This article will discuss various ecosystems in crypto, from ETH L2s such as Base to L1s like Solana and upcoming L1s in Monad. I’ll be analyzing how these ecosystems fit into the broader crypto landscape, and why there has been a lot of debate surrounding ETH L2s lately. As the final months of the calendar year approach, it’s important to take a look back at what’s been built, and look forward to the exciting developments that await us in the future.

Recently, it was announced that Base and Coinbase Smart Wallet would work in cohesion together, and Jesse Pollak (already head of Base) is leading that charge. Jesse was also promoted to the Coinbase executive team, a signal that there will be more freedom and creativity with regards to what gets done in this division of Coinbase. Interesting to note was how $DEGEN got listed on Coinbase right around this announcement due to the close ties between the Farcaster community and the Base community. Jesse has always shown support for onchain memes on Base, and I expect that to continue even more with his recent promotion at Coinbase. 

While it’s great to see Base putting the right people in charge and the team is undoubtedly incredibly talented, I have real concerns about L2s being the choice for new users onboarded into crypto. There’s always going to be the issue of swapping tokens, and the UI/UX becomes more complicated with any additional steps added for a user as opposed to transacting on an L1 like Solana. It feels like there’s so many different ETH L2s, and each one is pushing a narrative that they’re the best choice for various reasons. While L2s have successfully addressed and solved Ethereum’s core issues such as high gas fees, I just don’t see them being suitable for the masses when it comes to consumer crypto. Why would one transact on an L2 with more steps and confusion for the user compared to a much simpler and cleaner process with less steps on an L1?

This is where my thoughts on Solana come into play. Fast transaction speed and low fees on transactions make Solana an ideal choice for both crypto veterans and individuals that are new to the space. We saw how fast pump.fun grew since their launch, and the platform is still experiencing massive activity with $MOODENG the memecoin (launched via pump.fun) capturing everyone’s attention these last few weeks. Solana currently doesn’t have the wide variety of consumer crypto apps and blockchain infrastructure that Ethereum has, but that’s already beginning to change as more and more builders flock to build on Solana. More funds continue to flow to Solana from Ethereum, and the general vibe on Crypto Twitter at the moment is that Solana is the dominant chain for consumers. However, I should emphasize that it’s never wise to underestimate Ethereum as the chain has a storied history of innovation with many of the brightest builders in the space continuing to tackle and solve important issues related to that ecosystem.

When thinking of Solana, I can’t help but think about the upcoming L1 blockchain Monad. Monad has a lot of hype on Crypto Twitter at the moment and there are high expectations due to all of the noise; while other L1s are also planning to launch soon, I feel Monad has stood out for a variety of reasons. As I mentioned in a previous article covering the broader Monad ecosystem, they have an incredible team that is taking a different approach than many other teams in the space. Instead of working on rollups and dealing with L2s, Monad opted to build their own L1 which will feature lightning fast transaction speeds and parallel execution. Recently, Monad hosted Monad Madness at their NYC HQ, which was a pitch competition for twenty teams building apps and infrastructure on Monad. The winner of Monad Madness was @earnos_io on X, an app that aims to give brands result-based marketing through surgically targeting ad spends. There were many great teams that performed, and I like how the team gave invites out to those who were interested and based in the NYC area - they also made sure to livestream it on Twitch and I was able to tune in for a bit. This type of pitch competition shows the commitment the Monad team has toward teams building in their ecosystem, and is a reason why I’m personally bullish on Monad and think they will do exceptionally well upon launch. There are clear parallels between Solana and the upcoming Monad blockchain, considering both are L1s and promote user-friendliness. 

There are ultimately many different ecosystems within the broader crypto space, and each serves a unique purpose in one way or another. It’s important to consider use cases for each ecosystem, as I mentioned before that certain types of apps are better fit for L1s whereas certain infrastructure could potentially make more sense for L2s. As always, thank you for reading this article and be sure to subscribe to stay up with the latest news in crypto.