Solana chief rejects Buterin “walkaway test,” says chains must keep shipping

Yakovenko made the comments in a post on X, adding that updates should come from a broad contributor base rather than a single team and that, over time, network fees could even bankroll AI-assisted tooling to write and improve Solana’s codebase. Buterin, in a separate post, has argued Ethereum should prioritize decentralization, privacy and self-sovereignty – even if that slows mainstream uptake – until it can run securely for decades with minimal ongoing intervention.

Anatoly framed Solana’s path as continuous iteration: “You should always count on there being a next version of Solana,” he said, positioning rapid feature delivery as essential for real-world applications and performance-sensitive use cases. His stance also stresses governance by a diverse community of builders, not a narrow core, to reduce key-person risk while keeping protocol velocity high.

Buterin’s standard, by contrast, sets a threshold of durability that includes quantum-resistant cryptography, more scalable architecture, and a block-building model resilient to centralization pressures before developers can “walk away” with confidence. That roadmap accepts slower change if it preserves decentralization guarantees for the base layer and maintains Ethereum’s role in stablecoins and real-world-asset tokenization.

The debate exposes a strategic split among leading layer-1s. Supporters of Buterin’s approach warn that frequent feature additions enlarge the attack surface and raise the risk of bugs or unintended consensus consequences; backers of Yakovenko’s model argue that an overly static protocol falls behind faster competitors and fails to meet shifting user requirements. The practical trade-off sits between hardening the social and technical middleware that keeps a chain credibly neutral and accelerating product-level improvements that attract consumer-facing apps and fee growth.

Yakovenko also sketched a forward-looking funding loop where Solana’s transaction fees underwrite AI-assisted development to maintain and extend the codebase. While still conceptual, the idea signals an intent to systematize maintenance and upgrades as a first-class network function rather than a discretionary, donor-driven effort.

Buterin acknowledges Ethereum is not yet ready for the “walkaway” milestone. The chain still needs stronger defenses against builder and relay centralization, scalable data availability without compromising validator inclusivity, and post-quantum primitives to ensure signature longevity – baseline conditions for a network meant to outlast its original stewards.

At stake is how each ecosystem defines success: Ethereum emphasizing maximum decentralization and self-sovereignty at the base layer – even at the cost of speed – and Solana optimizing for throughput and developer experience with an explicit mandate to keep evolving. The contrasting doctrines are now on the record from both founders, setting up a clear reference point for how each community will evaluate protocol changes through 2026 and beyond.