EigenLayer founder debates: ETH vs SOL ETH will be the winner

Note: Who will be the final winner in the battle between ETH and SOL? Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer, debated with Lily Liu of Solana Foundation at Crypto Research Day 2024 two weeks ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLrcxVjfzZU). Sreeram Kannan believed that ETH would win.

Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer, published an article on October 16 summarizing the main points of his debate with Lily Liu. This article was translated by Xiaozou from Golden Finance.

ETH will win for the following reasons:

- ETH: Nested coordination + asynchronous expansion

- SOL: Fast, but full replication model limits growth.

- L2s: Seen as a weakness, but actually a hypersonic missile of ETH.

- Culture: ETH value > personal gains (this is important!)

-Vision: ETH = world computer, SOL = fast version of Nasdaq.

-Pros and cons: ETH builds trust, SOL iterates quickly.

Don’t jump to conclusions yet, there’s more to come…

1. Core argument: ETH L2 architecture = nested coordination mechanism

- Self-enforcing (forking only when the blocks are verifiable by end users) takes about a few days.

-Majoritarian (validator finalizes a block) takes several minutes.

- Committee (Eigenlayer validator committee gives fast economic finality) takes 1 second.

- Authoritarian (sequencer gives instant confirmation) takes 10 seconds.

The result is Instagram-scale UX and Bitcoin-scale self-validation!

2. ETH baseline? Trust comes from predictability.

Imagine 500 people fighting over the tiniest of changes. Sounds like a nightmare, right? But that’s the advantage of ETH.

ETH builds long-term trust. You are sure the rules won’t change overnight.

What about SOL? An organization can change the rules of the game at any time. The line between protocols and applications is blurred.

3. What are the constraints of SOL? Full replication (like all other cryptocurrencies).

- Each node must download all data

-System throughput < single node bandwidth

-The more nodes, the greater the throughput

This is a scalability dead end.

What is ETH’s answer? Danksharding.

- n nodes * 10MB/s = n * 10MB/s throughput

- More nodes = more throughput

-For 1M validators we are talking about theoretical TB/s.

-This is not a typo.

EigenDA is making it happen. Now.

L2: ETH’s secret weapon

- Instant confirmation (100ms)

-Borrow security from ETH

-Now is the best place to build most applications

4. Culture > Strategy

ETH culture > SOL strategy. Why? Because of shared values: anti-censorship, open innovation, and credible neutrality.

These are not just buzzwords. They are the foundation of trust.

5. ETH’s Vision: World Computer

It’s not just faster payments. We’re talking about applications with proven promise.

Imagine a crypto-native Facebook that promised: “We will not change our privacy policy without the consent of a majority of our users.”

How? Make computation verifiable on ETH. Users can trust commitments. No more web2 "take it or leave it" ultimatums. This is the power of ETH's world computer vision.

6. Self-validation: ETH’s North Star

Every user should verify the entire system. Sound crazy? Maybe. But this is the key to true decentralization. This constraint initially limits throughput.

Rollup cracked the code and changed the game:

- Keep yourself verified

-Throughput has been greatly improved

- User verification proof, not all data

7. Asynchronous and synchronous composability

ETH: Asynchronous composability

SOL: Synchronous Composability

Most real-world applications require asynchronous composability. Think of an MMO game.

8. Asset entry and liquidity

SOL: One Large Pool

ETH: distributed on L2

SOL looks simpler. But there is a problem: single point of failure.

ETH may appear more decentralized.

But it's not. It's elastic.

ETH = Programmable Money Across All L2s.

Long-term flexibility > short-term convenience.

9. Ecosystem Development: ETH’s Advantages

Why do we develop EigenLayer on ETH? It’s simple. For predictability.

You know the rules of the game for ETH. They won’t change overnight. What about the ETH chain itself? It won’t steal your lunch either.

Sure, Solana has the advantage of speed, but there’s a catch: a single organization can gobble up any great idea.

Where is the line between protocol and application? Like you, I am confused.

ETH is an open playground. Develop innovations based on L2. You can sleep easy.

Your thoughts are always your thoughts.

The result? ETH attracted serious builders. Visionaries came together to play the long game.

10. ETH vs SOL results

SOL = Sprinter

ETH = Marathon Runner

In the cryptocurrency space, we are playing the long game.

The future is not a single choice of "speed or safety", but "speed and safety" at the same time.

ETH + EigenLayer achieves this.

We are not just building on ETH, we are rapidly advancing it.