Lesson 4 — Why not just use Solana?
Question
Solana is also a Rust-native high-performance chain. If "Rust + chain" is the lens, Solana is a candidate. Why pick the Reth stack? Four practical reasons.
Principle (minimum model)
- EVM ecosystem carries over. Wallets (MetaMask / Rabby), tools (Foundry / Hardhat), DEX / bridges / indexers / oracles are all EVM-compatible. Nothing to rebuild from scratch.
- Infra layer is customisable. Reth SDK lets you swap precompiles / state machine / consensus. Hyperliquid built a perp L1 on top; Solana is monolithic and restricts how much you can modify.
- EVM knowledge applies across the industry. EVM-compatible chains (OP / Base / Arbitrum / Polygon / BSC / Avalanche / Berachain / Tempo / ...) all use the same skills. Solana knowledge is Solana-only.
- Rust safety + performance is shared. Both Solana and the Reth stack are Rust → same strengths (memory safety / speed / parallelism). Ethereum's wrapping arithmetic + 256-bit integers + consensus determinism also play to Rust's strengths.
- Caveat. Raw TPS sometimes favours Solana. The Reth-stack edge is customisability + ecosystem carry-over + Rust safety — "always faster" is not the claim.
Worked example + steps
Why not just use Solana?
A reasonable question: "Solana is fast and also Rust — why bother with Rust EVM at all?"
The honest answer is it depends on what you want to build, but here's the comparison.
Side-by-side
| Reth stack (Rust EVM) | Solana (SVM) | |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Rust (infra) + Solidity | Rust (infra + contracts) |
| Execution model | Sequential / Parallel EVM | Fully parallel (Sealevel) |
| Learning curve | Medium-high | Very high (custom memory model) |
| Future flexibility | Applies across EVM chains | Solana-specific |
| Adopters | Hyperliquid, Tempo, Monad, Berachain | Solana, Pyth, Jito, Jupiter |
Why Rust EVM tends to win in 2026
- EVM liquidity: existing wallets, tooling, and developer mindshare carry over
- Modularity: you can reshape the infra to fit your app (Hyperliquid did exactly this with HyperBFT + HyperEVM)
- Vertical integration: optimize app and execution layer together
How to choose
If your priority is trend, breadth, and reusability, Rust EVM wins. Solana is still excellent, but Reth + Revm offers the unique combination of "EVM developer experience × Rust performance."
The 2026 reality — not "either/or" but "intersection"
The picture has gotten more interesting. Tempo — a Reth-based payments abstraction layer — is emerging as the connective tissue between Stripe (fiat-side distribution) and Solana (crypto-side distribution). When Meta launched USDC payments, they didn't build their own chain — they composed existing networks (Solana + Stripe). Stripe is a central player in Tempo, so the structural connection Meta — Stripe — Tempo — Solana is forming.
So the question shifts from "should I learn Solana or Rust EVM" to "which distribution do I want to bet on." The Rust EVM side (this course) covers: app-chains (Hyperliquid), stablecoin payments (Tempo), L2s (Base / OP-Reth) — Reth is becoming the foundation for "Stripe-of-crypto"–style infrastructure.
Key point: Stablecoins are the base currency of DeFi. Owning a stablecoin payment rail also means opening the path to DeFi onboarding later. Today, Stripe / Tempo abstract crypto away to onboard TradFi users — but lending, swap, and perps will eventually layer on top of that rail. Reth/Revm engineers who can read both the rail and the protocol sit in scarce-talent territory.
Next up
Now that you can place these projects on a map, let's get Rust running on your machine.
Summary (3 lines)
- Four practical edges: EVM ecosystem carry-over + customisable infra (Reth SDK lets Hyperliquid build a perp L1) + EVM knowledge transferability + shared Rust strengths.
- Hyperliquid is the SDK case study; Solana is monolithic with limited customisation. EVM knowledge applies to OP / Base / Arbitrum / etc.
- Raw TPS sometimes favours Solana; the Reth-stack edge is customisability + ecosystem + safety. Next: what carries over from Solana / Anchor for that audience.