DeFi

Solana developer says new crypto phone ‘looks like madness’ – but it already has $65 million in pre-orders – DL News

Published

8 months ago

30 May, 2024

CoinFlix Staff

Solana developer says new crypto phone 'looks like madness' – but it already has $65 million in pre-orders – DL News

Solana’s Steven Laver brings BlackBerry and Apple experience to the Chapter 2 handset.
Crypto needs to break free from the desktop if it wants to scale, says the Solana team.
Solana undertakes a herculean task by embarking on manufacturing.

At first glance, Steven Laver does not seem like the one who would lead the most daring project in crypto.

The 43-year-old software engineer worked on the BlackBerry in the 2000s, then helped develop the Windows Phone app store at Microsoft.

He didn’t even work in crypto until early 2022.

Nonetheless, Laver is now the lead software engineer in Solana Labs’ drive to change the crypto experience by putting blockchain capabilities in the palm of your hand.

“It has such great energy that the sky is the limit,” Laver said. DL News in a rare interview. “It sounds like crazy, but at the same time it feels like the end result.”

This result is Solana’s second cell phone.

It’s called Chapter 2 and is expected to be released in early 2025. Pre-orders for the new device cost $500, and Solana claims to have more than 130,000 pre-orders. This represents $65 million in pre-orders.

Daring bet

It’s a bold bet for the four-year-old blockchain network. Mobile telephony, one of the most regulated industries on the planet, is dominated by Apple and Samsung.

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Why Solana, a pillar of DeFi with symbolic value 82 billion dollars and one of the hottest brands in crypto, making such a huge bet on hardware manufacturing?

“It’s a very difficult question,” said Chris Lewis, an independent telecommunications analyst with more than 40 years of experience in the industry. DL News.

The answer: control.

Chapter 2 is Solana’s attempt to free cryptography from the desktop and the dominance of Apple and Google’s application platforms.

Silicon Valley powerhouses have long harassed crypto-friendly mobile developers by charging huge fees or banning apps from their platforms.

In a world where investing, shopping, banking, and everything else happens on a smartphone, crypto is still fighting to gain a foothold.

“We’re used to everyone bringing a laptop to dinner, so you don’t miss a drop or a claim,” said Emmett Hollyer, manager of business development and operations at Solana Labs. DL News.

The madness of Memecoins

Solana, of course, is not the first crypto company to attempt to open up the grip of incumbents.

Over the past decade, more than a dozen custom-built crypto phones have hit the market. But none gained popularity.

Last year, Solana took a chance with Android-based Solana Saga. Customers picked up about 20,000 of the $600 handsets, which was well short of the 50,000-unit goal.

In comparison, Apple shipped more than 80 million iPhones in the fourth quarter alone.

Graphic by Darren Joseph/DL News

But Saga discovered what appeared to be a not-so-secret weapon in crypto phone development: memecoins.

The device came with a dog-themed memecoin called BONK. Somehow, collectors fell in love with BONK and its price soared 560% last December.

When investors rushed to call secondary markets, Hollyer and his team realized they had stumbled upon a new type of marketing strategy.

Now they are producing a sequel.

“Consumer hardware is difficult, but phones are a much greater order of magnitude.”

—Steven Laver, Solana

Although the company declined to disclose how much money it is investing in Chapter 2, it’s not a small number.

“Consumer hardware, in general, is difficult, but phones are a much higher order of magnitude,” Laver said. “Building a phone is an exercise that is as much about operations, logistics and compliance as it is about the underlying technology. »

There was a time when BlackBerry dominated the smartphone market, and Steven Laver was there. Photo credit: Shutterstock

The project comes as Solana is riding a wave of momentum. Its native token, SOL, rose 78% this year, compared to a 64% rise in the price of Ethereum, according to CoinGecko.

With a market value of $81 billion, Solana is the fifth largest digital asset.

Solana has also largely conquered the hot memecoin market. Activity was so strong in March that the network generated more costs than heavyweight Ethereum – no small feat.

Lingering Questions

Still, questions remain about whether to launch a mobile phone.

“What are you bringing,” Lewis said. “Is it just security? Is this a new interface? Is this the latest chip power? I think those are the questions you ask yourself, and then being able to build the brand and market it.

And, perhaps more importantly, is there actually a demand for a crypto phone?

Deep roots

Solana’s project is deeply rooted in Silicon Valley’s mobile scene.

It grew out of a little-known but much-loved project called Essential, founded by Andy Rubin, the brains behind Android at Google.

After Essential closed in 2020, some employees started another cell phone company called OSOM. A few years later, it developed the OV1 phone, which, featuring a ceramic and titanium body, became a cult favorite.

If you look closely, it also looks a lot like the Solana saga. This is because they are almost the same. Solana Labs and OSOM announced a Partnership in June 2022.

Solana CEO Anatoly Yakovenko appeared at an event in Indonesia in May with a cellphone emblazoned with the Solana logo. Photo credit: Muhammad Alimaki/Shutterstock

In February 2022, Laver landed in Solana right in the heart of Saga development.

Originally from Canada, Laver studied computer engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario (the same alma mater as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin).

Iconic products

Laver was present at the creation of several iconic products. He worked on a range of BlackBerrys, made by Canadian company Research in Motion, which introduced portable email and texting to business life.

At Microsoft, Laver worked on what would become the Windows Phone app store. He has also worked on other consumer electronics products such as smartwatch maker Fitbit, as well as at Apple and Google.

“There are many low- and mid-budget Android phones that look like a cheap car dashboard from the late 90s.”

—Steven Laver, Solana Labs

From the start, Laver said the Saga was designed to have a satisfying weight in hand and a sleek matte finish.

“There are many low- and mid-budget Android phones that look like a cheap car dashboard from the late ’90s,” Laver said.

Solana’s device was designed with three features not found on normal handsets.

The first one was called Seed Vault.

This stores the seed phrases that users use to send and receive cryptocurrencies. Saga’s security falls somewhere between an internet-connected crypto wallet such as Phantom or MetaMask and the vault-style Ledger, Laver said.

It’s not intended to hold millions of dollars of crypto, but you can buy a few cocktails with it.

Challenge Apple and Google

The Solana Mobile Stack allows mobile app developers to create crypto apps for the phone. And the Solana dApp Store gives projects a marketplace for their work.

It is designed to be a purpose around the Apple App Store, which has taken down a few of the largest crypto apps in the industry, perhaps most notably MetaMask in October. It was later reinstated.

In-app purchases on the Apple App Store are also subject to a whopping 30% fee.

As for Google’s Play Store, it relaxed its crypto policy last summer. But he also generally charges developer fees between 15% and 30%.

Laver says the Solana Labs team is going to let crypto be crypto.

“We are adopting a much lighter policy,” he said. “We’re doing our best to get out of the way.”

Profit center

Solana Labs does not charge any fees, except for the fee for publishing application metadata on the Solana blockchain.

“It’s not a profit center for us,” Laver said.

The platform already includes NFT marketplace Magic Eden and decentralized exchange Jupiter.

“We need to find a way to give manufacturers a reasonable path to distribution.”

—Emmett Hollyer, Solana Labs

Hollyer hopes this will put pressure on Silicon Valley to take a more enlightened approach to crypto.

“Hopefully Google and Apple will come to their senses and see what might be possible if they relax some of their pricing structures and some of their restrictive policies,” he said. “Until then, we need to find a way to give manufacturers a reasonable path to distribution.”

Solana recently registered its 100th dapp.

“We’re just starting to get to that point where developers are starting to see the value in building a phone like Saga,” Laver said.

BONK goes boom

But the big change in the development of the Solana phone was BONK, the $2.1 billion meme coin. Each phone purchased came with $750 worth of BONK tokens, redeemable using a non-transferable NFT – a digital identifier linking buyers to each phone.

When the token skyrocketed in December, 30 million BONK tokens were integrated directly into the Solana Saga phone. An arbitrage trade emerged.

“With BONK, I bought other memecoins,” said Lui Kohl, product manager at token acquisition platform Streamflow. DL News. “Overall, I think I turned $800 BONK into $4,000, so it was worth it financially.”

Thanks to the BONK buzz, Hollyer said Solana was able to sell the rest of its phones in three days.

The episode also sparked anticipation for Chapter 2, which is already eligible for five memecoins. Kohl’s, for its part, has already pre-ordered the phone.

Absorbing the lessons of crypto mobile marketing, Laver admitted he was “personally a little confused.”

“Blockchain is just a little bit different,” he said. “Ultimately, putting a real, physical, well-integrated product in people’s hands is why I do this.”

Liam Kelly is based in Berlin DL News’ corresponding. Contact him at liam@dlnews.com.

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DeFi

If You Missed BONK and PEPE This Year, This Viral New Crypto Might Be Your Salvation

Published

6 months ago

29 July, 2024

CoinFlix Staff

If You Missed BONK and PEPE This Year, This Viral New Crypto Might Be Your Salvation

Bonk and Pepe appear set to net new investors 10x to 100x returns over the next 12 months. However, cryptocurrencies in the DeFi play-to-earn gaming sector could offer even greater returns. As August approaches, Rollblock is emerging as a standout DeFi play-to-earn gem with the potential to 100x-1000x gains in the fourth quarter and beyond.

The project features an innovative revenue sharing model and exceptional accessibility, attracting players and investors. Additionally, Rollblock’s extensive game library of over 150 titles and enhanced sports betting are further driving excitement for the platform. Cryptocurrency analysts are expecting a sudden surge in demand. 800% a push for Rollblock from the beginning of September.

Bonk remains strong despite market fluctuations

While most well-known cryptocurrencies struggled throughout July, Bonk remained strong. As one of the highest-grossing meme cryptocurrencies of 2024, Bonk rose over 24% in July, while most cryptocurrencies experienced negative fluctuations.

Investors looking to add a relatively safe memecoin to their portfolio should consider Bonk. While Bonk is unlikely to generate explosive gains of 250x to 1,000x from here on out, Bonk could still theoretically provide returns in the 20x to 100x range.

Pepe should see a big rise in the next bull run

Alongside Bonk, Pepe has yet to go through a bull run. This means that there are still substantial gains to be made from Pepe over the next 12 months.

Pepe is down 4% in 30 days, but that shouldn’t worry Pepe investors in 2024. Experts believe Pepe’s best days are still ahead, with crypto analysts predicting a 10x to 50x surge in the next election cycle around November.

In the long term, Pepe could surpass the 100x mark for today’s investors. However, Pepe is a memecoin, and one should exercise caution when investing in purely speculative assets that have no utility.

Rollblock’s Unprecedented Hype Potential Could Push It Past 100x Valuation in Q4

Rollblock is a GambleFi Play-to-Earn token that integrates centralized and decentralized gambling on a single platform. By allowing players to earn rewards through active participation and gameplay, the platform creates a compelling incentive structure that appeals to both casual and competitive players.

With its cutting-edge blockchain technology, Rollblock offers top-notch security that keeps bets and transactions on the platform secure. The platform’s lack of KYC mandates appeals to both users who value anonymity and security.

Rollblock’s revenue sharing model, which allocates up to 30% of casino revenue to RBLK token holders, is a major draw for investors. The model involves burning half of the repurchased tokens and distributing the other half to stakers, increasing the token’s value and encouraging long-term investment.

The platform is also constantly evolving thanks to user feedback which has enabled updates such as the upcoming sports betting feature within the platform’s casino. This addition will complement Rollblock’s extensive game library of over 150 titles, ranging from traditional poker to innovative blockchain-based games.

RBLK is expected to emerge as one of the leading DeFi tokens in 2024. With a price of $0.0172 with impressive growth potential and over 140 million tokens sold recently, Rollblock is on track to enter the top 100 cryptocurrencies by Q4, making today a lucrative time to buy RBLK tokens.

Discover the exciting opportunities of the Rollblock (RBLK) presale today!

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DeFi

Cryptocurrency sector is experiencing ‘most misjudged moment’ since 2020, says venture capitalist Arthur Cheong

Published

6 months ago

29 July, 2024

CoinFlix Staff

Cryptocurrency sector is experiencing ‘most misjudged moment’ since 2020, says venture capitalist Arthur Cheong

Veteran cryptocurrency investor Arthur Cheong believes the digital asset sector offers long-term holders a golden opportunity.

Cheong, the founder of DeFiance Capital, tell His 171,700 followers on social media platform X indicate that he believes decentralized finance (DeFi) is hugely undervalued.

According to Cheong, DeFi projects are innovating at a rapid pace and leaving traditional financial (TradFi) companies in the dust.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited about the risk/reward and potential upside of DeFi. This is probably the most misjudged moment since the pre-DeFi summer of 2020, with extremely promising prospects.

I see opportunities not only in OG (original) DeFi, but also in some newer projects that are evolving rapidly and growing at a pace that fintech startups will do anything to match.

The veteran investor also believes that crypto is now here to stay following recent launch from the Ethereum spot market (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) last week.

“Overall, the floodgates are open and there is no turning back. TradFi asset managers will continue to launch new crypto products because, guess what: there is huge demand for them!”

I expect them to launch actively managed crypto ETFs [in the] coming years. ”

Earlier this month, Cheong laid that it might be a bad strategy for cryptocurrencies to seek mass adoption, believing that digital assets are designed to disrupt several key financial sectors.

“I think we should accept that cryptocurrencies may not be suited for mass adoption like Web2, but rather are optimized for some narrow but very high-impact use cases like stateless global money, cross-border payments, and decentralized finance.

Chasing mass adoption of normies may be chasing the wrong Grail from the start.

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