockchain platform has grown rapidly since its inception. Its blockchain ecosystem consists of more than 400 projects focused on topics such as DeFi, NFT and Web3. In fact, the platform helps build large crypto companies like the Sam Bankman-Frieds FTX cryptocurrency exchange and quantitative trading firm Alameda Research, along with other companies.

In addition to these big name users, Solana has some big name investors who have backed the company with hundreds of millions of dollars. Earlier this year, the company raised $ 314 million in a private token sale led by a16z and Polychain Capital.

The company also has no plans to slow down. This week, Solana launched its fourth hackathon event with the aim of further expanding the ecosystem.

A crypto-skeptic

However, with all this success, Yakovenko told Blockworks in an interview, I’m skeptical, I’m probably the biggest crypto skeptic.

But why? Well, the current environment is extremely similar to that of the 1990s, Yakovenko said. It was a time when huge dreamers, ideas and companies like Six Degrees arose, only to disappear shortly thereafter, he added. For context, Six Degrees is widely regarded as the premier social networking site. Founded by Andrew Weinreich in May 1996, Six Degrees collapsed in 2000 due to low income and limitations in internet connectivity.

The 1990s were a time when the United States saw rapid innovation and the rise of new technologies, fueled by investments in internet-based businesses. Many companies like Six Degrees have gone out of business, but paved the way for social media platforms that still exist today like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

It was really hard to believe that Six Degrees or Chain Letters would end up with a trillion dollar business like Facebook. Just this idea that you can connect people socially on the internet, what was it worth? And in the ’90s, you would have thought it was crazy to think it was worth anything, Yakovenko said. This idea that people were self-guarding with just cryptography and a little math, it could create so much value. I think it’s just as crazy and ridiculous, he added.

Far from the Ethereum killer

Many market players see Solana as a competitor to the Ethereums blockchain platform. Yakovenko welcomes the competition and compares it to playing hockey.

The competition is great, I love the competition, he says. I’ve been playing hockey my whole life, so whatever you can compete in, I’m happy to compete, whether it’s hockey or building blockchains, he said.

Although some people have called Solana the Ethereum killer, Yakovenko said the comparison is far from the truth. Although he is skeptical of the crypto itself, he believes that the technologies available on the blockchain will be successful.

In fact, blockchain platforms like Solana or Ethereum are extremely resistant to anyone or anything that tries to kill it, he said.

Due to the open source nature of both blockchains, developers are constantly building and expanding networks in ways that have given companies like Microsoft the ability to endure.

We have a certain vision which is to build the cheapest, fastest and most censorship resistant network and [Ethereum] has a different take, which is to create the cheapest way to validate on a very large decentralized blockchain, Yakovenko said. I think the two visions are interesting approaches to the same problem, two sides of the same coin. A lot of people are passionate about both approaches, so happy to compete. It only makes us both better.

Booming growth of NFTs

Although Yakovenko said he did not know what specifically caused the massive price movements of the Solanas cryptocurrency, he said he hoped this correlated with the importance for people to use the Solana network. He also said that there has been strong growth and demand for NFT on the Solanas platform over the past month and more than 90,000 NFTs have been hit in the past two months which could possibly contribute to the outbreak.

Amid the excitement of people hitting NFTs, Yakovenko said, I tried hitting a few, but I’m too slow. He added that many NFT Solanart sold out in four to five seconds.

Overall, Yakovenko said he expects communities to continue to form rapidly around the ownership of these NFTs. The groups are as strong as those found on any other social media platform, if not stronger, he added.

NFTs are almost like a decentralized version of Reddit, you don’t need the messaging side, he said. What you need is a combination of tokens and / or NFTs to tie in and they will organize themselves elsewhere on Reddit, Twitter or Telegram, he added.

But with all of these big ideas and growth going into the crypto space, skepticism is what makes it possible, he said.

I am blown away by the success we have had over the past year. We want to see the space expand, he added. As we assess whether this is real and what we should be working on, we have this big idea in mind: can we put a billion people in the power of crypto?

He hinted that only time will tell.

Jacquelyn Melinek

Jacquelyn Melinek is a Houston-based journalist who covers funds and digital asset markets. She previously reported on energy markets for S&P Global Platts and Bloomberg News and is published in more than 65 news organizations. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Media and Journalism.

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