Solana Founder Anatoly Yakovenko Talks About the Evolution of the Encryption World

Anatoly Yakovenko was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of 11. He spent the 1990s in Chicago and later studied computer science at Illinois State University. From 2004 to 2015, he worked at Qualcomm, participating in multiple mobile development projects. The inspiration to create Solana came from a late-night epiphany, and six months later he shared this idea with Sam Russo.

Yakovenko believes that the development model of the encryption industry follows a fixed trajectory: initially pioneered by geeks, then driven by entrepreneurs for commercialization, and finally fully taken over by capital. We are currently in a transitional period, with entrepreneurial teams becoming increasingly mature, while traditional capital begins to explore how to enter this industry.

Stablecoins are a successful case of applying encryption technology in the traditional financial sector. When stablecoins are backed by real assets, they will disrupt the traditional financial system. If Tether or Circle becomes the standard carrier of programmable dollars, the United States can only follow suit. This will reconstruct the entire clearing system.

Bitcoin may evolve into digital gold, primarily based on people's fear psychology. If Bitcoin becomes a mainstream hedging tool on par with gold, the entire encryption market will have succeeded. Solana is positioned as an efficient information transmission channel; the larger the volume of transactions processed, the higher the generated profits.

Yakovenko explained the reasons for Solana's entry into the mobile hardware field. He believes that the current internet is controlled by the "sandbox" model of companies like Apple, and that encryption technology can break this monopoly. Developing dedicated devices and app stores for encryption users and charging lower fees can open up new paths in the midst of giant monopolies.

Regarding stablecoins, Yakovenko pointed out that the market's perception is both overly focused and seriously underestimating its potential. In an environment lacking official support and facing regulatory pressure, the stablecoin market has surpassed $250 billion. The genuine market demand is still highly concentrated on USD stablecoins, which may further consolidate the dollar's global dominance.

Yakovenko also discussed the public opinion dilemma in the encryption world. He believes that the internet should accommodate different voices, but also pointed out that long-term immersion in information silos can lead to a disconnection between cognition and reality. Those truly angry crypto punks have left the industry, and when those who uphold ideals withdraw, their voices disappear as well.