Justin Bons blames Solana’s dominance for the mushrooming of meme coin fraud on the blockchain

Blaming Solana (SOL) for the spate of frauds and scams on the blockchain is misguided, according to crypto analyst Justin Bons, the founder and CIO of Cyber Capital, a European cryptocurrency fund. 

Bons said so in a Twitter post defending SOL, which is battling an image crisis in the wake of some high-profile meme coin scams on its platform. The most recent is the $4.5 billion $Libra token scandal that has entangled Argentine President Javier Millei. Others linked to the US First family have been dogged with accusations of insider trading that burnt many users. 

The CIO, a renowned Solana proponent, held that the blockchain’s dominance explained why scammers preferred it over the others. To him, SOL’s current woes are akin to those the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) blockchains faced in their glory days. 

He wrote:

“Scammers & criminals will always seek out the cutting-edge, as it is on this frontier where they can extract the most, just like the Wild West of old. Does that make the frontier bad? Of course not, in the same way that BTC & ETH were not bad during their heydays.” – Justin Bons

Solana faithful must accept some degree of chaos and danger

Bons further claimed SOL was an open, public, and truly decentralized chain, which hindered it from containing grifters within its ranks. So, SOL users have to make that concession for the freedoms they enjoy. He called that bravery and challenged those who couldn’t stomach it to leave for other centralized chains. 

Again, he related Solana’s struggles to those of the early internet, which had a higher degree of porn and cyber crimes. But those shrunk with time as public adoption and consumer protections gathered steam, improving the medium’s respectability. 

Despite acknowledging the uncanny similarities between SOL and the early Internet, Bons found a major difference. He explained that, unlike the latter, the former consists of thousands of protocols jostling for adoption and dominance. 

That powerful free market dynamic was net positive as it drove innovation by exerting what he termed as “evolutionary pressure.” However, it exposed users to a lot of “evil,” which meant accepting some level of chaos and danger in return for freedom. 

Bons’ Solana defense divides opinion 

As expected, Bons’ analysis drew mixed reactions, with some netizens agreeing with him while others pushed back on his claims. Two users tweeting from X handles @Infrablix and @study0718 resonated with his views and the parallels he drew between crypto now and the internet in its infancy.

Another user, @HawktuahA, took a contrary view, emphasizing that SOL’s construction enabled its easy exploitation and wondered how such a chain was a good thing.

Still, some, like CardanoDave, were outrightly satirical with him posting a meme ridiculing Bons’ analysis. Roy stomp was even less genial, labeling the CIO a scam. Meanwhile, Xaspa samurai called him a jukebox, suggesting he was pandering to the wishes of the venture capitalists and crypto companies that had him in their pockets. 

What can Solana do to redeem its image? 

Some of the respondents also suggested ways in which SOL can clean up its image. Tommy WorldPower, for instance, advised that Solana could adopt a decentralized enforcement system to freeze the errant wallets, and reimburse victims their funds. 

Robert Sasu, on the other hand, criticized SOL for lacking the tools for arresting obvious rugpulls. He offered that setting minimal limits to token launches would cut off 99% of automatically created ones. 

Bons himself proposed the reintroduction of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) at scale, as the current regulatory environment allowed. He said ICOs leveled the playing field for VCs and retail investors. 

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