Re-evaluating Public Blockchain Ecosystems Through Governance Logic: Solana's Ecological Transformation Through the Lens of Singapore's Prosperity and Costs

When we talk about public chains in a bear market, what are we discussing? Price? Community? Governance? The deeper question is: managing a public chain is essentially governing a digital nation. Tokens are currency, developers are citizens, DApps are industries, and on-chain governance is the government. If we view Solana’s development history from a nation-governance perspective, many seemingly accidental decisions behind it are actually driven by clear logic.

Introduction: No one is born to be strong

On August 9, 1965, Lee Kuan Yew cried on television. Singapore was expelled from Malaysia, becoming a tiny island nation with no hinterland, resources, or military. No one believed it could survive.

On November 11, 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy. Solana’s TVL evaporated over 75% in a week, and SOL’s price plummeted from $32 to $8. The entire crypto community’s headline: “Solana is finished.”

The opening stories of these two events are eerily similar: a small abandoned entity struggling in hostile environments. The paths they took—dependence, gray survival, transformation—are almost mirror images.

This article aims to explore not price or community, but a deeper issue: managing a public chain is fundamentally about governing a digital nation. Tokens are currency, developers are citizens, DApps are industries, and on-chain governance is the government. Viewing Solana’s history through a governance lens reveals that many seemingly random decisions are actually based on clear logic.

Chapter 1: The British Army Era—SBF and FTX’s Shelter

Singapore’s British Army Economy

In its early independence, Singapore’s economy relied heavily on the consumption and employment generated by the British military presence. The British bases contributed about 20% of GDP at the time. Singapore was aware of this dependency’s fragility, but as a nascent country, it had no qualification to choose its clients. Surviving was the top priority.

In 1968, Britain announced it would withdraw all troops east of the Suez Canal by 1971. For Singapore, this was a death blow. But it was also this “abandonment” that forced Singapore to seriously consider: if the shelter is gone, what can I rely on to survive?

Solana’s SBF Era (2020-2022)

Solana’s mainnet launched in March 2020, but what truly made it stand out among many “Ethereum killers” was Sam Bankman-Fried and his empire. FTX and Alameda Research were not only the largest funders of the Solana ecosystem but also its credit backers. Early core projects like Serum, Raydium, Maps.me had deep FTX-related capital involvement.

During this period, Solana’s ecosystem resembled Singapore under the British military: seemingly prosperous, with impressive data (TVL once exceeded $12 billion), but built on fragile foundations. Much of the on-chain activity was driven by Alameda’s market-making funds circulating within the ecosystem; genuine organic demand was far less healthy than the data suggested.

Singapore depended on the British military’s consumption; Solana depended on SBF’s funding. Both share a common trait: the prosperity was real, but its source was external, centralized, and potentially fleeting.

Collapse of the Shelter

In November 2022, FTX collapsed from the world’s second-largest exchange into ruins within 72 hours. The impact on Solana was systemic: Serum’s governance keys were controlled by FTX, causing immediate project paralysis; many ecosystem treasury assets were frozen within FTX; SOL staking concentration issues surfaced; market confidence evaporated, and developers started leaving.

This was Solana’s “1968 moment.” The shelter didn’t slowly withdraw—it was blown away overnight.

Chapter 2: How a Resource-Scarce Small Country Survives—Solana’s Innate Endowment

Singapore’s “Unique Resource”: Geographical Location

Singapore has no oil, no minerals, even freshwater must be imported from Malaysia. But it has one gift from heaven: the strategic choke point of the Malacca Strait. About 25% of global maritime trade passes through here. Lee Kuan Yew understood early: I don’t need resources; I just need to become the best hub for resource flow.

Solana’s “Unique Resource”: Performance and Cabal

In the blockchain world, Solana lacks Ethereum’s early-mover advantage, Bitcoin’s mythic narrative, or Cosmos’s modular flexibility. But it has one thing: extreme native performance. 400ms block time, theoretical peak 65,000 TPS, ultra-low transaction fees (often below $0.001).

This isn’t just a technical detail. Just as Malacca’s geography made Singapore a trade hub, Solana’s performance characteristics make it naturally suited for high-frequency, small-value, massive on-chain activity.

Geography for Singapore is like block time and transaction costs for Solana: the entry ticket that makes it attractive for “cabal” participants to compete here.

Chapter 3: Survival Wisdom in the Gray Zone—From Money Laundering Port to Meme Casino

Singapore’s “Not-So-Glorious” Middle Stage

This is often glossed over in official narratives. During Singapore’s rapid growth from the 1970s to the 1990s, its rise as a regional financial hub wasn’t solely due to the “clean and efficient” reputation.

A harsh reality was: in Southeast Asia at the time, neighboring countries—Indonesia under Suharto, the Marcos family in the Philippines, Myanmar’s military regime—generated large amounts of “dirty” money. These funds needed a safe harbor, a place where the origin didn’t matter, and the legal system was predictable. Singapore provided exactly that: strict banking secrecy, efficient financial infrastructure, and an unspoken attitude of “as long as you follow the rules, we won’t ask where your money comes from.”

Business has no moral judgment, only survival strategies. A resource-scarce small country, in its early days, had to accept some “imperfect money” to accumulate enough capital for future transformation.

The key is: Singapore never was laissez-faire. It attracted capital while maintaining high administrative efficiency and legal certainty (Temasek and GIC are among the top 10 sovereign funds worldwide). You could bring in gray money, but you couldn’t cause chaos on my turf. This “orderly gray” was a delicate balancing act.

Solana’s Meme Season and Pump.fun (2023-2024)

After FTX’s collapse, Solana faced survival pressure comparable to Singapore’s early independence. TVL dried up, developers left, narratives collapsed. At this point, it needed not “correct” growth but “any” growth—just to survive.

From late 2023 to 2024, Meme wave swept Solana. Pump.fun lowered the barrier to Meme issuance to nearly zero: anyone could create a token in minutes, no coding or auditing needed. Tokens like BONK, WIF, BOME created wealth myths that attracted massive speculative capital.

From a traditional finance or hardcore tech perspective, this was disastrous: Rug Pulls (projects跑路), Sniper Bots (front-running bots), countless zeroed-out junk tokens. But if viewed through Singapore’s historical lens, it’s eerily similar and rational:

Meme for Solana is like gray capital for early Singapore—it can’t shine on the tech geek’s main stage, but it brings three key things:

Capital inflow (foreign reserves): Meme trading generated huge on-chain transaction volume and fee income, directly supporting validator economics and stabilizing the network.

User base (population): Millions of new users first encountered Solana wallets (Phantom downloads surged), even if initially just for gambling.

Infrastructure stress testing (urban development): The extreme transaction load during Meme peak exposed the network’s real bottlenecks, accelerating development of critical infrastructure like Firedancer.

Singapore’s wisdom isn’t in “accepting gray capital,” but in “accepting gray capital while never stopping to build legitimate institutions.” Similarly, Solana’s key isn’t Meme itself but whether, under Meme frenzy, it also advanced genuine foundational development.

Chapter 4: Currency as Sovereignty—Token Economics and Governance Logic

Singapore’s Monetary Policy Philosophy

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) uniquely manages its currency not primarily through interest rates but via managing the exchange rate band of the Singapore dollar. An appreciation path suppresses inflation and attracts capital; a depreciation stimulates exports and maintains competitiveness.

The core idea: currency isn’t static; it must be dynamic and responsive. How much money to print, whether to appreciate or depreciate, depends on current economic needs. Excessive issuance dilutes wealth and causes inflation; too tight constrains economic vitality. Good monetary policy is a continuous balancing act.

SOL’s Token Economics: From Inflation to Deflation

Solana’s token economics evolved similarly.

Initial inflation phase (quantitative easing): At launch, Solana set an ~8% annual inflation rate, decreasing by 15% annually, aiming to converge to 1.5%. Newly issued SOL paid for staking rewards—essentially a subsidy to validators, akin to a developing country investing heavily in infrastructure to attract “citizens” (validators) to secure the network.

Introducing burn mechanisms (tightening policy): In 2023, Solana added a partial burn of transaction fees—50% of base fees are burned permanently. When on-chain activity is high enough, burn volume can approach or exceed issuance, making SOL effectively deflationary.

It’s like a central bank finally having the ability to “raise interest”: when the economy (on-chain activity) is booming, it can tighten monetary supply by burning tokens to maintain value.

But the problem is: Solana currently lacks a truly dynamic, responsive monetary policy framework. Its inflation rate decreases on a preset curve, and burn rate depends entirely on market activity, with no “smart adjustment mechanism” like MAS.

This is a deep governance issue unresolved in Solana (and most public chains): token issuance and burning shouldn’t follow a fixed curve but should be dynamically adjusted based on the network’s “economic cycle.” During congestion (overheating), increase burn rate to curb speculation; during downturns, perhaps lower validator staking thresholds or increase incentives.

A mature public chain economy needs not a fixed inflation curve but a “central bank” governance mechanism.

Few understand: tokens aren’t only worth more through burning.

Chapter 5: Housing Politics—“Only Asset Holders Will Defend the Nation”

Singapore’s true crisis at founding: not poverty, but ethnic division

Most talk about Singapore’s miracle focusing on economic growth. But Lee Kuan Yew repeatedly emphasized that the greatest danger at independence wasn’t poverty but racial discord.

In 1965, Singapore’s population was about 75% Chinese, 15% Malay, 7% Indian. The groups spoke different languages, had different beliefs, and mistrusted each other. The immediate trigger for expulsion from Malaysia was the irreconcilable racial tensions—23 deaths and hundreds injured in the 1964 racial riots.

Post-independence, Singapore faced a brutal reality: its people didn’t see themselves as “Singaporeans.” Chinese identified with Chinese culture, Malays with the Malay federation, Indians with India. Few felt a sense of belonging to “Singapore,” let alone willing to sacrifice for it.

Lee Kuan Yew’s fundamental challenge was: how to make a group of distrustful people voluntarily stay under one roof and be willing to defend it?

HDB Housing: More Than Just Homes, a Nation-Binding Mechanism

The answer was HDB flats—arguably one of the most ingenious social engineering feats in history.

On the surface, public housing solved a housing shortage. In the 1960s, many Singaporeans lived in shantytowns and slums. The government built large-scale public housing, selling it at well below market prices, and allowed CPF payments for mortgages. Today, over 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats.

But the real genius lies in the political logic behind it. Lee Kuan Yew once frankly said: “When a person owns a property, he is more willing to defend it.”

HDB’s design achieved at least three strategic goals:

First, creating “stakeholders.” When you’re just a tenant, the city’s fate doesn’t directly affect you—at worst, you move. But owning a home ties your assets to the nation’s destiny. If property prices rise, your net worth increases; if chaos erupts, your assets shrink. Every HDB owner becomes a “shareholder” in Singapore’s future.

Second, enforced racial integration. This is the least appreciated aspect. The Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) sets quotas for each ethnic group in HDB neighborhoods, preventing single-race enclaves. Your neighbors are diverse. Children play together, attend the same schools. After generations, physical mixing dissolves racial barriers.

Third, linking personal wealth to governance quality. HDB flats appreciate with Singapore’s prosperity and good governance. Well-managed development and infrastructure boost property values. This creates a powerful positive feedback loop: citizens support good governance because it directly benefits their assets.

One HDB flat thus accomplishes “interest binding—dissolving divides—motivating governance.” It’s more than housing; it’s a national cornerstone. Internal stability first, external threats second—Lee Kuan Yew’s deep insight.

Solana’s “Racial Problem”: Divided Communities

Back to Solana. Post-FTX collapse, the community faces divisions comparable to Singapore’s racial tensions in 1965.

At least three “ethnic groups” exist on-chain, with conflicting interests:

Speculators and Meme players. They are the largest contributors to Solana’s activity, bringing volume, fees, and buzz. But they lack loyalty; they chase hot trends across chains—mobile populations.

Native developers and builders. They invest time and technical capital into DeFi protocols, infrastructure tools, DePIN projects. They need Meme traders (users, traffic) but also dislike them (diluting ecosystem seriousness). Their relationship is delicate and tense.

Validators and stakers. They are the backbone of network security, investing hardware and staking capital. They care about stability, staking yields, and long-term SOL value. They’re indifferent or even opposed to short-term speculation.

These three groups’ interests are often at odds. Meme traders complain about network congestion and unfair prioritization; developers complain Meme siphons attention and funds; validators complain about MEV distribution opacity. Without a mechanism to align these interests, community cohesion will weaken.

Where is Solana’s “Housing”?

Lee Kuan Yew’s wisdom—making citizens own assets, tying individual interests to collective destiny—offers lessons for Solana. Some mechanisms resembling “HDB” already exist but are far from systemic:

Staking is closest to “ownership.” Locking SOL in staking makes your assets part of the network’s health. Stakers are de facto “shareholders.” But currently, staking is dominated by large players and institutions; ordinary users’ participation is low—like only the rich owning HDB, the poor remain tenants. The “interest binding” effect diminishes.

Governance tokens and airdrops are akin to “dividing housing.” Ecosystem projects airdrop governance tokens (e.g., JTO, JUP) to early users and developers—distributing assets, turning spectators into stakeholders. Jupiter’s JUP airdrop reached nearly a million active wallets, creating a sense of ownership. If designed well, this mechanism can be as effective as housing.

Superteam DAO’s global community is an attempt at “racial integration.” By establishing local communities in different countries—India, Turkey, Nigeria—it fosters collaboration across diverse groups. Similar to EIP, structured mixing reduces clique formation.

But what Solana still lacks is a truly systemic “asset binding—interest alignment” mechanism. Imagine a refined system where:

• Developers earn ongoing protocol revenue share from successful dApps.

• Active users accumulate a form of “on-chain credit” or “citizenship” through long-term engagement.

• Validators’ rewards are tied to their service reliability and decentralization contribution.

In such a system, every participant’s personal wealth would be tightly linked to Solana’s overall prosperity.

When speculators, developers, and validators become “owners” rather than “renters,” they will genuinely fight for the chain’s long-term interests. That’s the deepest lesson Lee Kuan Yew taught with housing: people won’t fight for abstract ideals but will for their assets.