Anatoly Yakovenko’s recent plan to make Solana an Ethereum rollup is audacious, but brilliant and creative. It’s possibly a delicate edifice that may fall down at any time. Let's be real, the idea of leveraging Solana's speed for Ethereum's security has a certain je ne sais quoi. Before we lead up to a champagne bribery busting fourth annual pop champagne, let’s lay down the hard questions.

Security? Or Fool's Gold?

Okay, fine, the potential is tantalizing. Imagine Ethereum transactions zooming along at Solana speeds. Now, picture those fees being lowered even more—what if interacting with DeFi was suddenly truly cost-effective? Solana boasts 4,000 transactions per second compared to Ethereum's measly 15, and significantly lower average fees per user ($0.26 vs. Ethereum's $4.1). On paper, this addresses Ethereum’s big scalability problems and opens it up to many more potential users.

Here's the rub: Security. We're talking about trusting a significant portion of Ethereum's transaction processing to Solana. When Solana inevitably has another major outage, uh… what are you supposed to do then? Remember those days? Or, even worse, what if it’s the subject of a zero day attack from a bad actor? All of a sudden, Ethereum’s security is worth as strong as Solana’s shoddiest validator. And history would inform us that that link isn’t made of vibranium.

Think of it like this: you're trusting a high-speed courier (Solana) to deliver your precious jewels (ETH transactions). Sure, they're fast, but are they reliable? What if their truck breaks down in the outback, or gets hijacked on a narco highroad? Ethereum is meant to be the castle keep, not a parcel shipped through some fly by night courier.

Centralization: A New King?

The promise of decentralization is what brought most of us to crypto in the beginning. Does this proposal unintentionally establish a new centralizing chokepoint? Who’s actually running that Solana network that’s taking all these Ethereum transactions? Are we merely trading one bottleneck for another – this time with a Solana t-shirt on?

And what about economic incentives? Are they aligned for everyone involved? Might Solana, someday in the future, want to collect rent from Ethereum users? Or will they begin to impose additional penalties for transaction “express delivery”? All of a sudden, those low fees aren’t so attractive anymore, are they?

It’s akin to initially providing someone with a very valuable free ride and then insisting on payment for the oxygen in the vehicle.

Another Layer 2 Killed Off?

Arbitrum and Base are already in the market, competing for sliver of market share. While this Solana powered rollup has potential speed and cost benefits, it’s entering into a very crowded space. The question is, will it really provide some advantage such that it becomes the value proposition – unique enough to dethrone the current incumbents. Or will it simply become another bar in the buffet, making the ecosystem even more fragmented?

The user experience could be frictionless, with users using any rollup interacting with it through their current Ethereum wallet. Come on—the crypto universe is confusing enough as it is. As developers, do we really want or need another layer of abstraction on top of that?

Maybe the most exciting part of this proposal is what it could mean — a more interconnected blockchain world. Where blockchains specialize and plug into each other, the chains themselves dynamically plug into Ethereum’s security for settlement. And finally it foreshadows a future where blockchains are more like lego blocks.

Look, I'm all for innovation. Now look, I strongly advocate the intention of asking hard questions. Is Solana’s Ethereum rollup strategy a masterstroke that will turn the blockchain world on its head? Or is it a misguided gambit that endangers Ethereum’s long-term security and decentralization? What do you think?