Solana Founder Says Network Is More Decentralized Than Ethereum
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko argued on social media that Solana is more decentralized than Ethereum and may even have surpassed Bitcoin in decentralization. Yakovenko said the network’s distributed nature is misunderstood by critics and pointed to accessible node options — including laptop-run nodes and light clients — as evidence that permissionless full-node operation enables broad participation. He also rejected the idea that decentralization depends solely on token distribution, stating that a correctly constructed proof-of-stake network can be sufficiently decentralized regardless of stake concentration. The comments come amid ongoing public debate over Solana’s reliability following past outages and high hardware requirements for some node types. Yakovenko framed Solana’s model as secure for users running their own nodes, contrasting it with permissioned or multisig custody arrangements.
Neutral
Yakovenko’s statements are primarily rhetorical and concern network architecture and decentralization — topics that influence narrative and sentiment more than immediate price moves. For traders, the announcement may modestly bolster Solana sentiment by reinforcing on-chain sovereignty (positive for SOL) but is unlikely to prompt a sustained rally absent technical upgrades, ecosystem milestones, or measurable changes in decentralization metrics. Historical parallels: past credibility statements from project founders (e.g., scalability or decentralization claims) typically produce short-lived positive sentiment and social-media-driven price blips, but long-term price action has followed objective factors like uptime, developer activity, and tokenomics. Risks that limit bullish impact here include Solana’s prior outages and concerns over hardware requirements; these reinforce skepticism among institutional participants. In the short term, expect increased social attention and potential volatility in SOL around the comment, especially among sentiment-driven traders. In the medium to long term, any lasting bullish effect would require demonstrable improvements in reliability, clearer decentralization metrics, or on-chain data showing increased distributed node participation.