Man I didnt plan to look into Fogo tonight I was just scrolling half bored half looking for something to convince me Im still early to something and now its 2am and Im thinking about another Layer 1 Of course its another L1 Why wouldnt it be
But its using the Solana Virtual Machine and thats the part that made me pause
Because okay thats not stupid Its actually kind of smart Instead of doing the whole we built a revolutionary new VM that nobody understands thing theyre just plugging into SVM That means devs dont have to relearn everything Rust people can just keep being Rust people Tooling already exists That friction part is lower And friction kills projects fast
Still though
Its another L1
I keep coming back to that Like how many of these do we need Every cycle its the same pitch Faster Cheaper More scalable Ive read those words so many times they dont even register anymore Its like when every burger place says premium quality after a while it just means nothing
But the SVM choice does feel intentional Not ego driven Theyre not trying to kill Ethereum or whatever dramatic thing founders love saying It feels more like okay Solana works lets build around that philosophy but maybe tweak things I respect that I think
Then again why wouldnt you just build on Solana
Thats the part I cant shake Solana already has liquidity culture actual users So if Im a serious team why go to Fogo unless it gives me something I cant get there And Im not talking about slightly faster blocks I mean something real Because slightly better doesnt move capital in crypto It doesnt move attention either
I do think performance matters though Like actually matters We cant pretend people are going to use onchain apps if everything feels clunky If Fogo really focuses on stable consistent performance under real load not just flexing TPS numbers in a lab thats meaningful Thats not nothing
But thats also what everyone says
And Im tired of believing decks
The bigger thing is narrative Chains dont win because theyre perfect They win because people believe theyre inevitable Ethereum has this ideology thing going Solana has this speed cult energy Avalanche had its subnet moment Even Aptos and Sui had that academic Move language mystique for a while
Whats Fogos story Im not fully seeing it yet
Maybe thats fine Maybe its early Or maybe thats the problem If its just optimized SVM chain that feels thin It needs a lane Gaming High frequency DeFi Something Otherwise its like building a massive highway in the desert and hoping cities appear later Sometimes they do Sometimes it just becomes an expensive road nobody uses
And dont even get me started on token models If this turns into another emissions heavy bootstrap thing that only works in a bull market I swear weve seen how that ends Its fun until its not Then everyone disappears
At the same time and this is where I contradict myself I kind of like that its not an EVM clone Im so bored of EVM chains Its just copy paste with different branding At least SVM signals theyre betting on performance culture Thats a real bet Thats not playing safe
But betting near Solana is dangerous too Youre always compared Always measured If Solana improves where does that leave you If Solana dominates are you just the smaller sibling forever
I dont hate it though Thats the annoying part I expected to dismiss it completely Instead Im sitting here thinking okay maybe And I dont know if thats conviction or just late night optimism creeping in
Crypto has this pattern where we overfund infrastructure and underfund actual apps Everyone wants to build the base layer Fewer people want to build the thing people actually touch If Fogo doesnt get real apps that people care about none of this matters None of it Fast chain slow chain doesnt matter if nobodys there
So yeah Im intrigued But also cautious Ive been burned by promising L1 too many times to get excited easily Its like dating someone who says theyre different maybe they are maybe theyre not but youre not rushing in anymore
Ill keep watching it
Not aping in Not ignoring it either
Just watching