Justin Drake, an Ethereum (ETH) developer, expressed on November 28, 2024 that “the golden age of Solana (SOL) would end” due to the growth of Ethereum’s second layer (L2) networks.
Drake, who is also part of the Ethereum Foundation community, analyzed during an interview the Ethereum ecosystem and pointed out two important metrics: latency and throughput.
“Ethereum’s L2s are poised to surpass Solana’s advantage in latency and throughput, which could end Solana’s golden era.”
Justin Drake, Ethereum developer.
Latency in a network measures the time it takes to confirm a transaction from the moment it is sent until it is included in a block and validated.
Low latency is crucial for ensure a smooth user experienceespecially in applications where immediacy is key, such as payments, video games or other platforms on-chain.
For his part, the throughput It is used to study the scalability and performance of a network, such as Ethereum. It is generally determined by the computational capacity of a network, and is measured as the amount of gas per second (Mgas/s) that it processes, without being limited only to the number of transactions per second (TPS).
Therefore, a high throughput It is essential to support a high volume of transactions without causing congestion, ensuring that the network remains efficient and economical, even during peak demand.
He throughput of L2 on Ethereum increases
In this sense, CriptoNoticias reported in September 2024 that the throughput of Ethereum L2s, such as Base, Arbitrum, OP Mainnet and others, was growing significantly in 2024.
Currently, this metric has shown continuous signs of increase. For example, Base had a rise in its throughput 12% in the last month and more than 1,300% in the last 12 months, according to the site Grow the Pie. Thus, currently it has reached a throughput of 15.00 Mgas/s.
Arbitrum and OP Mainnet followed suit, increasing that statistic by 23% and 30% respectively in the last 30 days.
Regarding Solana’s performance, its throughput It is not measured in gas like in the Ethereum ecosystem, since Solana uses a different model for its transactions.
Instead of gas, Solana measures its performance in terms of transactions per second. According to their block explorer, this network has an average of 4,000 TPS in the last 24 hours.
Base, for its part, currently processes about 60 TPS in that same period, according to data from the site. chainspecta figure lower than that managed by Solana.
While transactions per second is a useful metric for measuring network performance, it is not entirely adequate for determining which network is more scalable overall.
The TPS, for example, does not take into account the complexity of the transactionsas some may be simple operations, such as token transfers, while others involve complex smart contracts that consume more resources.
The response from a Solana co-founder arrived, but did not clarify
Today, November 29, Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of the Solana network, responded in X to statements made the previous day.
Yakovenko accompanied his publication with an image of an orc warrior from the movie “The Lord of the Rings” and responded with the phrase “The golden age of Solana is over, the time of multisig has come.”
Solana’s co-founder did not offer details nor did he clarify the exact meaning of his wordsnor did he explain if he was announcing future changes to this network or if his response could include some ironic message.
However, given the chosen image and the word “multisig”, it could be tentatively interpreted that Anatoly would refer to a possible focus on technology, wallets and mechanisms multisig inside Solana.
What does the expression “multisig” used by Anatoly mean?
a system multisig (multi-signature) is a security method that requires the approval of multiple people to authorize a transaction, rather than relying on a single private key.
Each participant has your own unique private key and to authorize a transaction, a minimum number of these private keys (for example, 2 of 3) are required to sign the transaction
This aims to increase asset protection, since even if one key is compromised, it will not be enough to move funds without the approval of others.
However, it is vital that the people who have the private keys are extremely trustworthy.
Despite Justin Drake’s comments about the end of Solana’s “golden age,” current reality shows that Solana still processes significantly more transactions per second than Ethereum layer 2 solutions.
However, with the continued growth of L2s, the scalability and performance landscape could change, leaving open the expectation of how this competition will evolve in the future.
