Solana-based Neon EVM adopts ‘network extension’ title

Solana Foundation’s Austin Federa wrote on X that “​​Most of the L2-ish things on Solana are better thought of as Network Extensions”

article-image

Neon EVM and Adobe stock modified by Blockworks

share


Today, enjoy the Lightspeed newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox. Subscribe to the Lightspeed newsletter


Narratives move quickly in crypto. 

A month and a half ago, Solana Foundation head of strategy Austin Federa wrote on X that “​​Most of the L2-ish things on Solana are better thought of as Network Extensions.” The basic rationale is that while layer-2s are meant to scale Ethereum by running smart contracts more cheaply on different software, Solana is meant to scale at the base layer, and many Solana-centric networks are meant to do different things than the layer-1.

This kicked off an online debate mainly between Solana fans who agreed with Federa and Ethereum boosters who argued that Solana was simply rebranding the concept of layer-2s, which are a frequent topic of Solana ire. 

Today, Neon EVM, a platform for deploying Ethereum-centric apps on Solana, formally adopted the “network extension” title. The move comes just a month and a half after the term made its public debut.

“Unlike an L2, Neon EVM doesn’t add an extra layer on top of Solana,” Neon EVM chief commercial officer Davide Menegaldo told me in a text. “L2s are built on top of a base Layer 1 blockchain to enhance scalability, they batch transactions before settling on the main chain, and they [fragment] liquidity as well as user experience.”

Neon EVM doesn’t do any of these things, Menegaldo argues, so it’s better thought of as a network extension. 

When I asked Federa about his term, he said network extensions are meant to be a big-tent term that ditch the Ethereum-centric assumptions about what L2s are.

“Neon EVM is not an L2 on Solana, it’s a ‘L1.5’ because it’s its own VM but it can atomically compose with SVM stuff. What do we call that? It’s not a rollup, not an L2… [it’s] a network extension,” Federa wrote in a direct message. 

Neon isn’t alone in embracing the term. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko voiced his support, and a co-founder of the high-throughput Ethereum layer-2 MegaETH said she liked the label.

L2s aren’t exclusively Ethereum’s terrain though. The Solana-based DeFi platform Zeta is building a layer-2 that uses a sequencer and follows a lot of the principles that go into Ethereum L2 design, the platform’s founder Tristan Frizza told me. 

Zeta also has a similar mission to ETH L2s, which is to achieve lower latency than Solana’s 400 ms block times would allow, so Frizza feels “hesitant” to adopt the network extension term.

“I feel like it’s a Solana marketing term for L2s, but idk if there are other apps/chains that are genuinely completely different,” Frizza wrote in a text.

Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz also came out against calling L2-like projects on Solana network extensions, casting them as “too general.”

Instead, those debating semantics should “build something people need so crypto overall can grow the pie…hope this helps,” Mumtaz wrote.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Bluefin possibly stands at an inflection point. The token is near an all-time low yet the protocol’s spot volume market share and derivatives exchange usage have been increasing month over month since its November launch. Given its current market position and the upcoming upgrades (for both Bluefin and SUI), there may be upside potential before the increased supply growth in December. However, strong opposition from existing competitors (like Cetus and Suilend), as well as new entrants (like Aftermath), pose key challenges to Bluefin’s medium-term success.

article-image

Top Committee Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her opening statement accused Atkins of “helping billionaire CEOs like Sam Bankman-Fried”

article-image

Introducing garbled circuits for enhanced privacy and regulatory compliance

article-image

Ross Ulbricht was a freedom maximalist building freedom tech, powered by Bitcoin

article-image

Solana validators can reap benefits including payments, votes and community clout

article-image

Sponsored

WalletConnect is cementing itself as the essential connectivity layer, ensuring wallets remain the entry point for billions of users

article-image

According to a legal filing, Galaxy Digital helped boost the price of LUNA while quietly selling its tokens