Solana’s Bot Wars, New Solana Perpetual Futures DEX & More

Welcome back & Happy New Year!

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

• Bot Wars: UniBot is coming to Solana to challenge the incumbents.

• 100x Leverage: Flash Trade, a new Solana DEX, is live on Mainnet. 

• Mr. Worldwide: Solana validators are now located on 6 continents.

This year’s mantra has been established ⬇️

Let’s get 2024 started!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Know Your Builder (KYB)

Most of what I know about Solana I’ve derived from X/Twitter. 

Naturally, there are large accounts such as the ones from Solana itself, Anatoly, or Raj. 

Following these accounts will give you a good understanding of current topics and general trends. 

However, I’ve found that smaller accounts — which mostly operate under the radar — often provide even more nuanced takes and detailed points of view.

So today we’ll explore 31 X/Twitter accounts you can follow for the most interesting Solana alpha — 24/365.

1. Wallets & Self Custody 

• @bfriel_: Brian works in developer relations at Phantom and often dives into Solana wallet topics and questions — both technical and non-technical. 

• @jordaaash: Jordan is cooking up all things wallets and payments at Solana Labs. He also has a soft spot for OSS.

• @0xdirichlet: You’re spending your waking hours thinking about fiat and crypto payment infrastructure? High time to link up with Dirichlet!

• @SimkinStepan: Multi-signature wallets are becoming increasingly more important. Luckily, Stepan and the chads at Squads have crafted an innovative multisig solution, which is unique to Solana. 

2. DeFi

• @m_schneider: Max is a true Solana OG and the spearhead of Mango’s DeFi efforts. When he’s not helping to build Mango, he lends his support to solving some of Solana’s hardest infrastructure challenges — you know, just what one does late at night to unwind and relax. 

• @durdenwannabe: If your protocol doesn't earn enough fees or your tokenomics are unfavourable, Durden will put you on blast on X/Twitter in 3, 2, 1 …. ! 

• @StRAYndhal & @mst1256: These two chaps are mavericks who
  helped build Solana DeFi 1.0. If you truly want to understand the nooks and crannies of decentralised finance, make sure to give them a follow. 

• @RealSpaceMonkey & @DanteBriger: I’m not going to lie, I’ve been enjoying meme coin season on both Jupiter and Birdeye. Having said that, trading on Solana wouldn't be half as fun without market makers such as RSM and Dante — both of whom have been propping up Solana’s liquidity throughout the bear market and beyond.

3. Infrastructure 

• @fd_ripatel: You’ve heard all about Firedancer by now. But do you also know Richard, one of the developers on the team which is leading the charge?

• @0xNineteen: Apart from Firedancer, Syndica is also working on a new Solana client written in Zig (“Sig”) — and @0xNineteen is the developer to follow if you’d like to stay up to date with Sig.

• @anoushk77: Light clients are pivotal. However, they have been rare on Solana so far. Enter: @anoushk77 and Tinydancer, Solana’s first light client. 

• @B3nHawkins: Ben is your man if you'd like to learn more about the validator and staking ecosystem on Solana.

4. Security & Privacy 

• @NotDeGhost: If you’ve been reading The Sleuth for a while, you’ll know that I’m a huge proponent of both economic and smart contract security — the speciality of Robert and his team at OtterSec. 

• @jgattermayer: In order to be a good teacher, you need to understand the subject matter so well that you can break down complex ideas into easy to understand bites. It’s safe to say that Josef and his colleagues at Ackee understand 1 or 2 things about Solana, which is why teaching smart contract security and auditing is their calling.

• @julian_elusiv: Munich is the city of beers, pretzels, the great outdoors, and privacy. Yes, you’ve heard right! Julian, Munich native and co-founder at Elusiv, and his team are bringing all things zero knowledge to Solana. 

• @swen_sjn: It seems as if the Germans are dominating the privacy sector. Up next: Swen and Light, a zero knowledge, privacy, and compliance infrastructure solution for Solana.

5. Data

• @fknmarqu: Stop scrolling! Marqu is the one-stop-shop for all your Solana data needs. 

• @runkellen: In the unlikely event Marqu hasn't covered a specified topic, Kellen will come in clutch and cover the bases.

• @AndurilData: Here’s the origin story: Anduril has been building and cooking up fire data visualisations and tools on Solana for a while, so much so that the Solana Foundation had no choice but to hire him.

• @andrewhong5297: You’re a Dune maxi and want to dive into detailed and topical Solana data? Well, Andrew serves some of the hottest Solana data visualisations on the regular. 

6. Research

• @StrategicHash: Apart from data, research which tackles hard questions and presents findings in an ELI5 manner is crucial as well. That's precisely what Hash-san is doing. 

• @0xGumshoe: Airdrop season is in full swing. If you want to get stuck in the weeds of Solana DeFi 2.0, Gumshoe is the only follow you’ll need. 

• @nixxholas: On-Chain data can be complex and difficult to understand, particularly on Solana. 陳先生 got your back though, making sure that you too can easily become an on-chain sleuth.

7. Policy

• @amiravalliani: Amira is leading policy and strategy at the Solana Foundation. She’s also helping to make sure that Solana’s climate change efforts are being surfaced and discussed by the broader public.

• @twobitidiot: Yes, I agree that Ryan’s policy efforts are not solely focused on Solana, but rather crypto in general. But policy wins for Ryan are policy wins for Solana — it's that simple.

• @mtcameron: Michael has been involved in crypto and in the Solana ecosystem for quite some time, helping to shape crypto policy in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

8. Vibes

• @r89capital: Buckle up! R89 will love bomb Solana and ecosystem participants on Monday, and FUD everything to dust on Tuesday — only to renew the cycle on Wednesday all over again. Apart from the entertainment, you might learn a thing or two when reading between the lines. 

• @tofushit888: If you’re into meme coins that only last the duration of a mayfly, casinos, #foodpics, and well-argued Polygon (MATIC) thought-pieces — this is the profile for you!

• @Forculus: Quek.

Now that you know your builders, use it to your advantage! 🫡

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

Wallets, But Accelerated: Phantom's 2023 is in the books, and the numbers are staggering. One example? Since Breakpoint, 600K people installed Phantom — bringing the monthly active user base to 2.1M in total.

100x Leverage: Flash Trade, a new perpetual future DEX on Solana, has launched on Mainnet — with a blast.

Bot Wars: Unibot — a popular bot that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies without having to leave the Telegram app — is coming to Solana. The bot wars are about to heat up!

SolanaFlow: More and more developers are interested in Solana. In order to support the uptick in interest, knowledge sharing on StackOverflow is paramount. If you're a Solana developer who wants to help out, here's more on why putting in some effort on StackOverflow might be worth your time.

Mr. Worldwide: Solana validators are now located on 6 continents — highlighting the continuous effort of network participants to further improve all things decentralisation. 

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

0:16: Have you heard about the “A Gently Used 2001 Honda Civic” coin? 💀

And that's a wrap!

If you'd like to reach me, respond to this newsletter or reach out to me on X.

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.}