In a Keynote address at MicroStrategy World: Bitcoin for Corporations, MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor delivered a masterclass on corporate finance and the power of bitcoin to supercharge corporate balance sheets. Saylor made a point to emphasize Bitcoin as the single solution for capital appreciation in an inflationary environment.

In his speech, Saylor likened the cost of capital to being the benchmark which a company must surpass to increase its purchasing power, arguing that “Bitcoin is the only asset that exceeds the cost of capital. Another way to say that, is everything else is dilutive.”

Further describing the true cost of capital, he noted that the “S&P is the modern surrogate for the cost of capital… If you had to pick one metric and say, what's the metric that gives you a sense of how rapidly the world currency supply is expanding in dollars? Probably the S&P 500… this is another way to see inflation.”

Saylor went on to emphasize his belief that all assets, except bitcoin, are not accretive to corporate balance sheets despite their general acceptance. In particular, he highlighted the relative underperformance of the silver, gold and US government bonds:

“[If companies] invested in T-bills, they're going to get 3% after tax against a 12% cost of capital per year. And so you hold $100 billion of capital, you destroy $9 billion of shareholder value a year… The story here is that the bonds don't hold value, right? They're awful capital assets. Silver doesn't work. Gold doesn't keep up with the cost of capital.”

There Is No Second-Best Crypto Asset

The MicroStrategy Executive Chairman noted key differences between Bitcoin and alternative cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, expressing the importance and necessity of proof-of-work-based consensus in creating a digital commodity.

“You could see the writing on the wall when the spot ETF of Bitcoin was approved in January. By the end of May, you'll know that Ethereum is not going to be approved. And when Ethereum is not going to be approved, sometime this summer it'll be very clear to everyone that Ethereum is deemed a crypto asset security, not a commodity. After that, you're going to see that [for] Ethereum, BNB, Solana, Ripple, Cardano – everything down the stack.”

On the point of Bitcoin’s energy use, Saylor invoked the idea of a “physical linkage to the real world” in Bitcon’s consensus. He described the network as having “raw digital power standing in the way of anybody that would try to undermine the integrity of the network… The network is feeding on electricity, and that creates a decentralizing dynamic that drives all of the network to the end of the grid in the quest of stranded energy.”

It’s Going Up, Forever

Saylor’s conviction and use of physics-based metaphors were present as ever as he spoke on Bitcoin’s price appreciation and continued monetization. “It's never declining. The chart's not ever decreasing. It only goes one way. Bitcoin is a capital ratchet. It's a one-way ratchet. Archimedes said, give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can move the world. Bitcoin is the place to stand.”

“There's no more powerful idea than the digital transformation of capital… No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. This is an idea. Its time has come. It's unstoppable. And so I'm going to end with the observation that Bitcoin is the best. The best what? The best.”

Watch the full MicroStrategy World: Bitcoin for Corporations Day 2 Livestream on the Bitcoin Magazine YouTube Channel

Layer 2 (L2) blockchain Eclipse and developer-oriented bridge Neon EVM have formed a new collaboration to implement changes in the blockchain landscape, increasing interoperability and scalability with the integration of Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). 

Aiming to combine the capabilities of both blockchains, Eclipse has consolidated the compatibility between the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) by deploying Neon Stack.

Solana And Ethereum Integration 

The primary objective of this collaboration is to integrate Solana’s transaction handling capabilities, which can process thousands of transactions per second, into Ethereum. 

This integration will be facilitated by Neon Stack, a standardized development stack that enables smart contract developers to achieve Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility on Solana Virtual Machine-based blockchain networks. Eclipse plans to leverage Neon Stack on its SVM L2 to facilitate this integration.

The Neon Stack consists of Neon EVM smart contracts and Neon Proxy. It has been live on the Solana mainnet since July 2023. It has deployed numerous Ethereum-native Solidity decentralized applications (dApps), including decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, and decentralized exchanges (DEXs), on Solana from its existing codebase. 

Neon EVM-Eclipse Partnership For Cross-Chain Development

Davide Menegaldo, Chief Commercial Officer (COO) of Neon EVM, expressed enthusiasm for Neon Stack and the collaboration, stating: 

With Neon Stack, we are paving the way for high-performance, scalable dApps infrastructure that transcends the limitations of traditional blockchain architectures and redefines computational efficiency. We are pleased to see Eclipse as the first industry partner to utilize the Neon Stack.

On the other hand, Neel Somani, founder of Eclipse Labs, the company behind the development of the Layer 2 blockchain, also emphasized the importance of the partnership, saying:

Our collaboration with Neon Stack enables developers to seamlessly deploy their dApps from EVM chains to Eclipse, further strengthening the harmonization between Solana and Ethereum. Solidity developers who wish to build on a high-performance L2 that leverages the strengths of the SVM can finally do so.”

Interestingly, the Ethereum ecosystem hosts over 13,000 dApps, with only a small fraction, 0.4%, cross-chained with Solana. This collaboration between Neon EVM and Eclipse could also provide further opportunities for developers to build new dApps with the new integration. 

In sum, it is believed that developers will be able to build advanced dApps that leverage the features of Ethereum and Solana, along with their respective native ecosystems and virtual machines, by leveraging the design of the NEON Stack and Eclipse.

As of the current update, the native token of NEON EVM, NEON, is trading at $1.0135. It has shown a 2.6% recovery over the past 24 hours, aligning with the overall positive movement in the cryptocurrency market. However, during the past 7 days, the token has witnessed a price decline, experiencing a nearly 8% drop.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com