In this podcast, Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-founder and CEO of Solana Labs, discusses blockchain architectures, scalability, company-building, and engineering hiring. They explore the differences between Ethereum's roll-up vision and a permissionless system, the demand for block space, attracting developers, leadership in the crypto space, and predictions for crypto adoption. Builders are encouraged to focus on product market fit and pursue innovative ideas.
The end state of blockchains is synchronizing state as close to the speed of light as possible.
Applications resembling the web2.0 model, but with greater transparency and control for creators, could be the biggest drivers of blockchain activity.
Optimizing for execution, performance, and composability poses challenges in blockchain systems, and the focus should be on continually improving price, fairness, and speed compared to traditional finance.
Deep dives
The Importance of Synchronized Global State in Blockchain
The podcast episode features a discussion on the end game of blockchain scalability and the importance of synchronized global state. The speaker argues that settlement will become less important in the future, while synchronized global state distributed at the speed of light will be the valuable aspect. They highlight the value of having a globally synchronized state machine that can serve as a reference point for the world's finance, making it more efficient. The end state of blockchains is seen as synchronizing state as close to the speed of light as possible.
Anticipating the Application of Blockchain at Scale
The podcast episode explores the potential applications that could drive blockchain activity at scale. The guest suggests that applications resembling the web2.0 model, but with greater transparency and control for creators, could be the biggest drivers of blockchain activity. The vision includes a long-tail internet where smaller companies have more control over their data, and markets play a pivotal role in driving distribution and efficiency. The discussion also touches on the importance of optimizing for factors like performance, throughput, latency, and composability, as well as the trade-offs associated with settlement and security.
The Challenge of Scalable Blockchain Architectures
The podcast episode delves into the challenge of scalable blockchain architectures and the trade-offs associated with them. The guest suggests that settling transactions is relatively easy to achieve in blockchain systems, but optimizing for execution, performance, and composability poses greater challenges. They emphasize the need for blockchain systems to continually improve on traditional finance by offering better price, fairness, and speed. The episode also touches on the value of modularity and the need to focus on execution innovation to make blockchain technologies impact the world at scale.
Exploring the Solana Architecture and Design Philosophy
The podcast episode provides insights into the Solana architecture and its design philosophy. The guest highlights the goal of transmitting information globally as fast as possible in a decentralized network. They explain the innovative use of verifiable delay function to schedule block producers, ensuring that forks don't occur and the network runs quickly. The episode also discusses the scalability of Solana, adaptability with hardware improvements, and the emphasis on scalability and performance by scaling with more cores. The guest emphasizes the importance of building software that can take advantage of hardware improvements and scalability.
Importance of Formal Verification and Tools
In the podcast, the speaker emphasizes the importance of formal verification and tools in certain applications, such as DeFi protocols. While some applications can quickly converge on a trusted implementation, new protocols face implementation risks. The speaker mentions the need for tools like unit testing, fuzzing, and formal verification to address implementation risks and build trust among users. The development of better compilers, like MOVE and Rust, is also mentioned as beneficial for creating reliable and secure code.
Changing Landscape of Programming and Crypto
The podcast episode discusses the changing landscape of programming and its impact on the crypto industry. Traditionally, programming has been focused on imperative coding, which is prone to errors. However, there is a shift towards two emerging programming models: mission-critical programming that requires greater code accuracy and machine learning programming that uses data to synthesize programs for lower-stakes applications. Both these models are influencing the field and reducing the dominance of traditional imperative coding, like JavaScript. The speaker highlights the relevance of formal verification, machine learning, and optimized languages in improving program correctness and security in the crypto sector.
This all-new deep-dive, hallway-style chat features a16z crypto general partner Ali Yahya and deal team partner Guy Wuollet, in conversation with Solana co-founder and Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko -- who also worked at Qualcomm for over a decade, where he was a senior engineer and engineering manager among other things.
The first half of the episode is a discussion/ debate blockchain architectures -- including of course Solana & Ethereum, the themes of monolithic vs. modular, et cetera -- but really is about what are the tradeoffs, and what should one optimize for (or not!), depending on what you’re building, and to make crypto happen at scale (now and in the future).
The second half of the episode covers company-, community-, and ecosystem-building -- including discussing the nuances of leadership in open source; and wherefore messiahs/ prophets?! -- as well as touching on engineering hiring, devrel (developer relations), governance; the Solana phone, and some of the Solana backstory as well.
What are the differences between hardware and software innovation? And how does innovation play out, in theory versus practice? These are the throughlines of this episode...
For more on some of the topics discussed, see also:
As a reminder: none of this should be taken as investment, legal, business, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information -- including a link to a list of our investments.
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