Pressures on the Solana blockchain attributable to a dramatic rise in the number of memecoin presales comprise drawn comparisons with the 2017 ICO craze that took Ethereum by storm.

As crypto markets comprise boomed in early 2024, tokens impressed by memes — regularly meme-pleasant animals equivalent to dogs, cats, frogs and sloths — comprise received a huge chunk of crypto traders’ mindshare. On the other hand, some traders comprise begun launching memecash on Solana to such an extent that the network is facing challenges in efficiency.

As a consequence, some comprise great how the present atmosphere and Solana’s struggles amid heightened project intently resemble Ethereum in 2017 when initial coin offerings had been the total rage and Ethereum change into clogged up with congestion disorders.

Chris Eberle, who labored in sales and advertising at Fb till 2017 and is now an angel investor and DAO contributor, acknowledged the comparison between Solana in 2024 and Ethereum in 2017 is “entirely legitimate.”

Similarities to ICO Progress

The Ethereum ICO craze in 2017 tested the network’s capability to tackle congestion. Within the center of the year, Ethereum’s each day transactions surged from 38,730 on Jan. 1 to 946,981 by the quit of the year, a 24x enlarge, according to Etherscan.

The chart presentations the number of transactions 24x from the first day to the final. (Etherscan)
Day-to-day transactions on Ethereum in 2017. (Etherscan)

In 2017, startup SophiaTX delayed its deliberate ICO by Forty eight hours to guarantee a smoother token open. At the time, CryptoKitties, a decentralized utility where users would possibly perhaps well perhaps also breed and trade digital kittens, had clogged the Ethereum network which means of the number of transactions on the dapp.

Many now respect a identical divulge unfolding. The number of each day appealing addresses on Solana has bigger than doubled from around 600,000 on Jan. 1, 2024 to bigger than 1.4 million on March 18.

Screen Shot 2024 03 21 at 12.25.25 PM 1
Day-to-day appealing addresses year-to-date on Solana. (Artemis)

Some Solana-essentially based entirely mostly memecoin initiatives that comprise already performed presales, including SMOLE and MOONKE, comprise delayed their token roll outs as a results of Solana’s congestion. “To support all the pieces fully clear, with the present congestion of the Solana network we’ll bullishly delay our open,” the MOONKE group wrote on X Tuesday.

Sorting out Performance

“The Solana network has been experiencing extraordinarily high utilization which has tested formulation of the network — particularly the implementation of priority charges and the transaction scheduler, each of which play significant roles in block optimization,” the Solana Foundation wrote in a blog post on March 15.

Tom Wan, who works in diagram and commercial model at the guardian firm of crypto asset manager 21Shares, great on X that the percentage of failed transactions on Solana has impartial recently elevated to 72%, despite the reality that a huge majority of these appear as if related to bots which are spamming the network which means of the contemporary token alternatives.

Read Extra: Solana at 4, Memecoins Abet Drive Network to All-Time Excessive in Market Cap Post FTX Fall down

Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of the Solana-essentially based entirely mostly developer firm, Helius, additionally indicated that Solana is facing challenges in efficiency from all this memecoin project. In a non-public message to Unchained on X, he acknowledged the presence of bugs and acknowledged that improvements are “coming rapidly” to deal with Solana’s challenges. No topic this, Mumtaz highlighted Solana’s efficiency when put next to Ethereum’s rollups, noting that “We’re ready to kind about 20x extra TPS [transactions per second] than all [Ethereum] rollups blended for the time being (so roughly 2,000 tps).”

Qiao Wang, founding accomplice of crypto accelerator AllianceDAO, wrote on X this week that “Solana factual at this moment is such as the Ethereum 2017 ICO era.” He cited the quiz among Solana users to trade memecoins and “an increasing quiz for SOL to take hold of part in those imos (initial meme offerings).”

Angel investor Eberle great that one similarity is how companies aiding the open of memecoins are mirroring companies that facilitated ICOs support in 2017. “It’s getting a bunch of folk infected to make investments to take hold of a scrutinize at to recover off rapidly, again. We’re seeing companies pop up in enhance of the memecoin ecosystem factual love we noticed the ‘ICO experts’ pop up support then,” Eberle wrote in a Telegram message to Unchained.

Read Extra: Crypto Fans Elevate Nearly $690,000 to Build Dogwifhat Meme on Las Vegas Sphere

One such ICO commercial in 2017 used to be Ambisafe, a firm that used to be founded in 2015 to support folk and institutions with fundraising and capital management. Within the identical vein, Blockchain App Manufacturing facility is now providing companies and products to enhance folk and entities rolling out contemporary memecoins on the Solana blockchain.

Fixing Issues Versus Producing Speculative Riches

Whereas each memecoins on Solana in 2024 and ICOs on Ethereum in 2017 comprise attracted a total bunch consideration and big portions of liquidity, crypto users comprise criticized each for his or her emphasis on win-successfully off-rapidly schemes. “It’s demanding to acknowledge billion-dollar-cap memecoins overshadow hardworking teams building legit products to diagram this industry,” wrote Ki Younger Ju, founding father of blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, on X this week.

Even supposing memecoins can show conceal flashes of creativity and humor, Eberle great that “we have got to derive extra ways to book with the energy of blockchains to unravel concerns in contemporary ways vs. speculative recover off alternatives.”

As Ju great, “easy money can’t drive industry-wide progress, as proven by the 2018 ICO burst.”