Saga - Solana Mobile
White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #89
Introducing Solana Mobile
Solana Mobile, a subsidiary of Solana Labs, introduced Saga, a flagship Android mobile phone with unique functionality and features tightly integrated with the Solana blockchain making it easy and secure to transact in web3 and manage digital assets, such as tokens and NFTs. Thus far, web3 has been inaccessible via mobile because there has not yet been a mobile-centric approach to private key management. Solana Mobile is working towards a more user-friendly crypto experience, one where users benefit from secure, biometric-integrated custody solutions.
“We chose the Saga name because the story of crypto is still being written,” said Raj Gokal, co-founder of Solana. “This is the next chapter of this narrative and we believe opening up crypto to mobile will lead to greater adoption, better understanding, and more opportunities.”
Solana Mobile Stack
The Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) is built to run alongside Android and can be broken down into four salient features:
Mobile Wallet Adapter: This protocol links mobile and web apps to the blockchain wallet.
Seed Vault: Keeps all your private keys (which are required to authorize transactions) away from the web and stores them securely.
Solana Pay: A decentralized payments system that will facilitate a wallet adapter and allow for QR code-based on-chain payments.
Web 3 App Store: The stack also comes with a decentralized app store with a distribution channel allowing developers to reach users on their phones directly. This will eliminate users' need to shell out payment fees on other platforms.
The software developer toolkit (SDK) is already available for developers to access and begin building decentralized mobile applications. The Solana Foundation launched a $10M grant program to fund the development of mobile decentralised applications (dApps).
Solana’s Community growth despite disruption & ‘centralization’
Solana has suffered from 7 full or partial outages since September 2021, as well as service disruptions and degraded performance for 9 out of 31 days in January. These disruptions can have considerable implications for users of applications on the Solana blockchain. An example of this is users of Solend, a decentralized protocol for borrowing and lending on the Solana blockchain, saw their trades liquidated as they were unable to repay loans or add liquidity to their portfolios. In addition, a common critique of the Solana blockchain is that it lacks decentralization with 1823 validators and a 27 validator super minority (representing the smallest number of validators that together control more than 33% of the total stake, this is the percentage required to censor/halt the network if the validators comprising the superminority colluded). In comparison, Ethereum boasts over 405K validators.
Despite the turbulence that Solana has experienced in disruptions, and the lack of decentralization in comparison to Ethereum, the community continues to grow. In June 2022 Solana surpassed 7M 7-day active accounts up from 3.72M in April 2022 when it overtook Binance Smart Chain for most 7-day active accounts.
Developer growth
Even with the recent decrease in developer activity in the entire crypto ecosystem, Solana still has a strong developer community. It is likely that Solana will soon benefit from an influx of developers due to the opportunity to build for and access customers on mobile through Solana Mobile, and when Neon Labs launch their full Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility which will allow for full compatibility with Ethereum on Solana. This means that developers that build on the Ethereum blockchain can now build on the Solana blockchain coding in Solidity (Ethereum native coding language) instead of Rust (Solana native coding language), and build the dApps that they could on any other EVM on Solana.
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
AtlendisLabs mentioned among "13 European Web3 startups to watch" in @Siftedeu
Investors from Atomico, Project A, CommerzVentures and Antler list the Web3 startups in Europe that have caught their attention.
Ledn puts in rival bid to acquire ailing lender BlockFi
The proposal rivals an attempt by FTX, the exchange operator, to acquire BlockFi outright.
Exclusible: the new luxury standard is coming on June 18th
The Exclusible Penthouses, in Spatial, set an innovative way both for individuals and companies to enjoy the opportunities enabled by the metaverse.
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
Facebook begins testing NFTs with select creators in the US
After debuting NFT support on Instagram in May, Meta has launched digital collectibles support on Facebook with select creators.
Music Streaming Company Napster To Launch Its Own Token On Algorand
The veteran music streaming company has released a litepaper outlining the launch of its planned $NAPSTER token.
Coinbase plans to expand into more European markets, despite downturn
As part of our recently announced two-pronged growth strategy, we are driving a concerted effort to strengthen our presence in Europe,” the crypto exchange said on Friday.
Sorare Ethereum Soccer NFTs Surge After Signing PSG’s Kylian Mbappé
Sales of Sorare NFTs are up 795% over the past days after adding the French star as an investor and ambassador.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Central African Republic launches Sango Coin
Sango coin will exist as the national cryptocurrency of the country and be used to modernize the country’s infrastructure.
China blockchain-related companies grow
Cryptocurrency trading remains banned but blockchain startup growth accelerated with approval from regulators.
EU reaches agreement on MiCA
An earlier version of the bill sought to ban proof of work cryptocurrency but was later scrapped, which was a step in the right direction.
💰 Funding & Exits
Kaiko, a blockchain analytics firm, raises 53M Series B
The funds will help Kaiko strengthen its institutional offerings.
Prime Trust, a digital infrastructure firm, raises 107M Series B
The funds will be used to expand product offerings including a wealth management product.
Dynamic, a wallet authentication firm, raises 7.5M round
The round is led by a16z and will help the company build web3 identity and authentication services for developers.
AltLayer, an Ethereum scaling project, raises 7.2M round
AltLayer will initially will focus on gaming and NFT scaling through application-specific chains.
PolySign, a crypto infrastructure firm, raises 53M round
The funds will help expand its custody business and finance acquisitions.
MoHash, a Defi lending protocol, raises 6M seed round
MoHash will bring real-world assets and harness Defi lending and yields.
Kyve Network, a decentralized data storage protocol, raises 9M
Kyve helps providers standardize, validate and store blockchain data streams.
Cyan, a metaverse financing company, raises 2M seed round
Cyan’s buy now and pay later service will provide financing for NFT purchases.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
OP Crypto targets 100M fund of funds for crypto
OP crypto will back early-stage managers in the blockchain space.
Founder-led VC, Protagonist raises 33M for crypto investing
Protagonist so far has invested Aptos, Cardinal, Cogni, and Delta One.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
A Web3 startup hired an impersonator to play NFT kingpin Snoop Dogg at a New York NFT conference. People were fooled
The imposter, dubbed “Doop Snogg,” was swarmed by fans in New York City.