Solana-as-a-service: a brief primer on modular blockchains utilizing Solana
Solana is a great protocol. It's fast, cheap in txn fees, user-friendly, and has the culture and economic activities for both devs and general users. With the Modular Thesis and App Chain thesis getting popular, we will look at “Solana-as-a-Service" as a subsection to this overarching theme.
With this essay, we will cover the main idea of the Thesis, the protocols that are embarking on this idea, and what are the pros and cons of this thesis.
The Thesis
Solana-as-a-Service, (SaaS) is a sub-category within the Modular Theme at large. At the basic level, the Modular theme argues that the monolithic blockchain, like ETH, is a protocol with constraints. Developers are limited by the pre-determined rules of blockchain function (block time, gas limit) while also being limited on tooling, language, and available libraries. As the main ethos of being permissionless, such constraints won't work well in the long term, as protocols grow bigger in complexities and scale.
What the Modular Thesis is offering, is the ability to unbundle various functions of a blockchain into category-specific chains, with each layer handling different acts of running a secured blockchain. These categories include Consensus and Data Availability, Settlement, and Execution. An example in the blockchain world is Celestia, handling only Data Availability (DA) and Consensus, or Fuel, running the FuelVM for execution only.
Protocols in practice
When it comes to Solana, proponents of the protocol highlight its sea-level virtual machine, its ability for parallel execution, and its cheap gas fees. Parallel execution is a great standard across the current suite of consumer products, providing instant experience and great scalability.
Other aspects of Solana worth mentioning is its robust community (and in that liquidity), and its stickiness to developers and users. On the other hand, language and tooling inefficiencies, as well as concerns for economic security, decentralization, and self-sovereignty in the long run, are key concerns.
Addressing the developer problem with Rust, and familiarity with Solidity and the EVM, NeonEVM is born. Architected by Neon Labs, the EVM allow for projects within the Eth ecosystem (and EVM-compatible chains) to simply port over, deploy smart contracts, and integrate smoothly with other Solana protocols. Combining the best of both chains, Neon EVM is an important infra piece for growth, from both ecosystem, and thus create a more robust and resilient landscape.
NeonEVM under the hood - from https://docs.neon-labs.org/docs/quick_start
Eclipse and Nitro are catalysts for Sea-level-VM-as-a-service. Both utilize Sea Level VM as a standalone execution environment, while outsourcing Consensus, Data Availability, and Settlement to other chains, like Celestia. The major difference here is that Eclipse allows for greater interoperability in choosing aspects of the blockchain stack, while Nitro seems limited to Cosmos as a consensus layer. Both projects allow for Solana protocols to scale significantly by going cross-chain, without major changes to their codebase.
Nitro SVM - from https://nitro-svm.gitbook.io/
Eclipse VM - from Eclipse Foundation
Pros and cons
There are pros and cons to this, which will be addressed in detail below:
The pros for this, obviously, is the ability to optimize and interoperate. Developers can essentially pick and choose the layers that work best for their products. Blockchains now have more utilities and use cases, and moving away further from being speculative vehicles. Preference for user and developer experience, while don't damage security and self ethos, are positive signs. A welcoming force for the future to come.
The cons, however, would mainly lie in its pragmatism. The system itself has yet to be battle-tested, and there are concerns over actual developer experience in practice. The issue of developer stickiness, as well as ecosystem growth over time, is also a concern worth noticing.
Conclusion
We believe that this is an exciting idea and thesis, and more likely to gain traction over time. However, most of the protocols here are still in the testing and development phases, which means we can only speculate on their success in the near future. For developers and users on Solana, we can see these as positive developments, with barriers of entries going down for building on Solana, which allows for more capital and intellectual powers to be poured into the ecosystem.