Prelude: “Creative Thinking“ — Wang Yin
I’ve noticed a phenomenon: when you say A is good, someone will say A is not as good as B, so A is not good.
The first case is when you say SOL’s technology is better than BNB’s, it will spark controversy. Some people use the fact that SOL has experienced several outages to prove that SOL’s technology is not good. Others say that trading coins is not technology-driven but capital-driven, and that technology is not important. These viewpoints reflect their respective positions.
From a developer’s perspective, no one would regard BNB as a blockchain because it is a platform coin, with centralized node operations and an operational model that is not blockchain-like. Technically, it forked Geth’s code with some modifications, and adopted PoS earlier than Geth to increase control over the entire chain. After ETH completes the Cancun upgrade, BNB also imitated and implemented its own BIP-4844, clearly belonging to the same technical system as ETH.
Another perspective is that after ETH’s ETF is close to approval, people start discussing whether the next ETF will be for DOGE, SOL, or even DOT, but no one mentions BNB, which fully demonstrates that BNB is different from other public chains and not in the same track. To determine whether two products belong to the same track, one can see if there is a competitive relationship where one must die for the other to live. If BNB uses ETH’s technology but hopes ETH dies, it is illogical. The normal logic should be hoping ETH gets better, and BNB will also benefit.
From a user’s (trader’s) perspective, it doesn’t matter what technology you use or how good your technology is. A meme can be in the top ten in market value, a dog with a hat can be worth billions, I will go where the investors are, I will buy what capital speculates, FOMO is the way to go.
The second case is when you say SOL’s technology is good, others will say ETH is better, so SOL is not good.
It’s the same issue of perspective. From a user’s point of view, there are countless reasons to compare the pros and cons of two projects. When you say A is good, someone can always find a B that is better than A or a C that is better than A in some aspect. Using such techniques, they can defeat anyone or any project. There is also a huge space for controversy and a hierarchy of disdain, just like whether PHP is the best language in the world.
But from a developer’s perspective, if I want to develop a chain, my chain needs to compare technology and compete for the market with SOL. Can I do better than SOL? Certainly not. So, from this standpoint, isn’t it reasonable for me to say SOL’s technology is pretty good?
SOL here is just an example. Actually, any established public chain in the top 100 of CMC has some highlights, especially those that pioneered and tried different consensus algorithms. They may not be as well-known as ETH and SOL, but they have also achieved good results.