Ethereum has no dreams, as Vitalik refuses to become a lifetime benevolent dictator.

Solana has no bottom line, representing the last remaining active conspiracy group in the blockchain world.

BNB Chain has no future, with nothing left besides Binance’s marketing-driven traffic.

Why Study Public Blockchains?

When you are connected to all the retail investors in the cryptocurrency industry, you inevitably become the infrastructure of this industry. So far, only BTC/ETH as public blockchains and Binance, Coinbase as exchanges have achieved this, one being decentralized and the other centralized, with the potential to connect with everyone in the business.

In 2025, there will be no more L1, non-EVM, or market-impacting public blockchains. L2, Move VM, and Sonic/Bear Chain are just token-centered projects, while the struggle between Solana and Base resembles more of a commercial consortium battle, rather than a dispute over technological standards or roadmaps.

Image Caption: The Development History of Public Blockchains Compared to Browsers
Image Source: @zuoyeweb3

Based on this, I summarize three main tones of this article, which is a historical perspective on public blockchains. Just like how the new Edge chose to be compatible with Chromium and started afresh, an era of rapid advancement has ended.

1. The birth of finance was to hedge operational risks, but since its inception, finance has become the primary source of risk, from the railroad protection movement that buried the Qing Empire to Bitcoin, which has eroded the fiat currency system, all of which exemplify this.
2. The development of the internet is essentially a brief history of browser kernels, products, and search engines. When translated into the public blockchain system, it becomes EVM/SVM → ETH/L2, EVM-compatible L1 → PoS node system + super dApp.
3. Public blockchains are still built upon the most fundamental internet protocols. After the wild west and the age of exploration, the course of human civilization has shifted from rural areas to cities. The rise and fall of super public blockchains reflect the direction chosen by developers.

Before Becoming Bitcoin, One Must Experience These Stages

Sending off Bitcoin’s successor, welcoming the rebirth of Base?

Ethereum’s system represents an era of anarchism and individual free will, a time conceived as a decentralized movement to challenge the fiat currency system and create a world computer. It was made as a gift to this era.

After enduring a year of ridicule, Vitalik chose to elevate Aya to the position of chairman of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), as Vitalik himself has said that he can decide everything for the EF.

However, there is no need to hold high hopes for Vitalik. He is an extremely nostalgic person, and Aya was a “drifter” he met while sleeping on the floor at Kraken. The heroic yet humble era lies in the deepest softness of the heart.

I don’t want to list various data and charts to prove Ethereum’s problems because Ethereum itself, EF, and the EVM ecosystem actually have no fundamental issues. BNB Chain and Base won’t switch to SVM anytime soon.

Referring to the history of browser development, the most “authentic,” orthodox, and free Firefox did not continue Netscape’s glory. Instead, it was subsumed by the combination of Google’s open-source Chromium and the commercialization of Google Search. Firefox’s 90% of revenue now comes from setting Google as the default search engine, becoming Google’s de facto “official opposition.”

Today’s ETH/EVM system is similar. Every dApp, every L2, every developer, every VC, and every KOL in the EVM circle evolved through a unique historical trajectory and distinctive ecosystem, through the process of natural selection.

ETH, L2, and EVM are intricately linked, forming the most “network-effect” driven public blockchain system. The inherent positive feedback mechanism of network effects increases ecosystem connectivity, which is the fundamental reason people criticize it but still cannot leave.

Temporary peace will not last forever; Trident IE will eventually be replaced by Chromium Edge. Ethereum’s core issue lies with Vitalik himself. The collapse of the governance system has led to the current predicament.

Vitalik’s parents are both from the Soviet Union, and Vitalik himself is extremely opposed to centralized, authoritarian, and autocratic systems. Here lies the seed of the DAO system, but as mentioned earlier, he has also said that only he can decide everything about the Ethereum Foundation. The rollback after The DAO event has proven: absolute decentralization will lead to absolute centralization.

Image Caption: The Person Who Decides the New EF (Ethereum Foundation) Leadership Team Is Me
Image Source: @VitalikButerin

Referring to Satoshi’s departure, quietly leaving with功与名 (merit and fame), Vitalik is clearly in a state of chaotic neutrality. He neither wants to openly lead everything at EF nor relinquish his ultimate decision-making power over it. Unfortunately, this is the worst type of situation in a governance system.

Since Machiavelli’s The Prince, Max Weber’s take on bureaucracy, and Taylor’s conclusions, companies have become the most efficient organizational model in human society. The tech right in Silicon Valley, like Musk and Peter Thiel, believes that companies should take over nations, rather than bureaucratic management of society, with DOGE being a direct product of this.

However, for organizations not focused on “capital efficiency,” like the tech geek community, the challenge of governance and collaboration among unpaid, globally distributed programmers has become a societal demand for foundations or DAOs. The Linux and RISC-V foundations serve as models, but it’s still not enough. Communities always have conflicts, and people’s hearts are not always aligned.

For Linux and Python, their founders still bear the title of “Benevolent Dictator For Life” (BDFL), but it’s not enough. Last year, Linux founder Linus made a controversial move by banning Russian administrators. After the 2018 PEP 572 dispute, Python announced it would no longer have a BDFL, a move reminiscent of Mo Shaikh’s resignation from Aptos and multiple AVAX board members fleeing.

However, one thing must be acknowledged: In the early development of technical organizations, the nurturing of the founder is indispensable. But EF’s complexity lies elsewhere. A capital efficiency-oriented company only needs to be accountable to its shareholders, while a socially-driven technical foundation only needs to be accountable to the project itself. Programmers are always free to choose and freely fork into different organizations.

But EF is not equivalent to the two. EF can disregard profit, as the ETH in the treasury is enough. However, the EVM ecosystem must consider profitability. This is the awkward part of Vitalik—EF—EVM. Vitalik is doing the work of a BDFL but refuses to take on the corresponding role. EF’s downstream includes hungry ETH holders and a massive economic system, but they must operate under Vitalik’s personal will.

Understanding this is key to understanding why Aya’s Infinite Garden strategy is the only correct one. It’s the only choice to ensure that everyone in EF can follow Vitalik’s will: the patchwork master of the EVM empire, the top-notch operator of the central military machine.

Vitalik is like a child holding gold. The young hero who gained fame cannot maintain balance in a complex world, so he brings in external helpers. But as external groups come in, their primary consideration becomes profitability. Vitalik cannot govern EF/Ethereum/EVM like a company, nor does he want to actually take on the title of BDFL like a technical organization. After DAO was temporarily proven false, Ethereum is now in a state of slow, in a strict sense, loss of control. It’s either going to fade into silence or be overtaken.

Currently, the Ethereum community is discussing the Pectra upgrade, but its attention has already dropped to an alarming level where no one cares. This is the precursor to silence. Please believe, this can’t be solved by ETH price manipulation or a few Meme Dogecoin. What Ethereum needs to answer now is whether Vitalik’s non-financialized decentralized experiment will continue or if it will become Aya’s Infinite Garden, or even a true “World Computer.”

Vitalik personally holds a dream of decentralization, non-financial, and non-sovereign ideals, but EF does not. The entire EVM ecosystem is also difficult to say it has this vision. The scale effect is both an advantage and a curse.

Public chains like Base have already proven that ETH L2 can balance efficiency and cost. The OP/ZK L2 parallel path is absolutely correct, but Base can operate without tokens, more like an advanced version of a consortium chain. If this is the bouquet EVM offers the real world, then it’s a bit laughable.

Folks, it’s better to look to the distance, to Solana and BNB Chain, at least they are serious about token prices.

The Last Conspiracy Group in the Blockchain Camp

The yellow willow branches sway gently, and flowers dangle in the mist.

Why choose Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain as the comparison for super public chains?

Bitcoin doesn’t need comparison; Ethereum’s EVM is the industry standard in practice, just like Chrome’s dominant market share. Solana is more like Safari—its extreme smoothness hides centralization. BNB Chain is the only real orphan among older coins like ADA and XRP with on-chain activity.

If the crypto world had palace intrigues, then Solana would be like Xiu Xiu, after the FTX scandal, still managing to play the big heroine drama of the return to the palace with rising coin prices and ecosystem recovery. Just to give two examples: as of February, Solana’s DEX trading volume has surpassed Ethereum for four consecutive months. In March, Solayer’s market cap exceeded EigenLayer. Even with the drop in Meme trends, Solana proves itself.

Especially the latter, the staking/re-staking system is Ethereum’s innovation and the most crucial part of the PoS system. Here, let me also explain that the equivalent of a search engine in this context is PoS nodes and super dApps. Google is essentially an advertising company, profiting by selling the traffic from Google search to advertisers. In contrast, PoS chain revenue comes from node staking in exchange for public chain Gas Fees. Super dApps are also generators of public chain fees. This is the root of the comparison between the two.

Thus, the public chain prosperity orientation actually points to public chain transactions. SOL’s coin price and low Gas Fees can balance stimulating nodes and encouraging user transactions. Of course, the cost is becoming a “data center chain.” Responsible to say, Ethereum is still decentralized enough, even with Lido holding about 30% of staking shares.

That’s why I love the term “token issuing group.” Solana has always been closely tied to conspiracy, from Jump and SBF’s highly controlled market to the Meme era’s small group of Jupiter DeFi. It’s closer to the colors of the PayPal mafia—pursuing extreme capital efficiency.

Image caption: Solana’s Unyielding Half-Life
Image source: @zuoyeweb3

In terms of the absolute scale of its ecosystem, Solana/SVM is much smaller than ETH/EVM, but Solana has found the approach that works best for it: embracing any conspiracy group. If you think that the token-issuing groups will destroy Solana’s image, just think back to Jump, SBF, and now the Trump family. I can’t say they are not good people, but they are certainly no saints.

With Labs and Foundation split, Labs focuses more on technological progress, while the Foundation, led by Lily Liu, is actively marketing. This contrasts with Ethereum, where Vitalik personally leads and attracts ecosystems through EVM. This doesn’t mean EF should transform into SF, but rather emphasizes that Vitalik’s name is well-deserved. Either he leads personally, or he fully delegates power and focuses on being a spiritual leader—wanting both is clearly ineffective.

Since its birth, Solana has grown in the shadows, embracing extreme capital efficiency under the name of decentralization, returning the original number of token-issuing groups, and adopting the 80/20 rule for retail investors.

From this perspective, Solana represents the opposite of scale effects: the relationship between public chain net income and total assets relative to its number of people. In Web2 and industrial companies, the more people there are, the larger the company’s assets, but in Web3, under the influence of token prices, it’s different. BTC technically has no employees, while EF and Linux, with their large teams, have become bloated. Solana, with a relatively smaller number of controllers, has maximized its economic value.

Image caption: SOL vs ETH Comparison
Data source: CMC/Defillama/Token Terminal/Chain spect

If we evaluate efficiency by human productivity, Solana undoubtedly takes the top spot, earning a little red flower. Solana, with just 1/4 of Ethereum’s developer scale, has surpassed Ethereum in active addresses and dApp revenue, which is even more remarkable given its significant lag in DeFi TVL and stablecoin issuance.

In fact, this achievement is mainly due to PumpFun occupying the majority of the memecoin issuance. We cannot consider Solana’s DeFi ecosystem as having entirely surpassed Ethereum, as Ethereum’s massive scale is also reflected in its L2 and EVM ecosystems, which we will compare with BNB Chain.

“Shiba Inu Heaven Transforms into Big Brother Miaomiao’s House”

The key issue is not the size of our brains, but having the right concepts.

EVM is Chromium, and the best path for BNB Chain is to become Edge, with Binance playing the role of Microsoft—a top-tier industry traffic gateway. As we mentioned, Solana has the highest human productivity efficiency, while BNB Chain dominates in active addresses, with 4.4 million, far surpassing Solana’s 3 million and Ethereum’s 300,000.

Perhaps due to Binance’s past glory overshadowing everything, most people still refer to BNB Chain as BSC. A closer look reveals that all of BNB Chain’s shining moments belong to the past. How it will move forward in the future cannot solely rely on memes, because the BNB token is the core, not the ecosystem. This is the unique aspect of BNB Chain.

Image caption: The Evolution of BNB Chain, Data from Binance Academy
Image source: @zuoyeweb3

A quick comment: The name changes of BNB Chain highlight a case of “big company syndrome,” clearly going through more than one leadership team. It’s evident that BNB Chain’s focus has shifted completely with the industry’s changing hot cycles.

The confusion of the name is a visible manifestation of entropy—entropy kills. Whether it’s genius, technology, or money, everything moves toward disorder and chaos.

Especially with the strange naming of BNB Chain, it’s akin to calling it ETH Chain or SOL Chain—focusing too much on the token price rather than the ecosystem. From the experiences of Solana and Ethereum, balance is key.

If we summarize the development approach of BNB Chain, “following the strategy” would be the best evaluation. From the early days of mimicking Ethereum to now “copying” Solana, note that this is not a criticism—good things are liked by everyone. AMM DEX dominates, but we can’t say everyone is copying Uniswap—actually, Bancor was the first.

However, BNB Chain’s biggest issue is continuing to apply the exchange model. This thinking is fundamentally different from that required for a public chain, and more seriously, it confuses the two.

Let’s break down the current hybrid ecosystem of BNB Chain:

• Ethereum Thinking: DeFi/Staking/RWA/DePIN/DeFAI/Meme
• CZ Thinking: AI First/DeSci/Meme
• Solana Thinking: Payments/Stables/Meme

In fact, Meme is not the focus of BNB Chain’s development because it is “new,” but rather because it represents the consensus space after strategic negotiations. Although CZ/Binance have stated that they do not own or manage BNB Chain, their influence remains immense.

Especially after CZ was banned from managing Binance, BNB Chain became his main battleground. We can understand the value of BNB and BNB Chain through the split Binance ecosystem.

BNB has a dual identity: as Binance’s platform token, it supports the Binance main platform’s ecosystem, and then as BNB Chain’s value support, it satisfies the needs of both the “old” large node holders seeking returns and new users seeking to enter the Meme space with low fees.

If Binance’s shares are split 9:1 between CZ and He Yi, then the increase in BNB’s price and node rewards are the only ways to give back to node users, ensuring large holders’ willingness to keep BNB. Therefore, retail users’ Gas Fees must be consumed via hot products.

As long as the pump (ecosystem construction costs) is lower than the transaction fees contributed by users, BNB becomes a cash cow, especially as CZ begins selling his shares. The stability of BNB is crucial. After all, when Binance launched, it sold BNB, not Binance shares, and maintaining the value and price of BNB is two sides of the same coin.

Only then can we understand the significance behind BNB Chain frequently rolling out liquidity subsidies—it aims to become the cash flow barrier for Binance’s main platform, not a draining floodgate.

However, nothing lasts forever. With 103 factions in China, closely mirroring the current US political system, whether Binance can maintain its status through the mid-term elections and four years down the line is anyone’s guess.

Because Base and Solana are more American, while Ethereum and BTC are more global, the current path of public chain development has only two directions: 99% belongs to the US, and 1% belongs to humanity, with no middle ground.

Conclusion

The spiritual successor of Netscape, FireFox, nurtured the Rust language, which became the precursor to Solana and Move VM. This is also a kind of connection between Web3 and Web2.

Vitalik once wanted to intern at Ripple and almost became a colleague of Sun Yuchen. Whether it’s a stroke of luck or misfortune, Sun Yuchen failed to impart Eastern philosophy to Vitalik, and Tron ended up carrying the reputation of copying Ethereum.

In comparison, Solana’s story is not as legendary, and BNB’s story resembles that of a business company. But now, the focus is on Vitalik as an individual. He “defeated” the seven co-founders of Ethereum and became its most prominent spokesperson. This is both a historical opportunity and a heavy responsibility.

Milady!

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