"Solana 2022" Seminar Minutes: Composability is an advantage, not an Ethereum killer

Content curation: Lou Kerner

Article Compilation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Workshop participants:

Kyle Samani: Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital

Mike McGlone: ​​Senior Commodity Strategist, Bloomberg

Joe McCann: Technologist

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1. Composability is the main advantage of Solana

Both Kyle and Joe expressed the same point: composability is a property characteristic of web3, and it is also a significant advantage of Solana.

In the workshop, Kyle quotes Jesse Walden's definition of composability:

A platform is composable if its existing resources can be used to build new blocks and can be programmed into higher order applications.

Kyle gave an example of Margin-FI, thinking that it is a typical project with high composability. Margin-Fi is a project that provides web3 institutional brokerage services, and it can be linked to various DeFi services. The picture below is Schematic diagram of Margin-Fi:

Then, Joe also gave his definition of composability: "1. The ability to provide truly immersive, rich applications, 2. Composability should enable applications to be built on top of other applications/protocols, 3. Bridging the features of web2 to web3", and Joe also exemplified the on-chain order book Serum, because many applications are currently based on it. The following picture is a screenshot of Joe's speech:

In general, the best analogy to describe composability is Lego bricks, people can build new Lego bricks on existing Lego bricks, and people can build new projects on existing composable items. Kyle describes the exciting prospects that may lie ahead in the not-too-distant future:

Over the next 12 months, apps will leverage a host of composable encryption technologies to deliver experiences that previously seemed impossible

Of course, objectively speaking, web2 has gradually acquired the feature of composability. In web2, certain applications can connect and upload data to Dropbox and Google Docs, and allow the use of plug-ins such as Grammarly.

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2. The cultural characteristics of Solona are: Compared with other Layer 1, Solona's target users will be more mass market rather than academic users

In the early days of web3, Layer 1 protocols lured builders by touting their academic or engineering achievements. In contrast, Solona is currently more for the mass market. FTX is the main supporter of the Solana ecosystem. It has expanded Solona’s influence through many measures, such as Serum (this is a high-speed, order-based, non-custodial DEX). In addition, FTX also sponsors the stadium of the NBA Miami Heat, the United States Major League Baseball (MLB) umpire uniforms, UC Berkeley football stadiums, etc. These sponsorships are obviously very attractive to the mass market.

Solona's promotion of NFT development is also another move that is very attractive to the mass market. Considering Solana's low cost and high throughput, as corporate entities launch NFT strategies, Solona NFT positions itself as the NFT home of brands and artists.

The picture below is Joe's complete narrative about Solona:

1) Internet culture is a very strong force (for example, the correlation between the project’s Twitter followers and the project’s token price)

2) So far, Web3 is mainly a paradise for engineers, geeks and academic experts.

3) FTX connects the real world with the encrypted world through sports and entertainment

4) NFT introduces a normative creative culture into the encryption world and Web3

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Solana appeals to many developers for a number of reasons, but most notably its coding language. Developers on Ethereum had to learn a new programming model (Solidity), while Solana uses Rust, a programming language used by 1.1 million programmers, several times more than those who program in Solidity. Rust is also often cited as one of the best programming languages, with supply so high that in 2021, Rust developers are paid more on average than developers in any other language. This makes Solana an attractive option for developers looking to enter the crypto space. In fact, a recent report from Electric Capital shows that Solana will see a 4-fold increase in the number of developers in 2021, much faster than the other four front-end Layer 1s.

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4. The DDoS attack against the Solana network does not do any harm to Solana, but has a good promotion effect.

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5. Because Solana currently ranks fifth in total market value (as of the end of the webinar), Mike emphasized that the tokens that have entered the top five before are not ideal for subsequent development

Although both Kyle and Joe are very optimistic about Solana, Mike is more cautious, because in 2021, the price of Solana has risen sharply (increased by nearly 100 times), and the future prospects of other tokens whose market value has risen to the fifth place before also declined. Mike pointed out that XRP ranked fifth in 2020, and today, it is only ranked eighth, in 2019, BCH ranked fifth, today, BCH ranks 26th, in 2018, EOS ranked fifth, and currently EOS ranks 52nd , LTC used to rank 4th, but now it ranks 24th. Mike worries that Solana will meet the same fate.

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6. Although Solana is an Ethereum competitor, none of the workshop members think it is an Ethereum killer

Mike, Kyle, and Joe don't think Solana is an Ethereum killer.

Kyle believes that there is certainly a competitive relationship between Solana and ETH, but it is not 100% direct competition. Kyle believes that the two can coexist in duality. And there must be use cases where Solana has better performance, such as derivatives trading, because of leverage, so low latency is required, then Solana is very suitable. In addition, Ethereum has also done very well in many aspects, especially in the NFT field.

Joe also believes that the coexistence of the two is a long-term trend, because the programming models of the two are fundamentally different.