Decentralization Myth? Solana Founder’s Comment Ignites Controversy

Key Points

1. Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko claimed that any node, even without staked SOL, could veto a rogue software upgrade, sparking debate about Solana's decentralization.

2. Critics argue that Solana's consensus changes can be made through a single Discord channel, accusing the network of centralization disguised as a feature.

3. Solana has experienced multiple outages, averaging one every six months over the past four years, raising concerns about reliability.

4. Yakovenko emphasized fee stability and throughput as priorities, defending Solana's performance and scalability, including the upcoming Firedancer upgrade.

5. Solana's validator count (around 1,400 consensus validators) is lower than Ethereum's (11,841 full nodes), but it has been adopted by Visa for USDC settlements due to low fees and fast finality.