Solana Foundation Asserts Core Network Should Be Permissionless Regarding Offensive Meme Coin Issues

The Solana Foundation has given its take on the offensive meme coin issue that originates on the Solana blockchain. Austin Federa, head of strategy at the Solana Foundation, sustained that the core components of Solana should be permissionless while blocking some of these offensive assets should be left to individual applications.

Solana Unlikely to Deal With Offensive Meme Coin Issues at the Core Network Level

Solana has revealed its take on how blockchains should deal with the offensive meme coin problem. During a panel called “Seize the Memes of Production” at the BUIDL conference held in Seoul, Solana Foundation’s Head of Strategy Austin Federa shared his feelings about how Solana should treat the offensive meme coin problem.

Federa explained that this issue was very similar to the issue of how internet service providers (ISPs) should deal with facilitating access to potentially harmful content. He detailed that no one expects a service provider to filter phishing content reaching a particular email account, or to reach potentially racist content, upholding the belief that rails providers should refrain from trying to solve these issues at the protocol level.

Federa stated:

The filtering has occurred at the application level; it’s wallets making decisions about the kind of content they want to show and display; the only way these networks work is if they are fundamentally permissionless and neutral at the base layer.

The principle of optionality, Federa stressed, means that while the base layer is fundamentally open, apps on top can include block lists and filters. He detailed that many wallets already filtered fake and potentially dangerous non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Aave Chan’s Mark Zeller rebuffed this notion, stating that in France, ISPs were obligated to block illegal content linked to the Holocaust and certain specific facts that happened during World War 2.

However, Zeller clarified that following the blockchain ethos, supporting free speech should be more important than blocking “not very pleasing” content.

These considerations come after a slew number of offensive and potentially racist meme coins had their origin on Solana, prompting a public discussion on the subject.