Besides ETH, who else? Foreign media research director interprets the success factors of "non-Ethereum public chains": currently still difficult to threaten Ethereum.

Despite Ethereum breaking its historical high from mid-February recently, the high transaction costs have provided opportunities for other public chains to rise. A foreign media research director shared his views on the key factors that "non-Ethereum public chains" need to succeed. According to his criteria, he believes that currently, there is no public chain that can compete with Ethereum.

How to Evaluate Non-Ethereum Public Chains

Research Director at The Block, Larry Cermak, believes that the essential elements for the success of a public chain are as follows:

1. Excellent browser wallet
2. Top-tier blockchain explorer
3. Native stablecoins
4. Strong infrastructure service providers and APIs
5. Robust developer community and incentive policies
6. Data analysis tools
7. Easy user access, low barriers to entry, and affordable fees

Is Ethereum Hard to Surpass?

Larry believes that based on the above criteria, there is currently no public chain in the market that has surpassed Ethereum, and it may not happen in the long term.

However, projects that are compatible with Ethereum's Virtual Machine (EVM) still have an advantage, allowing seamless infrastructure porting and relatively easier development for developers. He further stated:

If you want to diversify beyond Ethereum, I suggest focusing on the above indicators. The better a project does in all aspects, the greater the chance of success. Look beyond statistics and focus on future trends rather than what is currently popular.

Other important criteria include "censorship resistance" and "project feasibility." Larry mentioned that projects like Binance Smart Chain (BSC) lack a feasible plan for continued decentralization, making them short-term projects rather than long-term investments.

Evaluating Solana and BSC

Within the realm of "non-Ethereum public chains," Larry only mentioned Solana and BSC, and he also addressed some questions from the community.

Someone asked: "Apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum, are other projects far from achieving decentralization?" Larry stated that currently, no project can compare in this aspect.

There were doubts raised about Solana meeting all the mentioned criteria except for points six and seven. Larry expressed:

The entry cost for Solana is indeed quite low. What it lacks are a good browser wallet like Phantom, which is soon to be launched, a blockchain explorer, and a data analytics platform. The entry cost is crucial, which is why Solana and BSC excel.

Phantom is a digital wallet designed for DeFi and NFTs, and will be released on both Ethereum and Solana.

https://twitter.com/PhantomWallet/status/1379152629910052865

Larry sees the lack of data analysis tools as a major weakness for Solana. He pointed out:

Analytical tools like Dune Analytics are crucial, providing direct access to blockchain data, and open-source tools like "Ethereum ETL" are even better. This is a significant drawback for Solana because it lacks a data source unless data is extracted directly from nodes.

Someone also inquired about the significance of "censorship resistance." Larry believes its importance will only become apparent in the future, as currently, users primarily seek low transaction fees and do not care about this aspect.

Previously, all employees at The Block disclosed their holdings. Larry, besides holding mostly Bitcoin and Ethereum, only holds altcoins like SOL, AVAX, MKR, and COPE.

Despite holding SOL himself and being notably critical of Binance and BSC, Larry still pointed out the current challenges Solana faces, suggesting that his evaluation criteria should carry some weight.