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Yakovenko Rejects Ethereum ‘Walkaway’ Goal, Outlines Perpetual, Decentralized Upgrade Path for Solana

He argues ossification threatens relevance, prioritizing targeted fixes over broad changes.

Overview

  • Solana’s Anatoly Yakovenko says the network must never stop iterating or it will “die,” positioning adaptability as core to serving developers and users.
  • He contrasts his view with Vitalik Buterin’s “walkaway test” for Ethereum, which aims for a base layer stable enough to run long term with minimal intervention.
  • Yakovenko emphasizes that future Solana versions should come from a broader contributor base, not solely from Anza, Solana Labs, or Foundation Development.
  • He suggests governance mechanisms and network fees could eventually fund compute resources and even AI agents to help write and verify protocol code, a vision that remains conceptual.
  • He urges selectivity in upgrades, saying most proposed changes should be declined, while observers note the iteration-first approach can increase stability risks and burden builders to keep up.