Colosseum Codex: Crossroads Recap, Phantom Acquires Bitski, Metaplex MPL-404

🛣️ Solana Crossroads 2024 Recap

Solana Crossroads 2024, the largest community conference for Solana, took place in Istanbul and saw a massive turnout of over 2,500 attendees, marking a 300% increase from the previous year with more than 40 industry leaders and speakers.

Several key announcements were made during the event:

1. Jupiter Protocol: Co-founder Siong announced the imminent release of their mobile app.
2. BONKbot: Co-founder King.sol revealed upcoming SPL 404 support.
3. Birdeye: Plans for a mobile app were unveiled.
4. GenesysGo: Frank announced the launch of GenesysGo Mobile ShdwDrive for Solana Mobile.
5. Marinade: Michael Repetny confirmed the V2 launch in Q2 2024.
6. Star Atlas: CEO Michael Wagner announced the release of Star Atlas Mobile for Android and iOS by the end of the year.
7. Kamino Finance: Co-founder Marius Ciubotariu emphasized the potential of DeFi as a secure savings account solution and the importance of user-friendly interfaces.
8. Io.net: Tausif Ahmad discussed the potential of DePIN and future developments in creatively utilizing everyday devices.

The conference encouraged community engagement through VIP parties, boat cruises, and interactive demos.

If you couldn't make it in person, you can catch a replay of the full live stream for both Day 1 and Day 2.

Solana Crossroads 2024 Recap: Istanbul Hosts Solana's Largest Community Conference with 2,500+ Attendees

👛 Phantom Acquires Bitski

Phantom has made a strategic acquisition of Bitski, a wallet-as-a-service platform backed by prominent investors like a16z and Coinbase Ventures.

This move is aimed at enhancing user experience and simplifying the onboarding process for both developers and users in the Solana ecosystem.

Bitski’s embedded wallet technology allows users to sign up and access dApps using credentials such as email addresses or social media accounts, eliminating the need for complex seed phrases, making it easier for new users to engage with web3.

Bitski’s team will join Phantom, doubling its team size and work towards fully integrate Bitski’s technology into phantom wallet, with existing Bitski products being phased out over time.

Phantom’s integration of Bitski’s technology will make it easier for developers to onboard new users, reduce friction, and enhance the overall user experience, attracting a more diverse user base to the entire Solana ecosystem.

Phantom acquires Bitski to accelerate crypto adoption

👁️‍🗨️ Superteam Renaissance Project Reviews

Four members of Superteam spent some time to do in-depth reviews of Renaissance hackathon winning projects covering the quality of the idea, GTM strategy, and their path to monetization. (Any critiques were intended to be helpful to make the project better.)

Check out all the bite-sized reviews by track:

• Consumer Apps
• DePIN
• DeFi, Payments & Infra

🦀 Rust to Solana Bootcamp

Rust Developers are well-positioned to start building on Solana as Rust is used as the main language used for on-chain programs for Solana.

However, there are several important differences that may confuse existing developers when moving from Rust to Solana.

@b_migliaccio, DevRel at Solana Foundation has put together a 2-part video series for Rust developers moving into Solana development:

Rust to Solana Bootcamp | Day 1

Rust to Solana Bootcamp | Day 2

🧰 Metaplex Foundation Introduces MPL-404

Mutant Labs is contributing its SPL-404 swap program, a framework and on-chain protocol for hybrid DeFi on Solana, to the Metaplex Program Library.

By integrating Mutant Labs' SPL-404 swap program, MPL-404 makes it easier for developers to implement hybrid DeFi solutions with features like Dynamic Trait Re-rolling, Loot-box Mechanics, and On-chain Identities

Metaplex Foundation Introduces MPL-404, the Future of Hybrid DeFi on Solana in Collaboration with Mutant Labs

🦋 UN-RIP Solarplex

Last week I shared Solarplex's decision to sunset, which came as a surprise to many in the Solana community.

Now they have announced another surprise: They're not shutting down after all!

💎 Developer News

SpringX Solana Accelerator
SpringX is a global accelerator with an intensive 3-month program spanning crypto key cities globally. The program starts on June 18, 2024, with 5 days IRL in Kuala Lumpur during Solana Summit, followed by 6 months of training and support by global mentors.

HeavyDutyCamp
Heavy Duty Builders, a free online bootcamp entirely in Spanish, returns for another round on June 17th. Participants will dive into building programs on Solana with Rust and Anchor.

Comets of Web3 (Romania)
Comets of Web3 is launching the first Romanian Solana developer program. The online, hands-on training program includes 2 cohorts with 36 hours of live sessions and workshops. Registration is open for the first cohort that runs between June 25th to August 5th.

Startup Village: Malaysia
Startup Village is happening June 12th to 24th, just before the Solana Summit event in Kuala Lumpur where developers can meet other builders in the Asian Solana ecosystem with a combination of programming, hacking, co-working, education, and networking.

XFounders Go-to-Market Bootcamp
This 4-week in person program in Bali, Indonesia is for late seed and Series A stage startups to accelerate project growth and attract the next round of investment or close the current round.

KUMEKATHON Ukrainian Solana Hackathon
During Ukrainian Blockchain Week, Kumeka Team is hosting a Solana hackathon from June 14 - 20, 2024 with $200,000 in prizes, grants, and seed funding. Renaissance hackathon participants are invited to submit their projects for consideration.

💸 Funding

Switchboard, a decentralized oracle network, has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Tribe Capital and RockawayX, with additional participation from Solana Foundation and several other backers. Switchboard will use the funds to build out its oracle tools and expand use cases with web3 developers and community members.

Coinflow, a payment provider, announced the closing of a $2.25M seed round led by CMT Digital with participation from Reciprocal Ventures, Jump Crypto and various angel investors from the Solana ecosystem.

⚙️ Tools & Resources

kinobi is a client generator for Solana programs from Metaplex now supports generating Anchor IDL types for native Solana programs, starting with Core Rust SDK 0.6.1.

mpl-core-anchor-examples is a set of examples of how to use Metaplex Core in Anchor Programs.

⚡ Quick Hits

Solana DePIN Snapshot: H1 2024 - Flipside

PayPal PYUSD is live on Solana - @solana

Ironforge adds RPC Rate Limiter, enhanced analytics, and transaction log filtering - Ironforge

Survey for projects that support or use Solana Token Extensions - @Austin_Federa

How We Structured Cube by Larry Wu, Co-Founder/CTO - @cubexch

Solana Proposal to Allocate 100% of Priority Fees to Validators Passes - SolanaFloor

How is Solana front-running Ethereum this cycle - Datt

Zeta X DeFi Layer 2 Litepaper published - Zeta

Applications open for Orange DAO fellowship s24 - @OrangeDAOxyz

🎧 Listen to This

Validated

In this episode, Austin Federa sits down with Stephen Hess to discuss the evolution of the Solana NFT ecosystem from the summer of 2021 to today.

They explore the initial creation of the Solana NFT standard and reflect on recent technological advancements, including compressed NFTs, programmability, and the introduction of the "Core" standard.

Stephen explains how the Core standard marks a shift from traditional NFT standards to a broader digital asset protocol.

The conversation also delves into the Metaplex DAO's role in governance, controversies surrounding features like programmable NFTs, the introduction of protocol fees, and more.

How Metaplex Core Moves Beyond NFT Standards w/ Stephen Hess (Metaplex Studios)

Bonus Episodes

Mega Bullish Solana with Joe McCann - Midcurve

Joe McCann from Asymmetric explores the strategies that led to their impressive status at the #1 hedgefund, the differences between the last crypto and current cycles, his thoughts on why Solana stands out in crypto, and the importance of community culture.

Greg Cusack: Solana Validator Gossip Protocol, Decentralized Networks, Gaming Gossip - Scraping Bits

Greg Cusack, a leading expert in the field, take us on a journey through the inner workings of the gossip protocol, shedding light on its ingenious design and the challenges it overcomes. We'll also delve into the exciting realm of gaming gossip, where Greg will share his insights on the latest trends and innovations in the gaming industry.

Web3 Domains on Solana with AllDomains (feat. Vlad Toni, founder) - Solfate

This conversation delves into All Domains' shift from developing social primitives on Solana to tokenizing web2 domains, exploring the benefits and potential of Solana in domain tokenization. The discussion also touches on the challenges of building the product and concludes with future plans, including the unique offering of emoji domains.

How Phantom Became Solana's Largest Wallet | Brandon Millman & Donnie Dinch - Lightspeed

Brandon Millman & Donnie Dinch for a discussion on Phantom's recent acquisition & how they grew to be the largest wallet within the Solana ecosystem!

Follow @mikehale on X or Warpcast!

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