Solana ‘roast’ reveals painful truths

Anyone who’s ever listened to or participated in a “roast” knows the fine line between innocuous observation and painful truth is often crossed, even when the jabs are delivered in a friendly manner.

And few are more sensitive to clever digs than the most dedicated crypto community members — often exhibiting passionately blind loyalty to their selected blockchain tribe.

So it was with some trepidation that Superteam founding member Kash Dhanda and Framework Ventures principal Brandon Potts stirred up a few frank critiques for a Solana “roast” on the Lightspeed podcast (Spotify/Apple).

“If you’re trying to get me in trouble, I’ve got a few ideas,” says Dhanda as he laughs, perhaps nervously, before proceeding.

A community divided

Historically, Dhanda says that Solana has been divided into two “camps” — one for the “hardcore builder,” and one for the NFT crowd.

“The truth is, Solana was obviously set up initially to be all about DeFi and now has expanded much beyond that,” he says. “There are these two groups that don’t seem to talk that much, and they actually seem to not think very highly of each other.”

The situation has created a sort of “intra-community battle,” Dhanda says, adding he would love to see the animosity between the camps resolved. “It’s super annoying and unnecessary.”

Entitled bear survivors

Dhanda also criticizes a “culture of entitlement” that has emerged in the Solana community. Because it managed to survive the bear cycle, many Solana users seem to feel that “everything in the world belongs to them,” he says.

The “because I’ve stuck it through, I deserve a gold medal” sentiment can get on his nerves sometimes, he says.

Continuing on a roll, Dhanda digs into the community’s tendency to blame the Solana Foundation or Solana Labs for not doing enough. “That’s pretty counterproductive,” he says. “No foundation is perfect, but it’s not as if every ill can be solved by one centralized entity.”

Do something different

With the roast at full momentum, Potts joins in to drop a few truth bombs. “Stop trying to map one-to-one apples-to-apples to what has been built thus far or worked thus far in Ethereum, especially as it relates to DeFi.”

Instead of just doing the same implementations “faster and cheaper,” Potts says builders need to “start running down new hallways, dark hallways, [and] do net new things. Do the things that Ethereum or EVM cannot do.”

Solana has a brief moment in time now, Potts says, where builders can “arbitrage the Ethereum roadmap.”

While Ethereum is “rebuilding a jet in flight” with all of its current liquidity and “moneyness,” Solana is “closer to the ground,” Potts says, “so you can kind of move quicker.”

“Leverage that ability to move quickly and arbitrage — and do so in a lower cost environment,” he says. “The consequences aren’t as high, so the risk-reward is very skewed in your favor.”

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