New Solana Validator Client, Google Embraces NFTs & More

Welcome back!

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

• Mobile Wave: Google Play Store to enable Solana NFTs.

• Network Reliability: Syndica to launch new Solana validator client.

• Privacy Costs: Light mitigates ZK costs with state compression.

Last week, we finally got a ruling in the Ripple case.

This has gotten some degens, let’s just say, somewhat elated and euphoric? 😂

It also seems that the Ripple ruling has ignited Solana Summer 🏄‍♂️

Let’s get sizzling!

Click on any underlined heading / hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Solana Summer

Solana Summer has arrived.

You, your nan, and I know that Solana Summer will bring in a wave of new users.

But we have a problem: User stickiness.

User stickiness refers to the ability of businesses to keep users engaged and active. As such, it's measured as the percentage of users who continue to use a product or service over a given period, rather than churning or discontinuing their engagement.

Due to self custody, user churn is uniquely high in web3 — making user stickiness rather challenging.

And for the longest time, this has been one of the key arguments Solana teams put forward when challenged on their low number of DAUs.

The truth, however, is that products and services on Solana have a high churn rate in spite of self custody.

Here's why:

1. Onboarding: Many businesses on Solana have no or a subpar onboarding process. This leads to new users feeling overwhelmed, confused, or not able to fully understand the product or service benefits. If users struggle to get started or fail to see the value early on, they churn before fully exploring the offering.

2. User Experience: Additionally, the UI of many Solana protocols is clunky and lacks an intuitive design. In turn, users often encounter difficulties, frustrations, or obstacles such as slow performance, confusing workflows, and frequent errors or glitches. Factors such as these will lead to dissatisfaction and users churning.

3. Engagement & Relevance: Moreover, most businesses on Solana don't really have programmes in place to keep users continuously engaged with relevant content and personalised experiences. Consequently, users typically lose interest, churn, and start using other products and services that boast a more dynamic and helpful community.

4. User Support: Insufficient or unsatisfactory support can lead to a high churn rate. If users experience difficulties or have questions that are not addressed promptly or effectively, they may become frustrated and choose to discontinue their engagement. More often than not, this is exactly what happens to businesses on Solana.

If all of these issues persist and are not addressed, Solana Summer will be a fairly short one.

Teams building on Solana should, therefore, invest heavily in user stickiness.

Here's what they stand to gain:

• Cost-Effectiveness: Acquiring new users can be expensive and time-consuming. User retention allows you to maximise the value of your existing user base without constantly investing in new user acquisition efforts. As such, retaining users is generally more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.

• Revenue Growth: Retained users are more likely to spend more money on your product or service over time. They have already established trust in your brand and are familiar with your products or services. By retaining users, you can increase their lifetime value and contribute to the growth of your revenue.

• User Loyalty: Retaining users builds loyalty. Satisfied users are more likely to become brand advocates and recommend your products or services to others. They can provide valuable word-of-mouth marketing, reviews, and testimonials, which can attract new users and enhance your brand's reputation.

• Feedback & Improvement: Retained users offer an opportunity for feedback and insights into your product or service. Their continued engagement allows you to gather valuable data and understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. This feedback can guide product improvements, service enhancements, and overall business optimisation.

Simply put, optimising for user stickiness differentiates you from your competitors.

If you consistently deliver excellent experiences and maintain long-term relationships with your users, it becomes harder for competitors to lure them away — giving you a competitive edge.

Also, it makes new users stick around and integrate self custody, powered by Solana, into their everyday lives.

So let's reduce the dail on those ponizomics, gash grabs, and grifts and focus on user stickiness instead.

Solana Summer, baby! 💃

Numbers Of The Week

News Bites

Mobile Wave: Google will allow developers to incorporate digital assets such as NFTs into their apps and games in the Google Play Store.

Feeling Cloudy: Solana has been featured in a Google Cloud testimonial. The clip highlights BigQuery and BigTable and shows how they can enable Solana developers to build faster.

Network Reliability: Syndica, which offers enterprise-grade web3 cloud infrastructure, is planning to build a new Solana validator client written in Zig.

Privacy Costs: Due to state compression, private transactions cost the same as regular transactions on Solana — approximately ~$0.0001.

OPOS Hackathon: The next community coding sprint — The Only Possible On Solana (OPOS) Hackathon — will take place from August 1st to 21st and will mainly focus on DePIN, State Compression, and DeFi.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

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Talk soon!

J264G