Solana has two problems: the massive amount of SOL required to become a validator, and the mini-datacenter needed for actual validation. Honestly, PoS has never convinced me because, even if it makes sense logically, it creates a significant entry barrier, and every barrier hinders the functioning of a truly decentralized network, especially during the adoption phase. BTC has many problems¹, but setting up a node is basically just buying a BitAxe/NerdMiner and a Raspi. It's something that almost anywhere in the world, the bulk of the population who might have heard of BTC can actually be a part of. This matters. Solana is excellent for TPS and fees without needing Layer 2, but the economic model doesn't hold up; it can only work if it's institutionalized, which is happening to some extent: Wall Street has largely chosen it for tokenized securities, but that's not a good thing for a crypto. ¹

The Gaslit Asset Class

James Grant invited me to address the annual conference of Grant's Interest Rate Observer . This was an intimidating prospect, the previous...