Three Crypto Pioneers on Crypto’s Monolithic vs. Modular Debate

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In this episode of Unchained, Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, Nick White, COO at Celestia, and Chris Burniske, partner at VC firm Placeholder discuss the differences between modular and monolithic, or integrated, blockchains, with Solana epitomizing the monolithic approach and Celestia the modular one. They all agree that both approaches have their merits and will likely coexist, but argue each lends itself to specific use cases and developer preferences. They also discuss what will drive the next crypto bull cycle, and each gives their best predictions for a specific development in the crypto industry in the next few years.

Show highlights |

• Chris’s explanation of the modular vs. monolithic approach in blockchains
• What drove Anatoly to prioritize speed in Solana's architecture and its impact on the network
• What Celestia is and how it represents the first modular blockchain network
• Whether developers and users will gravitate more towards modular or monolithic blockchains
• How Solana, as one of the fastest blockchains, is gearing up to handle massive usage and scalability
• Why Chris views Celestia as a frontrunner in the data availability sector
• How Nick perceives the philosophical similarities and executional differences between Celestia and Solana
• Whether there's potential for Solana to transition into a modular blockchain in the future
• Why Chris believes that the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) might surpass the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) in user adoption
• What challenges Bitcoin faces in developing actual Layer 2 solutions, especially considering its "doomers storage" issue
• What could drive the next crypto bull market
• Top predictions for 2024 and beyond
• Anatoly’s perspective on how a significant hack could pose a serious setback for the entire industry

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Guests |

Anatoly Yakovenko, cofounder of Solana Labs

Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder

Nick White, COO at Celestia Labs

Links |

Modular vs. monolithic

Alchemy:Modular vs. Monolithic Blockchains

Visa: Monolithic vs. modular blockchain

Chris Burniske’s tweet on modular vs monolithic

“The horrific inefficiencies of monolithic blockchains” by polynya

Blockworks: A spicy salvo launched in the monolithic vs modular debate

Unchained: What Is the Blockchain Trilemma?

Celestia

Celestia’s explanation of modular blockchains

Data availability

Data availability sampling

An introduction to sovereign rollups

Spot Bitcoin ETF:

Unchained:

Why The Spot Bitcoin ETF Is a Big Deal

Deciding on Bitcoin: Should New Investors Jump In Now or Wait for an ETF?

Ledger ConnectKit incident

Unchained: Ledger Library Compromised, Causing Confusion and Panic in Crypto Community

Unchained Podcast is Produced by Laura Shin Media, LLC. Distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Michele Musso and Executive Producer is Jared Schwartz.