Placeholder partner: Ethereum compares to Solana, just like Android compares to iOS
Original author: Joel Monegro, Partner at Placeholder
Original compilation: Luffy, Foresight News
Ethereum is to Solana as Android is to iOS.
Android values modularity: it runs on many different types of devices made by hundreds of manufacturers around the world; Google makes only 1-2% of those devices. This makes Android the most popular mobile operating system in the world, with approximately 60-75% market share. Androids flexibility is a boon to hardware companies that make smartphones, TVs, and more, because they can bring new products to market without investing billions of dollars building the operating system. However, this diversity also makes it more difficult to develop applications that can run seamlessly on devices with different specifications, screen sizes, and various Android versions.
In contrast, all iOS devices are manufactured by Apple, so it can provide a more integrated and consistent experience for users and developers. The time saved by not having to optimize across different devices can be used to deliver better apps that users are willing to pay extra for, so its not uncommon for companies to release apps on iOS first. While Apple only holds about a third of the market, it does a better job of capturing ecosystem value, accounting for about 60% of all mobile spending (plus all hardware revenue).
This isnt an original analogy, but its a useful one. Ethereum, similar to Android, is quickly becoming a platform for third-party networks rather than the home for most end users and developers. The L2 network ecosystem that uses the Ethereum mainnet to ensure security and utilizes EVM as an operating system is growing rapidly, processing about 5-6 times more transactions than the Ethereum mainnet, and this number is expected to quickly expand to 100 times or more. These third-party networks are like different Android OEMs: many offer directly competing services with little differentiation, while others focus on specific markets or use cases. As more and more tools make it easier to launch L2, we can expect Ethereums scope of influence to continue to expand, covering hundreds of networks and processing transactions far beyond the Ethereum mainnet.
EVM is expected to continue to be the most popular blockchain operating system, running on thousands of different networks and rollups across markets, domains, and use cases. Even if the mainnet only accounts for a portion of its total value, Ethereum will benefit greatly from this expanding ecosystem. However, this diversity brings many of the same challenges as Google Android. For example, different EVM networks can run slightly different operating system versions, so Ethereum smart contracts are not guaranteed to run seamlessly on all these networks by default, and developers must spend extra time adjusting and testing for different environments. And maintenance. For the average user, the user experience of Ethereum can also become fragmented: applications on one network may not work on another network, wallets cannot support all networks at the same time, and for ordinary users, it is difficult to navigate between them. Switching can be confusing and even dangerous. These user experience issues will improve over time, just as Android becomes smoother and more secure as it evolves. Still, developers face the burden of devoting more time to solving these problems.
Solana, on the other hand, is similar to iOS in that it tightly integrates components in the name of throughput and performance. In addition, Solana adopts different consensus mechanisms and design principles. Ultimately, it serves as a single, unified network that is faster and cheaper than Ethereum and many other EVM networks. Developers can focus on delivering better applications for a single high-performance platform without worrying about transaction speed, gas cost optimization and cross-chain deployment, and users do not have to worry too much about slow transactions, switching between networks or cross-chain, wallet support Inconsistency and other issues.
Of course, this is a superficial analogy and many details are not covered. But it is necessary to understand that this is a game of choices, not of winners and losers. It doesn’t matter who is absolutely, objectively “better”; what matters is that this debate is never over. Some will value the flexibility of a modular concept; others will value the speed and simplicity of a more integrated platform. The important thing is that options exist and you can choose the one that works best for you. Success in the industry requires a number of competitive platforms with different trade-offs to maximize developer and user choices; today, Ethereum and Solana embody this spirit as two of the most promising smart contract networks on the market .
Understanding where we are in financial and technology cycles is critical for investors. Bear markets are the best time to survey the market and emerge as new winners during major consolidations. Maximalism would have you support only Ethereum, Bitcoin, or whatever network they like, and abandon everything else, but thats more emotion than logic. In fact, there was a time when Bitcoin was the only legitimate digital asset; there was also a time when, despite the emergence of alternatives, Ethereum (like IBM in its heyday) was the only real game in town.
