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CoinDesk Podcast Network

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

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CoinDesk

Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency, Dlt, Tokenization, Coindesk, Distributed Ledger, Blockchain, Tech News, Business News, Ethereum, Bitcoin, News, Digitalassets, Daily News, Decentralization, Defi, Crypto, Business

4.8689 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2024

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Chris Burniske and two proponents of each approach discuss their different characteristics and relative benefits, and what will drive the next crypto bull cycle.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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


Thank you to our sponsors! Arbitrum Foundation | Popcorn Network | iTrustCapital


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.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:49.7

Thanks for listening to Unchained, your no-hype resource for all things crypto, on the CoinDesk podcast network.

0:55.8

You can also listen to the episodes on the Unchained feed earlier if you subscribe there.

1:01.4

Plus, check out all our content on our website, Unchained Crypto.com.

1:06.5

There is work to modernize the EVM, but from a user experience cost performance perspective,

1:13.0

SVM is clearly superior right now to the EVM.

1:17.1

And so I think that it's a lot easier to onboard users to play with on-chain applications.

1:23.9

When I travel internationally, I used to tip people in ETH. Well, actually, it was Bitcoin,

1:29.3

and then I would tip them in ETH, and now I tip them in salt.

1:36.0

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained. You're a no-high please source for all things crypto. I'm

1:40.5

your host, Laura Shin, author of The Cryptopians. I started covering crypto eight years ago and as a senior editor of Forbes was the first

1:47.8

mainstream reader porter to cover cryptocurrency full-time.

1:50.9

This is the January 2nd, 2024 episode of Unchained.

...

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