Solana Foundation Exec Criticizes SIMD-228 as ‘Half-Baked,’ Anatoly Yakovenko Disagrees

Solana Foundation Executive Director Lily Liu has raised concerns over SIMD-228, a proposal to adjust the emissions of the network’s native SOL token based on staking participation, calling it “too half-baked.”

However, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko holds a different view, standing by the plan despite their disagreement.

Liu Criticizes SIMD-228

In a lengthy thread on X, Liu argued that the proposal could negatively impact SOL at a crucial stage of its development. She stressed that the blockchain and its assets are deeply interconnected, and changes to its economics must consider the broader implications.

According to her, for a major economic policy, network engineers rather than asset managers have dominated discussions, leading to an imbalanced perspective. She further defended Solana’s fixed-rate yields, which SIMD-228 is looking to change, arguing that it provides predictability, a key factor for institutional investors.

“Fixed rates are not “dumb and arbitrary”; they’re predictable,” Liu wrote. “In capital markets, predictability is valuable,” she added, citing the success of Solana’s staked exchange-traded products (ETPs) in Europe as proof of the importance of stability.

Dynamic pricing, a feature of the new proposal, might optimize network security, but in Liu’s opinion, this could come at the cost of destabilizing the value of SOL. She warned that changing the asset’s characteristics could reduce buy-and-hold pressure, undermining its growth.

The executive also highlighted Solana’s trajectory, fueled by its staking ecosystem. “Big Beautiful Yield is also an ecosystem growth budget,” she noted, stating it had enabled unique crypto-native products like Payfi.

Additionally, she shared her concern that given that SIMD-228 originated from venture capital proposals, its adoption could ignite worries about Solana being controlled by a select few after it only recently shook off criticisms of centralization.

Yakovenko’s Response

However, not everyone agrees with Liu’s position. Yakovenko expressed support for her but differed with her stance on the proposal:

“Lily is awesome and has my full support and confidence even though I disagree with her on this issue.”

“Steel sharpens steel,” the Solana co-founder added, affirming the importance of healthy debate.

Meanwhile, Chris Burniske, a partner at VC firm Placeholder, has argued that SIMD-228 is a necessary step toward a more mature economic model for Solana.

“I’m in favor of SIMD-228. In the long run, real yield comes from what the demand-side leaks to the supply-side, and inflation is just a bootstrapping mechanism to get to that place,” he stated.

At the time of writing, SOL is down just over 3% in the last 24 hours. The token is one of the major digital assets name-dropped to be part of a U.S. strategic digital asset stockpile. An announcement on Thursday by White House crypto advisor David Sacks that President Donald Trump had signed an executive order creating the stockpile caused the market to tank, losing at least $200 million.

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