Colosseum Codex: Solana Summer IRL, mtnDAO v6, Pyth Pull Oracle
Solana Summer IRL, mtnDAO v6, Pyth Pull Oracle, Circle Credits Program, MagicBlock, Mirror World Funding
Rough week, huh?
Let's just focus on the positives. Sounds good to you?
Last week's Solana v1.18.15 upgrade has made noticeable improvements to performance with faster confirmation times and ~2k true TPS.
Even more important, the upgrade (>95% of validators are now running v1.18) went off without any major issues.
Devs that don't do anything to their apps will still see overall improvements in performance, but there are some optimizations you can make to really take advantage of this update.
Setting proper priority fees and using SWQoS nodes will give apps a boost, but minimizing and optimizing the Compute Units (CUs) used by your app is the most direct thing devs can do.
In Solana, CUs are the measure of resources used by a transaction or a program (like gas in Ethereum) and ensures that no single transaction can monopolize network resources.
Transaction fees in Solana are determined by the number of CUs it consumes. More complex transactions will use more CUs and therefore incur higher fees.
When you create a transaction you specify the maximum number of CUs that the transaction is allowed to consume. If your transaction goes over this budget, it fails.
Developers are encouraged to write the most efficient code to minimize the number of CUs their programs use.
But how do you actually do that?
There are some quick wins like using the smallest data types possible, avoiding unnecessary logging, and saving PDA bumps in an account.
Depending on your program code, there are plenty of other things to consider when trying to optimize the CUs your program uses.
Rather than trying to include them all here, take a look at these resources to learn more about minimizing the CUs used by your programs:
- How to Optimize Compute Usage on Solana
- Optimizing CU in programs
- Introduction to Solana Compute Units and Transaction Fees
- Solana Fees in Theory and Practice
Transaction fees are already so cheap that shaving off a few fractions of a cent in fees might not sound important, but we can make transactions more efficient, decrease demand on network resources, and improve the overall UX of Solana!
Here's a roundup of more good news for Solana builders...
🌞 Solana Summer Kickoff IRL
Solana is making it easy for anyone to host their own IRL meetup on Thursday, 27 June and meet the builders in your community
There are meetups in 120+ cities around the world you can join or host in your city.
Events only happen if someone from the community steps up to host and sets the location, capacity, and start time.
Anyone can also apply for a Community Grant to start your own community or host a major event like SolanaSummit or Consensus Snapshot.
If the Chicago event happens, I'll be there!
⛰️ mtnDAO v6
The mtndao Summit returns the entire month of August in Salt Lake City, offering developers a unique experience of building and collaboration.
mtndao offers interactive workshops, coding sessions, and collaborative projects with deep dives into Solana, hands-on technical support, thought-provoking discussions, and networking with like-minded developers.
Builders at all stages of their journey are welcome, from seasoned professionals to budding enthusiasts and the summit is designed to accommodate participants who need to continue working full time.
🧙 Pyth Pull Oracle
The Pyth Network, known for providing reliable market data, has launched its new Pull Oracle model on Solana.
Traditionally, Pyth used a push oracle system, which sent updated prices to the blockchain at regular intervals. This method faced limitations during the periods of network congestion that Solana has dealt with recently.
The transition to a pull oracle model brings some key benefits.
Developers can now request price updates as needed, providing real-time data essential for DeFi transactions, even during congestion.
Access to Pyth Benchmarks allows querying of historical prices, aiding in accurate settlement and prevention of frontrunning.
Several of the most popular platforms in the Solana ecosystem have already transitioned to the Pyth pull oracle, including Kamino, Jupiter, Zeta Markets, GooseFX, Lifinity, Bonfida, and many more.
Developers looking to implement the Pyth pull oracle can start with this guide on How to Use Real-Time Data in Solana Programs
Pyth Pull Oracle Launches on Solana
⭕ Circle Credits Program
Designed to subsidize the costs of building on-chain apps, the Circle Credits Program supports developers at various stages who are building apps with Circle's Web3 Services.
These credits can be used to cover:
- Monthly fees for Programmable Wallets
- API calls for Smart Contract Platforms
- Network and platform fees at the Gas Station
If you're a developer working with USDC, you can apply to receive up to $1000 in Circle credits.
Circle Credits Program Application
💎 Developer News
MagicBlock Game Engine
The first footage of the MagicBlock Engine has been "leaked". MagicBlock achieves this performance by using a temporarily delegated account that is readable on Solana, but locked for the duration of the play session. Other transactions are sent directly to Solana and can read the locked account state, which is committed by the validator, verified, and settled on Mainnet.
Solana Incubator Demo Day
The Solana Incubator Demo Day is on June 26 where you'll hear from the first cohort including Armada, Espresso Cash, Juicer, Sanctum, Shaga, Zeebit on their progress & impact made during the Incubator program.
Godot Web3 Game Tutorial
This 10-part video tutorial will show you how to build a Web3 game using Godot Engine and the Solana SDK. You'll build a game that teaches you how to connect a wallet, NFT holder utilities, and transferring tokens to winners.
⚙️ Tools & Resources
Core Oracle Plugin Example is a developer guide that explains how to launch a collection using the Metaplex Core Oracle plugin, with time-restricted trading as an example. There's also a demo UI for a hands-on learning experience
cosmwasm-counter is an example of a simple user specific counter program for both a CosmWasm smart contract and a Solana Program with key differences explained in the readme.
anchor-fundraiser is an example built with Anchor 0.30.0 that demonstrates how to create a fundraising for SPL Tokens where a user will be able to create a fundraiser account, specify a mint to collect, and the fundraising target.
sologger-geyser-plugin is a configurable Solana Geyser plugin that uses Sologger to structure Solana validator logs and send them to either Logstash or an OpenTelemetry collector.
marketplace-contracts are programs from Soundwork to build a marketplace that supports Metaplex Core standard.
💸 Funding
Mirror World Labs, a Solana gaming studio, has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Bitkraft. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of Sonic, an atomic SVM Layer 2 rollup designed to enable sovereign game economies on Solana and ease game builders into using the Sonic SVM and HyperGrid Framework, a rollup deployment kit for deploying new game engines and virtual machines within the Solana environment.
⚡ Quick Hits
Managing Memory in Solana Programs - Blockiosaurus
How to use Flare to speed up the testing and dev process - @anthiasxyz
Core Verified Creator and Autograph plugins have rolled out to Mainnet - @metaplex
Very Fast Vanity Program IDs and Token Mints on Solana - @cavemanloverboy
Switchboard Unveils Three Powerful New Task Types - @switchboardxyz
Solana should host the next generation of self-improvement apps - Blockworks
Solana May 2024 - Wins of the Month - @solana
Deep Dive: Solana DePIN - May 2024 - Syndica
Helio upgrades its Solana Pay plugin for Shopify - Blockworks
🎧 Listen to This
Chewing Glass
In this episode, Chase chats with Dean, founder of Zeus Network, a framework which allows for the deployment of DApps on Solana for Bitcoin integration.
Bonus Episodes
Chris Liquin, CEO of Cupcake, discusses the reasons Fortune 500 companies are increasingly turning to crypto, CultureFi, Cupcake’s games, the benefits of this social layer for crypto adoption, and the work on the next season.
Digital Object Tokens x Coca-Cola on Solana (feat. Vito, founder All Art) - Solfate
Vito, co-founder of All Art, discusses the challenges of payments in virtual reality and the need for instant and low-cost transactions and the implementation of blockchain technology within Coca-Cola. He also highlights the challenges of user experience and the importance of collaboration with brands, regulators, and governments to drive adoption and solve key problems in the blockchain space.
CUDIS – The Wearable Smart Ring on Solana - Crypto Conversation
Edison Chen is the co-founder and CEO of CUDIS, a Web 3.0 startup making the world’s first AI smart ring that rewards your wellness journey. The CUDIS ring is a Solana-based wearable that discreetly monitors users’ physical well-being, offering a wealth of biometric insights.
Why Solana Will Eventually Flip Ethereum | Kyle Samani - Lightspeed
Kyle Samani joins Lighspeed for a wide ranging discussion on his current crypto thesis, the L1 vs L2 debate, Stablecoins & DePin as crypto's killer use cases, and why Solana will ultimately flip Ethereum.
Simpdigit: Solana Validator Voting MEV + Stakeweight QOS - Scraping Bits
Host DeGatchi, alongside Simpdigit, explores the intricate dynamics of Solana's validator ecosystem, focusing on the implications of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) and the implementation of Stake-weighted Quality of Service (QoS). The discussion covers the ethical and technical challenges of MEV practices, such as transaction sandwiching, and the benefits of Stake-weighted QoS in ensuring high-quality service for staked validators.
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