Every major shift in technology starts with a realization: what we built isn\u2019t enough. By 2016, it was clear to crypto natives that despite the promises of decentralization, financial freedom, and a fancy, user-owned internet, blockchains weren\u2019t scalable.<\/p>\n
As concerns<\/a> around scalability grew, Ethereum\u2019s creator, Vitalik Buterin, coined the term<\/a> Blockchain Trilemma<\/em> to explain the fundamental compromise between decentralization, security, and scalability. Improving one came at the cost of another, making it nearly impossible to achieve all three at\u00a0once.<\/p>\n Source: chainlink<\/p>\n So early blockchain designs made their\u00a0choices:<\/p>\n Bitcoin and Ethereum prioritized decentralization and security at the expense of scalability. But as demand grew, so did the strain on both networks.<\/p>\n During the ICO boom of 2017<\/a>, Ethereum started buckling under the weight of its growth. People started to complain<\/a>. The network saw a massive surge in activity, which caused gas fees to spike and transactions to slow\u00a0down.<\/p>\n CryptoKitties<\/a>, one of the first viral Ethereum gaming dApps, clogged the network so badly that transactions took hours to go through unless users paid extremely high\u00a0fees.<\/p>\n In the words of Bryce Bladon, co-founder of CryptoKitties,<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough we wouldn\u2019t have pursued the CryptoKitties project if we didn\u2019t want it to be a success, we did not expect it to catch fire quite like it did. All signs were great. We thought we\u2019d caught all the bugs and issues. We were expecting to have to deal with things like scaling at some point. We did not expect it to be in the first\u00a0week\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just Ethereum that faced these problems. Bitcoin, too, was struggling to scale its transactions. It became clear that overcoming these challenges would require rethinking the mechanisms these networks used to reach consensus.<\/p>\n In blockchain, a consensus mechanism is a set of rules and methods a blockchain uses to agree on the state of the\u00a0system.<\/em><\/p>\n For Bitcoin, this \u2018agreement\u2019 is achieved through a Proof-of-Work (PoW)<\/em> consensus mechanism, where miners solve complex, energy-intensive cryptographic puzzles to validate transactions and secure the\u00a0network.<\/p>\n However, as Bitcoin\u2019s popularity grew, the number of transactions trumped the network\u2019s processing ability. This led to slower transaction validation times and higher fees. The rise in mining activity also led to greater energy consumption, as more miners competed to solve increasingly difficult puzzles, requiring even more computational power.<\/p>\n Another reason for these limitations is Bitcoin\u2019s fixed block size, which is currently a little over 1.5 MB<\/a> and can handle only about 7 transactions per\u00a0second<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ethereum, which initially used the same PoS consensus mechanism as Bitcoin, transitioned to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) in 2022<\/a> through an event called The Merge. <\/em>Unlike PoW, where miners compete to solve puzzles, PoS selects validators based on the amount of ETH they stake as collateral.<\/p>\n The move to PoS drastically reduced Ethereum\u2019s energy consumption by 99.95%<\/a> but didn\u2019t fully solve its scalability problems, as the network can handle only around 14 transactions per\u00a0second<\/a>.<\/p>\n Post-merge, Ethereum\u2019s energy use shrank to the size of a raspberry. Source:\u00a0Coindesk<\/p>\n Layer-2 (L2) solutions were introduced to address the scalability issues of L1 blockchains (like Bitcoin and Ethereum), but they aren\u2019t very user-friendly.<\/p>\n L2s are scaling solutions built on top of Ethereum that process transactions off-chain while still relying on Ethereum for security.<\/em><\/p>\n With L2s, you have to bridge assets, switch networks, and deal with fragmented liquidity across multiple rollups (a type of Layer-2 scaling solution). This creates a poor user experience<\/a> for both everyday users and developers alike.<\/p>\n Moreover, L2 gas fees are still quite high, often cheaper than Ethereum\u2019s base layer, but still costly for micropayments.<\/p>\n Anatoly Yakovenko wasn\u2019t your typical crypto founder. He wasn\u2019t some Wall Street guy or Bitcoin maxi. He was just an engineer who knew something most developers didn\u2019t: how to make blockchains move\u00a0faster.<\/p>\n As previously stated, a blockchain processes transactions once its nodes validate<\/em>, <\/strong>agree on<\/em>, <\/strong>and <\/strong>finalize<\/em> them through a consensus mechanism. But that constant back-and-forth to reach an agreement was what slowed things\u00a0down.<\/p>\n Then, in 2017, Anatoly had a realization:<\/p>\n If nodes spent less time agreeing on the order of transactions, transactions would be faster and\u00a0cheaper.<\/strong><\/p>\n So, he built a cryptographic \u2018clock\u2019 that lets nodes verify time and order without constant communication and called it Proof of History\u00a0(PoH)<\/em>.<\/p>\n Did it work,\u00a0though?<\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Chroman, K., Decker, C., Eyal, I., & Gencer, A. E.<\/strong> (2016). On scaling decentralized blockchains: A position paper<\/em>. ResearchGate. https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/292782219_On_Scaling_Decentralized_Blockchains_A_Position_Paper<\/a><\/p>\n Cointelegraph.<\/strong> (2024, April 2). History of crypto: The ICO boom and Ethereum\u2019s evolution<\/em>. Cointelegraph. https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/ethereum-ico-boom-history-crypto<\/a><\/p>\n Ethereum Foundation.<\/strong> (2024, July). The Merge<\/em>. Ethereum.org<\/a>. https:\/\/ethereum.org\/en\/roadmap\/merge\/<\/a><\/p>\n Evie.<\/strong> (2025, February 8). Ethereum gas fees drop to record low amid reduced activity<\/em>. The Currency Analytics. https:\/\/thecurrencyanalytics.com\/altcoins\/ethereum-gas-fees-drop-to-record-low-amid-reduced-activity-159464<\/a><\/p>\n Hashmani, M., Khan, D., & Low, J. T.<\/strong> (2021). Systematic literature review of challenges in blockchain scalability<\/em>. ResearchGate. https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/355297166_Systematic_Literature_Review_of_Challenges_in_Blockchain_Scalability<\/a><\/p>\n Hertig, A.<\/strong> (2017, May 10). Ethereum\u2019s double-edged sword: Will a rising price hurt users?<\/em> CoinDesk. https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2017\/05\/10\/ethereums-double-edged-sword-will-a-rising-price-hurt-users<\/a><\/p>\n Hertig, A.<\/strong> (2017, December 7). Cat fight? Ethereum users clash over CryptoKitties<\/em>. CoinDesk. https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2017\/12\/07\/cat-fight-ethereum-users-clash-over-cryptokitties<\/a><\/p>\n Malwa, S.<\/strong> (2025, February 4). Ethereum raises gas limits for first time since 2021, boosting ETH appeal<\/em>. CoinDesk. https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2025\/02\/04\/ethereum-raises-gas-limits-for-first-time-since-2021-boosting-eth-appeal<\/a><\/p>\n Messari.<\/strong> Analyzing TPS and fee revenue across blockchains<\/em>. Messari. Retrieved February 13, 2025, from https:\/\/messari.io\/copilot\/share\/analyzing-tps-and-fee-revenue-across-blockchains-0ae5513d-5791-420a-bcbd-cb8221be268d<\/a><\/p>\n @George_harrap<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> (2025, January 29). [Tweet]<\/em>. X. https:\/\/x.com\/George_harrap\/status\/1751965785969365479<\/a><\/p>\n YCharts.<\/strong> Bitcoin average block size<\/em>. YCharts. Retrieved February 13, 2025, from https:\/\/ycharts.com\/indicators\/bitcoin_average_block_size<\/a><\/p>\n I was deep in a late-night research spiral in my tiny room. One tab turned into twenty, each one pulling me further into Solana\u2019s tech, people, and\u00a0purpose.<\/p>\n What was so broken about blockchain that it needed something as radical as\u00a0Solana?<\/p>\n Turns out, everything.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019m telling that story, piece by piece, for Solana fanboys and fangirls like\u00a0me.<\/p>\n #1 Solana: The Dark Ages<\/a> was originally published in Coinmonks<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Solana: The Dark\u00a0Ages Every major shift in technology starts with a realization: what we built isn\u2019t enough. By 2016, it was clear to crypto natives that despite the promises of decentralization, financial freedom, and a fancy, user-owned internet, blockchains weren\u2019t scalable. As concerns around scalability grew, Ethereum\u2019s creator, Vitalik Buterin, coined the term Blockchain Trilemma […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Guy Who Saw Differently<\/h3>\n