6 months ago
The AI x Crypto narrative is on a tear and
bittensor_
's $TAO token is leading the way 🚀
Here's why 👇
======================
As one of the most prominent projects in this space, Bittensor is positioning itself as the project to watch.
At its core, Bittensor is pushing a new frontier: creating a decentralized network where AI models can be trained and shared in a way that aligns incentives for both developers and users.
As the subnet limit is progressively expanded — and eventually removed altogether — the potential for exponential growth within the Bittensor ecosystem becomes clear. More subnets mean more AI models, more collaboration, and more growth for the ecosystem.
Crucially, all this activity increases demand for TAO itself. Since TAO is required to acquire any subnet token, the introduction of dTAO could further fuel its demand, making Bittensor even more attractive to investors.
TAO’s Halving in 2025
Bittensor is approaching its first halving event, slated for late 2025. Much like Bitcoin’s halving cycles, this event will cut the rate at which new TAO tokens are emitted by half.
Currently, the Bittensor network emits 1 TAO as block rewards (7,200 TAO daily) which are distributed among miners, validators, subnet owners, and delegators. However, when the halving occurs (triggered when 10.5 million TAO are in circulation), this emission will be halved to 0.5 TAO per block, reducing the daily supply of new TAO entering the market.
Why does this matter? When the supply of TAO is cut, it introduces scarcity. In any market, reduced supply with steady or rising demand (thanks to increasing subnets and introduction of dTAO) can only lead in one direction: upward.
Now let’s take a look at the macro level things happening in the world of AI that are considered positive for AI x crypto projects like Bittensor.
Issues with OpenAI
OpenAI is at a crossroads. Recently, news broke that OpenAI is transitioning from a non-profit control to a for-profit benefit corporation. Following this restructuring, the company’s valuation has soared to over $150 billion and they’ve raised $6 .6 billion in fresh funding.
Additionally, there’s been recent departures of key executives, including Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and two other senior executives, raising concerns about potential internal issues.
Nonetheless, there is a broad regulatory squeeze on AI from various jurisdictions worldwide. The fact that centralized AI is subject to regulatory control highlights a fundamental flaw: it's too easy to control.
When a few large companies hold the keys to centralized AI, they become prime targets for government pressure and censorship. This is where decentralized AI platforms, like Bittensor, have the advantage. They cannot be shut down or censored by any single entity, as no one entity controls it.
Closing Thoughts
There’s a lot going right for Bittensor, and the rising token price is just the cherry on top. With existing momentum, the upcoming updates mentioned above, potential EVM support, and ongoing community development – such as the rapid integration of NousResearch’s breakthrough in distributed training into Bittensor – these are all strong indicators of Bittensor’s promise.
In a world where centralized AI is increasingly regulated, censored, and driven by profit motives, Bittensor offers a compelling alternative: a decentralized, community-driven approach that thrives on collaboration, innovation, and shared incentives. And that’s why it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Analysis by arjunnchand✍️
bittensor_
's $TAO token is leading the way 🚀
Here's why 👇
======================
As one of the most prominent projects in this space, Bittensor is positioning itself as the project to watch.
At its core, Bittensor is pushing a new frontier: creating a decentralized network where AI models can be trained and shared in a way that aligns incentives for both developers and users.
As the subnet limit is progressively expanded — and eventually removed altogether — the potential for exponential growth within the Bittensor ecosystem becomes clear. More subnets mean more AI models, more collaboration, and more growth for the ecosystem.
Crucially, all this activity increases demand for TAO itself. Since TAO is required to acquire any subnet token, the introduction of dTAO could further fuel its demand, making Bittensor even more attractive to investors.
TAO’s Halving in 2025
Bittensor is approaching its first halving event, slated for late 2025. Much like Bitcoin’s halving cycles, this event will cut the rate at which new TAO tokens are emitted by half.
Currently, the Bittensor network emits 1 TAO as block rewards (7,200 TAO daily) which are distributed among miners, validators, subnet owners, and delegators. However, when the halving occurs (triggered when 10.5 million TAO are in circulation), this emission will be halved to 0.5 TAO per block, reducing the daily supply of new TAO entering the market.
Why does this matter? When the supply of TAO is cut, it introduces scarcity. In any market, reduced supply with steady or rising demand (thanks to increasing subnets and introduction of dTAO) can only lead in one direction: upward.
Now let’s take a look at the macro level things happening in the world of AI that are considered positive for AI x crypto projects like Bittensor.
Issues with OpenAI
OpenAI is at a crossroads. Recently, news broke that OpenAI is transitioning from a non-profit control to a for-profit benefit corporation. Following this restructuring, the company’s valuation has soared to over $150 billion and they’ve raised $6 .6 billion in fresh funding.
Additionally, there’s been recent departures of key executives, including Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and two other senior executives, raising concerns about potential internal issues.
Nonetheless, there is a broad regulatory squeeze on AI from various jurisdictions worldwide. The fact that centralized AI is subject to regulatory control highlights a fundamental flaw: it's too easy to control.
When a few large companies hold the keys to centralized AI, they become prime targets for government pressure and censorship. This is where decentralized AI platforms, like Bittensor, have the advantage. They cannot be shut down or censored by any single entity, as no one entity controls it.
Closing Thoughts
There’s a lot going right for Bittensor, and the rising token price is just the cherry on top. With existing momentum, the upcoming updates mentioned above, potential EVM support, and ongoing community development – such as the rapid integration of NousResearch’s breakthrough in distributed training into Bittensor – these are all strong indicators of Bittensor’s promise.
In a world where centralized AI is increasingly regulated, censored, and driven by profit motives, Bittensor offers a compelling alternative: a decentralized, community-driven approach that thrives on collaboration, innovation, and shared incentives. And that’s why it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Analysis by arjunnchand✍️
6 months ago
Based Rollups
What are they, why do they exist, and which projects are already making waves?
A 101 explainer 👇
==================================
Scaling #Ethereum has been one of the most discussed challenges in crypto.
To address this, the community chose a rollup-centric approach. The idea is simple: Instead of hosting all applications on Ethereum, the focus is on rollups that offer faster, cheaper transactions while still settling back on Ethereum. As a result, you get faster, cheaper transactions, but still keep Ethereum’s security.
They're bringing more users and value to Ethereum, however, concerns remain about their reliance on centralized sequencers and liquidity fragmentation across chains.
This is where based rollups come in. They integrate more closely with Ethereum's infrastructure, helping retain value within the ecosystem. This new method of building rollups could bring additional value to Ethereum and $ETH .
What are Based rollups?
Based rollups, or L1-sequenced rollups, are a type of rollup where the base L1 chain, like Ethereum, manages transaction sequencing directly.
Unlike traditional rollups that rely on their own sequencers, based rollups tap into the security, liveness, and decentralization of the L1 by outsourcing transaction sequencing to the L1’s infrastructure. This infrastructure includes proposers, searchers, builders, and other actors who permissionlessly include based rollup blocks in L1 blocks.
How do Based rollups work?
Based rollups use the L1 for consensus, data availability, and settlement layers, while handling execution independently. For instance, when Ethereum is the base L1, the key layers of based rollups are as follows:
1. Execution Layer — Managed by the rollup itself, where transactions are executed off-chain.
2. Consensus Layer — Relies on Ethereum validators to sequence transactions.
3. Data Availability Layer — Uses Ethereum as the DA layer to ensure that transaction data is available for validation by anyone.
4. Settlement Layer — Also part of Ethereum, where final transaction states of the rollup are recorded.
Based rollups use Ethereum for everything from ordering transactions to settling them. While this approach may not seem radically different from traditional rollups, it fundamentally shifts how sequencing is handled. Instead of relying solely on separate sequencers, based rollups leverage Ethereum itself for transaction sequencing.
Why based rollups?
As Justin Drake outlined in his original post, based rollups are worth your attention for several reasons:
1. Inherited Liveness and Decentralization — One of the key advantages of based rollups is their ability to inherit the liveness guarantees of the base L1 chain. As long as the L1 is operational, so is the rollup.
2. Economic Alignment with L1 — The economic model of based rollups creates a mutually beneficial relationship with the L1. Priority fees and MEV from these rollups naturally flows to the L1. This synergy doesn’t just add value to the base layer, it also boosts the legitimacy and brand awareness of the rollups themselves, thanks to Ethereum’s community.
3. Cost Efficiency — Outsourcing sequencing to Ethereum reduces development costs, accelerates time to market, and lowers user costs (especially at scale) for based rollups.
However, based rollups have trade-offs. They sacrifice some profitability by relying on Ethereum for sequencing, missing out on priority fees and MEV. Additionally, they contend with Ethereum's inherent challenges, such as slow block times, which can cause latency issues.
There's a real debate that these changes might compromise the simplicity and security that initially made based rollups appealing.
What are they, why do they exist, and which projects are already making waves?
A 101 explainer 👇
==================================
Scaling #Ethereum has been one of the most discussed challenges in crypto.
To address this, the community chose a rollup-centric approach. The idea is simple: Instead of hosting all applications on Ethereum, the focus is on rollups that offer faster, cheaper transactions while still settling back on Ethereum. As a result, you get faster, cheaper transactions, but still keep Ethereum’s security.
They're bringing more users and value to Ethereum, however, concerns remain about their reliance on centralized sequencers and liquidity fragmentation across chains.
This is where based rollups come in. They integrate more closely with Ethereum's infrastructure, helping retain value within the ecosystem. This new method of building rollups could bring additional value to Ethereum and $ETH .
What are Based rollups?
Based rollups, or L1-sequenced rollups, are a type of rollup where the base L1 chain, like Ethereum, manages transaction sequencing directly.
Unlike traditional rollups that rely on their own sequencers, based rollups tap into the security, liveness, and decentralization of the L1 by outsourcing transaction sequencing to the L1’s infrastructure. This infrastructure includes proposers, searchers, builders, and other actors who permissionlessly include based rollup blocks in L1 blocks.
How do Based rollups work?
Based rollups use the L1 for consensus, data availability, and settlement layers, while handling execution independently. For instance, when Ethereum is the base L1, the key layers of based rollups are as follows:
1. Execution Layer — Managed by the rollup itself, where transactions are executed off-chain.
2. Consensus Layer — Relies on Ethereum validators to sequence transactions.
3. Data Availability Layer — Uses Ethereum as the DA layer to ensure that transaction data is available for validation by anyone.
4. Settlement Layer — Also part of Ethereum, where final transaction states of the rollup are recorded.
Based rollups use Ethereum for everything from ordering transactions to settling them. While this approach may not seem radically different from traditional rollups, it fundamentally shifts how sequencing is handled. Instead of relying solely on separate sequencers, based rollups leverage Ethereum itself for transaction sequencing.
Why based rollups?
As Justin Drake outlined in his original post, based rollups are worth your attention for several reasons:
1. Inherited Liveness and Decentralization — One of the key advantages of based rollups is their ability to inherit the liveness guarantees of the base L1 chain. As long as the L1 is operational, so is the rollup.
2. Economic Alignment with L1 — The economic model of based rollups creates a mutually beneficial relationship with the L1. Priority fees and MEV from these rollups naturally flows to the L1. This synergy doesn’t just add value to the base layer, it also boosts the legitimacy and brand awareness of the rollups themselves, thanks to Ethereum’s community.
3. Cost Efficiency — Outsourcing sequencing to Ethereum reduces development costs, accelerates time to market, and lowers user costs (especially at scale) for based rollups.
However, based rollups have trade-offs. They sacrifice some profitability by relying on Ethereum for sequencing, missing out on priority fees and MEV. Additionally, they contend with Ethereum's inherent challenges, such as slow block times, which can cause latency issues.
There's a real debate that these changes might compromise the simplicity and security that initially made based rollups appealing.
7 months ago
Sentiment is down, and critics have been quick to point out ETH's underperformance against SOL while largely attributing this to a perceived loss of mindshare and users to L2s.
This narrative has sparked a crucial debate: Are L2s Ethereum?
arjunnchand
brings the analysis...
========================================
🤔 Symbiotic or Separatist?
L2s have been a core component of Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap from the very beginning. They were envisioned as extensions (technical and cultural) of Ethereum, designed to expand its capabilities and attract a broader user base.
At their core, L2s are deeply linked with Ethereum. They share its DNA — relying on ETH as the currency, benefitting from Ethereum's security blanket, and utilizing it for data storage and settlement. It's like a startup leveraging its parent company's infrastructure and brand recognition, a win-win for both.
The symbiotic relationship between L2s and Ethereum is undeniable. L2s thrive on Ethereum's infrastructure and security, while Ethereum benefits from the increased activity and increased demand for ETH, making it a better store of value.
By offering lower fees and faster transaction times, L2s have made it easier for developers to build different types of applications. Look at the explosion of memecoins on Base or the rise of SocialFi platforms like Farcaster creating new markets for users.
Beyond that, L2s are becoming major hubs for DeFi activity, and ETH, the asset, is at the heart of this ecosystem. Look at the numbers:
arbitrum
,
Optimism
,
@base
— these chains are dominated by ETH-related assets.
🧛♂️ Vampire attack?
However, one of the primary arguments against the rollup-centric approach to scaling Ethereum is the assumption that L2s may not continue to rely on Ethereum. Sure, L2s and Ethereum seem like a happy family now. But what if L2s build their own empires and ditch Ethereum altogether? No more relying on Ethereum for security, no more ETH as gas, not even needing Ethereum's block space.
This "L2s go rogue" fear is a legitimate concern. Technically, they could build independent ecosystems with their own validators as they would then be able to own the entire modular blockchain stack. So, is this the future – a messy breakup between L2s and Ethereum? Not necessarily.
We can all agree that there are perhaps a few too many L2s. Too many copycats. Too little differentiation. It's like a thousand startups chasing the same market, all promising the same thing. This isn't healthy.
What we need are L2s that matter. L2s that offer something unique, something that sets them apart. Security, app diversity, GTM strategy — these are the areas where we need to see real innovation.
But we must be wary of ‘echo chambers’. These zones of chains should not become isolated universes. A healthy L2 ecosystem is one where chains work together, not in isolation. We need bridges, not moats.
We need collaboration. We need communication. We need education. We need incentives. We need to build shared infrastructure and standards that foster seamless connectivity across L2s. Only then can we truly win together.
💭 Closing Thoughts
You can say that L2s aren’t Ethereum. You can argue L2s aren’t even extensions of Ethereum. But you cannot deny the fact that L2s enhance the utility of Ethereum and ETH.
The "L2s vs. Ethereum" debate is a false dichotomy. This isn't a zero-sum game. Ultimately, Ethereum and L2s are in this together. Let's build a future where Ethereum and L2s thrive as a symbiotic whole, and push the crypto ecosystem forward.
This narrative has sparked a crucial debate: Are L2s Ethereum?
arjunnchand
brings the analysis...
========================================
🤔 Symbiotic or Separatist?
L2s have been a core component of Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap from the very beginning. They were envisioned as extensions (technical and cultural) of Ethereum, designed to expand its capabilities and attract a broader user base.
At their core, L2s are deeply linked with Ethereum. They share its DNA — relying on ETH as the currency, benefitting from Ethereum's security blanket, and utilizing it for data storage and settlement. It's like a startup leveraging its parent company's infrastructure and brand recognition, a win-win for both.
The symbiotic relationship between L2s and Ethereum is undeniable. L2s thrive on Ethereum's infrastructure and security, while Ethereum benefits from the increased activity and increased demand for ETH, making it a better store of value.
By offering lower fees and faster transaction times, L2s have made it easier for developers to build different types of applications. Look at the explosion of memecoins on Base or the rise of SocialFi platforms like Farcaster creating new markets for users.
Beyond that, L2s are becoming major hubs for DeFi activity, and ETH, the asset, is at the heart of this ecosystem. Look at the numbers:
arbitrum
,
Optimism
,
@base
— these chains are dominated by ETH-related assets.
🧛♂️ Vampire attack?
However, one of the primary arguments against the rollup-centric approach to scaling Ethereum is the assumption that L2s may not continue to rely on Ethereum. Sure, L2s and Ethereum seem like a happy family now. But what if L2s build their own empires and ditch Ethereum altogether? No more relying on Ethereum for security, no more ETH as gas, not even needing Ethereum's block space.
This "L2s go rogue" fear is a legitimate concern. Technically, they could build independent ecosystems with their own validators as they would then be able to own the entire modular blockchain stack. So, is this the future – a messy breakup between L2s and Ethereum? Not necessarily.
We can all agree that there are perhaps a few too many L2s. Too many copycats. Too little differentiation. It's like a thousand startups chasing the same market, all promising the same thing. This isn't healthy.
What we need are L2s that matter. L2s that offer something unique, something that sets them apart. Security, app diversity, GTM strategy — these are the areas where we need to see real innovation.
But we must be wary of ‘echo chambers’. These zones of chains should not become isolated universes. A healthy L2 ecosystem is one where chains work together, not in isolation. We need bridges, not moats.
We need collaboration. We need communication. We need education. We need incentives. We need to build shared infrastructure and standards that foster seamless connectivity across L2s. Only then can we truly win together.
💭 Closing Thoughts
You can say that L2s aren’t Ethereum. You can argue L2s aren’t even extensions of Ethereum. But you cannot deny the fact that L2s enhance the utility of Ethereum and ETH.
The "L2s vs. Ethereum" debate is a false dichotomy. This isn't a zero-sum game. Ultimately, Ethereum and L2s are in this together. Let's build a future where Ethereum and L2s thrive as a symbiotic whole, and push the crypto ecosystem forward.
7 months ago
Marinade Finance, one of Solana’s original staking providers, has found itself in hot water with validator operators.
Validators argue that Marinade’s new Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM) harms the staking landscape, allowing malicious actors to thrive at the expense of honest validators.
Beyond losing stake in the network, chagrined validators suggest that, left unchecked, the SAM model is a threat to decentralization and Solana’s scalability moving forward.
Marinade has dismissed these accusations. Countering claims of apathetic negligence, Marinade argues those who criticize the new system do so out of spite.
Is this a case of willful blindness, or are validators looking for a scapegoat to blame for their own shortcomings?
WHY ARE VALIDATORS UPSET?
Once heralded as a powerful new model that would push staking APY to new heights, the SAM has drawn scorn and skepticism from certain validators. Marinade’s SAM enables validators to bid on network stake, with winners securing stake and passing on elevated rewards to delegators.
To win auctions, validators competitively bid on network stake. However, surging demand for stake has driven validators to bid at potentially unsustainable levels. In previous epochs, winning validators needed to yield over 10% APY to win auctions, a rate considered impossible to achieve through native staking alone.
This has led certain operators to speculate on how these validators can afford such high bids. Suggesting that such yield can only be achieved through malicious activities, like sandwich attacks, private mempools, and off-chain deals, some validators argue that Marinade is turning a blind eye to dishonest validators.
Distressed validators have created analytics dashboards to express their frustrations and support their claims. Hanabi’s ‘Marinade Stake Selling’ dashboard highlights that a number of validators flagged for malicious activity have won stake through the SAM.
Responding to accusations levied by third-party dashboard creators, Marinade CEO Michael Repetny argues “Hanabi lacks any methodology, they only copy labels from other Stakewiz dashboard to call it a day.”
Adding further context to the claims of disgruntled operators, Repetny affirms “Hanabi lost 1M SOL from Marinade so it’s understandable he fights the new system.”
Concerned validators have taken to Marinade’s Discord server to air their grievances. Operators have claimed that, through the SAM, over 2.7M SOL has been staked to questionable validators, including sybils and sandwiches. Disgruntled operators even suggested “Marinade wants you to have side deals, ethical or not.”
Additionally, validators have argued that if “most of the mSOL pool is delegated to unethical validators it’s a really bad look for the Solana ecosystem.”
In an exclusive statement with SolanaFloor, Max Kaplan, Head of Engineering at Edgevana, credits Marinade for trying something inventive that “had never been done before”.
However, Kaplan admits that Marinade “went full capitalist… basically, the highest bidder wins. Marinade doesn’t really care if a validator bids for stake and is just gonna lose money on that stake, that’s not their problem… They’re happy to take the money and give that to mSOL holders.”
Experts argue that in current conditions, staking yield over 10% simply isn’t sustainable. Kaplan contends “10% APY is higher than the native staking yield that is paid out on chain. The money has to come from somewhere.”
Without making any accusations, Kaplan theorizes that additional yield could potentially come from a validator’s own “marketing/growth budget” or other sources like “SWQoS / private mempool deals”.
Responding to any accusations, Repetny reinforces Marinade's stance that “SAM provides the best yield on the market for delegators. It is not an active policy maker or opinionated strategy to tweak the network.”
Validators argue that Marinade’s new Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM) harms the staking landscape, allowing malicious actors to thrive at the expense of honest validators.
Beyond losing stake in the network, chagrined validators suggest that, left unchecked, the SAM model is a threat to decentralization and Solana’s scalability moving forward.
Marinade has dismissed these accusations. Countering claims of apathetic negligence, Marinade argues those who criticize the new system do so out of spite.
Is this a case of willful blindness, or are validators looking for a scapegoat to blame for their own shortcomings?
WHY ARE VALIDATORS UPSET?
Once heralded as a powerful new model that would push staking APY to new heights, the SAM has drawn scorn and skepticism from certain validators. Marinade’s SAM enables validators to bid on network stake, with winners securing stake and passing on elevated rewards to delegators.
To win auctions, validators competitively bid on network stake. However, surging demand for stake has driven validators to bid at potentially unsustainable levels. In previous epochs, winning validators needed to yield over 10% APY to win auctions, a rate considered impossible to achieve through native staking alone.
This has led certain operators to speculate on how these validators can afford such high bids. Suggesting that such yield can only be achieved through malicious activities, like sandwich attacks, private mempools, and off-chain deals, some validators argue that Marinade is turning a blind eye to dishonest validators.
Distressed validators have created analytics dashboards to express their frustrations and support their claims. Hanabi’s ‘Marinade Stake Selling’ dashboard highlights that a number of validators flagged for malicious activity have won stake through the SAM.
Responding to accusations levied by third-party dashboard creators, Marinade CEO Michael Repetny argues “Hanabi lacks any methodology, they only copy labels from other Stakewiz dashboard to call it a day.”
Adding further context to the claims of disgruntled operators, Repetny affirms “Hanabi lost 1M SOL from Marinade so it’s understandable he fights the new system.”
Concerned validators have taken to Marinade’s Discord server to air their grievances. Operators have claimed that, through the SAM, over 2.7M SOL has been staked to questionable validators, including sybils and sandwiches. Disgruntled operators even suggested “Marinade wants you to have side deals, ethical or not.”
Additionally, validators have argued that if “most of the mSOL pool is delegated to unethical validators it’s a really bad look for the Solana ecosystem.”
In an exclusive statement with SolanaFloor, Max Kaplan, Head of Engineering at Edgevana, credits Marinade for trying something inventive that “had never been done before”.
However, Kaplan admits that Marinade “went full capitalist… basically, the highest bidder wins. Marinade doesn’t really care if a validator bids for stake and is just gonna lose money on that stake, that’s not their problem… They’re happy to take the money and give that to mSOL holders.”
Experts argue that in current conditions, staking yield over 10% simply isn’t sustainable. Kaplan contends “10% APY is higher than the native staking yield that is paid out on chain. The money has to come from somewhere.”
Without making any accusations, Kaplan theorizes that additional yield could potentially come from a validator’s own “marketing/growth budget” or other sources like “SWQoS / private mempool deals”.
Responding to any accusations, Repetny reinforces Marinade's stance that “SAM provides the best yield on the market for delegators. It is not an active policy maker or opinionated strategy to tweak the network.”
8 months ago
🐋 An unidentified whale #Solana withdrew $120 million from $SOL from validators and transferred the tokens to Coinbase Prime since July 16.
In total, more than 1 million $SOL from several validators, including Cogent Crypto, Block Logic and LunaNova, were transferred.
It is currently impossible to determine who is the owner of this address.
https://solscan.io/account...
In total, more than 1 million $SOL from several validators, including Cogent Crypto, Block Logic and LunaNova, were transferred.
It is currently impossible to determine who is the owner of this address.
https://solscan.io/account...
8 months ago
After years of development behind the scenes, the Paladin team is finally showing its hand. Proposing a more egalitarian approach to MEV rewards, Paladin aims to discourage MEV frontrunners and provide an alternative that is more profitable for everyone.
With MEV bots reportedly extracting millions from Solana DEX markets every month, Paladin might just be the knight in shining armor that Solana DeFi needs.
Fully decentralized, open-source, and permissionless, Paladin’s mission is to eliminate predatory MEV on Solana. But how does it work?
THE PALADIN BOT
Designed to run within the Jito client, the Paladin bot is a fast open-source arbitrage bot. It runs locally in a validator and only operates when that particular validator is the leader.
The Paladin bot relies on three distinct features to improve a validator’s APY (Annual Percentage Yield):
- Atomic Arb Bot - Not to be confused with a frontrunning sandwich bot, Paladin is a high-performance arbitrage bot that is faster than external searchers.
- CeFi/DeFi Arb - Leveraging a permissionless DeFi bulletin board that communicates directly with slot leaders, Paladin is able to capture MEV through CeFi/DeFi price discrepancies.
- PALAggregator - Running exclusively within the leader, Paladin bot knows with certainty the exact price of every asset in real time. The bot can use this advantage to find a better path on trades and share the surplus rewards with the wallet that executed the transaction.
Essentially, the Paladin bot is a powerful tool that is altruistically employed to benefit and incentivize honest validator behavior.
To reap the benefits of Paladin, validators need to operate the Paladin bot, which in turn rewards holders and stakers of the protocol's native token, PAL.
PALADIN REWARD DYNAMICS - THE PAL TOKEN
Breaking the trend of providing speculative governance tokens, Paladin has opted for a more tangible token economy driven genuine value accrual.
PAL, the protocol’s native token, serves as the means by which MEV rewards are distributed to stakers and validators running the Paladin Bot, or ‘Palidators’.
MEV rewards captured by Palidators are distributed as follows:
- 90% is returned to the leader
- 5% is directed to Palidators and their stakers, proportionate to the amount of SOL staked
- 5% is passed to PAL token holders. However, given that 50% is airdropped to validators and PAL stakers, unstaked PAL holders receive 2.5%
While PAL is not a governance token, it does play a crucial role in the ecosystem outside of reward distribution. If Palidators are believed to be operating dishonestly, PAL stakers can vote to slash that Palidator’s stake, burning its PAL.
The protocol aims to distribute MEV rewards among honest ecosystem contributors in a way that everyone wins, as opposed to a competitive scramble for larger pieces of the MEV pie.
Despite a relatively muted social presence, the Paladin launch is generating excitement behind closed doors. In an exclusive statement with SolanaFloor, Paladin representative Uri Klarman revealed that “8% of Solana stake have committed to being a launch partner and run Paladin ahead of the launch.”
Additionally, the protocol has plenty of resources to encourage continued development and expansion from ecosystem developers.
According to Klarman, a budget of $5M per year has been committed to continued development, meaning that ecosystem developers may be sufficiently inspired to expand Paladin beyond the Jito client to Firedancer and any subsequent clients in the future.
Paladin’s unique approach to MEV and reward distribution acknowledges that it’s impossible to prevent validators from frontrunning transactions. However, should the Paladin protocol prove successful, its reward structure would be a more economical alternative, hopefully making Solana an efficient DeFi ecosystem for all users.
With MEV bots reportedly extracting millions from Solana DEX markets every month, Paladin might just be the knight in shining armor that Solana DeFi needs.
Fully decentralized, open-source, and permissionless, Paladin’s mission is to eliminate predatory MEV on Solana. But how does it work?
THE PALADIN BOT
Designed to run within the Jito client, the Paladin bot is a fast open-source arbitrage bot. It runs locally in a validator and only operates when that particular validator is the leader.
The Paladin bot relies on three distinct features to improve a validator’s APY (Annual Percentage Yield):
- Atomic Arb Bot - Not to be confused with a frontrunning sandwich bot, Paladin is a high-performance arbitrage bot that is faster than external searchers.
- CeFi/DeFi Arb - Leveraging a permissionless DeFi bulletin board that communicates directly with slot leaders, Paladin is able to capture MEV through CeFi/DeFi price discrepancies.
- PALAggregator - Running exclusively within the leader, Paladin bot knows with certainty the exact price of every asset in real time. The bot can use this advantage to find a better path on trades and share the surplus rewards with the wallet that executed the transaction.
Essentially, the Paladin bot is a powerful tool that is altruistically employed to benefit and incentivize honest validator behavior.
To reap the benefits of Paladin, validators need to operate the Paladin bot, which in turn rewards holders and stakers of the protocol's native token, PAL.
PALADIN REWARD DYNAMICS - THE PAL TOKEN
Breaking the trend of providing speculative governance tokens, Paladin has opted for a more tangible token economy driven genuine value accrual.
PAL, the protocol’s native token, serves as the means by which MEV rewards are distributed to stakers and validators running the Paladin Bot, or ‘Palidators’.
MEV rewards captured by Palidators are distributed as follows:
- 90% is returned to the leader
- 5% is directed to Palidators and their stakers, proportionate to the amount of SOL staked
- 5% is passed to PAL token holders. However, given that 50% is airdropped to validators and PAL stakers, unstaked PAL holders receive 2.5%
While PAL is not a governance token, it does play a crucial role in the ecosystem outside of reward distribution. If Palidators are believed to be operating dishonestly, PAL stakers can vote to slash that Palidator’s stake, burning its PAL.
The protocol aims to distribute MEV rewards among honest ecosystem contributors in a way that everyone wins, as opposed to a competitive scramble for larger pieces of the MEV pie.
Despite a relatively muted social presence, the Paladin launch is generating excitement behind closed doors. In an exclusive statement with SolanaFloor, Paladin representative Uri Klarman revealed that “8% of Solana stake have committed to being a launch partner and run Paladin ahead of the launch.”
Additionally, the protocol has plenty of resources to encourage continued development and expansion from ecosystem developers.
According to Klarman, a budget of $5M per year has been committed to continued development, meaning that ecosystem developers may be sufficiently inspired to expand Paladin beyond the Jito client to Firedancer and any subsequent clients in the future.
Paladin’s unique approach to MEV and reward distribution acknowledges that it’s impossible to prevent validators from frontrunning transactions. However, should the Paladin protocol prove successful, its reward structure would be a more economical alternative, hopefully making Solana an efficient DeFi ecosystem for all users.
8 months ago
Solana’s vast staking ecosystem continues to offer a generous bounty of rewards and utilities. The network’s burgeoning DeFi activity has amplified blockchain revenue, flipping Ethereum in yet another key metric.
Meanwhile, the consistent growth of Solana LSTs (Liquid Staking Token) appears to be plateauing, with net LST flows turning negative on weekly and monthly timeframes.
SOLANA FLIPS ETHEREUM ON REVENUE GENERATION
Off the back of a massive month of DeFi trading activity, Solana’s network revenue has surpassed Ethereum’s on a daily timeframe.
According to Artemis data, Solana has slowly closed the gap on Ethereum in terms of revenue generation before finally surging past its biggest rival. On July 28th, the Solana network generated over $1 .2M in revenue, lending credibility to the network’s economic model.
This is good news for Solana validator operators and stakers. Not only does surging revenue translate to greater earnings for stakers, Solana’s increasing transaction counts also burn SOL tokens. Burning 50% of every transaction fee, this mechanism helps to counter SOL issuance and inflation, building a more sustainable token economy.
SOL TOKEN BURNS
Based on the last seven days of Dune Analytics data, the Solana token burn mechanism has burnt 38,145 SOL, currently valued at over $6 .92M. Despite burning over 5,000 SOL per day, the Solana network still issues just over 160,000 SOL through validator rewards.
LIQUID STAKING FLOUNDERS
Solana’s thriving liquid staking economy has enjoyed immense growth throughout the year. However, the TVL (Total Value Locked) of liquid-staked SOL has dropped over the last 30 days, signaling that interest in LST assets has plateaued.
According to Dune Analytics data, the total number of SOL staked through LSTs reduced by over 128k in the last 30 days, with 42.41% (45,411 SOL) of that figure being withdrawn in the last 7 days.
This decrease is likely due to the withdrawal of capital from Sanctum’s popular LST ecosystem, which attracted over $1B in TVL from depositors in anticipation of Sanctum’s initial CLOUD airdrop.
In a bid to attract more liquid stakers to their validator, Jupiter implemented a dramatic change in their fee structure. On July 22nd, Jupiter announced that 80% of block rewards would go to jupSOL, increased from 50%.
Meanwhile, Step Finance launched another addition to its growing ecosystem. In collaboration with Sanctum, Step Finance unveiled its proprietary LST, stepSOL, which provides holders with STEP reward options on top of all the existing benefits of liquid-staked assets.
THE RETURN OF NATIVE STAKING??
With attention shifting away from LSTs, this may be an excellent opportunity for the Solana community to explore native staking. While not offering the flexibility of liquid staking, native staking provides greater security and peace of mind for SOL stakers.
One of the longest-serving DeFi protocols in the ecosystem, Marinade Finance offers one of Solana’s most powerful staking services. Optimized to provide stakers with the best possible staking rewards across an aggregated pool of leading validators, Marinade offers Solana’s only automated non-custodial staking tool.
What’s more, novel features like Marinade’s Stake Auction Marketplace and Protected Staking Rewards ensure users maximum rewards, while benefitting from the inherent security of native staking.
At press time, Marinade Finance is Solana’s most popular staking provider, attracting over 147k unique accounts. Offering comprehensive support for Solana staking, Marinade has attracted over $1 .4B in TVL, with 32.15% of this figure directed to native staking according to Dune Analytics.
Between Solana’s explosive revenue generation and the vast range of staking products available in the ecosystem through projects like Marinade, there’s never been a better time to stake SOL.
Meanwhile, the consistent growth of Solana LSTs (Liquid Staking Token) appears to be plateauing, with net LST flows turning negative on weekly and monthly timeframes.
SOLANA FLIPS ETHEREUM ON REVENUE GENERATION
Off the back of a massive month of DeFi trading activity, Solana’s network revenue has surpassed Ethereum’s on a daily timeframe.
According to Artemis data, Solana has slowly closed the gap on Ethereum in terms of revenue generation before finally surging past its biggest rival. On July 28th, the Solana network generated over $1 .2M in revenue, lending credibility to the network’s economic model.
This is good news for Solana validator operators and stakers. Not only does surging revenue translate to greater earnings for stakers, Solana’s increasing transaction counts also burn SOL tokens. Burning 50% of every transaction fee, this mechanism helps to counter SOL issuance and inflation, building a more sustainable token economy.
SOL TOKEN BURNS
Based on the last seven days of Dune Analytics data, the Solana token burn mechanism has burnt 38,145 SOL, currently valued at over $6 .92M. Despite burning over 5,000 SOL per day, the Solana network still issues just over 160,000 SOL through validator rewards.
LIQUID STAKING FLOUNDERS
Solana’s thriving liquid staking economy has enjoyed immense growth throughout the year. However, the TVL (Total Value Locked) of liquid-staked SOL has dropped over the last 30 days, signaling that interest in LST assets has plateaued.
According to Dune Analytics data, the total number of SOL staked through LSTs reduced by over 128k in the last 30 days, with 42.41% (45,411 SOL) of that figure being withdrawn in the last 7 days.
This decrease is likely due to the withdrawal of capital from Sanctum’s popular LST ecosystem, which attracted over $1B in TVL from depositors in anticipation of Sanctum’s initial CLOUD airdrop.
In a bid to attract more liquid stakers to their validator, Jupiter implemented a dramatic change in their fee structure. On July 22nd, Jupiter announced that 80% of block rewards would go to jupSOL, increased from 50%.
Meanwhile, Step Finance launched another addition to its growing ecosystem. In collaboration with Sanctum, Step Finance unveiled its proprietary LST, stepSOL, which provides holders with STEP reward options on top of all the existing benefits of liquid-staked assets.
THE RETURN OF NATIVE STAKING??
With attention shifting away from LSTs, this may be an excellent opportunity for the Solana community to explore native staking. While not offering the flexibility of liquid staking, native staking provides greater security and peace of mind for SOL stakers.
One of the longest-serving DeFi protocols in the ecosystem, Marinade Finance offers one of Solana’s most powerful staking services. Optimized to provide stakers with the best possible staking rewards across an aggregated pool of leading validators, Marinade offers Solana’s only automated non-custodial staking tool.
What’s more, novel features like Marinade’s Stake Auction Marketplace and Protected Staking Rewards ensure users maximum rewards, while benefitting from the inherent security of native staking.
At press time, Marinade Finance is Solana’s most popular staking provider, attracting over 147k unique accounts. Offering comprehensive support for Solana staking, Marinade has attracted over $1 .4B in TVL, with 32.15% of this figure directed to native staking according to Dune Analytics.
Between Solana’s explosive revenue generation and the vast range of staking products available in the ecosystem through projects like Marinade, there’s never been a better time to stake SOL.
8 months ago
Breaking new all-time highs in TVL every month this year, Solana LSTs (Liquid Staking Tokens) have established themselves as one of the fundamental pillars of the ecosystem.
Yet, despite its growing popularity and the wealth of benefits, only 6.4% of all staked SOL is liquid staked, suggesting plenty of Solana users still have some lingering questions about LSTs.
What is liquid staking on Solana? How do Solana LSTs work and why should Solana users consider leveraging LSTs to optimize their DeFi strategies?
With one of Solana's longest-standing protocols launching liquid staking services, there's never been a better time to refresh your knowledge.
What is Liquid Staking MEV?
MEV, or Maximum Extractable Value, is an umbrella term that covers a range of profit-generation strategies and arbitrage opportunities that occur within block production.
For example, by rearranging the order of transactions within a processing queue, MEV tools can profit from mismatched prices in liquidity pools across different DEXes. Some Liquid Staking providers, like Jito, eliminate MEV spam transactions and pass these rewards on to stakers, effectively boosting their staking rewards.
To date, Jito has captured over 31,000 SOL in MEV fees, sharing a percentage of these fees with over 100,000 active accounts who liquid stake their SOL tokens through the Jito protocol.
What are the Benefits of Liquid Staking?
Liquid staking has become a key component of Solana’s DeFi landscape, and for good reason. Here’s why:
1. Earn staking rewards without locking SOL - Solana LSTs make it possible to continue earning generous staking rewards, without losing immediate access to your staked assets.
2. Expanded liquidity and DeFi strategies - Users can leverage their LSTs to capitalize on DeFi yield generation strategies, while still earning staking rewards.
3. Contribute to Solana’s security and decentralization - By liquid staking SOL tokens, users help to further decentralize and secure the Solana network by delegating SOL across a variety of validators.
What are the risks of liquid Staking?
While there are plenty of reasons to use liquid staking on Solana, it’s not without its flaws. Some of the risks associated with Solana LSTs include:
Smart contract risk - LST protocols rely on smart contracts to operate. If any of these contracts is exploited by a malicious actor, stakers could be a
risk of losing their funds.
LST price depeg - Despite typically maintaining their pegged value, LST tokens on other blockchains have fallen victim to temporary price depegs in the past. This could be problematic during black swan events or periods of market turmoil.
Where Can I Liquid Stake my SOL Tokens?
Now that you’ve got a better understanding of how liquid staking on Solana works, let’s recap some of the most reliable and trustworthy liquid staking providers in the market
ANNOUNCING STEPSOL - POWERED BY STEP FINANCE & SANCTUM
STEPSOL
Entering Solana's flourishing LST landscape for the first time, Step Finance is one of the oldest Solana applications in the ecosystem. Doubling as an intuitive portfolio dashboard and a comprehensive DeFi and NFT analytics platform, Step recently expanded its extensive product offering to include its LST, stepSOL.
On top of earning generous APY, stepSOL holders are also eligible to earn additional STEP Reward Options, which are claimable every five days via the Step Finance dashboard. Stakers who've already delegated their SOL to the Step Validator can head to Sanctum's Stake Accounts page and convert their stake account to stepSOL.
What's more, Step Finance has partnered with Meteora and will be offering incentivized rewards through the following pools:
•STEP/stepSOL
•xSTEP/stepSOL
•stepSOL/edgeSOL
Yet, despite its growing popularity and the wealth of benefits, only 6.4% of all staked SOL is liquid staked, suggesting plenty of Solana users still have some lingering questions about LSTs.
What is liquid staking on Solana? How do Solana LSTs work and why should Solana users consider leveraging LSTs to optimize their DeFi strategies?
With one of Solana's longest-standing protocols launching liquid staking services, there's never been a better time to refresh your knowledge.
What is Liquid Staking MEV?
MEV, or Maximum Extractable Value, is an umbrella term that covers a range of profit-generation strategies and arbitrage opportunities that occur within block production.
For example, by rearranging the order of transactions within a processing queue, MEV tools can profit from mismatched prices in liquidity pools across different DEXes. Some Liquid Staking providers, like Jito, eliminate MEV spam transactions and pass these rewards on to stakers, effectively boosting their staking rewards.
To date, Jito has captured over 31,000 SOL in MEV fees, sharing a percentage of these fees with over 100,000 active accounts who liquid stake their SOL tokens through the Jito protocol.
What are the Benefits of Liquid Staking?
Liquid staking has become a key component of Solana’s DeFi landscape, and for good reason. Here’s why:
1. Earn staking rewards without locking SOL - Solana LSTs make it possible to continue earning generous staking rewards, without losing immediate access to your staked assets.
2. Expanded liquidity and DeFi strategies - Users can leverage their LSTs to capitalize on DeFi yield generation strategies, while still earning staking rewards.
3. Contribute to Solana’s security and decentralization - By liquid staking SOL tokens, users help to further decentralize and secure the Solana network by delegating SOL across a variety of validators.
What are the risks of liquid Staking?
While there are plenty of reasons to use liquid staking on Solana, it’s not without its flaws. Some of the risks associated with Solana LSTs include:
Smart contract risk - LST protocols rely on smart contracts to operate. If any of these contracts is exploited by a malicious actor, stakers could be a
risk of losing their funds.
LST price depeg - Despite typically maintaining their pegged value, LST tokens on other blockchains have fallen victim to temporary price depegs in the past. This could be problematic during black swan events or periods of market turmoil.
Where Can I Liquid Stake my SOL Tokens?
Now that you’ve got a better understanding of how liquid staking on Solana works, let’s recap some of the most reliable and trustworthy liquid staking providers in the market
ANNOUNCING STEPSOL - POWERED BY STEP FINANCE & SANCTUM
STEPSOL
Entering Solana's flourishing LST landscape for the first time, Step Finance is one of the oldest Solana applications in the ecosystem. Doubling as an intuitive portfolio dashboard and a comprehensive DeFi and NFT analytics platform, Step recently expanded its extensive product offering to include its LST, stepSOL.
On top of earning generous APY, stepSOL holders are also eligible to earn additional STEP Reward Options, which are claimable every five days via the Step Finance dashboard. Stakers who've already delegated their SOL to the Step Validator can head to Sanctum's Stake Accounts page and convert their stake account to stepSOL.
What's more, Step Finance has partnered with Meteora and will be offering incentivized rewards through the following pools:
•STEP/stepSOL
•xSTEP/stepSOL
•stepSOL/edgeSOL
9 months ago
How to start restaking on symbioticfi
A 101 Explainer 👇
EigenLayer changed the game by introducing the restaking primitive to the Ethereum ecosystem, yet it was only a matter of time until challengers rose up and started trying to beat EigenLayer at its own game!
The big challenger making a big splash lately is Symbiotic, a new restaking protocol that aims to offer restakers more options beyond just ETH.
What Is Symbiotic?
Launched in June 2024, Symbiotic is a shared security protocol for network builders to create and manage their own staking implementations in a permissionless fashion.
In other words, Symbiotic lets networks customize their staking processes, collateral types, node operator selection, rewards, and slashing mechanisms, all while maintaining security through non-upgradeable core contracts on Ethereum.
Notably, Symbiotic is already the second-largest restaking protocol behind only EigenLayer. Yet unlike EigenLayer, which is centered around ETH, Symbiotic offers a wide array of collateral options for more flexibility.
How Does Symbiotic Work?
Symbiotic operates through the coordination of its five main pillars. These elements are as follows:
🪙 Collateral — The onchain assets used to provide economic security in Symbiotic. These can include ERC20 tokens, Ethereum validator withdrawal credentials, and other assets across various blockchains.
🛅 Vaults — These customizable components act as Symbiotic’s delegation and restaking layer. They handle deposits, withdrawals, slashings, and reward distributions.
🦸 Operators — The entities that run infrastructure for networks, such as validators and sequencers. Operators can opt into networks and receive economic backing from restakers through vaults.
⛑️ Resolvers — These are the entities or smart contracts tasked with passing or vetoing slashing penalties incurred by operators. They ensure penalties are fairly arbitrated.
Why Symbiotic?
It makes sense that there won’t just be one winner in the restaking category. And among the field of contenders, Symbiotic currently looks like the protocol best positioned to give EigenLayer a run for its money in the months ahead.
That said, if you’re generally bullish on restaking, then Symbiotic is a project to consider because it’s early, promising, and has plenty of potential to grow with its differentiation via ERC-20 support.
Of course, a Symbiotic airdrop is also a likelihood not to be ignored. EigenLayer has $EIGEN , and it seems inevitable that the Symbiotic Points system will be used to go a similar route in facilitating an airdrop of a native token to early users. Restake now; get paid later.
Lastly, there are some interesting Symbiotic integrations live today that offer double-whammy earning opportunities. One is
mellowprotocol, a liquid restaking token (LRT) project offering Mellow Points and Symbiotic Points to users who deposit into Symbiotic through its platform.
How to Restake on Symbiotic
If you’re interested in restaking on Symbiotic, head over to https://app.symbiotic.fi/r... and connect your wallet. Note that some regions are geo-blocked from accessing the front end.
On the main “Restaking” page, you’ll see the list of vaults for offer like the one in the picture below. Note that some vaults, like the Wrapped Lido Staked Ether (wstETH) one, have currently reached their temporary deposit limits, while other vaults, e.g., Coinbase Wrapped Staked Ether (cbETH), are still open for depositors.
So let’s say you have some cbETH, and you want to start staking. Simply click on the cbETH vault, which will take you to an interface like this:
By WPeaster ✍️
A 101 Explainer 👇
EigenLayer changed the game by introducing the restaking primitive to the Ethereum ecosystem, yet it was only a matter of time until challengers rose up and started trying to beat EigenLayer at its own game!
The big challenger making a big splash lately is Symbiotic, a new restaking protocol that aims to offer restakers more options beyond just ETH.
What Is Symbiotic?
Launched in June 2024, Symbiotic is a shared security protocol for network builders to create and manage their own staking implementations in a permissionless fashion.
In other words, Symbiotic lets networks customize their staking processes, collateral types, node operator selection, rewards, and slashing mechanisms, all while maintaining security through non-upgradeable core contracts on Ethereum.
Notably, Symbiotic is already the second-largest restaking protocol behind only EigenLayer. Yet unlike EigenLayer, which is centered around ETH, Symbiotic offers a wide array of collateral options for more flexibility.
How Does Symbiotic Work?
Symbiotic operates through the coordination of its five main pillars. These elements are as follows:
🪙 Collateral — The onchain assets used to provide economic security in Symbiotic. These can include ERC20 tokens, Ethereum validator withdrawal credentials, and other assets across various blockchains.
🛅 Vaults — These customizable components act as Symbiotic’s delegation and restaking layer. They handle deposits, withdrawals, slashings, and reward distributions.
🦸 Operators — The entities that run infrastructure for networks, such as validators and sequencers. Operators can opt into networks and receive economic backing from restakers through vaults.
⛑️ Resolvers — These are the entities or smart contracts tasked with passing or vetoing slashing penalties incurred by operators. They ensure penalties are fairly arbitrated.
Why Symbiotic?
It makes sense that there won’t just be one winner in the restaking category. And among the field of contenders, Symbiotic currently looks like the protocol best positioned to give EigenLayer a run for its money in the months ahead.
That said, if you’re generally bullish on restaking, then Symbiotic is a project to consider because it’s early, promising, and has plenty of potential to grow with its differentiation via ERC-20 support.
Of course, a Symbiotic airdrop is also a likelihood not to be ignored. EigenLayer has $EIGEN , and it seems inevitable that the Symbiotic Points system will be used to go a similar route in facilitating an airdrop of a native token to early users. Restake now; get paid later.
Lastly, there are some interesting Symbiotic integrations live today that offer double-whammy earning opportunities. One is
mellowprotocol, a liquid restaking token (LRT) project offering Mellow Points and Symbiotic Points to users who deposit into Symbiotic through its platform.
How to Restake on Symbiotic
If you’re interested in restaking on Symbiotic, head over to https://app.symbiotic.fi/r... and connect your wallet. Note that some regions are geo-blocked from accessing the front end.
On the main “Restaking” page, you’ll see the list of vaults for offer like the one in the picture below. Note that some vaults, like the Wrapped Lido Staked Ether (wstETH) one, have currently reached their temporary deposit limits, while other vaults, e.g., Coinbase Wrapped Staked Ether (cbETH), are still open for depositors.
So let’s say you have some cbETH, and you want to start staking. Simply click on the cbETH vault, which will take you to an interface like this:
By WPeaster ✍️
9 months ago
What is magicblock?
It's a taste of what's to come in the Solana gaming scene 🎮
A beginner's guide to the Onchain Game Engine 👇
Onchain game engines make it easier to build games with no external dependencies beyond their underlying blockchain.
To me, this is one of the most exciting areas of development in crypto today, and that’s why my curiosity was piqued when I recently came across MagicBlock Engine.
MagicBlock is a game engine that’s innovated an Ephemeral Rollups architecture for powering flexible and performant onchain games on Solana.
I think MagicBlock is an interesting look into what's to come in the Solana gaming scene, so let’s catch you up on all the basics.
What Is MagicBlock?
MagicBlock is a gaming framework built on top of Solana, designed to facilitate the development of fully onchain games and apps.
Recently, MagicBlock Engine showcased its capabilities at an a16zcrypto Demo Day event.
The demo featured a real-time, fully onchain game deployed entirely on Solana, and two clients played the game simultaneously with no lag thanks to the MagicBlock’s ability to delegate accounts into fast Solana validators.
What Are Ephemeral Rollups?
MagicBlock extends Solana's capabilities by introducing Ephemeral Rollups (ERs), which are designed to efficiently facilitate state transitions without fragmenting a game’s state.
MagicBlock’s Other Main Features
⚡️ BOLT — A framework that uses the Entity Component System (ECS) pattern to streamline the development of onchain games. It allows developers to quickly create modular, reusable, and extendable game components and logic.
🪪 SOAR — SOAR stands for Solana Onchain Achievement & Ranking. This reputation system lets developers readily define achievements based on onchain activities, track and display user rankings, and deploy rewards.
🔑 Session keys — MagicBlock recently helped add support for session keys in the Solana Unity SDK, making it easier for its game devs to eliminate the need for repeated wallet popups during frequent in-game interactions in a secure fashion.
MagicBlock’s angle is to bypass these fragmentation issues by keeping assets on mainnet Solana, thus maintaining the possibility for atomic composability, while still achieving scalability with ERs. This way you get high throughput, customizable runtimes, and the ability for games and apps to seamlessly interact without needing interoperability solutions.
What to Watch Going Forward?
1. MagicBlock is new and still rearing up. Which onchain game will be the first to officially use this engine?
2. The recent MagicBlock demo achieved 50ms latency, which is competitive with modern gaming standards. Can we expect further optimizations that bring this latency even lower for even better real-time gameplay?
3. Earlier this year, Parallel announced its AI game Colony would be based on Solana. Could the Parallel team adopt MagicBlock Engine to meet its infrastructure needs here?
4. With MagicBlock maintaining assets on the Solana mainnet, developers have the potential for atomic composability. What use cases will emerge from this capability?
5. Onchain games benefit greatly from user-generated content (UGC) and user-generated logic (UGL). Will the SOAR system be used to incentivize these sorts of creations?
The Bottom Line
While MagicBlock is still in its early stages, its potential to catalyze Solana’s fully onchain gaming scene seems considerable, as its Ephemeral Rollups architecture can help it bypass key challenges faced by other gaming engines while still ensuring high performance. Looking ahead, be sure to stay updated on the team’s progress by following them on Twitter— they’re ones to watch in my opinion!
Written by WPeaster
It's a taste of what's to come in the Solana gaming scene 🎮
A beginner's guide to the Onchain Game Engine 👇
Onchain game engines make it easier to build games with no external dependencies beyond their underlying blockchain.
To me, this is one of the most exciting areas of development in crypto today, and that’s why my curiosity was piqued when I recently came across MagicBlock Engine.
MagicBlock is a game engine that’s innovated an Ephemeral Rollups architecture for powering flexible and performant onchain games on Solana.
I think MagicBlock is an interesting look into what's to come in the Solana gaming scene, so let’s catch you up on all the basics.
What Is MagicBlock?
MagicBlock is a gaming framework built on top of Solana, designed to facilitate the development of fully onchain games and apps.
Recently, MagicBlock Engine showcased its capabilities at an a16zcrypto Demo Day event.
The demo featured a real-time, fully onchain game deployed entirely on Solana, and two clients played the game simultaneously with no lag thanks to the MagicBlock’s ability to delegate accounts into fast Solana validators.
What Are Ephemeral Rollups?
MagicBlock extends Solana's capabilities by introducing Ephemeral Rollups (ERs), which are designed to efficiently facilitate state transitions without fragmenting a game’s state.
MagicBlock’s Other Main Features
⚡️ BOLT — A framework that uses the Entity Component System (ECS) pattern to streamline the development of onchain games. It allows developers to quickly create modular, reusable, and extendable game components and logic.
🪪 SOAR — SOAR stands for Solana Onchain Achievement & Ranking. This reputation system lets developers readily define achievements based on onchain activities, track and display user rankings, and deploy rewards.
🔑 Session keys — MagicBlock recently helped add support for session keys in the Solana Unity SDK, making it easier for its game devs to eliminate the need for repeated wallet popups during frequent in-game interactions in a secure fashion.
MagicBlock’s angle is to bypass these fragmentation issues by keeping assets on mainnet Solana, thus maintaining the possibility for atomic composability, while still achieving scalability with ERs. This way you get high throughput, customizable runtimes, and the ability for games and apps to seamlessly interact without needing interoperability solutions.
What to Watch Going Forward?
1. MagicBlock is new and still rearing up. Which onchain game will be the first to officially use this engine?
2. The recent MagicBlock demo achieved 50ms latency, which is competitive with modern gaming standards. Can we expect further optimizations that bring this latency even lower for even better real-time gameplay?
3. Earlier this year, Parallel announced its AI game Colony would be based on Solana. Could the Parallel team adopt MagicBlock Engine to meet its infrastructure needs here?
4. With MagicBlock maintaining assets on the Solana mainnet, developers have the potential for atomic composability. What use cases will emerge from this capability?
5. Onchain games benefit greatly from user-generated content (UGC) and user-generated logic (UGL). Will the SOAR system be used to incentivize these sorts of creations?
The Bottom Line
While MagicBlock is still in its early stages, its potential to catalyze Solana’s fully onchain gaming scene seems considerable, as its Ephemeral Rollups architecture can help it bypass key challenges faced by other gaming engines while still ensuring high performance. Looking ahead, be sure to stay updated on the team’s progress by following them on Twitter— they’re ones to watch in my opinion!
Written by WPeaster
9 months ago
Solana co-founder Aeyakovenko responded to criticism of ZK compression on Solana.
His words were👇
“It’s an L2 that doesn’t need a security council multisig, users don’t need to switch chain ids, doesn’t need a governance token, doesn’t need an external sequencer, solana validators still get all the transaction fees.
It’s like an L2 without all the things that people complain about L2s.”
His words were👇
“It’s an L2 that doesn’t need a security council multisig, users don’t need to switch chain ids, doesn’t need a governance token, doesn’t need an external sequencer, solana validators still get all the transaction fees.
It’s like an L2 without all the things that people complain about L2s.”
10 months ago
As regards the recent upgrade been done on Solana, over 90% of mainnet-beta validators have upgraded to the new v1.18.15 release.
This new version would improve the performance and enhance the stability of Solana.
This new version would improve the performance and enhance the stability of Solana.
10 months ago
Solana mainnet-beta validators have been undergoing an upgrade with about 64% of validators upgraded to v1.18.1
The reason for this as part of the various upgrades in the series of upgrades occuring since April is to improve the network performance and enhance stability.
The reason for this as part of the various upgrades in the series of upgrades occuring since April is to improve the network performance and enhance stability.
10 months ago
Solana has seen changes in its token economics or tokenomics as we call it.
There's been proposals to adjust the fee structures and incentivize validators. These changes are been made by the devs in other to enhance the network's security and encourage long-term growth.
There's been proposals to adjust the fee structures and incentivize validators. These changes are been made by the devs in other to enhance the network's security and encourage long-term growth.
10 months ago
Solana has created an avenue for better staking on the blockchain with the launch of Marinade Finance. It's works by routing assets to the best-yielding validators. This offers liquid staking through its mSol token, allowing for flexible staking and integration with various DeFi protocols. There's Over $1 billion worth of assets locked in Marinade Finance's smart contracts
