In April, Marginfi co-founder Edgar Pavlovsky left the Solana DeFi project on bad terms, citing internal and external disagreements. Eight months later, Pavlovsky is now a core contributor to Paladin, a Solana client aimed at safeguarding validators from sandwich attacks and boosting their block rewards. Around the same time, Temporal, a crypto research firm with connections to Marginfi, began promoting its own product, Nozomi, to prevent sandwich attacks. While Temporal is legally separate from Marginfi, they share a focus on anti-sandwiching measures, with Paladin featuring a token, unlike Marginfi.
Temporal’s Nozomi is designed to rapidly process transactions and prevent sandwich attacks by only working with trusted validators. On the other hand, Pavlovsky’s Paladin is based on the Jito-Solana client and prioritizes transactions with high fees attached while filtering out sandwich attacks. Paladin will eventually use the PAL token to control access to its validators. Despite the similarities in their anti-sandwiching goals, Pavlovsky insists there is room for multiple companies to succeed in the space.
While Pavlovsky maintains a positive outlook on competing projects like Temporal, Temporal’s developer Jakob Povsic is critical of Paladin’s approach. He believes Paladin’s method of blocking transactions based on various criteria is flawed and that skilled players can still exploit it. Povsic also takes issue with Paladin’s use of a token, seeing it as a self-serving move. In contrast, Temporal’s Nozomi aims to facilitate fast transaction processing without the added complexity of a token.
The PAL token has generated interest within the cryptocurrency community due to Marginfi’s delayed token launch. While Marginfi has faced criticism for its points program, which rewards users based on platform contribution, it stands out as one of the few Solana DeFi protocols without a native token. Pavlovsky, who left Marginfi in part due to the lack of a token launch, expressed support for tokens and believed Marginfi should have launched one in Q4 2023.
Despite the differences in approach between Paladin and Nozomi, both projects share a common goal of protecting validators from sandwich attacks in the Solana ecosystem. While Temporal criticizes Paladin’s methods and token integration, Pavlovsky defends Paladin’s systematic approach and willingness to engage in discussions. As the competition heats up in the anti-sandwiching space, it remains to be seen which project will emerge as the leader in protecting Solana validators and traders.
