Solana Ad Fiasco: Should Public Blockchains Take Sides Politically?

On one side, watching a big sister join various crypto pump groups and dance in the BNB Chain ecosystem group, while on the other side, Solana and Base are at it again. Both chains, seen by the community as to some extent "American chains," have completely fallen out on the issue of ideology.

"American Chain" Adopts a Clear Political Stance, Community Mocks, Base Strikes Back

The catalyst this time was a now-deleted promotional video by Solana, featuring a dialogue between a consultant (symbolizing certain ideological trends in modern society) and a man named "American" (representing traditional American values, innovative spirit, and rational thinking).

American expressed interest in technological innovation, space exploration, nuclear energy, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence, among other areas, but the consultant kept steering him towards identity politics, gender identity, and social constructivism, rather than practical action and progress.

Ad Copy List; Illustration: BlockBeats

American expressed confusion and dissatisfaction to the consultant, as he found his rational thinking and innovative spirit to be problematic. He was even canceled for insisting on the objectivity of math ("2+2=4"). After being forced to comply with regulatory policies, such as cracking down on cryptocurrency and slowing down nuclear energy approvals, American finally realized he could not accept this reality, decided to embrace innovation and action again, and at the end of the conversation, "fired" the consultant, symbolizing resistance to certain modern ideological trends.

At the end of the video, American bursts out the door, with "American is Back" written on the screen, followed by promotional information for Solana's May conference and the emblematic logo symbolizing accelerationism.

The community had mixed reactions to this ad. Solana chose to delete the video a few hours after its release, but someone uploaded it to Zora for the community to mint, and it is currently valued at $120,000.

On the other hand, Base also "stirred things up" by releasing a video, with the theme of a transformation story of an old car dealer. Initially immersed in traditional car trading and having no interest in cryptocurrency, he began contemplating new solutions when faced with real-world issues such as slow bank transfers, limited business hours, and inconvenient cash transactions. Eventually, upon a recommendation from a repeat customer, he embraced cryptocurrency.

Illustration: BlockBeats

Two Paths for Public Blockchains: Mosque or Chameleon?

While Solana was mocked by the community for this advertisement, some also recalled its 2020 political donation campaign during the "Black Lives Matter" movement, where Solana stated, "Regardless of race or gender, everyone is equal, fair and just." Now, with the release of an advertisement accusing transgenderism of hindering innovation, people in the community have criticized Solana as a political chameleon.

Solana has not been immune to controversies within the blockchain ecosystem, such as with Ethereum and Base. However, since the inauguration of Trump, the blockchain ecosystems centered in the U.S., led by Solana and Base, have shown completely different political stances and ideological choices compared to Ethereum.

Ethereum's founder, Vitalik, has consistently maintained his political stance, advocating for decentralization, rejecting political intervention, avoiding speculation, and driving technological and ecological innovation. He hopes that Ethereum can uphold its initial values and attract more users through practical applications, rather than seeking short-term gains by catering to politics or vested interest groups.

On social media, he plainly stated that the Ethereum Foundation will avoid affiliating with any political figures, emphasizing that those who attempt to ride on the popularity of politicians are misguided, and Ethereum needs a more distinct and clear positioning.

In contrast, Solana, Base, Cardano, Ripple, and other crypto projects have become guests of Trump.

First Cryptocurrency White House Summit

In February of this year, Solana updated its brand image with a banner promoting the word "ACCELERATE," with the background displaying the American flag.

The English-speaking community is currently in a heated debate over Solana's short film, with some expressing confusion as to why such an open-source project (especially one built on cryptography) like Solana would take such a strange stance, leaving many puzzled.

「Have you not realized that there is a disproportionately large number of transgender developers contributing to open source, cryptography, security, and intelligence software? Almost everyone who has grown up in the cypherpunk culture knows at least one transgender super developer or hacker, who is truly a legendary figure. What makes these communities so admirable is that they always adhere to this belief: we don't care who you are, we only care about what you have done.」

Some also argue in support of Solana, believing that since they have political resources, they should use them reasonably to maximize the ecosystem's development benefits.

Others think that this advertisement is a very clever marketing strategy, 「Those who cry out 'cryptocurrency should be decentralized, politically neutral' completely missed the point, this ad is designed to make people feel awkward and stir up anger, and you all fell for it — which in turn has made its spread even wider.」 Indeed, this is the case, as everyone is now sharing this ad clip.

Meanwhile, the community's complaints about Ethereum have not stopped, 「Say what you will about Solana's embarrassing marketing, but at least they are not afraid to try various things, no matter how foolish they may seem. Ethereum, on the other hand, is busy maintaining its 'trusted neutrality' and releasing a lot of clichés.」

As Solana anchors its brand image to the American flag and Base uses a commercial narrative to satirize the traditional financial system, the crypto space has irreversibly stepped into the ideological battleground. This "American Chain" values war has not only revealed the ambition of the public chain ecosystem to compete for political discourse power but also reflected the deep contradiction between decentralization beliefs and the pragmatism of survival.

Just as Bitcoin once tried to dissolve sovereign will with an algorithm, today's Layer1 networks are actively weaving political narratives — this may herald the script for the 2.0 of the crypto revolution: technical protocols are starting to learn to manipulate ideological tools, and the original doctrine of 'trusted neutrality' is being redefined by a more complex reality game. When the code cannot prove its position, perhaps the future of the crypto world will no longer be adjudicated solely by hash rate.