Solana’s Layer1 Solution and Atomic Global State Machine

• Anatoly Yakovenko dismisses the requirement of the Layer2 solution on Solana as irrelevant.
• Solana’s co-founder reinforces the blockchain’s core mission of expanding the atomic global state machine.
• Though an L2 solution is innovative, it doesn’t contribute to Solana’s atomic global state machine synchronization.

Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana Labs, recently shared insights on the blockchain ecosystem’s vision of synchronizing a global atomic state machine. Dismissing the question of Layer 2 solutions on Solana as irrelevant, Yakovenko asserted that the platform would continue to scale Layer 1 with some future hardware upgrades.

Previously, as a response to Offchain Labs Co-Founder Steven Goldfeder’s hype on Ethereum, Yakovenko made a playful comment, “Solana is Ethereum.” While Goldfeder listed the top L2 projects built on Ethereum in an effort to highlight the supremacy of Ethereum, Yakovenko presented Solana, often dubbed the Ethereum-killer, as an equivalent to Ethereum.

In his recent post, Solana’s co-founder reaffirmed the blockchain’s core vision of expanding the atomic global state machine, for which an L2 solution contributes nothing. Elaborating on the notion of L2 solutions, Yakovenko cited,

They are external execution environments that cannot ensure atomic composition with the rest of the Layer 1 state. Technologies like side chains, data availability validating bridges, and zero-knowledge proof vanadium are innovative and welcomed, but they do not expand the atomic global state machine.

Acknowledging and appreciating Yakovenko’s explanation, the blockchain educator MartyParty shared an X post. Adding more insights on Yakovenko’s assertions, MartyParty posited that the “only logical next level of consciousness” is to use Solana as Bitcoin’s Layer 2 solution. He added that Solana’s L2 on Bitcoin could realize the Lightning Network’s historical promise of “spendable Bitcoin for close to free and near instant.”

Meanwhile, Yakovenko clarified that there is no impediment in creating Layer2 solutions on Solana. But what keeps developers away from such a move is its irrelevance in the ecosystem. He recapitulated, “Solana is focused on continuing to scale Layer 1 directly, enhancing the single virtual machine instance on that Layer 1, hopefully, with just hardware upgrades in the future.”