Original article by: @mteamisloading, co-founder of @spire_labs
Original translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editors note: REV measures on-chain economic activity and reflects users willingness to pay. Solana REV is higher than Ethereum, but REV is lagging and easy to manipulate. The FDV/REV ratio varies greatly, and the chain and token value do not completely correspond. It is necessary to comprehensively evaluate the value of the chain based on multiple factors.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
What is REV?
REV stands for Real Economic Value and measures the total fees paid by users for use across the entire chain. Solana generates about 2 to 4 times the REV of Ethereum L1. So why is this metric important? Are Solana and ETH severely undervalued?
REV Time:
REV is standardized by @Blockworks_ and widely promoted by the Blockworks Research team (@blockworksres). Jon Charb (@jon_charb) has also been a key contributor to promoting REV as a metric for understanding blockchains.
Revenue is to business what REV is to blockchain.
“REV includes both in-protocol transaction fees and tips paid by out-of-protocol users for trade execution, so it measures the overall currency demand for on-chain transactions.” — @blockworksres
However, blockchain is not a business, and comparing the two is a big misunderstanding: while they have similarities, they also have differences. The devil is in the details.
Let’s take a look at today’s data, chart provided by @blockworksres.
Comparison of REV shares of various chains in the past five years:
Ethereum dominates in 2021-2022
Today, Solana ranks first and Tron ranks second, both surpassing Ethereum
Bitcoin’s REV is almost zero
Here are some data from the past 90 days, including app revenue. 
So, what does REV tell us about a chain?
It is one of many indicators we have, each with its own advantages and disadvantages:
advantage:
Compared to the number of active addresses or transaction volume, REV is more difficult to manipulate, especially when part of REV is destroyed.
Historically, it has been a good reflection of retail user activity.
shortcoming:
· Historically it tends to be a lagging indicator.
Like all core metrics, REV does not tell the whole story.
Like any other indicator, REV can be manipulated.
Some activities generate much higher MEV (maximum extractable value) and REV than others.
REV is often affected by the immaturity of the on-chain MEV infrastructure.
@_bfarmer summed it up really well:
o3 also points out a few more subtle aspects of REV as a metric:
If we use REV to compare the financial performance of each chain, just like comparing companies, then the ratio of their FDV to REV is as follows:
Bitcoin: 10,000x
Ethereum: 593x
·Solana: 85.5 times
Tron: 39x
According to this logic, is Solana seriously undervalued relative to Ethereum? No.
At least REV (or the FDV/REV ratio) is not sufficient alone to assess the fair value of a chain’s native token. There are three reasons for this:
1. REV ≠ the value capture of the native token on the chain. In many cases, REV will be destroyed and returned to users through incentive mechanisms, or paid to verification node operators as operating expenses, etc.
For example: (data may be outdated):
2. The FDV/REV ratio (similar to the P/E ratio) will naturally vary between different chains (and companies). For tokens, factors such as yield and currency premium will significantly affect the price. Moreover, the quality and sustainability of REV on different chains are also different.
See also:
3. Blockchain is not a business, and native tokens are not equity shares.
This should be pretty obvious. 
As an aside, there have been some interesting logical errors on both sides of the REV discussion over the past few days (probably more so on the part of the REV minimalists).
There are indeed many points worth emphasizing when it comes to maximizing REV in the long run:
