Solana said to be ‘more decentralized than people think,’ but there’s more

Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) firm Unstoppable Finance has argued that Solana is more decentralized than people make it out to be. However, there’s another side that believes that the blockchain platform is actually more centralized.

In a blog post, the DeFi firm lays out its arguments, citing the blockchain network’s active validator count, Nakamoto coefficient and support for validator hardware, which is often argued to be expensive, as reasons for the network’s decentralization.

According to the post, Solana’s validator count is much higher than most other chains, excluding Ethereum. Additionally, Unstoppable Finance points out that Solana’s Nakamoto coefficient, a metric that measures the distribution of staked tokens and decentralization, is much higher than protocols like Cosmos and Near Protocol.

*Solana’s validator count compared with other networks. Source: Ultimate (by Unstoppable Finance)*

Regarding the criticisms that Solana’s validator hardware is expensive, Unstoppable Finance argues that Solana has already created a server rental program that deals with the issue. Despite the arguments in favor of Solana’s decentralization, some community members cannot be convinced that the platform is decentralized.

Twitter user Les_teezy believes that Solana’s network outages are not the main problem; instead, the network is “too centralized,” giving only a few the influence to shut down and restart the network. The Twitter user highlighted that without decentralization, the network is just the same as any traditional system.

A month ago, a Reddit user who claimed to be a software developer called Solana a scam, comparing it to an SQL database implemented by traditional finance. The Redditor wrote that if a central group can roll back a ledger, it’s similar to centralized finance firms.

In June, Solend, a lending protocol based on Solana, initiated a controversial action to take over the wallet of a whale to avoid liquidations. The move received huge pushback from the community. Eventually, the team backpedaled and focused on other solutions that don’t require taking over the wallet.