Anatoly Yakovenko: Solana’s Fight Is With Centralized Ethereum L2s, Not Ethereum Itself

Key Takeaways

• Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has said the blockchain is “not at war with Ethereum.”
• Rather, Yakovenko’s beef is with centralized Layer 2 (L2) sequencers.
• While alternative technologies are being developed, Ethereum L2s currently rely on a single sequencer or operator each to order transactions.

Solana is often positioned as an alternative to Ethereum, but according to co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Ethereum itself isn’t the enemy.

Rather, he views centralized Ethereum Layer 2 blockchains as Solana’s biggest rivals.

“We Are Not at War With Ethereum”

In a comment on X on Sunday, June 22, Yakovenko stated: “We are not at war with Ethereum, we are at war with its centralized sequencer L2s.”

While his language downplays the Solana versus Ethereum rivalry, in reality, L2s (which nearly all rely on centralized sequencers) now handle around ten times more activity than the Ethereum base layer.

What Are Centralized Sequencers?

As the name suggests, sequencers order blockchain transactions, organizing them according to each L2s internal logic before submitting batches of transactions to the L1.

Optimistic rollups including Arbitrum One, Optimism and Base rely on a single machine (physical or virtual) each to sequence transactions.

In an effort to increase decentralization, Arbitrum has introduced a permissioned set of verifiers, but the single sequencer model still creates a central point of failure.

While the prover/operator setup does introduce an extra layer of protection, Zero Knowledge (ZK) rollups still suffer from the same vulnerability, with a single operator in responsible for printing to the L1.

Ethereum Community Divided

Yakovenko is not alone in his animosity toward centralized sequencers, which also have plenty of critics within the Ethereum community.

Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons has described centralized L2s as “dangerous” and accused “betraying the cypherpunk principles” upon which the blockchain movement was founded.

In a similar vein, Yearn founder Andre Cronje has argued that L2s siphon value from Ethereum and detract from efforts to scale the L1 network.

However, the centralized sequencer model does have its supporters. Among them is Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, who has defended L2 centralization.

According to Buterin, having a single point of control over the transaction queue reduces front-running opportunities, preventing users from exploiting Ethereum’s validation system and driving up fees.