Solana CEO says protocol must continually evolve, rejects 'ossification'

Beincrypto reports Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko rejected blockchain "ossification" and said Solana must continually iterate to survive, writing on X on January 17 that a network’s longevity is tied to its ability to change.

Yakovenko argued protocol changes should "solve a dev or user problem" and that saying no to most problems is necessary. He said upgrades should emerge from a diverse, decentralized contributor base rather than depend on any single group, and suggested artificial intelligence could shape future governance and coding. "LLM can generate a SIMD spec so tight that LLM can verify it’s complete and unambiguous and implement it. The only long pole is agreement and testnet soak testing," he wrote.

His stance counters Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s "walkaway test" idea, which aims to lock the protocol after meeting hurdles such as full quantum resistance, sufficient scalability and a lasting state architecture so the network can operate without its founding developers. The disagreement outlines two paths: Ethereum as a security- and immutability-focused settlement layer, and Solana as a high-growth, fast-adapting technology platform.

Key Topics

Crypto, Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko, Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, Ossification