Chatting about the changes happening in the Solana ecosystem
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Chatting about the changes happening in the Solana ecosystem
Build it and make it real.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Rui
Translation: TechFlow
What's Really Happening on Solana?
Today, the correlation between crypto and U.S. equities has weakened, along with reduced sensitivity to interest rate changes. On Solana, the meme craze is cooling down, while sandwich bots are cashing in—something many saw coming. Criticisms around network stability, flawed fee mechanisms for compute and storage, and reliance on a single client have long persisted, breeding skepticism or even disdain among many. If you haven't lost faith yet, we can all agree: we're in an era of exploration.
This is the ultimate warm-up before SolanaConf, pitting enthusiasts against skeptics.
"The wider the highway, the more traffic it attracts."
Higher TPS (transactions per second) leads to "induced demand," drawing in more frenzied projects, resulting in greater traffic and congestion—as seen with OREsupply. Multiple efforts are underway to scale Solana:
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At the mainnet level: anza_xyz tackles scheduling issues by avoiding "locking" of conflicting transactions. Clients like jump_firedancer and jito_sol enhance horizontal scalability, improve fault tolerance, and reduce latency.
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At the rollup layer: inherently faster than mainnet due to co-located nodes. Temporary batching solutions like magicblock maintain smart contracts and liquidity on mainnet while maximizing efficiency.
"What Is the Purpose of a Solana Rollup?"
Ethereum and Solana’s Layer 2s (L2s) serve different roles. Op and Arb are solving Ethereum’s scaling challenges. But on high-performance Solana, simply mimicking an L2 may seem redundant.
Solana’s L2s could instead focus on purpose-built runtimes—for example, gasless transactions, privacy, signature verification, alternative block times, or customized MEV policies. ZetaMarkets is building one for its perpetual DEX; DriftProtocol might use an L2 to reorder transactions; getgrass_io could leverage it for large-scale data validation. (Avoid terminology coined by figures like mhonkasalo and KyleSamani).
"Will Centralized Exchanges Boost LSTs on Solana?"
I’m not a big fan of liquid staking tokens (LSTs). Staking on Solana is already simple and allows instant unstaking, making native staking—free from smart contract risk—the preferred choice for 93.7% of stakers. Jito captured most of the remaining market by sharing its MEV revenue.
Recent announcements from Binance, Bitget, and Bybit show positive LST inflows. The upcoming unlimited LST pool from sanctumso is expected to boost liquidity. But the real question is how this translates into actual user growth. Imagine combining LSTs with PayFi: using yield to pay for your Helium 5G subscription instead of USDC, or following soleconomist's example, supporting creators through staked LST yields.
Restaking? jito_sol has launched collaborations with SquadsProtocol, RenzoProtocol, and fragmetric, competing with solayer_labs. Hopefully, stronger AVS solutions will emerge soon.
"Why Does the Masses Need Crypto?"
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DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks). I’m a Helium5G user—it’s powerful and affordable. Now they aim to become a “network of networks,” opening up more DePINs to build atop existing devices or networks, while helping them achieve compliance and operational support.
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AI. While it’s unclear if exolabs will ultimately run on Solana, imagine end-users running AI clusters on edge devices—real users, real incentives, real value. Expect more AI trading bots offering simple, intelligent access.
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PayFi. With slingmoney and Tiplink, it’s easy to use on mobile. “Buy Now Pay Never” unlocks opportunities leveraging the time value of money.
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Prediction Markets. Drift brought us election prediction markets—but why stop there? Why not predict meme prices (like jogojogo), yields (like rateX), or even broader domains?
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Memes aren’t sinful—the flip side is fair launches. We must consider sustainable business models, not just exploiting the uninformed.
"What Are the Right Questions to Ask?"
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If nearly every Solana app is centralized, what’s the point?
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It’s unfair to blame apps that want moats and private ownership. Protocols can’t capture all the value.
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Yes, MEV extracts significant value from memes—but aren’t sophisticated players also competing to reduce slippage and protect users?
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Apps should improve UX by offering fair and (automatically) accurate slippage estimates. Maybe build a reputation system for validators based on slippage performance.
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Who’s Building DeFi on Solana?
JupiterExchange as the interface; RaydiumProtocol and orca_so taking a permissionless approach; perpetuals via DriftProtocol and ZetaMarkets; your favorite exchange Backpack and Perena__ providing stablecoin infrastructure; Metaplex bringing digital assets to more SVMs; lending platforms like thesendcoin.
"It's Not a Bird’s Fault That It Can’t Swim"
Blockchains follow different evolutionary paths. The best globalization is localization—I learned this working at TikTok, where Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North America, Europe, and China were treated as five distinct strategic regions, each differing in language, compliance, resources, policy, culture, and vibe.
Living in New York now, I see two powerful forces: Base, representing EVM-compliant chains, whose TVL is dominated by stablecoins thanks to Coinbase and Circle. cbBTC could be their next big move. Meanwhile, Solana feels like a playground for everyday users—a true retail carnival. Even if you don’t believe it will host RWA, look at the people building relentlessly: aeyakovenko, 0xMert_, calilyliu, Colosseum hosting hackathons, and communities from the U.S., Singapore, Korea, and China celebrating, gaming, having fun—living in a fast and affordable world.
So, what’s really happening on Solana right now?
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