In the X Space: "TON to the left, SOLANA to the right: Unlocking the opportunities for TON and SOLANA" initiated by the Mid-Levels Club, the organizer invited more than 30 industry experts, senior investors and project founders to discuss TON and opportunities in the Solana ecosystem.
The first session of this event mainly discussed Solana ETF, DePIN ecosystem, and PayFi and Blinks for mass adoption. The following content is condensed based on the discussion of X Space:
Followin(Moderator): Is there hope for SOL to become the third approved crypto ETF?
Adam (Solana Foundation)
Solana is a public chain that was created in 2017 and launched a testnet in 2018. Currently, its main goal is to attract more users into the cryptocurrency industry and promote the application of blockchain technology. The advantage of Solana is that its transaction speed and handling fees are very competitive among similar levels (L1 level). Each transaction only takes about 400 milliseconds, and the transaction cost is also very low. 10U can carry out about 5,000 transactions. Solana performs well compared to other Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions.
Recently, there has been increasing discussion about ETFs, including a topic mentioned by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in an interview with CNBC. The Ethereum and Bitcoin ETFs have undergone lengthy approval processes, including ongoing inquiries and scrutiny from the U.S. SEC. Personally, I hope Solana will be the next approved ETF. However, the final outcome will depend on how licensed institutions balance their interests, the impact of the first two ETFs on capital and user growth, and how they are strategically positioned in the blockchain and cryptocurrency markets .
Judging from the trend, Solana may become the next approved ETF .
Hunter (ChainCatcher & CatcherVC Partner)
We have developed a data product called Root Data, which currently plays a role similar to a database in the Web 3 world. As Adam mentioned, we have a close working relationship with Solana. If you want to search for various projects, or inquire about project-related information, including financing-related information, as well as information about some core figures in the Web 3 field, you can query it on Root Data.
I believe that although Ethereum’s EVM once led the previous bull market, Solana is the dominant player in the current wave of the market . At least in the last wave of the market, we were talking about meme currencies such as SHIBA, and in this wave, Solana has injected great confidence into the secondary market, including various MEME currencies that we have previously speculated on, such as BOME.
In particular, the launch of projects like JUP has even affected the market value of UNI. JTO has surpassed the development of similar ecosystems in terms of MEV and future ReStaking. Projects such as Radio, for example, are ahead of similar competitors from an overall ecological perspective.
The biggest core advantage of TON now is its traffic, which we use Telegram. With the launch of Blinks by Solana, I think there is a huge opportunity scene in this field.
Another point is that it can be clearly seen that among the recent mainstream currencies, whether it is in the top ten or top twenty by market capitalization, Solana has the most significant rebound and increase last month. The market has fully demonstrated its confidence in it.
Lewis (Chainbase CPO)
Chainbase is a full-chain data network.
I think ETF is still essentially a decision in the traditional capital market. Why do traditional capital markets support Bitcoin and Ethereum? Apart from the fact that they have the highest market capitalization in the cryptocurrency space, there are many other factors involved.
As a practitioner in the cryptocurrency field, it is difficult to judge whether Solana will become the next ETF. But I think in the pure cryptocurrency world, Solana is an integral link.
I can also feel that Solana has the potential to lead this bull market and bring various new ecological projects. We are seriously considering whether to support Solana ecological data, because from the perspective of data support, Solana's data support cost is very high. In the past, we have not calculated these costs well, and the ROI has been relatively low, but recently we have noticed various activities in the Solana ecosystem, such as the high attention when Blink was launched, and the emergence of various MEME projects, which made I think it's a bit like Uniswap on Ethereum back then, which is very interesting.
Patrick Liu (Partner of Lanchi Venture Capital)
My personal opinion is: first, I think Solana will eventually pass ETF. Second, the specific time point is uncertain. Third, if I were to make a guess, I think if Trump comes to power again, the process may be accelerated; if the Democrats are in power, the process may be even more uncertain.
In the current market, I think Solana is the only crypto asset and public chain besides Bitcoin that can attract large amounts of funds . There may have been assets like NFTs that brought some inflows before, but they have underperformed in the current cycle. Therefore, from a capital flow perspective, without Solana, there may not be new capital entering this market and there will be no corresponding growth . Of course, this also involves regulatory issues related to funds. SEC policies have a profound impact on the market, and everyone is well aware of this.
Yuhong Head of Japan Asta Network
Astar Network originally started from the Polkadot ecosystem. It can be said that in the Polkadot ecosystem, our leap is the largest. Then we entered the Ethereum expansion plan, which is the field of Ethereum Layer2. We are also currently working on a cooperation project with Sony Group.
After the launch of BTC and ETH ETFs, many investors began to discuss whether there would be a Solana ETF next. It's probably early, but I can definitely see why Solana might be next. Some of Solana's advantages, including its performance in the meme direction and its own speed, are well done and worthy of attention.
Kevin Ren (CGV Co-founder)
CGV is a fund in Japan. We currently hold a license for a very important asset in Japan, the Japanese Yen Stablecoin, and we are one of only two projects in Japan holding such a license. We are actively paying attention to investment in AI, Bitcoin ecology and some infrastructure projects.
I am very firmly bullish on Solana and bullish on Solana through ETFs. We think the time point may be around March or April next year, and the longest time may be September or October next year . This is also very relevant to what was just discussed, that a Republican coming to power could bring the whole thing forward . Overall, with everyone now submitting applications for Solana ETF, and several application discussions and nodes, we will have a general news by September or October 2025 at the latest.
Angela Tong DFG CMO
DFG and J Square are both investment companies.
One company in our portfolio, 3IQ, is a Canadian company that has applied for Canada's first Solana ETF. Although it may not be approved immediately in the short term, considering that the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs were approved after many attempts, applications have already begun, which is a very good signal. I think it is promising for Solana to become the third project to have an ETF.
Followin(Host): Why has Solana gradually become the preferred public chain for the DePIN project, or even the standard public chain?
Kevin Ren (CGV Co-founder)
DePIN is not a new concept, it has been around for some time. Early DePIN was not on Solana, one of the earliest projects was Helium. Helium built a decentralized network that mainly provides power for 5G-like services in the United States. It was not on Solana in the early days, but was later moved to Solana because it was discovered that the Layer 1 platform needed to meet the needs of DePIN. Solana happened to fit what we were looking for. Speaking of going in both directions, many adaptations and core improvements have been made for DePIN.
For example, Solana’s high-speed blockchain can produce a block in 0.5 seconds and process verification quickly, making it very suitable for DePIN. Including its consensus mechanism, such as PoS, etc. At the same time, Solana also has some settings at the NFT protocol level, which are very suitable for DePIN construction nodes, such as providing authorization certificates, etc. At the technical and adaptation level, Solana gradually meets the needs of DePIN. Of course, the early public chains were mainly transaction-oriented and were not particularly suitable for this kind of hardware. But in this process, just like a blind date, we gradually become more comfortable.
I think the more important point is that leading projects have driven this trend , such as Helium, which has hundreds of thousands of nodes and users. There are also some other projects, such as Dimsum, which we cooperate with, and other DePIN projects that have emerged one after another, including those that make rings and decorative equipment, including Rona, one of today's organizers, that makes game consoles, etc. These are gradually focusing on Solana.
YZ (Rona Co-founder)
Rona is based in Japan and has built an ecosystem combining games and DePIN on Solana.
Choose Solana for DePIN. In addition to Solana's high-performance settlement and relatively cheap transaction fees , as well as its friendliness to the DePIN protocol , Solana's current number of validators is already the second in the entire network, second only to Ethereum, which also provides guarantee for its security. .
The development of an ecosystem or a certain track is essentially due to the activity of individual users. After there are retail investors, more projects and VCs will follow up. This is a progressive relationship. Solana has formed the Matthew effect of DePIN, making it inevitable for new DePIN projects to choose Solana.
At the same time, Solana’s ecology and foundation embrace innovation and openness, as well as multi-faceted support for DePIN, which further promotes the development of the ecology.
Adam (Solana Foundation) :
In addition to high-performance public chains and low handling fees. Solana is very scalable and the ecosystem is relatively inclusive, and the ecosystem is very resilient. Even when the market is not good, the project development and core teams within the ecosystem have not given up and are still moving forward at their own pace.
At the same time, Solana has gradually improved the Rust language and Solana development tools, lowered the development threshold and accelerated project implementation. In addition, for DePIN applications, good infrastructure and interoperability play a very good role in promoting the entire ecosystem, including DeFi, NFT, etc.
From the original saga phone to the current jambo, they have made smartphones that are more suitable for the market. With this as the core, the ecosystem can be accessed through mobile phones, which has a lot of room for imagination.
Moreover, you will gradually find that there are some substitutes for various things used in life. At the end of this year or next year, if you are a native OG, you can be equipped with all the hardware in life. Each piece of hardware is a small tool on the blockchain in the ecosystem. This is cool. things.
Lewis (Chainbase CPO)
In addition, many DePIN projects will have specific needs or requirements for the number of devices. The number of devices may be hundreds, tens of thousands, or even millions , and these devices need to be connected to the entire DePIN network and generate transactions. What kind of network is needed to undertake them? The choice of Solana is actually a very natural or inevitable thing because it has a very high TPS, fast speed, and very low cost.
From the perspective of the project side, there may be capital considerations in choosing an ecosystem. For example, many capitals in the United States may support Solana-based projects.
From a developer's perspective, what functions can they achieve through the toolkit in this ecosystem, and what kind of experience can they bring to users.
Patrick Liu (Partner of Lanchi Venture Capital)
I think you need to have several basic abilities to run an ecology: first, the team needs to have enough determination and relevant resources; second, you must have a demonstration effect; third, you always need a team to constantly understand the market demand. Support the relevant teams to do this.
Solana actually has experience in ecology. Gamefi, NFT, MEME, it’s all doing great . It proves that it has the ability and experience to do this.
From the perspective of the head project, the ecology itself is doing ecological things as a whole, and then we look at it as the DePIN ecology. At first, not every project party wanted to build this ecosystem, but Solana was still very forward-looking and wanted to build DePIN. Today, it is very determined to invest in AI . This is the most important thing that it has the first point mentioned just now. Technically, it has this capability. I think it is not difficult to support this as an ecological party, but it is indispensable.
Then from another perspective of DePIN, I have communicated with some relevant people before, and their understanding of DePIN is that DePIN is a tool for redistributing labor globally. Just like the Filipino we talked about before went to work for gold and then served people in Europe and the United States, it also redistributes labor around the world so that cheap labor can be used again around the world. I think they are doing DePIN. Judging from most DePIN projects, it is very in-depth, which gives him a strong ability to find projects and understand needs.
Angela Tong (DFG CMO)
One thing I would like to add is that Blinks is a direction that Solana currently attaches great importance to. It can be integrated into IoT devices to realize automated task execution and data collection, which is very beneficial to the DePIN field. Solana not only has the advantages of mobile phones, but also other aspects because it has a huge personal user base. Besides Ethereum, Solana is the second largest developer community. With the support of such a strong developer community, how many developers are working in the DePIN field is also a signal for everyone to choose Solana.
Vivian (Starbase Founder)
I saw a report that the proportion of DePIN projects currently circulating in the secondary market deployed on Ethereum is about 80%, while the proportion of DePIN projects deployed on Solana in the primary market is about 62%.
I would also like to add two points that I think are advantages of Solana. First, developers within the Solana system, even if they may not receive much funding in the early stages, can still obtain interaction between project parties and effective user participation in the ecosystem, not just users pursuing short-term interests. Another point is that Solana’s developer community is very active, and many innovative projects are driven from the bottom up by the community and have been verified by the market.
Another point is that from the perspective of the chain itself, Solana’s structure is actually very large. For the DePIN track, whether it is deploying physical equipment, node construction or attracting developers and users, the threshold is relatively high. However, Solana is relatively easy to obtain financial support from European and American institutions, as well as large capital investments to support its grand narrative costs.
Hunter (ChainCatcher & CatcherVC Partner)
Because I think the combination of Solana and DePIN is a natural thing. First of all, as a public chain of the DePIN project, the first element is that the speed must be fast, whether it is transaction transmission or overall speed. Second, it needs to have value itself. Some so-called industrial-grade applications on the market, such as projects such as HNT, are also developed on Solana, which shows that Solana has naturally become the leader in this wave of public chains.
Followin(Moderator): Lily Liu, Chairman of Solana Foundation, believes that PayFi may surpass DeFi in the future and open up a new financial situation. Will Crypto Have a PayFi Summer?
Adam (Solana Foundation):
PayFi is based on blockchain technology and focuses on the fields of payment and financial services. It emphasizes daily use and practical applications. In addition to DeFi, one direction with strong financial attributes is payment. PayFi can be simplified into micro-credit, such as the "buy now, pay later" model, and some short-term bridge loans, but it is more close to the needs of users, especially ordinary users. There are some challenges, such as the need to be more compliant, obtain regulatory support, and be closely integrated with real economies and markets. I think the possibility of PayFi summer exists, because the current cycle does not have as much innovation as the previous cycle, and is more about slowly exploring trends.
PayFi is not completely innovative, but it may bring blockchain technology to more ordinary user groups. User demand for cryptocurrency is constantly increasing, especially after market tastes change. People have more and more demands for owning their own assets on the chain, and consumption scenarios are getting stronger and stronger. The regulatory environment is also becoming clearer. Whether in North America, Europe or Asia, they are actively promoting regulatory reform and innovation.
What I personally look forward to is that Solana may have new clients appear in the future, using different languages to write consensus mechanisms. This will greatly improve the performance of Solana and further promote usage scenarios. Of course, there are obstacles, such as user education, habit formation, and competition from payment systems. Potential application scenarios include fast payment, remittance, micropayment, microsubscription, etc. For example, purchasing tickets or voting through NFT can also be completed through PayFi. There are also payments between the Internet of Things and between devices.
In the field of AI, the core of AI agent collaboration lies in mutual payment. Just like between people, if you need me to do something for you, you may need to pay a certain fee. Communication and interaction between AI agents also require the existence of payment scenarios, so it is a very important infrastructure application in the role of PayFi.
Regarding the emergence of PayFi summer, I think PayFi represents an important development direction of crypto finance, and I very much hope it will appear. It may not be this summer, because summer is almost halfway over. It may be the next cycle. When the regulatory environment becomes better, market acceptance becomes clearer, and technology advances, Payment Summer may appear.
Angela Tong (DFG CMO)
I think the logic of PayFi lies in the ubiquity and practical application of its payments. It is different from DeFi, which can be more complex, while PayFi is more targeted at ordinary users. Judging from the trend, for example, in Japan, Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as USDT have been used for payments. The use of these cryptocurrencies for payment has also appeared in Hong Kong auctions, which may be a popular trend. For large transactions, it makes sense to use high-value assets for payment.
In the ordinary payment process, as Solana's guest mentioned, other assets may be needed to support micropayments. At the same time, in terms of cost and efficiency, Solana, as an infrastructure supported by underlying technology, may have certain advantages. As for whether there will be a PayFi summer, I think this cycle may not necessarily happen, but payment has an irreplaceable position in the Web3 industry. I agree that once the regulatory environment is better supportive, there shouldn't be much of a problem using it for things like payments, although there will be a bunch of regulations.
At the same time, the adoption rate of users and merchants is also a factor that needs to be considered. If everyone has a consensus on this matter, I believe PayFi summer will definitely come. Of course, I also expect Solana to invest more resources in infrastructure, because we ourselves are also large holders of Solana and hope that Solana can develop very well.
James Zhang (Jambo Co-Founder)
Jumbo first launched a $99 WEB3 phone targeting emerging markets. Please visit our website for details, our phones have sold approximately 500,000 units in more than 100 countries.
I totally agree with Adam's last point about PayFi. If you think of PayFi as a "consume now, pay later" model, I grew up in Africa. Although I am Chinese, technology companies there, such as Google or Amazon, provide financial services that allow users to buy anything online. We need to consider the habits of users in emerging markets. Many users are still accustomed to face-to-face transactions rather than online shopping.
I think the next billions of user growth will come from Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. The trading habits of these users are very different from the Chinese market. In Africa, many transactions still use cash, and many communities have their own small service APPs, rather than large super APPs like in China. For example, group buying apps like Pinduoduo in China may not be as popular in Africa. We are shipping phones to these regions and working with local user groups, such as Portuguese in Brazil, Spanish elsewhere, and French in Africa. Therefore, to serve these users, whether it is local transactions or cross-border transactions, I think stablecoins, such as USDT or USDC, may be the most commonly used among local emerging users.
These are all good questions worth thinking about. For the final point, I think the Solana ecosystem has huge potential. We ourselves are also large holders of Solana and look forward to its future development.
Followin(moderator): What do you think of the recently discussed Solana Actions and Blinks? Which application scenarios of Blinks are you most optimistic about?
Angela Tong (DFG CMO)
First of all, I think Blinks has a lot of potential for micropayments and in-game payments, no doubt about that. In addition, as I mentioned before, Blinks can automatically integrate with IoT devices. In this direction, it will definitely provide a lot of help, such as supporting smart devices, etc., which is definitely no problem.
In addition, Blinks can also provide personalized smart contract support and services. I think this will be a possibility for Blinks to have an impact at the application level. In these aspects, Blinks will definitely have excellent application performance.
Vivian (Starbase Founder)
Simply put, Blinks integrates various tool modules that users can use to trigger transactions into a standardized URL. Users can interact with this URL in other application scenarios through various front-end and closer to user-side scenarios, thereby promoting on-chain transactions. In this way, it lowers the threshold for users to complete on-chain interactions.
Several points that we have paid close attention to before, whether it is off-chain interaction or account abstraction, are aimed at solving the effectiveness of on-chain interaction, improving the value of user data, and reducing the difficulty of data management. This is very in line with the development trend of our industry. The solutions are gradually proposed from the bottom to the upper application, and very good solutions are proposed. So I'm personally very bullish on it.
In terms of specific directions, I am particularly optimistic about the combination of Blinks and AI, especially in asset-related fields. It will bring many transactions based on user intent, which can help users quickly find their favorite assets or help them make transactions and pay more easily. This is a user portal solution.
Lewis (Chainbase CPO)
I think Blinks may be used in some scenarios that require a lot of exposure, because it essentially needs to support a hyperlink in Solana behind it to display on-chain assets or blockchain data. This is a bit like WeChat. We sometimes receive Taobao links. After copying and opening Taobao, you can see the products. The technology behind them is similar. This means that Blinks need to be able to function in an environment that supports their presentation. Therefore, using Blinks on Twitter also requires the installation of a plug-in. For example, after installing our plug-in, you can open and see it because it supports a display environment behind it.
When the project team applies Blinks, or in what scenarios users can see it, that is to say, if users can have this environment very smoothly, then Blinks will have a natural foundation. I think the Solana community is actually a very clever point, because basically everyone who uses Solana will use Phantom. If Blinks is made the default open option, all Solana users will be able to seamlessly perceive the existence of Blinks on Twitter. So Twitter is its first step. Blinks may come into play in more scenes to come. I just heard some guests mention, such as in-game payment scenarios and other application payment scenarios, I think these are very good scenarios. On the one hand, Blinks can be used for payment; on the other hand, it can also be used for information display. In our opinion, Twitter can be a very good platform for information display because many people browse Twitter. So, will Discord also become a platform to showcase Blinks? Although Discord already has its own framework, it is still composable.
So I think there are two main platforms that can display Blinks: one is a platform like Twitter that has a large number of users and can display information; the other is a closed-loop native ecology, such as games. In these ecosystems, if the capabilities of Blinks are natively supported, it can also bring a very smooth user experience. This may be only part of it, and there may be other application scenarios in the future.
James Zhang (Jambo Co-Founder)
I think Blinks is like the guest mentioned just now, similar to small programs or direct services in super applications like WeChat or Alibaba. Just like Pinduoduo in the Tencent ecosystem, although the scale is small at first, the traffic it brings can significantly increase. If Solana is now distributed only through Twitter, I think it will already have a lot of coverage, because most cryptocurrency projects are on Twitter. But if Blinks can go into other applications and reach users most directly, then by adding a simple UX button, you can bring Blinks to those users.
In the long run, I think some of the long-term use cases for Blinks may be similar to Tiplink. I wonder if you have heard of this company? The software they recently made is very interesting. You can directly send a Google link to someone, and he can receive money directly. The link will automatically generate a wallet and transfer your remittance to his wallet. Anatoly forwarded it on Twitter Pass. I think Blinks can make some long-term applications, such as services like Tiplink, and then use Blinks' links directly. This can be used by cryptocurrency native developers and other developers. It is assumed that all developers, whether in the gaming space or on the blockchain, can accept payments directly through their games or services.
