If you have an iPhone and happen to be a fan or active participant of Solana’s systems and apps, you may feel a sense of deja vu when you use them separately at many moments.
Does Solana have much in common with iOS? Just a gut feeling. But, after carefully comparing both the historical perspective and the current one, I came to an amazing conclusion: my previous intuition might be very close to truth. A bold prediction was also made to me: Solana might one day become iOS in encrypted worlds.
In my view, although iOS and Solana belong to the Internet and encrypted worlds, respectively, they share the same logic of the first principle that supports their development.（The following conclusions were jointly organized by CGV FOF research team.）
It is the best user experience.
The core competitiveness and user experience of a product has been frequently mentioned. Due to Apple’s relentless efforts for the ultimate user experience, iOS seems to be always smoother than Android.
iPhone didn’t create the virtual keyboard. Microsoft, Palm, as well other smartphone makers, tried to push smartphones with full touch screens, but iPhone overcame technical issues in capacitive touchscreen, multi-touch and iPhone’s untouchable screen experience.
For instance, iOS gives first priority for screen response, and it responds to Touch—Media—Service—Core architecture in order. Simply put, when the user touches the screen, the system will first handle the screen display (Touch); while the priority response level of Android is Application—Framework—Library—Kernel architecture, and display-related graphics and image processing (Library) are only in the third level. A host of other factors can directly affect the user experience in Android and iOS.
As such, Solana has not been the first public underlying chain. However, its extremely high transaction fees and TPS have attracted a growing number of developers and users. This allows them to overcome the greatest development restriction that many public chains are facing in the same time.
Comparison of performance between Solana & other major public chains
Data source: RareLiquid
For instance, Solana can deal with over 50,000 transactions per second while maintaining a block time of 400 milliseconds, and improve the TPS based on Moore’s Law, thus providing a good “predictability” of TPS scaling. Additionally, Solana’s low transaction fees are impressive, that is, estimated $10 for 1 million transactions.
Among them, Solana’s core consensus mechanism is “Proof of History (PoH)”, which aims to solve the time problem in a distributed network that lacks a single reliable time source. PoH uses a verifiable delay to allow each node generate local timestamps via SHA256 calculations. This improves network efficiency and eliminates the need for broadcasting timestamps throughout the network.
A number of cryptocurrency wallets used and frequency of usage can indicate the level of user satisfaction with public chains. Phantom, the most well-known wallet on Solana is an excellent example. It integrates almost all features of Solana’s ecosystem including token swaps. The wallet also supports collection of NFTs. Connection to hardware wallets. Anti-monitoring and Web3.0 support are available. Pledging SOL can earn you incomes.
Solana Phantom & Ethereum Metamask monthly active users
Data source: Grayscale Building Blocks
Phantom, which offers a one-stop service, has been the most popular wallet among Solana users, with more than 1.2 million active monthly users. Phantom users increased five times in two months between August and October 2021.
Secondly, excellent UI design.
As a user-computer interface window that allows users to access various functions, the user interface (UI) determines whether or not software/products are intuitive.
iOS follows a strict system regarding platform UI design specifications. All of them require customization, including icons and button styles. It unifies different programs’ styles and helps the user to adjust to iOS software. Today, the iPhone’s iconic design has been the rectangular rounded design with just one button and the remainder completely covered by glass panels.
Whatever the project, it is important to pay close attention to UI design, whether you are working in Internet, Blockchain, or Encryption. Besides, a “user-oriented” UI design will make the product more popular and sell better. An expert on human-computer interaction, Dr. Nielsen claimed usability was a requirement for success in the Internet field. Websites that are difficult to use will be abandoned by users.
People say they look only at the logos of projects when buying tokens. It’s a joke but it shows the importance of visual design. Solana’s logo shows that their team pays close attention to detail and is skilled at aesthetic design.
Solana’s logo color is a gradient of green and purple. The aurora borealis is a beautiful and mysterious color found in nature. In addition, many cyberpunk-themed sci-fi movies often use purple, green, and blue in their images, reflecting the prospects of Solana’s innovative blockchain technology development.
Solana ecosystem (DeFi fields)
Source: Solanians
The Solana project portfolios all look similar at first. There is a common designer who has a lot of experience in color match, interface design, interaction design. The interface is easy to understand, simple, and intuitive. Solana is easy to use, and users don’t need any training. After using the software they are able to understand all the functions.
According to CGV FOFThe UI performance of a project gets a top priority on the Solana IDO platform. It seems that Solana improves users’ acceptance of Solana from the top down through its incubation and support of projects with outstanding UI.
Strong ecological support is the third.
The second law of thermodynamics states that isolated systems do not exchange energy with their surroundings and are subject to spontaneous changes in order to increase disorder (entropy). This phenomenon led Prigogine to propose that the system should be open to transferring between a disordered and an ordered state. That is to say, it must have the ability to exchange energy and matter with the external world.
To open the business ecosystem core companies must allow partners access to their resources, capabilities and attract them to the ecosystem. This will enable value co-creation through mutual empower.
Apple’s founders have always placed great emphasis on external empowerment. They provide external developers with robust development tools and allow them to connect users via the app store. This has led to many popular apps like Instagram, Snapchat and Uber. Compared with other platforms, Apple’s release mechanism for developers’ apps is fairer and more reasonable. Download ranking data for the software store has been reliable. It creates a great environment and competition system that allows developers to gain a better understanding of their customers.
Solana is also very active in ecological construction. Solana is a funder with a long-term plan. This allows them to support excellent projects through a wide range of resources, such as VC referrals and technical support.
For active developers, development of Solana or other major public chains
Data source: Santiment
Let’s take the hackathon as an example. Solana hosted three hackathons worldwide in 2021. This hackathon had a prize of $1million, 15,000 participants and 300 submitted projects from all over the world. The event attracted the support and attention of many developers, and produced several quality Solana native app.
It is also worth noting, that between 90-95% and 95% of hackathon participants expressed their desire to continue long-term Solana development. The Solana ecosystem will be powered by these talented developers.
A fourth, charming figure of the soul.
It may be a bit radical to say that Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, changed the world, but it is fair to say that he was synonymous with the “spirit of innovation” pursued by the United States and all mankind.
Steve Jobs stood at the crossroads of technology and humanities as a great giant. Apple’s combination of perfectionist and idealism enabled it to go a different way than the conventional industry.
Take simplicity as an example, Steve Jobs’ love of minimalism and his exposure to Buddhism, “let people directly know their heart without words”, exerted a great impact on Apple’s “no button” design. Jobs pursued minimalism in product design. He also took initiative to discontinue many product lines, and launched only 2-3 products every year with the highest quality.
Jobs is, in my view, to Apple the same as Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), to Solana. I don’t mean to deny Solana’s incredible team, which is just as respected as Apple’s tens of thousands of talented engineers and development teams.
SBF was placed on Forbes’s list of the richest people in the world 2021
Source of data: Forbes
SBF began as a trader. He spent the first part of his life at Jane Street, which was a large quantitative firm. He founded Alameda Research (a quantitative trading firm) and FTX (a centralized cryptocurrency exchange) with a team consisting of finance personnel—quantitative analysts, engineers, high-frequency traders. They are seldom concerned with the centralization/decentralization debate and focus on the “large-scale expansion of the blockchain”.
SBF spent time pondering potential options after leaving Jane Street. He realized that “Cryptocurrency has many characteristics, it may be a very inefficient system, and there is a great demand for liquidity. This is basically: sudden huge demand, very rapid growth.” So, SBF tried to figure out the ultimate solution to these issues. Then he found Solana.
Anatoly Yakovenko, a co-founder of Solana, once described the scene of SBF’s first contact with Solana before it was launched on the mainnet in 2019: During the test, 80 transactions were processed in an average of 4.02 seconds. SBF was impressed by this result. After communicating with the team and realizing Solana’s huge development potential, SBF immediately decided to establish Serum (a decentralized derivatives exchange) based on the Solana.
Solana was awarded a brand new app project and a flawless encryption spokesperson, just like James in the NBA. SBF reinvented Solana starting that day.
In January 2021, SBF said on Twitter that, “I’ll buy as much SOL as you have, right now, at $3. Sell me all you want.” Though a joke, it revealed that SBF had high hopes for SOL.
Fifthly, a passionate fan base.
It is something I remember well. iPhone enthusiasts waited in line all night for the latest iPhones, hoping to become the first ones to purchase them.
Apple’s iPhone is a unique product that has a cultural impact. Every year, Apple launches a brand new iPhone. It is an effect no other company can have when they launch new products.
Let’s take, for example, the number of Twitter users according to Statistics from CGV FOFSolana boasts as much as 1.1million followers. This is less than Ethereum (1.97 millions), but still ranks top among the other major public chains Polkadot (1.01m), Avalanche (450,000), Fantom (270,000), or Near (230,000).
Let’s take a look at the fan token, Solana’s meme coin is Samoyedcoin ($SAMO). It was inspired by Dogecoin, Sam Bankman-Fried (containing the letters S, A, and M), and Solana’s co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko (whose hometown is the birthplace of the Samoyed dog). Nowadays, SAMO has become the mascot and promotion ambassador of the Solana ecosystem, and the peak circulation market value of SAMO’s token exceeded $700 million.
The Solana community is a different environment than other communities. We often see the “fierce quarrel” between ETH diehards and Solana diehards. This is a far cry from the joyful and peaceful atmosphere in the Near, Avalanche and Fantom communities. Solana may have to pay this price if she chooses to follow a different route than the ETH (EVM).
Although it may seem a stretch, you can draw an analogy between Solana & iOS using the dimensions above. Some still have concerns about the Solana’s current instability. However, this will all be addressed in the future through network upgrades, expansions of service nodes and the adjustment of the incentive mechanism.
In fact, Apple’s rise did not happen overnight but was accompanied by several important turning points that established Apple’s status as king.
The iPhone 4 is an example of a revolutionary product. It made significant advances in design, hardware and software. It was the first cellphone that used the commercial retina screen, completed the dual evolution of cellphone camera hardware and algorithms, featured the most classic shape, and used iPhone self-developed chips…
The big bang is the event that created the universe as we know it in cosmology. This is a pivotal moment in the history of humanity. The birth of iPhone4 is a singularity in Apple’s development history, allowing Apple to embark on a rapid development path.
Lists are something I do. A few unique facts to predict Solana’s vision of becoming the iOS in the encrypted world:
——The number of C-end users exceeds 100 million. On November 7, 2021, the number of active users of Solana’s Phantom wallet amounted to 1 million. The leap of 1 million to 100,000,000 seems huge. The exponential growth of encrypted networks will accelerate the process significantly. Anatoly Yakovenko was a cofounder of Solana and held a positive view. He has repeatedly stated that with the launch and operation of new technologies, Solana’s next goal is to “attract one billion users.” You know, the number of VISA users worldwide exceeded 3 billion as early as 2018.
—— Over 80% of the transactions are performed by institutional users.Increased capital flow will result from the participation of institutions in the encrypted markets. Institutions are driving the bull market of 2021. Institutions such as Microstrategy Grayscale and Tesla have all entered the encrypted markets. SBF predicts that institutional investments will be the main driver of the growth in crypto over the next five-years. My opinion is that if institutional investors become the major force on the Solana Market and if their trading volume is greater than 80%, Solana will see a new phase of development.
——Over a third of Ethereum projects migrate to Solana.Neon Labs was launched in June 2018. It is a cross-chain link between Ethereum and Solana. Neon lets anyone run Ether smart contract on the Solana Blockchain. This makes it easy for developers to develop programs that can work on both blockchains. If more than one third of all projects developed and deployed on Ethereum were simultaneously developing applications on Solana, it would be exciting.
——Solana’s total market capitalization reaches 50% of Ethereum’s. SBF reckons that Solana’s unique underlying technology for developing the DeFi protocol will drive a spike in the price of its SOL tokens. Solana may even surpass Ether in terms of the most decentralized financial platform. Ethereum’s current market value (about $470 billion) is still nearly eight times that of Solana (about $55 billion). If Solana reaches 50% of Ethereum’s market value, it will be an important milestone in the development of Solana.
Forecast: The uniqueities of Solana’s ecological development
Is Solana going to be the iOS of the encrypted world? Most likely nothing.
I very much agree with Kyle Samani, managing partner of Multicoin Capital, “I think we’re going to see two things [Solana and Ethereum] coexist. We have iOS, and we have Android. And, today, everyone knows you have to build an iPhone app and an Android app.”
Perhaps, in the near future, Solana and Ethereum may become encrypted world’s iOS and Android, respectively. We are all witness to this amazing change, and we can be part of it.
NotificationThis CGV FOF Research Paper does not make any recommendations for investment. It’s intended for informational purposes only.
CGV FOF: The Master Fund from Asia is composed of family funds like those in Japan, Korea, China mainland, Taiwan and Taiwan. They invest in Crypto Funds and Crypto Studio. CGV FOF has branches in Canada and Singapore. It is based in Japan.
Bibliography
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OKEx Research, 2020: Understanding Solana the Ethereum Killer, - 《Digital Assets: Beauty Is Not in the Eye of the Beholder》, Goldman, 2021
Digital Assets: Beauty is Not in the Eye of the Beholder – Goldman, 2021