It's kind of ironic that we (@magicblock) find ourselves on the opposite side of the fully onchain vs. offchain discussion. For context, @supermarioblock and I started our journey by working on a game at a Solana Hacker House in 2022. There were a few companies around offering API and backend solutions for integrating onchain. We felt that wasn't the right direction. The logic had to be in the smart contract; otherwise, most of the benefits would be lost if you replaced it with a server. Fully onchain games haven't materialized yet, but directionally, we were right. None of these companies are around anymore, and we are more bullish than ever on fully onchain. Pushing the boundaries of what's possible onchain with games led us to the concept of ephemeral rollups, presented at Breakpoint 2023. It was a controversial name, but we felt "ephemeral" was enough to categorize it as a new concept. We created a design from first principles, basing it on some unique properties of the SVM while avoiding most of the pitfalls of L2s. We bet on Solana's success, and we are still all in on that bet. We believed L2s were not the right construction to bring value to the overall ecosystem. This may be a popular take now on CT, but 2023 was before the L2 rollup mania on Solana. It wasn't obvious. We were there before, and we are still here, while all the other meta-chasing projects are gone. Our core thesis is that it's possible to build a decentralized, verifiable engine that is as fast as a server and provides unique properties that unlock a brand-new category of products and applications. There are still some building blocks under construction, but we put together an insanely talented team, and I'm proud to say that we have built it and are now proving the thesis. Our thesis and success are grounded in Solana's success. When we were raising our first round, innumerable VCs told us, "The system is extremely cool, but can you build it on the EVM?" No, we cannot! The system works only on a fast and decentralized blockchain that can be used as the main thread orchestrating ephemeral rollup sub-threads. This discussion would deserve a digression on what is considered fully onchain. I personally think it means that the source of truth must be a decentralized system, but it has too many nuances and would be beside the point. Next post, perhaps. Everyone is aligned so far, but there is a problem. There are use cases, such as @supersizegg, that would clearly be impossible without MagicBlock for years, if ever, while for others, the line is more blurred. There are trade-offs, but ultimately, Solana keeps improving at an incredible speed. Things that were impossible yesterday are now possible, and the line keeps moving. Perps fall into this category, and @FlashTrade was a manifestation of it. They built on that moving line. We knew about this problem and designed the system to provide maximum optionality. It's extremely simple to move the execution of instructions off Solana and back, and all the logic is still encoded in a smart contract deployed on Solana, not anywhere else. Anyone who perceives us as a replacement for Solana is simply wrong and doesn't understand how ephemeral rollups work. We unlock new design spaces; that's our mission. What others think is ultimately irrelevant when building a company, but I understand that, for founders, it's demotivating to be perceived as the enemy, not have support, etc. This last point, I think, was highly misrepresented in FlashTrade's announcement and points. There are many more nuances and factors that determine a company's success. Motivation for founders comes from something core, which ultimately makes what anyone other than your users thinks irrelevant. If you create a product for which someone is willing to pay, nothing else matters, but nevertheless, it can be annoying. I won't comment on the other points, as I wouldn't have enough context. The FlashTrade team is extremely talented and competent, and they had their reasons, which they transparently explained. I'm grateful to have worked closely and innovated with them. I wanted to share my point of view. For those who aren't reading all of this, TL;DR: MagicBlock is more bullish than ever on fully onchain. If you perceive us as a replacement for Solana, you are wrong. The best way to change your mind is to give it a try and build something!