Why FTX’s collapse is a ‘crucible moment’ for Solana
Solana co-founder Raj Gokal has referred to the FTX crisis as a "crucible moment" for Solana's ecosystem.
The amount of value moved on Solana has decreased dramatically since Alameda declared bankruptcy in November, data from The Block shows.
In this episode of The Scoop, Solana co-founders Raj Gokal and Anatoly Yakovenko discuss how Solana initially became intertwined with FTX, and when they first started to notice that Sam Bankman-Fried’s ambitions diverged from the crypto ethos.
While Bankman-Fried and FTX were focused on building a centralized exchange, the Solana co-founders were focused on building self-custody solutions. As Yakovenko explains, “FTX became a much bigger brand and started going in a very global direction … but we were focused on building stuff for self-custody users.”
Despite the setback FTX’s collapse has had on Solana’s ecosystem, Gokal says the focus on self-custody has led to real user adoption:
“It's pretty exciting now to see that focusing on self-custody users and open-source software has created this huge boom — it's what captured most of the users and active addresses on Solana.”
Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from former FTX and Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.
Episode 125 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Solana co-founders Raj Gokal and Anatoly Yakovenko.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests can be sent to podcast@theblockcrypto.com
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Ledn
About Tron
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How Solana is bridging the gap between web3 and the physical world
In this episode of The Scoop, Solana Labs co-founder and COO Raj Gokal discusses his early impression of Solana Spaces, as well as the innovation and experimentation that is occurring across the Solana ecosystem at a "breakneck pace."
As Gokal explains, some people who visit Solana Spaces' first location in Manhattan are discovering that web3 might not be as daunting as it seems:
"There's hundreds of people coming through — just starting their first Phantom wallet, sending their first USDC, and learning, 'okay, using crypto is like not that complicated.'"
In addition to the inroads Solana is making in the physical world, Solana is currently hosting a virtual hackathon called 'Summer Camp' — the largest Solana hackathon to date, according to Gokal:
"The hackathon that's going right now has almost 14,000 developers. This is the most participation from a hackathon that we've ever seen… and it's now — in the depths of the bear market."
Although the price of SOL has fallen approximately 85% since last November's highs, the Solana Network has seen accelerated adoption over the same period, as data from The Block shows.
Episode 72 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Solana Labs Co-Founder and COO, Raj Gokal.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC Schaffhausen
About Chainalysis
Chainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.
About IWC Schaffhausen
IWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com
Solana is Launching a Phone? | Co-Founders Anatoly & Raj
Solana just released a flagship Android phone for web3 called Saga. And it really begs the question: does a blockchain need to have its own phone? Well, we brought on Co-Founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal to make the case.
Let us know what you think about this release in the comments below or on Twitter @BanklessHQ - bullish or bearish Saga and why?
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------ Timestamps:
0:00 Intro 6:15 Bear Market Vibe Check 10:03 Solana’s Bear Market Agenda 14:28 Why Web3 Needs a Phone? 17:30 Solana Mobile Phone Explained 25:52 The Solana Mobile Thesis 30:50 Mobile Hardware Features 33:45 Mobile Wallet Adapter 36:15 Solana dApp Store 41:40 Is Solana Mobile a Distraction? 47:00 Jason Keats & Osom 50:45 Describing the Solana Mobile Device 51:32 Competitors 54:40 Costs to Launch a Phone 56:32 Solana Centralization Critique 1:03:50 Solana Scalability
------ Resources:
Anatoly Yakovenko https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko
Raj Gokal https://twitter.com/rajgokal
Solana https://solana.com/
Solana Mobile https://twitter.com/solanamobile
----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures
Will Solana Be the Execution Layer and Ethereum the Settlement Layer? - Ep.294
On Unchained, two co-founders of Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, dive deeply into the Solana ecosystem, discussing everything from the price of SOL to the Solana network outage to the competition between Ethereum and Solana. Show highlights:
why Raj thinks SOL’s market cap grew from $86 million to $68 billion in less than a year
Anatoly’s and Raj’s background and how they found themselves working together to build Solana
why Anatoly thinks Solana will be a general-purpose blockchain rather than specializing in gaming or high frequency trading
Anatoly’s goal to make Solana the first billion-user blockchain
why Raj thinks NFTs on Solana have been so popular
why, in the opinion of Raj and Anatoly, Solana’s purpose has shifted away from high-frequency trading
how NFTs could replace ads
why “everything is DeFi”
how Solana Labs plans to allocate the recent $314 million funding round it raised
what lessons Anatoly learned from the 18-hour September network outage
technically speaking, what happened to cause Solana’s network outage
why Anatoly believes that outages, at this stage, aren’t necessarily a bad thing
whether “trading mercenaries” dominated at Solana Breakpoint
why developers are interested in building on Solana
how Solana and Ethereum compare as execution and settlement layers
why Raj doesn’t like framing competition between Solana and Ethereum as a fight
how Anatoly views the competition between Ethereum and Solana
whether the arrival of Neon Labs, which is bringing EVM to Solana, could lead to developers leaving Ethereum
how NFTs and Phantom wallets are bringing in new users for Solana
whether Raj and Anatoly would roll back Solana if something like Ethereum’s DAO hack were to occur
why Solana has the competitive advantage in throughput, according to Anatoly
what would happen if FTX cofounder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried gave up on Solana
their predictions for Solana five years from now
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021
Nodle: https://bit.ly/3AXGydJ
Brave: http://brave.com/Unchained
Episode Links:
Anatoly Yakovenko
https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko
Raj Gokal
https://twitter.com/rajgokal
Solana News
Anatoly Yakovenko -- It ‘doesn’t really matter’ if the network goes down again
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/124887/solana-labs-ceo-it-doesnt-really-matter-if-the-network-goes-down-again
Neon Labs
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/123744/neon-labs-developer-of-ethereum-virtual-machine-on-solana-raises-40-million
Aave + SushiSwap going to Solanas through Neon Labs
https://twitter.com/joselitommutuc/status/1462043806207938563
Solana + Brave integration
https://decrypt.co/85538/privacy-browser-brave-expands-beyond-ethereum-solana
ATH at $260
https://decrypt.co/85457/solana-hits-all-time-high-of-260
Solana Breakpoint
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/15/solana-throws-a-three-day-party-for-itself/
https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2021/11/solana-network-highlights-from-breakpoint-conference-paint-a-very-healthy-picture/
https://decrypt.co/85934/the-view-from-solana-week-in-lisbon
FTX US + Solana NFTs
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/120044/ftx-us-launches-marketplace-for-trading-solana-based-nfts
Solana Outage
The Block’s coverage
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/117711/solana-blockchain-validators-restart-network-after-transaction-stoppage
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/117624/solana-experiences-transaction-stoppage-as-developers-report-intermittent-instability
Why the mainnet went down
https://twitter.com/buffalu__/status/1437792673784549383
Potential ramifications
https://twitter.com/CometShock/status/1437870278684590091
Anatoly Yakovenko Solana outage tweets
https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko/status/1437887482897518595
https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko/status/1437784552324358155
https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko/status/1438496595360862215
https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko/status/1438465508412739588
https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko/with_replies
Solana $314M Fundraise
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/107749/solana-labs-raises-314-million-funding-a16z-polychain-capital
Solana Topics
Raj thinks Ethereum cannot be killed
https://twitter.com/rajgokal/status/1458420316569489410
NFT Growth
https://twitter.com/masonnystrom/status/1455556328404013057
https://twitter.com/masonnystrom/status/1459157853848195079
Pplpleasr
https://decrypt.co/85964/the-collectoooooor-pplpleasr-latest-nft-art-solana-ethereum
Investment in gaming
Forte
https://decrypt.co/85966/cosmos-solana-ventures-join-725m-series-b-crypto-gaming-platform-forte
Alexis Ohanian investment
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/cryptocurrency/articles/why-reddit-co-founder-alexis-ohanian-will-invest-100-million-in-solana-social-media/
FTX + Solana
https://decrypt.co/85302/ftx-solana-ventures-lightspeed-100m-crypto-gaming
Phantom wallet hits 1M+ users
https://decrypt.co/85563/phantom-wallet-preps-mobile-launch-reaching-million-users-solana
Solana Basics
CoinMonk: https://medium.com/coinmonks/solana-more-update-for-sol-becb65024877
Solana Labs: https://medium.com/solana-labs/proof-of-history-a-clock-for-blockchain-cf47a61a9274
The Tie: https://research.thetie.io/solana-ecosystem/
Binance.Research: https://research.binance.com/en/projects/solana
Genesis Block: https://genesisblockhk.com/what-is-solana/
Block Explorers: https://explorer.solana.com/supply + https://solanabeach.io/supply + https://solanalysis.com/
Messari: https://messari.io/article/the-perpetual-sol-rise
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