Solana: The New Backbone Of AI, Kraken’s CEO Gets Into Solana & More

Welcome back!

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

• Research Report: We explore the SOL & ETH ecosystems.

• AI Backbone: io.net continues to grow rapidly, setting new milestones.

• Bubble Tea: Boba Guys roll out Solana-based loyalty programme. 

Solana keeps humming along, although numerous people expected the network to be stress-tested by the aftereffects of the Pyth airdrop.

If I were a betting man, I’d expect the network to remain stable and resilient, even with the upcoming Jito and Jupiter airdrops. 

Regardless, I’ll keep it with Kobe until we have 12+ months of uninterrupted uptime 🫡

Let’s get going!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Research Report | Solana vs. Ethereum: Validators & Staking

The economic incentive of staking is pivotal for proof of stake (PoS) blockchains, as it enables more high-quality validators to be set up, which in turn can work efficiently, achieve consensus, and enhance the networks’ overall security. 

In this context, we explored the validator and staking ecosystems on both Solana and Ethereum, highlighting their similarities, and shedding light on their differences — in particular regarding superminority, geographic distribution of validators, validator client diversity, and liquid staking tokens (LSTs).  

Topline:  

• Solana: NC: 23 / FIBP Nodes: ~2,900 / Staked Supply: 71% / Stake TVL: ~$22.4B

• Ethereum: NC: 2 / FIBP Nodes: ~7,000 / Staked Supply: 23% / Stake TVL: ~$57.4B 

Key Takeaways: 

• Europe seems to be an equally important validator region as the United States for Ethereum, as is the case for Solana — however, to a lesser extent. 

• We can see a clear trend taking shape on both Solana and Ethereum: high-performance validator clients (Firedancer vs. Silkworm).  

• The design space of LSTs on Solana seems to be growing and developing rapidly, in particular with the introduction of Jito’s StakeNet and Jupiter’s SUSD. 

One last thing: I need you to FUD the report — what did we get wrong, which inconsistencies does it have, what data is missing? Your feedback allows us to gradually make our research more robust — benefiting you and allowing us to bring in more builders, KOLs, and institutional players into the Solana ecosystem. 

Thank you so much!

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

Hassle-Free Bridging: Phantom has highlighted “Refuel”, a feature which converts a portion of bridged tokens to SOL to cover transaction fees, so users don't get stuck without gas.

Loyalty Programme: Boba Guys rolled out their loyalty programme built on Solana. Users' loyalty card/status tier is a Solana NFT in a Crossmint wallet, which allows for token-gating of perks such as secret menus and more. Having said that, some questions remain ⬇️

AI Backbone: io.net, a decentralised GPU network built on Solana, has been growing rapidly — just in time for the AI revolution.

Bridging Liquidity: Jupiter has added Linea, Base, Optimism, and Tron to their bridge comparator, making it even easier to bring liquidity to Solana.

NFT DCA: Ovols have launched a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) feature for NFTs. The feature was launched in conjunction with Jupiter, enabling NFT DCA with close to no fees.

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.}