Cardano vs. Solana: Hoskinson Breaks Down the Speed Difference
Why is Cardano slower than Solana? Charles Hoskinson just laid out the architectural trade-off.
The Security vs. Speed Trade-Off
Hoskinson frames it as a fundamental design choice. Cardano prioritizes a methodical, peer-reviewed approach to security and decentralization—building what he calls a "fortress." Solana, in contrast, optimizes for raw throughput and low latency, accepting different trade-offs in its consensus model. It's the tortoise and the hare, but with cryptographic proofs.
Decentralization Isn't Free
The explanation cuts to the core of blockchain trilemma debates. Achieving higher transaction speeds often involves centralizing certain network functions or relying on more powerful, expensive hardware for validators. Cardano's path deliberately bypasses those shortcuts, aiming for sustainable, global-scale decentralization—even if it means the ledger updates don't feel instantaneous.
A Long-Term Bet on Fundamentals
This isn't an admission of weakness, but a declaration of philosophy. For Cardano, robustness and formal verification trump the need to win speculators' daily beauty contests. It's a bet that in the long run, institutional money will value predictable, auditable systems over sheer speed—a cynical but perhaps accurate read of finance's eventual priorities, where 'move fast and break things' tends to break the bank.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has explained why the network has not prioritized matching Solana’s transaction speed. For context, solana ranks among the fastest blockchains globally.
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