Debate Over Censorship and Innovation Ignites in Blockchain Communities

Solana, the layer-1 smart-contract blockchain, has seen its SOL token jump sixfold this year, vastly outperforming its dominant rival, Ethereum, whose ether (ETH) is up just 92%. According to the digital-asset analysis firm Messari, the gains for Solana have coincided with signs of strong transactional activity on the network: Weekly active addresses on Solana have now returned to levels prior to last year’s collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange. (Bankman-Fried was a major Solana booster.) Solana’s total value locked, or TVL – a key metric when evaluating a blockchains prominence in decentralized finance, or DeFi – has doubled, “indicating a robust comeback,” the Messari analyst Ally Zach wrote in a report. What’s more, she noted, “Solana’s ecosystem is diversifying beyond DeFi, with a notable increase in consumer-based applications, including social media, content monetization platforms and innovative uses of compressed NFTs.” There’s also been interest from crypto users in “airdrop farming,” focused on applications including Jupiter, Marginfi, Drift, Zeta and JitoSol, according to the report. CoinDesk’s Oliver Knight reported this week that “Jito, Solana’s liquid staking protocol, offers stakers a yield of 6.96%, a level that led to $327 million in inflows since Oct. 13.”