The public chain track has been extremely hot recently in the crypto market. Solana, Cardano, Aptos, and other newcomers are all eyeing the throne, trying to shake Ethereum’s dominance. Many people are asking, will new-generation public chains like Solana eventually surpass Ethereum? This is a question worth discussing.

First, let’s look at the technical comparisons. The most attractive features of Solana are simply "fast" and "cheap." Solana can reach tens of thousands of TPS, with transaction fees almost negligible, which indeed outperforms Ethereum’s dozens of TPS and frequent high gas fees. But this advantage comes at a cost—the Proof of History (PoH) consensus mechanism used by Solana requires extremely high hardware specifications for nodes, limiting the number of nodes and reducing decentralization. This has been proven true; last year, Solana experienced network outages due to node failures.

In contrast, Ethereum’s Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism supports hundreds of thousands of nodes, making it much more decentralized and secure. More importantly, Ethereum’s Layer 2 ecosystem is accelerating its breakthroughs—solutions like Optimism and Arbitrum can already achieve thousands of TPS, with fees reduced to just a few cents. There is still significant room for technological iteration, and this path may yet see a "bend-and-surpass" moment.

The comparison of ecosystems and communities is also crucial. Ethereum has accumulated years of developer base and application ecosystem, with the most complete infrastructure in DeFi, NFT, GameFi, and other sectors. While Solana’s ecosystem is growing rapidly, it still lags in depth and breadth. User stickiness and developer enthusiasm are also key factors. These soft powers are difficult to catch up with in the short term.

For ordinary investors, rather than obsessing over who will "unify the world," it’s better to recognize reality—the multi-chain era has arrived. Different public chains have advantages in different scenarios; ETH and SOL each have their own territory. The key is to find truly promising applications and projects on each chain, rather than betting all chips on the victory or defeat of a single chain.