Recap of Solana Breakpoint 2024 Top Announcements - (PAGE ONE)
Comprehensive and concise compilations of the most important Keynotes/announcements from Solana Breakpoint 2024
Solana Breakpoint 2024 was held in Singapore at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre from September 20-21, 2024.
Thus are the important updates dropped by projects at the conference:
Jupiter
Mobile App Launch: Jupiter introduced its user-friendly mobile app to make Solana more accessible and friction-free for users, thereby enhancing the user experience in trading and interacting with the Solana blockchain.
Gasless Perpetual Futures: They unveiled a new standard for perpetual futures trading on Solana, which uses chaos pricing data with Pyth as a backup. This aims to position Solana as a prime destination for perpetual futures trading due to its efficiency and lower costs.
Ape Pro (Memecoin Trading Platform): Jupiter debuted Ape Pro, a platform tailored for the memecoin market. It features easy access via Google login, provides trading signals, and offers very low trading fees. Ape Pro also allows users to mint their memecoins with additional functionalities like locking, vesting, and earning from perpetual swap fees.
Acquisitions: Jupiter announced the acquisition of SolanaFM (prominent Solana data provider and block explorer) and Coinhall (leading aggregator in the Cosmos ecosystem). These acquisitions will expand Jupiter's service offerings across Solana and Cosmos ecosystems.
General update: During the keynote, there were mentions of updates across Jupiter's suite of products including Spot, Ape, Mobile, Perps, LFG, APIs, etc.
Sanctum
Creator Coins: Sanctumso introduced a product called Creator Coins. These coins are designed to allow creators, organizations, and individuals to build, grow, and monetize their communities permissionlessly. This initiative aims to foster community engagement and provide a new revenue stream for creators on the Solana blockchain.
Cloud Card: Another significant announcement was the introduction of the Cloud Card, in partnership with basedappHQ and JupiterExchange. This card allows users to spend SOL and stablecoins in over 100 countries, effectively bridging the gap between crypto and everyday financial transactions.
Firedancer
Frankendancer on Mainnet: An early version of Firedancer, known as Frankendancer, which integrates contributions from Jump Crypto into the existing Solana validator software, is now live on the Solana mainnet. This version represents a transitional step towards the full Firedancer implementation, aimed at enhancing performance.
Firedancer on Testnet: The full Firedancer client, a completely new validator client, has successfully built its first block on the Solana testnet. This marks a crucial step towards its mainnet launch, promising significant improvements in speed, reliability, and validator diversity for Solana.
Coinbase
Expansion to Solana: Coinbase's country director for Singapore, Hassan Ahmed, announced plans to bring Coinbase's wrapped Bitcoin asset, cbBTC, to the Solana network. This move aims to enhance Bitcoin's utility in the DeFi ecosystem by allowing Solana users to engage with Bitcoin in a wrapped form, thereby increasing interoperability between Bitcoin and Solana's blockchain.
PythNetwork
Oracle Integrity Staking (OIS): Mike Cahill from Douro Labs introduced a new staking mechanism for Pyth Network, known as Oracle Integrity Staking. This system aims to enhance the economic alignment for Oracle data publishers by introducing both rewards and penalties. Stakers can now earn up to 10% yields, as mentioned in posts on X, but they also face the risk of slashing if they provide inaccurate price data. This move is intended to improve the reliability of data feeds for developers.
Price Feeds V3: Pyth Network announced the launch of Price Feeds V3, which is part of their effort to advance DeFi infrastructure by providing more accurate and reliable price data.
ZetaMarket
Introducing Bullet: Zeta Markets is developing a Layer 2 solution called "Bullet" for the Solana blockchain. This L2 is intended to improve the trading experience by reducing latency and attracting market makers, thereby offering users a faster and more efficient platform.
Their ultimate goal is to combine the benefits of centralized exchanges, like speed, with decentralized exchanges' security and user control.
The testnet for this L2 is set to go live in Q4 2024, with plans for the mainnet launch following.
Join the waitlist here: Waitlist
If you want to build on the Bullet infrastructure fill in this form: Form
Tensor
Open-Sourcing: Tensor announced that they have fully open-sourced their codebase. This move allows developers across the Solana ecosystem to build on Tensor's infrastructure, fostering a permissionless environment for innovation in NFT marketplaces.
Grant Program: Alongside open sourcing, Tensor launched a new grant program through the Tensor Foundation. This program aims to support developers and teams building innovative applications on top of Tensor's protocols by providing financial support.
Fee Structure: They introduced a new fee split model where 50% of all marketplace fees go to the Tensor Foundation treasury, and the other 50% directly to developers building on the platform, encouraging development and integration with their ecosystem.
New Product: Tensor outlined future developments including advanced trading features like collateralized lending, trading bots, and vertical marketplaces focused on games and tokenized collectibles. They also hinted at creating more engaging, degen (decentralized generation) products like Pump.fun for NFTs called vector.fun
Sky (formally MakerDAO)
Rebranding and Token Upgrades: MakerDAO has rebranded to Sky, introducing a new stablecoin named USDS and a new governance token called SKY. These new tokens are part of Sky's strategy to scale DeFi to a "gigantic size" and have been available since September 18, 2024, before Breakpoint.
Integration with Solana: There was discussion about Sky potentially using the Solana stack as a foundation for its standalone blockchain, indicating an interest in leveraging Solana's high-performance blockchain for its operations.
Cross-Chain Ambitions: Sky announced a proposal to use Wormhole's cross-chain infrastructure to bridge USDS to Solana, aiming to enhance liquidity and presence on the Solana network.
New DeFi Application: Alongside the token upgrades, Sky introduced a new DeFi application, Sky.money, to interact with the protocol, focusing on native token rewards for USDS and SKY holders.
Marinade Finance
Introduction of Marinade V2: This is a major upgrade to their existing liquid staking protocol on Solana. Michael Repetny from Marinade took the stage to introduce this new version, which aims to transform the staking landscape by addressing several critical issues:
Smart Contract Risk: Marinade V2 focuses on reducing the risks associated with smart contracts, aiming to make liquid staking more secure and thereby more attractive to users who might have been hesitant due to these risks.
Unprotected Staking Rewards: The new version seeks to protect staking rewards better, especially in light of incidents where stakers lost significant SOL due to validator issues.
Opaque Validator Economics: Transparency in validator operations is improved, which could lead to better trust and understanding of where staking rewards come from and how they are distributed.
Franklin Templeton
Franklin Templeton announced the launch of an on-chain mutual fund on Solana. This move aims to leverage Solana's blockchain for its efficiency, low transaction costs, and high transaction volume capabilities, which are crucial for managing a mutual fund. This initiative marks one of the traditional finance (TradFi) giant's steps into leveraging blockchain technology for mainstream financial products.