Solana Co-founder and Arbitrum Co-founder Clash Again： Single Sequencer Model Doomed to Lose to Permissionless Competition

: Arbitrum Co-founder Steven Goldfeder stated that the industry should not fall into the "narrative trap" of simply comparing on-chain transaction prices. He noted that both Arbitrum One and Robinhood Chain actively guard against harmful MEV such as front-running, and that some chains marketing low fees actually impose higher MEV costs, with retail users potentially bearing additional losses through "hidden costs" like front-running and sandwich attacks.Solana Co-founder Toly responded that Arbitrum currently has wider bid-ask spreads and higher fees, and that even the cost equivalent to a 10% revenue share on fees alone already exceeds sandwich trading rates — with worse spreads factored in, he estimates total costs are roughly 10 times higher. Toly further argued that a model driven by a single sequencer pursuing shareholder profit maximization can never defeat permissionless market competition.