Why Anatoly Yakovenko Believes Hardware Scaling Is Key to Solana’s Success

Anatoly Yakovenko, the founder of Solana, recently addressed issues related to blockchain hardware and software management, while highlighting key differences between Solana and Ethereum.

The U.S.-based entrepreneur pointed out that congestion management is a significant factor distinguishing the two blockchain projects. He argued that simply increasing transaction costs is not the optimal way to handle global resource saturation. Instead, Yakovenko advocates for improving hardware capacity to meet growing demand, suggesting that if a blockchain cannot allow validators to upgrade hardware to enhance performance, it reveals flaws in the software’s design. According to him, transaction costs should only rise when competition for ecosystem resources exceeds scaling capacity.

Yakovenko also acknowledged the challenges associated with hardware scalability, noting the disparity between hardware costs and bandwidth limitations. He explained that, even with “K” as a scaling constant no higher than 10, the maximum possible increase in bandwidth would only be 1,000 times the hardware cost.

In recent times, the SOL/ETH pair has seen a notable decline, driven by Ethereum’s rising prices. Market factors have contributed to Ethereum’s growth, positioning Solana on a comparatively slower trajectory. However, Ki Young Ju, the CEO of CryptoQuant, offered a contrasting view, claiming that Solana is gradually gaining market capitalization and closing the gap with Ethereum.

Last year, Solana demonstrated strong growth, but the surge in Ethereum’s price has overshadowed Layer-1 projects like Solana. Although Ethereum continues to attract more investor attention, Solana’s transaction speed and efficiency remain superior. Solana’s transaction speed is approximately 3,000% faster than Ethereum’s, and its transaction costs are nearly 5,000,000% lower.