The Solana Ecosystem: Scalability, Composability, Censorship Resistant and Decentralized

When it comes to developing dApps the crypto space requires an incredible amount of speed to keep up with the latest trends and competition. In the past couple of months Solana has enjoyed a large uptick in visibility and developer interest. In order to compete with Ethereum, developers building on Solana have created versions of NFT marketplaces, lending services, DEXes, a dating service and even are promising to branch out into the latest Play2Earn trend that will most likely bloom in the crypto space in the following months. https://www.solana.news/post/solana-releases-ecosystem-review

Solana Labs is also working on an incubator to help propel projects built on Solana. Their goal is to attract and maintain a user base of at least 1 billion users. This incubator received funding through a private token sale from “Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital with participation from 1kx, Alameda Research, Blockchange Ventures, CMS Holdings, Coinfund, CoinShares, Collab Currency, MGNR (Memetic Capital), Multicoin Capital, ParaFi Capital, Sino Global Capital, Jump Trading, and select individual investors like Boys Noize.” https://solana.com/news/solana-labs-completes-a-314-15m-private-token-sale-led-by-andreessen-horowitz-and-polychain-capital

Despite all of these developments in the past couple of months there have already been successful projects built on Solana that offer DeFi users powerful tools to find yield, trade, lend, borrow, utilize derivatives, automated market makers, NFTs and so much more.

This article is created in collaboration with Figment.

Automated Market Makers

One of the initial conceptions for Solana was to offer permissionless and decentralized AMMs (automated market makers), CLOBS (central limit order book) and DEXes for the world to adopt that could operate with the speed and efficiency of traditional finance. In comparison to other protocols this is where Solana shines. The ability to process transactions at such a high volume almost instantly provides a trading experience that feels powerful and efficient. The initial Solana slide deck presented Solana as “DeFi but with Nasdaq speed.”

Raydium // Token: $RAY // http://raydium.io

Raydium is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) and liquidity provider built on the Solana blockchain for the Serum Decentralized Exchange (DEX). It has a first-mover advantage as an AMM within Serum and it will be an integral part of bringing new and existing projects and protocols into the ecosystem. Unlike any other AMMs, Raydium provides on-chain liquidity to a central limit order book. This means that Raydium LPs get access to the entire order flow and liquidity of Serum. Raydium has a circulating supply of 69,421,441 tokens with a total supply of 555 million. https://whitepaper.io/coin/raydium

Orca // Token: $ORCA // http://orca.so

Orca is an exchange that provides to the Solana network low exchange rates and ease of use when exchanging currencies. It also specializes in collectibles with it’s own collection of tokens/NFTs that you can earn when using the Orca DEX to swap or provide liquidity. There are currently 5.25 million Orca tokens (in use for governance) in circulation with a total supply of 100 million. https://solana.com/ecosystem/orca

Saros // http://saros.finance

Saros Finance is a Solana-based Unified Suite of DeFi Products. It has three fundamental building blocks: SarosSwap (AMM), SarosFarm (Pool), and SarosPad (Launchpad). SarosSwap is the core of the entire ecosystem. It is very early on for this project but they do have support from Alameda Research and Impossible Finance. https://docs.saros.finance/

Saber Protocol // Token: $SBR // http://saber.so

Saber Protocol made waves recently when it announced it had a TVL of 4 billion dollars of which 3 billion had been raised in a mere 7 days. It provides the liquidity foundation for stablecoins, which is a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset, like the US dollar or bitcoin. As Solana’s core cross-chain liquidity network, Saber helps facilitate the transfer of assets between Solana and other blockchains. Users deposit crypto into a Saber liquidity pool to earn passive yield from transaction fees, token-based incentives, and eventually automated DeFi strategies. It’s circulating supply is currently 198,235,424 tokens with a total supply of 198,747,850. https://blog.saber.so/

Mercurial Finance // Token: $MER // http://mercurial.finance

Mercurial is building new liquidity systems to maximise the utility and yield of stable assets on Solana. As the DeFi ecosystem on Solana grows, there will be many different variants of collateralized, wrapped, and synthetic assets in the space. Mercurial also offers dynamic vaults to users who seek that type of financial device. There are currently 55 million tokens in circulation with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. https://docs.mercurial.finance/mercurial/

Cyclos // Token: $CYS // http://cyclos.io

The concept of the Constant Function Market Maker (CFMM) lies at the core of this model. “Constant function” refers to the state of unchanging reserve assets. LPs pool their assets within a smart contract, which is then utilized by traders to provide counterparty swap liquidity. Instead of trading against other traders, users trade against these pooled assets. Cyclos is the world’s most efficient limit order system and deployed it on Solana. Users can concentrate liquidity, constructing individual price curves of their choice, over which their assets are distributed. This project is still very early. The initial seed round completed on 8/23/2021 and the $CYS token started on 9/9/2021. $CYS has a total supply of 100 billion tokens. https://medium.com/@cyclosfinance

HydraSwap // Token: $HYS // http://hydraswap.io

HydraSwap is a Solana-based decentralized exchange that is dedicated to provide users with CEX-level trading experience. It is empowered by its game changing HMM core and solid cross chain infrastructure. $HYS is HydraSwap’s governance token with a total supply of 100,000,000. $HYS is an SPL token issued on Solana. Through our cross-chain bridge, it can be swapped for BSC, HECO, or ETH-based assets (or other public chain assets), and can be circulated within the financial ecosystem of different public chains. The project is still in beta testing and running on Devnet for public testing. https://hydraswap.gitbook.io/hydraswap-gitbook/

Order Books

“Serum’s order book is called the Central Limit Order Book (CLOB). It is an on-chain decentralized ledger employing an algorithm to match orders automatically. CLOB finds the optimal orders based on your specified preferences.It removes a lot of the manual search-and-scroll from the best deal search process. Additionally, it maintains the principle of decentralization that many traders value. A trader transacts not with an AMM pool, but with another user of the platform. At the same time, the swap transaction is fully decentralized.” https://phemex.com/academy/what-is-serum-srm. This is important because up until the conception of Serum there had not been a blockchain or CLOB that could handle the volume and speed at which DeFi would need to compete with Traditional Finance.

Serum // Token: $SRM // http://projectserum.com

Serum is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and ecosystem on Solana that brings unprecedented speed and low transaction costs to decentralized finance. It is completely permissionless. Serum provides an order book, allowing applications such as trading interfaces to ‘plug’ into Serum’s composable ecosystem. Serum lives in the heart of the ecosystem, providing services to its ecosystem applications, each with their own technology and set of users. Anyone can create a trading application that leverages Serum’s liquidity and its ecosystem benefits. Many consider Serum the backend to the majority of the Solana ecosystem. The total amount of Serum tokens circulating is 50,000,000 with a total supply of 161,000,001 tokens. https://assets.website-files.com/61382d4555f82a75dc677b6f/61384a6d5c937269dbed185c_serum_white_paper.88d98f84.pdf

Dex Lab // Token: $DXL // http://dexlab.space

Project DexLab is a decentralized exchange that supports Cross-Chain trading so that customers can make the transaction at the time and price they desire. Built on the Solana blockchain it leverages interoperability solutions between tokens. DexLab provides an open API (often referred to as public API) which allows the developers and interface users to access certain internal functions of a program. So, DexLab is a place where numerous projects can be grafted, and various data can be gathered. The current circulating supply of DXL tokens is 58,676,785 with a total supply of 1 billion. https://docs.dexlab.space/learn-more/white-paper

SolApe Finance // Token: $SOLAPE // http://solape.io

Solape Finance was created with the belief that crypto and blockchain tech should appeal to the masses through easy-accessibility and bring forth an ecosystem that is rewarding and fun. The DEX serves as not only a place to trade the highest market cap coins, but also offers new projects within Solana a platform to list their tokens, and deliver their communities a center to trade them. The current supply of SOLAPE tokens is 298,401,000 and the tokens are deflationary as the DEX and other projects that burn tokens are used.

Lending & Borrowing

This part of the ecosystem is still burgeoning in the Solana ecosystem. The lending and borrowing protocols do not compare to Ethereum with the giant lending protocols like AAVE. As more central exchanges start accepting SPL tokens as collateral the lending protocols will continue to grow. Out of these projects Parrot has the largest TVL which is currently 417 million. It also offers numerous ways to create liquidity for yourself when you offer collateral.

Parrot Finance // Token: $PRT // http://parrot.fi

The Parrot Protocol is a DeFi network on Solana that will include the stablecoin PAI, a non-custodial lending market, and a margin trading vAMM. These are all use cases designed to solve one single problem: making value locked in DeFi systems accessible. There is a total supply of 2,232,013,358 $PRT tokens. https://doc.parrot.fi/guide/

Jet Protocol // http://jetprotocol.io

Jet Protocol will launch as an open source, non-custodial, borrowing and lending protocol on the Solana Blockchain (“the Protocol” and “Jet Protocol”). The Protocol will allow users to deposit supported tokens to the Protocol. They will receive interest back to incentivize

participation. Those deposits will sit in a pool that is also used for users looking to take out a loan in supported tokens. This project is very new and recently closed out on a seed round for 4.8 million dollars. The current “roadmap” expects to have the next version of Jet Protocol released in Q4 of 2021. https://www.jetprotocol.io/blog

Larix // http://projectlarix.com

Larix is the ultimate lending gateway on Solana, which adopted a dynamic interest rate model, and created more capital-efficient risk management pools, as such a broad selection of collateral types can be fully utilized in a safe way. It is expected to be the combination of upgraded “Compound” and “MakerDAO” in the ecosystem, which accepts a broad selection of collateral types. Conventional banking business originated from the deposit and loan model to reward excessive capital with interest. https://solana.com/vi/ecosystem/larix

Apricot // http://apricot.one

Apricot is a lending protocol that provides borrowers with lowest collateral requirement, assisted self-liquidation, and minimal liquidation penalties. To help users efficiently use their borrowed funds, Apricot also provides a suite of ancillary services. Currently it supports margin trading with up to 9x leverage, with more features in the pipeline. Apricot is a new project that currently has a TVL of $2,849,550,685.08 but resides on a testnet for the time being. https://docs.apricot.one/

Everlend // http://everlend.net

Everlend is a decentralized, cross-chain lending protocol with yield farming and liquid staking features built on Solana operating everywhere. Attic Labs and Everstake Pool are the developers behind this project. https://solana.com/ecosystem/everlend

Zero Interest Finance // Token: $ROKS // http://zeropercenter.org

The Zero Interest protocol allows you to borrow ROKS against SOL at 0% interest. The protocol’s algorithmic governance and the direct redeemability of $ROKS ensures that the stablecoin remains pegged to the US Dollar. This is a new project that is still waiting to deploy fully. https://www.zeropercenter.org/

Decentralized Derivatives

It is currently illegal to use derivative products and crypto in the United States. Solana aims to allow the world to participate in markets by offering permissionless and censorship resistant financial services. Users and investors who want to acquire a little more leverage for their trading could seek out a VPN and participate in these services that allow investors to use leverage in a decentralized manner. Many of these derivative platform forms also allow and encourage developers to build on top of them in order to offer their customers more products.

Mango Markets // Token: $MNGO // http://mango.markets

The goal of Mango Markets is to create a trader and maker friendly decentralized trading platform. Initial core features will be fully on-chain margin trading on limit order books as well as perpetual futures, which are the main drivers of centralized exchange revenue. Moving those to DeFi is an essential step for money legos to overcome the CeFi platforms. The Blockworks Foundation is sponsoring all development on Mango Markets. Their token $MNGO is a governance token that allows you to participate in votes as part of the MangoDAO. https://docs.mango.markets/

Synthetify // Token: $SNY // https://www.synthetify.io/

Synthetify is a synthetic assets platform, fully built on the Solana blockchain. The platform aims to provide a bridge between cryptocurrencies, stocks, fiat currencies, and other financial instruments directly from one decentralized Exchange. Synthetify solves critical problems seen on other Synthetic assets platforms like: high fees, long confirmation times and losses caused by arbitrage during sharp market moves. The $SNY token currently has a circulating supply of 5,625,000 with a total supply of 100 billion tokens. https://www.synthetify.io/resources/synthetify-whitepaper.pdf

Drift Protocol // https://www.drift.trade

Drift Protocol is a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures on Solana. It features cross margined trading accounts and a virtual AMM (vAMM) for price discovery. Drift’s goal is to bring a state-of-the-art trader-centric experience from centralized exchanges on-chain. They’re a team of experienced traders and builders from DeFi and traditional finance working together to make this a reality. The project is still currently on Devnet but will move to beta testing soon. https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/611580035ad59b20437eb024/61293b57e3103934ddc5535f_v0%20Devnet%20Feature%20Paper%20-%20Revision%201.1.pdf

Sypool // Token: $SYP // https://www.sypool.io

Sypool is a synthetic asset management protocol. Pool managers manage tokens like mutual fund managers manage assets. The only difference is that our shares are tokenized. The protocol is based on SAP (Synthetic Asset Pool) pools. Pools are launched by pool managers and poured by users. To protect the interest of every participant, the protocol involves four parties: user, manager, exchange and oracle. SYP will be used mainly in 5 ways: voting, farming, minting SAP, trading, salaries for the board and community representatives. https://sypool.io/whitepaper.pdf

Fabric // Token: $FAB // https://www.fsynth.io/

The Fabric protocol is a decentralized synthetic asset issuance protocol built on Solana. All synthetic assets are collateralized by FABRIC tokens ($FAB) which must be locked in the FABRIC pool to enable issuance of synthetic assets, known as SPL Synthetics. The $FAB token will have two purposes for governance and staking. Holders will be able to stake FAB for xFABRIC, earning FAB from FABRIC DEX fees.: Holders will be able to vote on new SPL Synthetics,Oracle feeds and FABRIC ecosystem proposals through the Fabric dApp. There are 500 million total $FAB tokens with 50,534,898 tokens currently circulating. https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/60b35c8cd73f399dc4a8d8b9/614b9b0f8daf49448ad9a3ff_Litepaper.pdf

Plutos Network // Token: $PLUT // https://www.plutos.network

Plutos Network is a multi-chain synthetic issuance & derivative trading platform which introduces mining incentives and Staking rewards to users. By integrating Blockchains such as Solana, Polkadot and BSC, enabling on-chain and cross-chain liquidity and trading, Plutos Network is to offer users synthetic issuance and trading services for a wide range of synthetic products which are sustainable, profitable and disruptive to the traditional derivative market. The $PLUT token will be used for governance and has a deflationary mechanism built in. Token supply deflation is a mechanism that ensures that the company can generate more demands for tokens in the market, and reduce supply at the same time. Certain proportions of PLUT tokens will be bought back and burnt using the commission fees during the applications of derivative issuance and trading by our users. The buy-backs will be carried out on a regular basis. https://plutosnetwork-1.gitbook.io/plutosnetwork/

Zeta Markets // https://www.zeta.markets

Zeta (ζ) is the premier under-collateralized DeFi options platform, providing liquid derivatives trading to individuals and institutions alike. They plan on offering different options strategies to investors and users. They will also have a hybrid orderbook and options AMM model (automated market maker) that allows for efficient pricing and deep liquidity. Zeta Markets will be arriving on the Solana Mainnet towards the end of Q4 and is currently in alpha testing. It will also have a governance token $ZETA to be released at the end of Q4. https://zetamarkets.medium.com/?p=42fe4efa8a55

Psy Options // https://psyoptions.io

PsyOptions is an American style options protocol on the Solana blockchain. The principles that have guided the architecture and development of the core protocol are flexibility and composability. It is completely trustless. The core protocol makes no assumptions on how the options should be traded or priced. Options are represented as SPL Tokens, which means they can be traded on any DEX that supports SPL Tokens. https://docs.psyoptions.io/

Yield Aggregators

If active management is too much for you to stomach you can always park your funds into a yield aggregator and allow it to find the best possible yield for you. Products in this part of the ecosystem are still developing as they do not have as many avenues to search for as they would if they were based on ETH. Sunny and the Saber Protocol recently locked in 3 billion dollars in 7 days. There is the potential for exponential growth and as the ecosystem grows so will the opportunities for yield.

SolFarm // Token: $TULIP // https://solfarm.io

SolFarm is the first yield aggregation platform built on Solana with auto-compounding vault strategies. The dApp (decentralized application) is designed to take advantage of Solana’s low cost, high efficiency blockchain, allowing the vault strategies to compound frequently. This allows stakers to benefit from higher APYs without requiring active management. The $TULIP token has a circulating supply of 1,357,691 and total supply of 10,000,000.

Sunny // Token: $SUNNY // https://app.sunny.ag

Sunny is Solana’s first composable DeFi yield aggregator. The Sunny Protocol is designed with composability as a core feature, enabling other applications and protocols to easily build on top of it. They recently gained notoriety as the Saber Protocol locked in 3 billion dollars TVL in only 7 days. There are currently 254,896,847 $SUNNY tokens with a potential max supply of 19,884,700,000. https://app.sunny.ag/

SolYard // Token: $YARD // https://solyard.finance

Solyard Finance is the new leveraged yield farming on Solana. It helps user earn safe and stable yields, and offers user undercollateralized loans for leveraged yield farming positions, vastly multiplying their farming principals and resulting profits.‌ As an enabler for the entire DeFi ecosystem, Solyard amplifies the liquidity layer of integrated exchanges, improving their capital efficiency by connecting LP borrowers and lenders. https://docs.solyard.finance/

Francium // https://francium.io

Francium protocol is an innovative leveraged yield aggregator with diverse community strategies built on Solana. It is a very new project that is still growing and it’s roadmap dictates that a SDK/Visual Dev Tool will be released in fall 2022. https://docs.francium.io/

Asset Management

It can be difficult tracking assets when you have them in staking pools, borrow swaps and leveraged on different markets. Solana currently has multiple projects that allow you to do this with ease just by entering your public key. The dApps that engage with the smart contracts will send the data to the asset manager which then presents it in a logical and intuitive way.

SolRise // https://solrise.finance

Solrise is easy to use, practical, and almost trustless. Choose a fund to invest in, or create your own with just a few clicks. Get exposure to assets from across Solana without sacrificing security or your time. Solrise is a fully decentralized and non-custodial protocol for investment funds on Solana. What this means in practice is that anyone can open a fund, and anyone can invest in it. https://solrise.finance/

Symmetry Protocol // https://symmetry.fi

Traditionally, index products have been one of the biggest traded instruments in the world. However the creation and management of an index has always been limited due to its capital intensive nature as well as the complexity of moving large amounts of money to maintain risk and reward ratios. Public has also been limited by the rules and methodologies of the central parties managing the indices. Symmetry aims to change all of this by offering portfolio management to the benefit of the entire world by its trustless, secure and open source nature. https://symmetry-fi.medium.com/

Step Finance // Token: $STEP // https://step.finance

Step Finance is the front page of Solana. Visualise, Analyze, Aggregate and Execute transactions across Solana in one easy to use Dashboard. Step makes it easy for anyone to monitor their portfolio token balances, AMM LP’s, yield farms and other positions to give you a summary of your current performance. On September 5, 2021 Step launched the Step AMM (Automated Market Maker protocol), the first AMM on Solana with a router for atomic swaps between any supported currency. Every pool on the Step AMM has 50% of the pools liquidity in STEP with fees split between LPs to the pool and Step stakers. The $STEP token currently has 92,407,486 tokens circulating with a total supply of 1 billion. https://docs.step.finance/

Launchpads

IDO’s and NFT launches have been troublesome in the Solana ecosystem. There are numerous factors as to why this may be but the main one is clear, it’s because the space is new and there is still a need for developers to come to the ecosystem who are willing to flesh out the troubles with Rust and the Solana blockchain. Recently the Grape Protocol IDO was in part the reason why the Solana network had to restart. There is a lot of room for growth in the launchpad part of the ecosystem.

Solanium // Token: $xSLIM // https://solanium.io

Solanium is the go-to platform for the Solana blockchain. Participate in public raises of top tier projects, stake your tokens, trade on our DEX, participate in our governance and join our active and growing community. Investors can stake your SLIM or SLIM-LP tokens to receive xSLIM. xSLIM qualifies you for fee distribution and airdrops, unique pool benefits (depending on your Tier), governance voting and much more. Through our staking mechanism that combines your amount of tokens staked together with your own specified lock time we aim to be the most fair launchpad in existence. The $xSLIM token has a current circulating supply of 46,000,000 with a total potential supply of 100 billion. https://www.solanium.io/

SolPad // Token: $SOLPAD // https://solpad.finance

The main aim of Solpad Finance is to solve the illiquidity problem of Solana Ecosystem, and to provide the one harmonized UX/UI using our platform (an important thing that usually getting neglected by other projects). Furthermore, Solpad Finance is backed by most reputated VCs and partners within the Blockchain Industry. SolPad is trying to solve real problems, and avoiding overpromising, especially in the current over-hyped market condition. The $SOLPAD token has a circulating supply of 1 billion tokens, usage is governance and liquidity mining. https://docs.solpad.finance/

Solster // https://solster.finance

Solster Finance is an ecosystem that helps investors to diversify their decentralized finances (DeFi). The Solster ecosystem incorporates IDO Launchpad for Solana Projects, decentralized exchange (DEX) for crypto trading, token swap, token staking, token vesting and lottery platform. Solster ecosystem built on the Solana blockchain, Serum, and Bonfida can make decentralized finances fast-paced, fair, and accessible for everyone. The ecosystem offers staking, liquidity pools, lottery, swap and vesting contracts on Solster platform. https://solster.finance/WhitePaper_Solster_Finance.pdf

Boca Chica // https://bocachica.io

Boca Chica is the premier IDO platform that leverages the power of Solana blockchain and its consensus algorithm to deliver a unique, frictionless and safe fundraising avenue for retail as well as Capital Investors. The main idea behind Boca Chica is creating a secure soil for new projects on Solana blockchain that will help kickstart their advancement and promote their significance in the crypto space as a whole. https://bocachica-static.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/docs/whitepaper.pdf

Synchrony // http://synchrony.fi

an on-chain automated portfolio and asset management protocol featuring copy-trading and dynamic composable indices. Empowering the user with the ability to evaluate sets of tokens, liquidity pools, strategies and other on-chain instruments so users can create algorithmically optimized and automatically rebalancing pools or portfolios. Copy-trading leverages these indices enabling users to define the parameters for which a copy-trade is considered a candidate for execution. And utilizing Synchrony’s analytics and aggregation services, users are able to make informed decisions not only with respect to index and copy-trade parameters but also their entire on-chain behavior. Facilitating these features is Synchrony’s front-end featuring a marketplace that, along with the aforementioned suite of tools, enables users to interact with the entire Solana ecosystem.

OxBull // Token: $OXS // http://oxbull.tech

A Startup Incubator and Launchpad developed By Tech Enthusiasts. Oxbull.Tech hopes to help Startups with the necessary funding and support to kick start their project in the most efficient way possible. From there, Oxbull.Tech shall connect quality and credible blockchain projects with Investors. Oxbull only recently began to sell $OXS on the Solana block chain before that they offered a token on BSC (Binance Smart Chain). The total supply of $OXS tokens is 50 million. https://www.oxbull.tech/assets/doc/oxbull.pdf

BonFida // Token: $FIDA // http://bonfida.org

Bonfida is the full product suite that bridges the gap between Serum, Solana and the user. It is the flagship Serum GUI and brings first of its kind Solana data analytics to the field. The API is used by some of the largest market makers in the space and has seen a growth of requests of 25% week over week. Bonfida includes a limited governance model based on the $FIDA token. Some parameters such as product fees may be changed through a governance vote of $FIDA tokens. There are currently 49,086,802 $FIDA tokens circulating with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. https://bonfida.org/static/media/bonfida-white-paper.360be8c4.pdf

Social Platforms

Tokenization may eventually consume every part of our digital lives. Solana’s ability to handle such a high rate of TPS (transactions per seconds) means developers can explore different utilizations of the block chain and apply it to new concepts like media and social media platforms for users. Creators will find this advantageous as it will open new rails to payment for creations whether it be posts, pictures or even music. One of the most astounding statistics in this group of projects is Maps. If Maps.me is successful in onboarding more users in the US market through Solana it would be one of the largest fintech applications in the world.

Media Network // Token: $MEDIA // http://media.network

Media Network is a new protocol that bypasses traditional CDN providers’ centralized approach for a self-governed and open source solution where everyone can participate. A distributed economy that enables anyone with spare bandwidth resources to monetize them, earning $MEDIA Network Tokens in exchange for their contributions to the network. There are currently 250,000 $MEDIA tokens in circulation with a total supply of 10 million. https://docs.media.network/

Audius // Token: $AUDIO // http://audius.co

The Audius protocol brings artists, node operators, and fans together in an incentive-aligned way, allowing these actors to collectively provide a high-quality audio streaming experience guided by the foundational beliefs that users should be compensated in proportion to how much value they create for the network. Artists should directly engage with and transact with their fans. Governance power should be earned by creating value in Audius, and shared consistently between user groups contributing to the protocol. Prices and earnings for participants should be consistent, predictable, and transparent. The $AUDIO token grants part ownership of the platform to holders and access to NFTs and other incentives. There are currently 406,077,610 $AUDIO tokens circulating with a max supply of 1,051,696,663 tokens. https://whitepaper.audius.co/AudiusWhitepaper.pdf

Grape Protocol // Token: $GRAPE // http://grape.network

Grape Network’s tools help decentralized communities coordinate members, communication, work, and incentives. By layering blockchain solutions on top of systems users already love, they provide value to users today, while simultaneously preparing them for the new interactions of the crypto future. $GRAPE Token distribution is planned over 5 years for the first 700 million. After the 60th epoch (month), the DAO will decide how to allocate the remaining 300 million of Community rewards. Grape Protocol is very new and investors should be aware that there is a long road map ahead until completion of the project. The total supply of $GRAPE tokens is 72,500,000. https://docs.grapes.network/grape-toolset/overview

Only1 // Token: $LIKE // http://only1.io

Only1 is the first NFT-powered social media site on Solana. Social media users want to feel more connected with the creators on the platform. And in conventional social media, creators have to go through middle-man to sell merchandise, paid advertisements, shout-outs, or any form of partnerships. Our innovation through NFT aim to cut out the need for these middle-man, and we do this through two novel NFT applications – Genesis-NFT & Content-NFT farming. The $LIKE token has a circulating supply of 44,521,042 and a total supply of 500 billion tokens. The $LIKE token is what creators will be rewarded with on the Only1 platform. https://only1.gitbook.io/only1/

SolDate // Token: $DATE // http://soldate.org

SolDate is creating the ultimate disruptive dating solution built on Solana, to provide a never-before dating experience to users. Through its distinctive features and user-driven decentralized architecture, the SolDate ecosystem creates one of most favorable and liberated dating environments to enhance our members’ dating experiences as they continue to explore and benefit from the true match-making potentials of the SolDate platform. SolDate is your nextgen virtual cupid that will leave no stone unturned to ensure all your dating desires come to fruition. The $DATE token has a total supply of 100 million tokens. https://soldate.org/soldate-whitepaerV1.1.pdf

Maps // Token: $MAPS // http://maps.me

Maps.me is the world’s leading offline mapping application. Over the last nine years, Maps.me has been trusted by 140M users, with over 60M people using Maps.me last year to navigate across 195 countries. This trusted travel companion provides turn-by-turn routing, travel guides, and detailed mapping. Until recently, Maps.me was an asset of the Mail.ru group, the Russian internet giant, backed by Alibaba, Tencent and Naspers.

It was acquired with the aim to monetize it via integrated financial services, with DeFi infrastructure powered by Solana and Serum, with the net revenue of Maps.me being applied to the benefit of the $MAPS token holders. If successful in converting its user base Maps.me would be one of the largest fintech applications in the world. There is a circulating supply of 75,000,000 $MAPS tokens with a total supply of 100 billion. https://maps.me/token/MAPS.pdf

Staking Pools

By staking your SOL tokens, you help secure the network and earn rewards while doing so. You can stake by delegating your tokens to validators who process transactions and run the network. Delegating stake is a shared-risk shared-reward financial model that may provide returns to holders of tokens delegated for a long period. This is achieved by aligning the financial incentives of the token-holders (delegators) and the validators to whom they delegate. Currently the rate for staking SOL is 8% but there are other ways you can stake your $SOL tokens or other tokens within the ecosystem. https://solana.com/staking

Lido Finance // Token: $LDO // http://lido.fi

Lido is a liquid staking solution for staking $SOL backed by industry-leading staking providers. It lets users stake their $SOL – without locking assets or maintaining infrastructure whilst participating in on-chain activities, e.g. lending. to earn yields and lending rewards, and are updated on a daily basis to reflect your SOL staking rewards, minus any penalties. Note that there are no lock-ups or minimum deposits when staking with Lido. stSOL is a token that represents staked ether in Lido, combining the value of initial deposit + staking rewards – penalties. stSOL tokens are minted upon deposit and burned when redeemed. stSOL token balances are pegged 1:1 to the $SOL that is staked using Lido. stSOL token balances are updated when the oracle reports changes in total stake every day. https://lido.fi/faq

Marinade Finance // http://marinade.finance

Marinade is a liquid staking protocol built on Solana. People stake their Solana tokens with Marinade using automatic staking strategies and receive “staked SOL” tokens they can use in the world of DeFi or to swap any time back to original SOL tokens to unstake. Liquid staking is an alternative to traditional staking: it allows users to stake any amount of SOL and to effectively unstake their SOL without the requirement of waiting 1~3 days before the stake is warmed up or cooled down. https://marinade.finance/

Socean // Token: $SOCN // http://socean.fi

Socean is an algorithmic stake pool, it makes staking decisions via transparent logic based on objective data. It intends to become fully autonomous in the future, relying only on independently-verifiable oracle data to make its decisions. The $SOCN token, representing ownership of staked SOL in the Socean pool, will allow holders to participate and profit in the DeFi ecosystem while earning full staking rewards. Socean will provide a suite of tools to make it easy to monitor stake allocation and performance metrics. The protocol makes decisions about its dynamic allocation via a principled, unbiased delegation strategy that takes into account historical data and network health. The $SOCN token is now live with the launch of the Socean mainnet. https://docs.socean.fi/whitepaper

Infrastructure

There are two primary wallets that most users in Solana use, Phantom and SolFlare. Sollet was initially developed to allow early dApps to engage users and for developers to figure out new ways for wallets to behave in the Solana ecosystem. Phantom wallet recently reported that they now have a user base of over 500 thousand users and while that number is much smaller than say MetaMask it is still a sign that the ecosystem is growing. Solana is also opening itself up to cross chain transactions with projects like Neon Labs who are working towards full EVM integration with Solana to allow cross chain ETH/SOL transactions. The other project to note is the Boring Protocol which are creating a decentralized VPN on the Solana blockchain.

Phantom Wallet // http://phantom.app

Phantom is a wallet and browser extension. Usage is about manage digital assets and access decentralized applications on the Solana blockchain. It works by creating and managing private keys on behalf of its users, allowing them to store funds and sign transactions. The extension injects a solana object into the javascript context of every web application the user visits. The application may then interact with the wallet, such as asking for permission to perform a transaction, through this injected object. https://docs.phantom.app/

Solflare Wallet // http://solflare.com

Solflare is a non-custodial digital wallet for Solana. As a non-custodial wallet, your private keys are not stored by the SolFlare site itself, but rather they are stored in an encrypted Keystore File or on a Ledger Nano S or X hardware wallet. Solflare is available as a desktop and mobile browser app, as a mobile app on each app store, and as a browser extension. https://solflare.com/

Sonar // http://sonar.watch

Sonar is a dapp that allows you to track your public address on the Solana blockchain with a very polished working UI. It relies on the Solana Public RPC, they are aware that these RPCs are not very efficient and therefore you can sometimes observe stability issues. Sonar does not have access to your private key and does not perform any transactions. The only risk is to leak your public key. If you absolutely do not want to leak your public key, please do not use Sonar. http://sonar.watch

ApeBoard // http://apeboard.finance

Ape Board is Cross-chain DeFi Dashboard. We currently support Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Terra, Solana, Binance Exchange and Polygon. (https://docs.apeboard.finance/)

SolScan // http://solscan.io

Solscan is a viewer to explore and observe transactions in real time on the Solana blockchain.

Solana Beach // http://solanabeach.io

Solana Beach is a Solana blockchain explorer that gives real time data about transactions and validators. It was developed by Staking Facilities, a Munich-based, Web 3.0 infrastructure, and service provider. Wolfgang Albrecht, CEO & Co-Founder of Staking Facilities, is also a board member of the Solana Foundation. http://solanabeach.io

Neon Labs // http://neon-labs.org

Neon Labs is a tool that allows for Ethereum-like transactions to be processed on Solana, taking full advantage of the functionality native to Solana, including parallel execution of transactions. As such, Neon EVM allows dApps to operate with the low gas fees, high transaction speed, and high throughput of Solana, as well as offering access to the growing Solana market. The Ethereum state is represented by Merkle-Patricia Trie that stores key-value data for all smart contracts, and smart contracts written in Solidity do not have separate references to shared data and contracts’ code. Therefore, these smart contracts have to be executed in sequence to ensure deterministic behavior. This limits a throughput: highly optimized blockchains with EVM are capable of processing up to a maximum of 1,500 TPS. https://neon-labs.org/Neon_EVM.pdf

Liquidity Protocol // Token: $LIQ // http://liqsolana.com

LIQ Protocol is a decentralized on-chain liquidation engine system powering derivatives markets on Serum and lending platforms on Solana. The protocol plays a key role in the Solana and Serum ecosystem. By managing liquidations and providing capital across several different derivatives and lending platforms, the overall usability and health of the platforms are substantially increased, which helps further advance the ecosystem. The $LIQ token currently has a circulating supply of 9 million tokens with a total supply of 20 million tokens. https://docs.liqsolana.com/

Boring Protocol // Token: $BOP // http://boringprotocol.io

Boring is a protocol for participants in virtual private networks to conduct transactions between node providers and bandwidth users. The protocol allows for node providers to connect their endpoints via Solana Program Library and attach metadata that identifies the attributes of their node such as geolocation etc. the protocol inversely allows bandwidth users to identify and connect to these provided nodes, ultimately transacting with the provider via the protocol. The $BOP token has a total supply of 250 million tokens. The tokens are important because the chain will recognize the weight of the attached nodes. BOP token stake and proportionately direct traffic that meets the earlier criteria. Providers are able to set the price of the data they supply to the end point user. https://boringprotocol.io/assets/files/Boring_LitePaper.pdf

SolanaTip // http://solanatip.io

SolanaTip is a dApp that allows you to reward content on Twitter with Solana. Currently it exists as a chrome extension with compatibility with Sollet but more wallet integrations should arise shortly. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ul3FYsjtU6w?autoplay=1

GenesysGO // http://genesysgo.com

GenesysGO collaborates with the Solana Foundation. Our hardware comes directly from vendors that Solana has recommended. Their machines sit in data-centers around the world which have all been curated by Solana. They configure and deploy blockchain optimized bare-metal servers. They also proactively work with your development team to help improve your code. https://www.genesysgo.com/rpc-server-offering

MetaSol // http://metasol.xyz

Metasol is a faucet for Solana. To transfer assets on the Solana network the user has to hold SOL. While some users might have sufficient SOL in their wallets but for new users, this can be a pain. To obtain SOL the users have to go through centralized exchanges which takes considerable time and effort. Also, some users might not want to hold SOL in their wallets due to its volatile nature. The protocol is fully non-custodial. https://metasol.medium.com/introducing-metasol-meta-transaction-on-solana-3a5ae5e7e7fd

NFTs & Gaming on Solana

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) is the latest craze in the crypto space. Their birth began approximately 2017/2018 with early projects debuting on Ethereum. NFTs are unique because they inhabit a tick on a ledger. Rather than just being merely a jpeg or PNG file the provenance of each file is recorded on the blockchain with an immutable address. The value these projects hold is based on rarity, historical value and or by community efforts. Until 2021 Ethereum was home to many of these rare and historical projects (Cryptopunks, crypto kitties, art blocks, Bored Ape Yacht Club and more…).

The Solana ecosystem has been catching up with projects that mimic the Ethereum version such as SolPunks, Solana Monkey Business, Degenerate Ape Academy and other efforts that affix the prefix “Sol” to the front of their title. The main attraction to the Solana blockchain for NFTs is of course the low transaction fees that allow people who flip NFTs for profit to move out further on the risk curve and buy/sell much more frequently. In short, the Solana NFT space is still in early days and possibilities are endless. That being said, there have been numerous “bad mints” (failed or delayed minting of NFTs) due to popular demand for these NFTs on the Solana blockchain. Many of these “bad mints” resulted in refunds or delayed renderings but the minting success or failure seems to be based on the team and not necessarily a problem with the blockchain.

Metaplex

Under the hood the NFTs on Solana have to follow the “metaplex standard” in order to ensure provenance for owners. “SPL wallets should support the displaying of metadata associated with SPL tokens, in accordance with the standards described by the Metaplex Token Metadata contract. Wallets should pull both the on-chain data and the external JSON provided by the metadata’s uri field and use them to display all relevant data. We recommend following the Metaplex standards and standards defined in this document to ensure your NFT will be correctly displayed in your wallets and to allow usage of all functionalities related to NFTs.”

TLDR: In order for NFTs to be of value (exist on the chain and not just be a worthless token) the coding must follow the “metaplex standard”.

What is Metaplex? Metaplex is the engine behind the NFT ecosystem on Solana. “Metaplex is actually not a single contract, but a contract ecosystem, consisting of four contracts that interact with one another. Only one of the contracts (Metaplex) actually knows about the other three, while the others represent primitives in the ecosystem and do not interact with each other at all. The Token Metadata contract can be used for storing generic metadata about any given mint, whether NFT or not. Metadata allows storage of name, symbol, and URI to an external resource. Additionally, the Metadata allows for the tracking of creators, primary sales, and seller fees. Once the mint has been created, the mint authority can use the SPL Metadata program to create metadata” https://docs.metaplex.com/ Again, TLDR: Metaplex is a contract ecosystem that allows buying, selling, auctioning and burning at the speed of Solana.

NFT Markets on Solana

Holaplex // http://holaplex.com

Holaplex is a NFT storefront builder that utilizes Metaplex and the Solana Blockchain. This platform allows you to easily customize and configure your Metaplex NFT storefront with a few clicks. You do not need any coding knowledge. Holaplex empowers artists to do what they love- create art, removing the barriers that exist in the NFT world which include knowing how to code. Holaplex utilizes Solana blockchain and Arweave to store media. There are no fees aside from the transaction fees accrued by using the Solana blockchain. https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSMDXh4TbZCR70AqA3O3-pRnvWVBSxE5cFM4LcprS_BHa20aRK8xFLDMwv-2YbZydWYQS1DBl2GBFNX/pub

Digital Eyes // http://digitaleyes.market

Digital Eyes is a newer marketplace for NFTs on Solana. The listing fee is 0.01 $SOL. There are two additional fees paid for by the Buyer of the NFT. The royalty % fee is set by the creator at the time of minting and the service fee of 2.5% is collected by DigitalEyes. DigitalEyes is backed by a secure audited contract Audit by Zokyo. The project is still in it’s alpha stage. https://digitaleyes.market/faq

SolanArt // http://solanart.io

Solanart is a fully-fledged NFT marketplace based on the Solana network that allows anyone to acquire or sell Solana-based NFTs. It aims to help promote artists and creators by providing them with a trustless marketplace to share their art. When putting your NFT for sale, it is stored on a ‘Temporary Account’ owned by the marketplace program and added to a database which stores the data of the sale.

When someone buys your NFT, the program transfers the SOL amount from the buyer to the seller, and then unlocks the NFT which is sent to the buyer. Solanart uses both on-chain and off-chain data. The off-chain data is stored on a database and used to display all the NFT for sale on the main page, while the on-chain data is used when displaying NFT one by one. On-chain data provides a secure and decentralized experience. In fact, the marketplace could be fully decentralized, but handling multiple thousands of NFTs for sale and displaying them with filters on the main page is currently not an option because of the request limitation on the Solana Network.

SolSea // http://solsea.io

SOLSEA is the first open NFT marketplace on Solana with integrated minting, NFTs with embedded licenses, FTX-Pay support, Rarity index, and many more features. There is a 3% marketplace fee which occurs on every transaction. Artists can also decide their own creator’s fee. The developer behind SOLSEA is All-Art Protocol. SOLSEA scrapes data from the chain and JSONs, calculate the trait numbers, rarity scores, and rarity indexes for each piece in the collection. https://docs.solsea.io/getting-started/faq

Magic Eden // http://magiceden.io

Magic Eden is one of the newest marketplaces for Solana NFTs. They plan on having a launch pad for creators by the end of 2022. They offer a custom tool kit to launch and market different projects.

Gaming on Solana

NFTs have become popular for profile pictures, online clubs and for speculation. The latest trend to develop in the NFT space is functional NFTs in relation to gaming. The “play2earn” model is not new but using your NFT as your avatar or character is. Gaming requires a high throughput of data in order to provide an interesting and seamless on-chain experience that matches the standard of experience outside of the NFT world. Solana’s ability to process transactions at a high rate allows the monetization and synthesis of gaming and crypto to grow even further.

Star Atlas // Token: $ATLAS & $POLIS // http://staratlas.com

Star Atlas is a next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from the confluence of state of the art blockchain, real-time graphics, multiplayer video game, and decentralized financial technologies. Real-time graphics technology using Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite allows for cinematic quality video game visuals. Blockchain technology using the Solana protocol established a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience. Usage of non-fungible tokens obtained and traded within Star Atlas creates an economy that replicates the tangibility of real world assets and ownership. Star Atlas operates a dual token economy, with the two crypto-native assets being ATLAS and POLIS. https://staratlaswiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

Aurory // http://app.aurory.io

Aurory is a gaming platform powered by Solana and Serum. NFTs from Aurory will give you access to play future game modes. They are the key to test and validate those modes before they are made public. Then, in a future update of Aurory, your Aurorian will be your in-game skin modelized in 3D in order for you to evolve on the map with it in the solo game mode, and in potential future multiplayer game modes. https://auroryproject.medium.com/?p=b52628d8d924

COPE // Token: $COPE // https://unlimitedcope.com/

COPE is a project that has two phases. Phase 1 of COPE involves seeking to ascertain and evaluate trader weaknesses and failings retrospectively based on trader calls made about crypto markets and provide reporting on this for self analysis. Top Call Makers are evaluated based on their call accuracy which along with other parameters results in a COPE score given to them. The top 100 Call Makers are embraced within a COPE index ranking them by their COPE score. The second phase for COPE is an automated investment product that users can get permission to trade on their behalf based on the COPE index.

While the longer term vision is to support cross-chain trading, the immediate capability allows for integration of the Serum DEX which gives the ability for frictionless CLOB trading with active strategies according to rules produced in a smart contract running on the Solana Blockchain. Currently the COPE gang is developing online games to burn $COPE tokens.

DEXes on Solana

Serum is the centerpiece of the Dex galaxy on Solana and attributed in large part to Sam Bankman-Fried. Why is this? It is primarily because it operates as the backend for many of the transactions for front end dApps on Solana (Mango Markets, Bonfida, Cope, Aurory, DexLab, Jet and many more) that have been mentioned in this paper. “Serum launched on the 31st of August 2020 and was one of the first major open source projects to build on Solana. It is supported by the Serum Foundation, and backed by a consortium of experts in cryptocurrency trading and decentralized finance, including FTX, Alameda Research, and the Solana Foundation.” https://docs.projectserum.com/introduction/overview

Outside of Solana, Serum is perhaps one of the most important projects in crypto. It has moved the needle in regards to decentralized finance and permissionless applications. “The Ultimate Vision behind Serum is to drive the global mass adoption of DeFi.One conceptualization of this goal includes the milestones of reaching 1 billion users and $10T of on-chain value.” The long and short of it is that “Serum is a complete, non-custodial decentralized exchange running on an on-chain central limit order book (CLOB) on Solana’s mainnet.” Here are some other dexes that are popular within the ecosystem. https://docs.projectserum.com/introduction/overview

1Sol // https://1sol.io

1Sol is preparing to be the go-to trading portal for Solana. It plans on offering one-stop aggregation service that integrates all kinds of DeFi and DEXES. It will provide the average user with information on prices, slippage and costs of all DEX on the web. Users can choose for themselves the one path that best suits them to trade. Mainstream cryptocurrencies will have their own mapped assets on each chain. https://file.1sol.io/static/1Sol%20Protocol%20Pitch%20Deck%20v0.7.pdf

Solanax // https://solanax.org

Traditional AMMs allow you to specify the number of tokens to be traded and the amount of slippage. If the conditions are not met, the order and gas fee are wasted rather than waiting for a transaction to proceed. AMMs like SOLANAX provide a compelling alternative, providing innovation in the DeFi liquidity concept for setting contract-based limit orders without slippage. If the trade criteria are not met within limit orders on DEX, the order and gas price are not wasted. https://solanax.org/#about

Aldrin // Token: $RIN // https://aldrin.com

Formerly known as CryptoCurrency AI, Aldrin is a decentralized exchange whose mission is to simplify DeFi and create powerful tools to help all traders succeed, leading to more equality. Aldrin allows users to set up sophisticated trading schemes with a system called “smart trading”. For example, if a trader sets a stop-loss level you can specify a timed stop loss known as “time out” which allows the stop loss to be overrode if the price drop only lasts for a short amount of time. There are currently 50,000,000 $RIN tokens in circulation. They also plan to have a centralized exchange launch shortly to allow spot and margin leverage up to 20x. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrJ6VQyU6A0

Conclusion

As indicated in the name, the Solana Mainnet-Beta is still in its early days. These early days have been incredibly successful for the protocol and for the ecosystem as a whole. Despite the recent price increase since January (over 4,000%) there is still a large amount of upside that has not been realized. This upside may however be more reliant on the crypto market as a whole. Keeping in mind the ultimate vision of Project Serum of onboarding a billion users and realizing 10 trillion dollars into DeFi, the crypto space looks more like a multi-chain future that will require a layer 1 protocol that has the power and speed to process the volume of traditional finance. Solana will only continue to grow as institutions begin to build upon it to offer their clients higher yields in an environment of potential stagflation.

Solana Deep Dive Part 2: A Guide to Navigating a Booming Ecosystem