A famous Ethereum researcher unexpectedly "defects," stating that "Solana contains more possibilities."

Author: Wu Tianyi, DeThings

On December 9, Max Resnick announced on X that he has joined Solana's core development studio, Anza. Resnick has become one of the most prominent figures in the Ethereum network in recent months.

He previously worked at Consensys's subsidiary, SpecialMechanisms Group, and is known for his opposition to the Ethereum roadmap—he believes that some ideas surrounding Layer 2 are misguided and that Ethereum should focus on scaling the base layer.

Consensys is a software company founded by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin in 2014, best known for its MetaMask wallet. Anza is a spinoff of Solana Labs, responsible for continuing the development of Solana-related software.

"Solana Holds More Possibilities"

"Solana holds more possibilities and potential energy," Resnick stated, noting that this decision stems from his own career path, but he pointed out that the "frustration" with Ethereum's inability to adapt was one of the reasons for this move.

He expressed that Ethereum's rigid culture hinders progress and lacks streamlined processes for rapid change. Some view this as an advantage of decentralized networks, while others, like Resnick, see it as an obstacle to long-term success.

The developer community views co-founder Vitalik Buterin's annual "roadmap" as a reason for tracking Ethereum's slow progress, believing that many significant changes may still take years to realize.

Resnick stated that while Ethereum's decision-making may not be as deliberately disconnected and inefficient as Bitcoin's, the network still faces unhealthy internal political issues. He said that major, important discussions about improving the network "are taking place in Vitalik's DMs."

"Ethereum now needs to make rapid changes to keep up with the competition, and I think it needs to change its long-standing slow processes in some way."
This was enough to prompt Resnick to seek a new home, and ultimately he chose Solana. He accepted a position at Anza, stating that he appreciates Solana's ability to act quickly in competition.

From a market capitalization perspective, Ethereum's leading position in the cryptocurrency market is undeniable. However, at the product, developer, and decision-making levels, the original smart contract platform Ethereum continues to be challenged by one of its closest competitors, Solana.

Ethereum and its many interconnected networks remain the most important, influential, and largest platform in decentralized finance. However, as many cryptocurrency newcomers opt for Solana's speed and low fees, this leading position is beginning to weaken.

This has led some of Ethereum's most outspoken supporters to ponder whether the network needs to transition to a rapid update state.

"The entire development history of Ethereum has been in peacetime," ETH supporter David Hoffman said in the latest episode of his podcast, Bankless. "Nowadays, more and more people believe that this development period for Ethereum has come to an end."

Pudgy Penguins Leave "Home"

Moreover, just last week, one of the most famous NFT series on Ethereum, Pudgy Penguins, announced that the team behind Pudgy Penguins is launching a token called PENGU, but it will be issued on the Solana network instead of on the NFT's "home" Ethereum.

The third-largest NFT series by market capitalization, Pudgy Penguins, announced that it will launch a new token called PENGU on the Solana blockchain by the end of this year.

According to the project, they will distribute 88 billion PENGU tokens to holders of Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys, Pudgy Rods, and other series of NFTs from the project.

The token supply will be allocated as follows: 23.5% reserved for existing Pudgy Penguins NFT holders, 22.02% reserved for the broader Solana and Ethereum communities, and another 12.32% will be used to provide liquidity on decentralized exchanges.

This announcement sparked significant concern on crypto Twitter. Some commenters believe this decision demonstrates Solana's advantages as a retail-friendly blockchain compared to Ethereum.

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake stated in an interview with CoinDesk last week that he is not worried about this competition. He mentioned that Solana does not place "health" in a sufficiently important position, making it unable to achieve long-term victory.

"There are many people in ETH (many of whom contribute far more than I do) who are equally frustrated with the current state of Ethereum and are calling for change," Resnick said. "Some have expressed that if these changes do not happen, I don't know how much longer I can work here."