Base launched a bridge to Solana on Dec. 4, and inside hours, Solana’s most vocal builders accused Jesse Pollak of working a vampire assault disguised as interoperability.
The bridge makes use of Chainlink CCIP and Coinbase infrastructure to let customers transfer belongings between Base and Solana, with early integrations in Zora, Aerodrome, Virtuals, Flaunch, and Relay. These are all purposes constructed on Base.
Pollak framed it as bidirectional pragmatism: Base apps need entry to SOL and SPL tokens, Solana apps need entry to Base liquidity, so Base spent 9 months constructing the connective tissue.
Vibhu Norby, founding father of Solana creator platform DRiP, noticed it in another way. He posted a video of Aerodrome co-founder Alexander Cutler, who mentioned at Basecamp in September that Base would “flip Solana” and develop into the biggest chain on this planet.
Norby’s learn:
“These will not be companions; if they’d it their means Solana wouldn’t exist.”
Pollak replied that Base simply constructed a bridge to Solana as a result of “Solana belongings should have entry to the Base economic system and Base belongings ought to have entry to Solana.”
Norby fired again, alleging that Base didn’t arrange Solana-based purposes for launch, nor did they align with the Solana Basis advertising and marketing or operations workforce.
The thread escalated when Akshay BD, a high voice tied to Solana’s Superteam, advised Pollak:
“Calling it bidirectional doesn’t make it so. It’s a bridge between two economies that has internet import/export outcome based mostly on the way you roll it out. I don’t thoughts that you simply’re aggressive… I thoughts that you simply’re being dishonest.”
Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana’s co-founder, joined to ship the sharpest model of the critique:
“Migrate Base apps to Solana so that they execute on Solana and the transactions are linearized by Solana staked block producers. That might be good for Solana builders. In any other case it’s alignment bullshit.”
The controversy highlights the motivation mismatch between what “interoperability” means to an Ethereum layer-2 and to an alternate layer-1 blockchain.
Base sees the bridge as unlocking shared liquidity and cross-chain UX with out counting on third-party infrastructure.
Pollak mentioned Base introduced the bridge in September, started discussing it with Yakovenko and others in Might, and has persistently mentioned it’s bidirectional.
He insists that Base and Solana builders profit from entry to each economies.
Quite the opposite, Solana voices argue that the strategy Base used to launch the bridge, integrating solely Base-aligned apps, coordinating no Solana-native companions, and skipping Solana Basis outreach, reveals the true technique: siphon Solana capital into Base’s ecosystem whereas advertising and marketing it as reciprocal infrastructure.
The asymmetry
In accordance with Yakovenko, the bridge is bidirectional in code however not in financial gravity.If the bridge simply lets Base apps import Solana belongings whereas conserving all execution and payment income on Base, it extracts worth from Solana with out reciprocating. That’s the vampire assault thesis.
Pollak’s counterargument is that interoperability is just not zero-sum. He argues that Base and Solana can compete and collaborate concurrently, and that builders on each side need entry to one another’s economies.
He identified that Base tried to interact Solana ecosystem members in the course of the nine-month construct course of, however “people weren’t actually .” Nonetheless, meme tasks like Trencher and Chillhouse did collaborate.
Norby and Akshay dispute that framing, arguing that dropping a repo with out coordinating launch companions or working with the Solana Basis is just not real collaboration, it’s tactical extraction dressed up as open-source infrastructure.
The friction is that Base and Solana occupy completely different positions within the liquidity hierarchy.
Base is an Ethereum layer-2, which implies it inherits Ethereum’s safety, settlement, and credibility however competes with the mainnet for exercise. Ethereum layer-2 blockchains must justify their existence by providing higher UX, decrease charges, or differentiated ecosystems.
In the meantime, Solana is a standalone Layer 1 with its personal validator set, token economics, and safety mannequin.
When a bridge lets Solana belongings circulate into Base, Solana loses transaction charges, MEV, and staking demand until these belongings finally return or generate reciprocal flows.
Base captures the exercise and the financial hire. Yakovenko’s level is that true bidirectionality would imply Base apps shifting execution to Solana, not simply importing Solana tokens into Base-based contracts.
Who positive factors what
Based mostly on the controversy, Solana’s high voices recommend that Base positive factors fast entry to Solana’s cultural and monetary momentum. Solana has been the middle of meme coin mania, NFT hypothesis, and retail onboarding for the previous yr.
Integrating SOL and SPL tokens into Base apps like Aerodrome and Zora lets Base faucet that power with out ready for natural development.
Base additionally advantages from positioning itself because the “impartial” interoperability layer that connects all ecosystems, which strengthens its narrative because the default hub for cross-chain DeFi.
Though Solana positive factors optionality, it doesn’t obtain assured worth seize. If the bridge drives Base builders to experiment with Solana execution or if Solana apps begin utilizing Base liquidity swimming pools for bridged belongings, the connection turns into reciprocal.
Nonetheless, if the bridge primarily serves as a one-way funnel that pulls Solana belongings into Base’s economic system, Solana loses.
The danger is that Solana turns into a feeder chain for Base DeFi relatively than a vacation spot.
Norby’s accusation displays that concern. If Base’s launch technique was to combine apps that extract worth from Solana with out reciprocating, the bridge is a aggressive weapon, not a collaboration.
Moreover, Yakovenko argues that Base can’t be sincere about competing with Ethereum, so it frames itself as aligned with the broader ecosystem whereas really siphoning exercise.
The identical logic applies to Solana: Base can’t be sincere about competing with Solana, so it frames the bridge as impartial infrastructure.
What occurs subsequent
The bridge is dwell, and the financial gravity will resolve the result. If Base apps begin routing execution to Solana or if Solana-native tasks launch integrations that pull Base liquidity into Solana-based contracts, the bridge turns into genuinely bidirectional.
If the circulate stays one-way, with Solana belongings into Base and income staying on the Ethereum layer-2, the vampire assault thesis holds.
Pollak’s declare that Base and Solana “win collectively” is dependent upon whether or not Base treats Solana as a peer or as a provider of belongings and liquidity.
The distinction is whether or not Base markets to its personal builders to construct on Solana, or markets to Solana customers to deliver their belongings to Base.
Yakovenko made the check specific: compete truthfully, and the bridge is sweet for the trade. Compete whereas pretending to collaborate, and it’s alignment theater.
The subsequent six months will present which narrative is actual.
