GPU Supercomputers On Solana, Solana-Filecoin Partnership & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week I’ve got these titbits for you:

• Introducing Fileana: Solana’s Filecoin integration goes live.

• Decentralised Clusters: io.net is spinning up GPU supercomputers.

• Meta-DAO: Everything you need to know about the hype.

Get your hard hats out, we're building bridges 🧱

If you'd like to know what Solana is up to at ETHDenver this year, we got you covered.

Now, let's get this show on the road!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Opportunity Abundance

I've spent the last couple of days in Taipei, Taiwan and Cape Town, South Africa. 

Here's what I've learned: Crypto plays a significant role in both countries, however, not in the way you might think. 

Generally, on-chain activity is miniscule in both regions — with centralised exchanges dominating all things crypto. 

In Taiwan, Bybit, OKX, Bitget, and MaiCoin seem to run the show, while Binance and VALR seem to have the South African market in the palms of their hands. 

Outside of CEXs, it seems as if only Ethereum-based products and services have been able to put a dent in centralisation meta.

Meta Mask seems to be the most widely used non-custodial wallet, while Uniswap appears to be synonymous with all things “on-chain trading”. 

And apart from these two Ethereum behemoths? 

Crickets.

Having said that, it’s somewhat astonishing that Solana teams are not purposefully targeting Taiwan and South Africa — given the sheer size of the opportunity. 

Taiwan

• Population: 24 million; slightly smaller than Australia, but larger than the Netherlands, Sweden, and Portugal

• Technology-driven society 

• Extremely high smartphone density

• Technological powerhouse e.g. TSMC and its associated ecosystem — with an increasing shifting from hardware to software 

• GDP larger than Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Israel, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong

• 14th richest economy in the world (Germany ranked 19th, South Korea 30th, the United Kingdom 31st, and Japan 38th)

• Economic freedom score = 80.7, making its economy the 4th freest in the world

• Excellent education system; ranked 3rd in PISA — ahead of Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Switzerland

South Africa

• Population: 60 million; similar to the UK, but larger than Italy, South Korea, and Canada

• Young, crypto-curious population

• High smartphone density

• One of the largest economies in Africa — pretty much on par with Egypt and Nigeria 

• Vibrant entrepreneurial culture, with many startups and small businesses contributing to economic growth

• Cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban are emerging as prominent tech hubs, attracting startups, investors, and talent

• Well-developed financial services sector, including banking, insurance, and asset management, which contributes to economic stability

• Despite its challenges, the country has considerable potential — specifically with opportunities in sectors such as finance and technology

Obviously, we have large, centralised GTM initiatives such as Breakpoint, Hacker Houses, and Superteam. 

However, more nimble, agile, and decentralised approaches might be more effective for Solana teams to supercharge a customer base in countries such as Taiwan and South Africa. 

Do I have ideas?

Glad you asked!

• Hire country leads

• Establish ambassador programmes at universities

• Roll out high school, university, and tech roadshows

• Hold weekly meetups to introduce your service/product and show how it fits into the larger ecosystem 

• Localisation: Adapt your service or product to suit the local market's language, culture, and preferences, including blog posts, videos, webinars, and social media updates

• Get plugged into the open-source scene, e.g. Taiwan: OCF & NTUST 

Regions outside of North America and Europe are by no means Ethereum dominated — so they pose a great opportunity for outsized returns for Solana protocols and teams.

It will be interesting to see who grasps the opportunity and runs with it — after all: fast and cheap transactions for all things self-custody remains a killer argument.

Let’s bring more Asian, African, and Latin American communities on-chain — 🎵 Asambe 🎵!

Numbers Of The Week

News Bites

Introducing Fileana: Through its integration with Filecoin, Solana's entire ledger is now readily available and usable for anyone — infrastructure providers, explorers, and indexers.

Decentralised Clusters: Currently, there are many initiatives underway to make GPUs both more accessible and performant. io.net is doing so by means of decentralised clusters: geographically dispersed GPU supercomputers.

Catching Lighting: What does catching lighting in a bottle look like? Well, let's ask Phantom. In January 2024, Phantom registered 941,000 new downloads — bringing the number of monthly active users to 3.2 million.

Meta-DAO: You've probably seen “Meta-DAO” pop up on your 𝕏 timeline multiple times in the last couple of days — yet you still don't know what it's all about, right? This field guide has all the answers you need.

Developer Experience: You're new to blockchains or Solana and want to get your hands dirty? You've come to the right place! That’s because Solana recently announced a newly updated developer page with up-to-date and relevant courses.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

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Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens/equity.}