Blinks Fantasy: Exploring the Most Promising Application Scenarios from Fundamental Logic
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Blinks Fantasy: Exploring the Most Promising Application Scenarios from Fundamental Logic
"Immediacy" and "facilitating the purchase of valuable information" are the real battleground for Blinks.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Nan Zhi, Odaily Planet Daily
Last week, Solana, in collaboration with Dialect, launched a new feature called Blinks. Some view it as a groundbreaking growth avenue for Solana, while others believe its drawbacks outweigh the benefits, potentially leading to more fraud incidents. How this new feature should be used, integrated with platforms like X and other scenarios to unlock its true utility, is still under discussion. This article by Odaily explores the real-world applications of Blinks.
Underlying Logic Exploration
Where Does It Make an Impact?
This section focuses solely on the X platform (Twitter). As a social networking platform, X serves primarily as a place where a small number of users post project information (such as basic project details, data, progress) and opinions (such as research reports, calls-to-action), while most users come to gather information and insights.
In terms of content characteristics, X features:
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High immediacy—users typically see the latest updates in their feed, with occasional resurfacing of older posts through replies from followed accounts;
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Strong virality—projects can achieve widespread dissemination via incentivized retweets, second only to instant messaging apps and short-video platforms;
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Moderate personalization—users choose whom to follow, and while X has begun incorporating content recommendation algorithms, user feeds are still largely driven by content from manually followed accounts.
Crypto users’ behavior can be summarized as “collecting information from personally followed or viral real-time feeds to inform short- or long-term investment decisions.” Therefore, the author believes that “immediacy” and “facilitating the purchase of valuable information” are the true battlegrounds for Blinks.
Here, “immediacy” means minimizing the time between information receipt and action, making Blinks the fastest operational path. “Facilitating the purchase of valuable information” refers to content that convinces readers they “need this information,” with Blinks reducing decision-making and execution time to prompt immediate purchases.
At Which Stage Does It Add Value?
If we simplify product sales into three stages—reaching new users, converting them, and re-engaging/retaining existing users—at which stage do Blinks play a role?
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Reaching new users: Whether through organic posting, advertising, or virality, user acquisition is not inherently a function of Blinks. Although platforms like Meteora and Raydium have built commission incentives specifically for Blinks to encourage adoption, due to security risks and insufficient information, the author believes this responsibility lies primarily with the host platform. Choosing the right platform to deploy Blinks and securing a solid user base is the first critical step.
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Converting new users: Why has shopping on short-video platforms taken off? A key reason is minimizing the purchase journey after capturing user attention. Once target users recognize a feature they need, Blinks can directly trigger wallet payments, significantly boosting conversion rates. Potential use cases will be detailed in the next section.
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Re-engaging existing users: The personalized nature of X, combined with sustained visibility, makes it effective for reactivating dormant users, particularly for small transactions or non-monetary interactions.
Potential Use Cases
Crypto user actions can be categorized into three types: profit-driven investing, consumption, and others. The first two are broad in scope, while the third includes community governance, decentralized social, blockchain gaming, etc., which typically occur on dedicated platforms and don’t involve X, so they won’t be discussed here.
Profit-Driven Investing
In this context, users require either speed or depth of information. Deep insights often relate to large investments, making users hesitant to trust a direct payment link without thorough due diligence—ruling out Blinks for such high-stakes decisions.
Speed-sensitive information usually pertains to early-stage meme tokens. Under what conditions would users be willing—or bold enough—to buy? One scenario involves highly credible sources; another involves narratives with explosive hype potential, offering users a chance to turn small investments into big gains.
The tokens BOME and SLERF that emerged in March exemplify these two types:
Darkfarms, a long-time artist behind PEPE, had prior project credibility. When he used Blinks to create donation or purchase channels, it effectively attracted user participation. Similarly, any individual or organization with strong credibility could leverage Blinks for higher conversion.
SLERF represents hype-driven narratives. Despite being obscure, when users are bombarded with frequent mentions across X’s real-time feed, a direct and fast investment entry point becomes exactly what they seek.
However, both highly credible sources and breakout narratives are rare, and conversion rates decrease as investment amounts increase. Thus, Blinks deliver relatively low average effectiveness in this context.
Consumption
The author believes consumption is where Blinks can achieve widespread application. Personalized recommendations filter the audience, ensuring a base of potential buyers, while content integration can “break through user psychology,” enabling conversions via the shortest possible path—from “clicking the yellow shopping cart below a video” to “clicking a Blink beneath an article to buy.” This is especially effective for value-added services, impulse purchases, and microtransactions. Examples include:
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Value-added services: After Odaily publishes an article titled “Next Week’s Token Unlocks Overview,” users click the Blink below to purchase premium analysis: “Reviewing 20 Historical Unlock Events: Will XX Token Pump Before Unlock or Dump Early?”
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Impulse purchases: “After rigorous calculations using Elliott Wave, Fibonacci, Gann Spiral, and other trading methods, I’ve identified a perfect bottom-entry point. Click the Blink below to buy the winning strategy.”
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Microtransactions: Quickly betting on whether Trump or Biden will win the presidency, or an artist releasing a Blinks mint link for their NFT collection.
When a project delivers valuable information through this format, X’s persistent reach enables effective re-engagement and repeat purchases the next time a related Blinks appears.
Community Ideas
@thesendcoin shared a series of community visions for Blinks on X. This section presents some of the more valuable—or, in the author’s view, problematic—Blinks concepts.
Practical Uses
Prediction Markets
Airdrop Checker
Paid Chats (Superchats)
Community引流 and Conversion
Paywalled Content Access
Advanced NFT Operations
Negative Use Cases
Direct-message multisig setup requires multiple identity verifications and still depends on link accuracy—offering little practical value.
Private sales messages—current market demand for standalone NFT sales is nearly nonexistent.
Burning (useless) NFTs and tokens—too many tokens involved, raising doubts about whether valuable tokens might be mistakenly burned alongside.
[Disclaimer] Markets carry risks; invest cautiously. This article does not constitute investment advice. Readers should consider whether the opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions herein suit their individual circumstances. Investment decisions based on this content are at the user’s own risk.
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