Most of us remember when we first used a Blackberry for the first time. The way that Blackberry Messenger (BBM) worked so effortlessly along with the email client and “ergonomic” keyboard that came all wrapped up in one small device that could fit in your pocket.
With countless other features unmentioned, it seemed like the Blackberry would never be able to be replaced…
…of course until the release of the iPhone in 2007.
Blackberry would still dominate the market for the first 12-18 months after the iPhones release but would slowly and then suddenly lose market share thereafter.
In order for users to jump ship into another product, the user experience has to be at least 10x better than what they are currently used to.
The iPhone was just so much better in every way possible.
Fast forward to today, Blackberry is basically nonexistent and the iPhone dominates more than 50% of the US smartphone market.
However, we must pay respect to Blackberry for the way they revolutionized the smartphone industry.
They may have not survived, but Research in Motion (RIM), Blackberry’s original parent company, paved the way for the innovation in tech we see in our smartphones today.
Ethereum is a blockchain that enables the use of smart contracts so that users of the chain can do more than just receive and send assets (i.e. the Bitcoin blockchain).
Released as an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2014, Ethereum was set to revolutionize the blockchain just as Blackberry revolutionized the smartphone industry.
More features, more use cases, more throughput, more users, brand new experience.
This was big for blockchain and the cryptocurrency industry in general.
Five years and massive amounts of success later, we saw the introduction of a rather new blockchain.
A blockchain built on completely new fundamentals but with the same use cases.
One that would prove to be a 10x improvement from the outgoing model.
Ethereum is Blackberry, Solana is the iPhone, and the year is 2008.
Although, Ethereum is not going down without a fight.
One of Ethereum’s biggest issues is its inability to scale.
With the growth in popularity of the blockchain technology, Ethereum was unable to handle the massive influx users as seen with the massive fees incurred by users in order to use the chain.
Ethereum would encourage the use of layer 2’s as seen with the Arbitrum, Optimism, and even Coinbase’s very own: Base.
Layer 2’s: Colorized
Yes, I also have an analogy for the Android smartphone market.
The Tron network is a very interesting chain as it uses its own virtual machine unlike other Ethereum clones.
One of the things that it handles very well is the facilitation of USDT payments around the world.
One of the reasons why we never saw the price of the TRON token (TRX) go through a real bear market.
So there will be competitors and users who opt to use other chains just as there are users who prefer android on Samsung or that prefer the UI skin on Xiaomi.
But theres no doubt that solana is the brand new, all-screen, aluminum body that everyone never knew they needed.
The iPhone will eventually be replaced by something that is 10x better than every current metric.
I hope that Solana follows the same path as we continue to push for innovation in one of the most important spaces in human history.
But for now, all eyes on Solana for years to come…