Ex-Marginfi Co-Founder Launches Rival Project Paladin

Edgar Pavlovsky, former co-founder of Marginfi , abruptly left the Solana DeFi project in April 2024, citing disagreements over internal and external operations. Eight months later, he is now a core contributor to Paladin, a Solana client designed to prevent sandwich attacks while increasing validator rewards. At the same time, Temporal, a crypto research firm with ties to Marginfi, introduced Nozomi, another Solana client aimed at preventing sandwich attacks. Although both projects address similar problems, they differ in their execution. Paladin integrates a token called PAL , while Marginfi has yet to launch its own native token, despite growing criticism from its user base. Temporal’s Nozomi client prioritizes transaction speed and prevents sandwich attacks by only allowing transactions to be sent to trusted validators. Jakob Povsic, a Temporal developer, claims Nozomi democratizes trading by offering institutional-level transaction precision to everyday users. In contrast, Paladin is a fork of the Jito-Solana client, focusing on identifying and blocking sandwich attacks directly in transaction bundles. Pavlovsky explained that Paladin prioritizes transactions with higher fees and will eventually limit access through the PAL token. Despite their similarities, Pavlovsky downplayed the rivalry, stating he supports Temporal’s efforts and believes multiple projects can coexist successfully. However, Povsic offered a sharper critique, calling Paladin's approach “naive” and accusing it of arbitrarily blocking transactions. He also criticized Paladin's reliance on its token model, suggesting it creates unnecessary complexity. Pavlovsky dismissed these claims, asserting that Paladin's methods are systematic and rigorously tested against network-wide sandwiching strategies. Ben Coverston, a Temporal partner, added that Paladin's reliance on token incentives could make the system exploitative, contrasting it with Nozomi's straightforward focus on transaction speed and validator trust. Coverston emphasized Nozomi’s open-source philosophy, suggesting it avoids some of the potential pitfalls of Paladin's token-based model. The lack of a Marginfi token remains a controversial topic. While many platforms use points programs to reward users ahead of token launches, Marginfi has not yet issued one. Pavlovsky admitted he was in favor of launching a token and believed Q4 2023 was the ideal time to do so. However, he stopped short of directly linking this frustration to his departure. Both Paladin and Nozomi aim to solve significant challenges in Solana’s validator ecosystem, but their approaches—and philosophies—differ sharply. For now, the competition remains a mix of collaboration, rivalry, and contrasting visions for Solana’s decentralized finance future.