The Ethereum faithful are clutching their pearls. Doodles, the blue-chip NFT project known for its vibrant art and even more vibrant community, just pulled a fast one. They launched their DOOD token on Solana. Or is it a stroke of madness, fragmenting their audience and further complicating the multi-chain future? Is this a courageous maneuver to reinvigorate a project with reduced, yet still substantial support? To be frank, it’s definitely been on the ropes in recent months.

Solana: Speed or Shortcut to Irrelevance?

Doodles says they’re “chain-agnostic,” focusing on speed and access. Okay, I get it. We all know Ethereum gas prices can be brutal, and Solana is more scalable, faster and cheaper to use. Let's be real: Solana carries baggage. It's been plagued by outages, and frankly, it's not exactly known as the home of high-end, blue-chip projects.

This is what it feels like to be chasing shiny objects, and that’s always a danger signal. It would be like a Michelin-starred chef getting bored and opening a McDonald’s. Okay, maybe you’ll bring in more business, but are you still providing the same level of quality. More importantly, are you diluting your brand?

You may recall the last time Blackberry attempted to take on the iPhone. They overextended themselves, abandoned their differentiating fundamentals, pursued a feature arms-race and eventually diluted their soul. Is Doodles repeating this mistake, trading exclusivity and quality for temporary profits?

DOOD: Community Power or Corporate Control?

With the rollout of DOOD, alongside the DreamNet platform, Sonic‘s creators are suggesting it is a tool to give power back to the community. As a reward, holders will receive an exclusive DOOD airdrop. They can take it even deeper into DreamNet to build and profit, further adopting the ethos of decentralized technology.

Overall, 30% of the DOOD supply benefited NFT holders and 13% supported other Web3 communities. That translates into an astonishing 57% still under Doodles’ control. That’s not decentralization, that’s top down centralized control in a decentralized frosting.

Here is where my inner libertarian goes apoplectic. We’ve all been hearing that Web3 is about ownership and returning control to the masses. What good is that power if the company continues to retain most of the tokens? It’s like one of those “employee-owned” businesses where the employees really don’t control much of anything because the execs still call all the shots.

And as if the first three weren’t enough, don’t underestimate the emotional trigger of anger. Most importantly, then, while the Doodles team preaches community and decentralization, what they are doing is corporate control. Are they really committing to a long haul, or are they just cashing out?

Cannibalization or Capitalization?

The most important question of all is if, by launching on Solana, Doodles will be cannibalizing Doodles’ Ethereum market share at this point. Will it lose the uniqueness of the native NFTs’ value? The early signs aren't promising. As a result, DOOD was down 12% on its first day. PENGU and ANIME – memetokens launched to accompany other Ethereum NFT projects – experienced similar crashes after the hype. This is clearly anxiety inducing for any Doodles holder.

Here's the utility question: If you're a Doodles holder, what's your incentive to buy and use DOOD on Solana? Is it actually even that much better than just using ETH inside the Doodles ecosystem? Or will this be yet another token to speculate on, doomed to disappear in obscurity within a few months time?

Here's the unexpected connection: This reminds me of when established luxury brands launch "diffusion lines" – cheaper, more accessible versions of their products. When it works, it produces beautiful design, but more frequently it just insults the brand and confuses their existing customers.

Data is key here. Therefore, going forward, require transaction volume, user active daily on ETH and SOL chain as well as liquidity pools. If all this Solana activity is simply blowing away Ethereum activity then in pure brand terms this a net loss for the Doodles brand.

The urgency is real. This isn't just another token launch. This is a critical juncture for Doodles. If DOOD were to flop, this would not only severely tarnish the brand’s reputation, but it may negatively impact the value of the original NFTs themselves. This is not just about short-term profit. This is about the long-term health and sustainability of Doodles.

Are you really sure about this, Doodles? Picture this question—Are you truly building the future, or just looking to make a fast buck? Only time will tell.