Sui has earned a reputation for technological innovation, but could it be the next “Solana killer”? Industry experts weigh in on the relative strengths of the two platforms.
Solana's existing community offers advantages, but it shouldn't be complacent.
Sui, “Solana Killer”
Sui and Solana are both Layer 1 blockchains that are making headlines in the crypto space, but they have very different profiles. Solana is one of the largest crypto assets today and is rumored to be a contender for the third exchange-traded fund (ETF). Sui, on the other hand, is a much younger blockchain that is looking to outdo Solana’s most attractive features.
Read more: Everything you need to know about Sui Blockchain
Sui has been dubbed the “Solana Killer” for its keen developers and ability to grow, but overall opinions are mixed. For example, Guy Turner of the Coin Bureau podcast said Sui “meets the criteria for a cryptocurrency that retailers can participate in.”
However, he added that “demand is not heading in the right direction, which could cause problems with Sui’s price.” A quick look at Reddit shows some strong skepticism from community members. But what about more prominent developers?
Tim Kravchunovsky, CEO of Chirp, surprised the community in July when he chose Sui over Solana to build Chirp’s Distributed Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) infrastructure. In an interview, he claimed that Solana’s downtime was what made the team hesitate.
Sui has yet to experience the same explosion of popularity as Solana, but the young protocol had several technical advantages that motivated Kravchunovsky’s choice.
“Solana seemed to be struggling to keep up with the growing popularity. That was a ‘red flag.’ In an ecosystem that innovates as rapidly as blockchain, there will always be groundbreaking developments that improve and surpass existing products. We believe Sui is just that: Solana 2.0. We would not hesitate to recommend Sui as the best choice for a robust and scalable network,” said Kravchunovsky.
Raoul Pal, CEO and founder of Global Macro Investor, also shared this positive view. Palpointed out that Sui’s recent performance has shown several positive trends. Most notably, he argued, “the relative strength in a stagnant market is worth noting.”
Solana provides a better user experience
However, not everyone is convinced by these technical advantages. 21Shares’ weekly newsletter notes that Solana’s user base is currently much more stable.
“Sui’s momentum is primarily driven by a surge in activity,” it argued, while “Solana shows sustained growth in active addresses.”
Sui can boast several periods of impressive user growth, but they have all either stagnated or completely disappeared. Solana shows more steady progress.
Read more: What is Solana (SOL)?
Kylebuildsstuff also covered the benefits of Sui from a developer perspective . He argues that his experience favors Sui, saying that it raises the bar for developers in the same way that Solana raised the bar in terms of price and gas costs. However, that alone is not enough to make it a “Solana killer.”
“Sui is not going to replace Solana. There is nothing wrong with using Solana, and the current user experience on Solana is actually better in my opinion. The ecosystem is much more mature, and the products reflect that. Users don’t care about the technical details. They care about things that improve their lives,” Kylebuildsstuff argued.
