EigenLayer founder debates: ETH vs SOL ETH will be the winner

Press: Who will be the final winner in the battle between ETH and SOL? Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer, debated with Lily Liu of Solana Foundation at Crypto Research Day 2024 two weeks ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLrcxVjfzZU). Sreeram Kannan believes that ETH will win.

Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer, published an article on October 16 summarizing the main points of his debate with Lily Liu. Jinse Finance xiaozou compiled this article.

The reasons why ETH will win are as follows:

- ETH: Nested coordination + asynchronous expansion

- SOL: Fast, but the full replication model limits growth.

- L2s: seen as a weakness, but in fact it is ETH's hypersonic missile.

- Culture: ETH value > personal benefits (this is important!)

- Vision: ETH = world computer, SOL = fast version of Nasdaq.

- Pros and cons: ETH builds trust, SOL iterates quickly.

Don’t jump to conclusions yet, there’s more…

1. Core argument: ETH L2 architecture = nested coordination mechanism

- Self-enforcing (forking: forking only when the block is verifiable by the end user) takes about a few days.

- Majoritarian (validator completes a block) takes a few minutes.

- Committee (Eigenlayer validator committee gives fast economic finality) takes 1 second.

- Authoritarian (sorter gives instant confirmation) takes 10 seconds.

The result is an Instagram-scale user experience and Bitcoin-scale self-validation!

2. ETH baseline? Trust comes from predictability.

Imagine 500 people fighting over the slightest change. Sounds like a nightmare, right? But that's the advantage of ETH.

ETH builds long-term trust. You are sure that the rules will not change overnight.

What about SOL? An organization can change the rules of the game at any time. The line between protocol and application is blurred.

3. What is the constraint of SOL? Complete replication (like all other cryptocurrencies).

- Every node has to download all the data

- System throughput < single node bandwidth

- More nodes, more throughput

This is a scalability dead end.

What is ETH's answer? Danksharding.

- n nodes * 10MB/s = n* 10MB/s throughput

- More nodes = more throughput

- For 1M validators, we are talking about theoretical TB/s.

- This is not a typo.

EigenDA is making this happen. Now.

L2: ETH's secret weapon

- Instant confirmation (100ms)

- Borrowing security from ETH

- Now is the best place to build most applications

4. Culture > Strategy

ETH Culture > SOL Strategy. Why? Because of shared values: anti-censorship, open innovation, and credible neutrality.

These are not just trendy words. They are the foundation of trust.

5. ETH's Vision: World Computer

It's not just faster payments. We're talking about applications with reliable promises.

Imagine a crypto-native Facebook that promises: "We won't change our privacy policy without the consent of the majority of our users."

How? Make computations verifiable on ETH. Users can trust promises. No more web2 "take it or leave it" ultimatums. This is the power of ETH's world computer vision.

6. Self-Verification: ETH's North Star

Every user should verify the full system. Sounds crazy? Maybe. But this is the key to true decentralization. This constraint initially limited throughput.

Rollup cracked the code and changed the rules of the game:

-Keep self-verification

-Throughput is greatly improved

-Users verify proofs, not all data

7. Asynchronous and synchronous composability

ETH: asynchronous composability

SOL: synchronous composability

Most real-world applications require asynchronous composability. Think of MMO games.

8. Asset Entry and Liquidity

SOL: A Large Pool

ETH: Distributed on L2

SOL looks simpler. But there is a problem: single point of failure.

ETH may look more decentralized.

But it is not. It is resilient.

ETH = Programmable Money Across All L2s.

Long-term Resilience > Short-term Convenience.

9. Ecosystem Development: Advantages of ETH

Why do we develop EigenLayer on ETH? It's simple. For predictability.

You know the rules of the game on ETH. They won't change overnight. What about the ETH chain itself? It won't steal your lunch either.

Solana has the speed advantage, sure, but there's a catch: a single organization can gobble up any great idea.

Where's the line between protocol and application? I'm as confused as you are.

ETH is an open playground. Develop innovations on L2. You can sleep easy.

Your idea is always your idea.

The result? ETH attracts serious builders. Visionaries come together to play the long game.

10. ETH vs SOL results

SOL = sprinter

ETH = marathoner

In the field of cryptocurrency, we are fighting a protracted war.

The future is not a single choice of "speed or security", but "speed and security".

ETH + EigenLayer achieves this.

We are not just building on ETH, we are rapidly promoting its development.