The recent outages on Solana network have created some FUD around this blockchain, which raises a few questions:
- Is Solana the only blockchain suffering from outages?
- Are these outages a real concern for blockchain security?
- What about the other blockchains and are they more secure?
Is Solana the only blockchain suffering from outages?
Solana is not the only one. In fact, most of the new blockchains face outage issues at the beginning, due to the accrued interest and fine-tuning needed. In the same period as Solana, some other blockchains like the Ethereum layer-2 Arbitrum also suffered from prolonged outages. Most of the other ones that claim they do not have the same problem as Solana will soon face the same issues... As soon as they are really successful...
Are these outages a real concern for blockchain security?
Not really if it can be fixed by the team in charge of the network... But it shows at least a lack of decentralization, since a team has to fix it. However, the situation is different according to the blockchain: with Solana, if it is not fixed, you will not recover your funds... A real layer-2 built on Ethereum like Arbitrum was conceived so that in the worst case you can still retrieve your funds on Ethereum layer-1, which means that there is nearly zero risk.
What about the other blockchains and are they more secure?
All the layer-1 blockchains managed by a single entity like Solana or Elrond, or the sidechains which are not real layer-2 blockchains like Polygon, are at risk. These blockchains claim they are decentralized but need their team to work on it as soon as there is an issue. Polygon could be compromised by 4 or 5 validators colluding together. Therefore, in terms of security, the best blockchains are:
- Layer-1 blockchains which are run by the community and not by a single entity: Ethereum and Tezos are examples of community-run blockchains
- Layer-2 optimistic rollups such as Arbitrum & Optimism benefitting from Ethereum mainnet security allowing to retrieve funds there in worst case
- Layer-2 Zk (Zero Knowledge proof) rollups such as ZKSync and Starknet, also benefitting from Ethereum security with a slightly different consensus
Of course, it does not mean you must not use the other blockchains, like Polygon, Fantom or Elrond which offer good DeFi yield rewards in short term.
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- Elrond: earn $10 EGLD
- Legion Network: earn $5 LGX
- Crypto.com: earn $25 CRO / Referral code:439km3wyjs
