Maikansoh

Blaming SOL for the fraud & scams that occur there is a brain-dead take; This always happens to permissionless chains that rise to a dominant position 🔥 In 2014, it was BTC scams & criminal markets. In 2017 ETH ICOs & in 2021 it was ETH NFTs! SOL is the BTC & ETH of 2025: 🧵 Scammers & criminals will always seek out the cutting-edge, as it is on this frontier where they can extract the most, just like the Wild West of old Does that make the frontier bad? Ofcourse not, in the same way, that BTC & ETH were not bad during their heydays A truly decentralized, permissionless & public blockchain cannot block criminals, scams & fraud... That is the trade-off we make for freedom, truly making it the home of the brave; if you cannot stomach that, go back to centralized products! The early internet was much the same, with a much higher proportion of criminal activity, scams & fraud that we see today. Over time, with mainstream adoption, this was watered down & consumer protections were improved. Making the internet a much more respectable place today compared to when it was in its infancy Most also do not realize that pornography drove a lot of the internet's growth, specifically the acceleration of innovation around capacity, speed & more: I have never endorsed memecoins & I likely never will as a research-led fundamental value investor However, the analogy to pornography & the early internet is uncanny, even if it is often distasteful. I am not in the business of denying reality; I am in the business of uncovering & discovering reality A major difference to the internet is that crypto is not a single protocol, but thousands all competing over dominance & adoption. This free market dynamic is powerful & even though it drives a lot of evil in our world, the net effect is still positive. Free market competition drives innovation & exerts "evolutionary pressure". This, however, does mean we are cycling through dominant chains over time. First, it was BTC, then it was ETH & now it is SOL! I value freedom & am willing to accept a certain degree of chaos & danger in return The truth is that SOL is now leading the cryptocurrency movement, whether we like it or not! The high frequency of scams & fraud are only additional signs of this dominance, along with the undeniable usage metrics, where SOL is clearly leading SOL's leadership has also been relatively responsible, as they have been putting their audience's attention & focus on real projects, for which there are plenty on SOL. As a matter of fact, the application revenue for SOL is now higher than all other chains combined! (5.8M in the last 24H!) Again, I have never endorsed meme coins & never will. However, one of the reasons for PumpFun's success has exactly been because it is more fair than most of the alternatives out there. The platform itself guarantees that there is no pre-sale & no team allocation; this is why some of the biggest meme coin scams were not launched on PumpFun! We all need to inject a bit more nuance & detail into these conversations; nothing is ever clearly black or white, good or evil: I also suspect that the recent meme coin mania was driven by the sorry state of our industry. a lot of people perceive meme coins as a less rigged game compared to the VC-infested waters of "mainstream" crypto. Where the majority of the supply is now often controlled by insiders... We should bring ICOs back at scale now that the regulatory environment can support that again. Since at least that gave retail the same opportunity as the VCs participating at a ground level Either way, blaming SOL for this recent mania is completely misguided; if anything, we should be thankful that somebody was able to pick the ball back up after ETH fumbled it. We should care about the adoption of decentralized blockchain infrastructure; I am not so petty as to oppose this adoption surge by totally opposing SOL There is plenty to criticize SOL for, but supporting fraud, scams & fraud is not it. That is a tired argument that I have countered for over 12 years now, both in defense of BTC, ETH & now SOL in turn. Do not be like the sour BTC maxis of 2017, denying reality as their usage metrics are flipped by ETH. Constantly moving the goalposts of success until they became a pet rock Realism & an adherence to empirical evidence inform our position, love or hate SOL. You cannot deny its prominence; this is why Trump launched on SOL; no other chain had the infrastructure to support that sort of scale overnight Based on crypto's history, there is a good chance that there will be a different dominant blockchain, in a few years from now. That blockchain will also most likely host the majority of fraud, scams & criminality. This has always been the case & most likely always will SOL is no angel, but it is also certainly not a devil ☯️