True confessions of a Solana shill

Some of you may recognise me as a Solana shill. That's fair. I've used a number of apps and have been involved in projects across the blockchain. So I thought I'd offer my perspective on the recent outage.

First, the obvious...

How I feel about the outages?

They're fucking shit. Duh. It's an embarrassment. A decentralised blockchain is suppose to be up 24/7. The fact that it has happened not once, not twice but now three times is unacceptable. And yes, a full outage has only happened three times - anyone telling you otherwise is mixing up outages/congestion/misinformation.

But, isn't it still in Beta?

Well yeah, but who fucking cares. It's true and its a common response from Solana fans, but I'm actually getting sick of saying it. The chain has thousands of apps running on it already - how many does it need to be classed as active? There is still technically no official date as to when 1.0 will launch.

It's not even decentralised!

Well actually it is. They have over 1600 validators. Granted Ethereum has way more, but Solana is a lot younger. This is not a concern for me at all.

What about the founder?

Personally, I'm not a fan of the whole demi-god leader CEO of a project, but if I was, this would actually be one of Solana's biggest strengths. Vitalik is a hero, Kwon is a degenerate, BankmanFreid is an innovator, Justin Sun is a copycat scammer... etc. Yeah read into those what you will. Anatoly, the creator of Solana is very active online answering questions, and has not disappeared during any of the major downtimes. He creates threads that try to explain issues, addresses concerns and outlines plans that underpin how the issues will be resolved temporarily and permanently. And he's never made ridiculous million dollar bets or called anyone poor.

So, are you thinking of dumping Solana now?

No. I still believe Solana has a great future. It definitely has problems now. And it is giving me the shits. I don't leverage trade, so I'm not at risk of liquidations, but many others do and the risk to that type of investor right now is high on the Solana blockchain. And I accept that this is a major cause for contention and is a valid reason for many traders to avoid using it. This in turn obviously tanks the price.

What if it goes down again?

To be honest, that's a possibility. In fact, it is more like a probability. They haven't yet fixed all the issues in the beta, and the new version is not finished yet. Anatoly himself says they could implement it, but he still says it has about 10x the amount of bugs that could yet be found. However, it is this transparency and ongoing communication that actually helps me keep faith.

Sounds pretty shit. Why do you like it so much?

That's fair too. The truth is, when it is operational, it is the fastest fucking blockchain around. It's cheap cheap cheap to move stuff around. I move stuff around all the time, and the fees are so incredibly small, I have never once noticed the minimal SOL level required for fees in any wallet to drop to a point where it needed topping up. The number of developers flocking to the network also build its strength. The language it uses, Rust, is preferred by most.

Future? What future?

Many chains have outlined goals that include initiatives in Africa, banking replacements, NFT marketplaces, etc... One of Solana's main goals is to be fast and powerful enough to run stock markets. If they can resolve the fucking congestion and downtime issues, I think this is actually possible. But if they can't, well, imagine what would happen if a downtime occurred on the NASDAQ.

What price did you pay for Solana?

I have bought Solana at $22, $40, $45, $77, $131 and $188.

Are you still buying?

Yes. I bought a little bit more this morning at $40. I do not believe its marketcap reflects its current and future use case. Especially compared to Ethereum's marketcap (which is 17x higher). I am however, mostly buying Bitcoin.

Are you delusional?

Yes, probably.

Are you involved with other chains?

Yes. While I still believe Solana has a vibrant future, I'm not an undiversified moron. More than half my folio is in Bitcoin and Ethereum.