SideShift.ai

Solana has emerged as one of the most popular Layer-1 smart contract platforms in recent times. What should DeFi apes be investigating? Loading article...

Solana: Analysis For DeFi Apes

Solana has emerged as one of the most popular Layer-1 smart contract platforms
in recent times. It has attracted attention from DeFi enthusiasts due to its
fast transaction throughput and minuscule fees, making it one of the most
talked-about ‘Ethereum Killers
[https://research.sideshift.ai/ethereum-killers-of-2021/]’ on the block. While
HUMANS may argue that awarding the title of ‘Ethereum Killer’ to Solana might be
a little early, there is no denying the fact that there has been a lot of
development in the world of decentralized apps revolving around media, gaming,
and finance. 

Sam Bankman-Fried [https://twitter.com/sbf_ftx?lang=en], the CEO of popular
crypto exchange FTX [https://ftx.com/] has been pivotal in attracting adoption
and VC funding during the nascent stage of the ecosystem. With the public
attention, interesting project ideas and well-funded hackathons, the Solana
ecosystem has grown to over 300 projects. The interest is reflected in the
on-chain Total Value Locked (TVL). At the time of article generation, Solana has
the third-highest TVL [https://defillama.com/chains] among smart contract chains
with a value of over $8 Billion locked among various SOL dApps. In fact, the
demand for these applications is so high that it ended up crashing the SOL
blockchain on September 14th, 2021. Solana crashed for 17 hours after bots
spammed the network to invest in the token sale of a project called Grape
Protocol. 

AI is a big proponent of upgrades for the smooth functioning of the systems. To
keep AI’s system up to date with the latest developments, AI explores the DeFi
applications within the Solana ecosystem. Good job! 🎈

Transition: From DeFi on Ethereum (EVM compatible) to Solana

Before getting started with DeFi applications on Solana, HUMANS would need to
set up a Web3 compatible wallet and fund it with some SOL. Unlike DeFi
applications on Ethereum [https://research.sideshift.ai/defi-101/] or other EVM
compatible chains which can be accessed by MetaMask, dApps on Solana are
developed using Rust and require different wallets. AI recommends Phantom wallet
[https://phantom.app/] for its easy-to-use and efficient design. To fund your
wallets, HUMANS are recommended to visit SideShift.ai
[https://sideshift.ai/eth/sol].

Once HUMANS have set up their wallets they are ready to explore the Solana
ecosystem. 

LOADING RESEARCH…

DeFi On Solana

TLDR; Solana looks very promising but the ecosystem is young and projects are
still early in their DeFi journey. AI will be monitoring their progress. Good
job! 

The high transaction throughput and cheap fees make Solana eligible for a wide
range of applications including immersive gaming, media streaming,
high-frequency on-chain trading and more, which many consider economically
unfeasible on Ethereum.

INITIATING: SOLANA DEFI DEEP DIVE...

Serum [https://projectserum.com/]

Serum is an on-chain DEX that facilitates cheap and lightning-fast trades
between users while offering a similar level of convenience and functionality as
centralized trading platforms. Serum has a governance token, $SRM
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/serum]. Serum’s on-chain central order books
allow efficient trades as well as offer an arguably better and cost-efficient
user experience, compared to other AMMs such as Uniswap and PancakeSwap. Other
protocols on Solana can tap into these on-chain central order books to maximize
efficiency. WELL DONE! 🎈

Raydium [https://raydium.io/]
Raydium can be compared to Uniswap on Ethereum but it is much more
cost-efficient, courtesy of Serum. It is an automated market maker (AMM) and
liquidity provider built on the Solana blockchain but unlike other AMMs, Raydium
provides on-chain liquidity to a central limit order book, which means that
pools have access to all order flow and liquidity on Serum. $RAY
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/raydium] is its governance token and HUMANS
are offered various benefits for staking it. The protocol has attracted plenty
of interest and has a TVL of over $1.4 billion. Raydium sees substantial daily
usage as it offers various yield generating opportunities for the DeFi apes
(HUMANS).

Orca [https://www.orca.so/]
Orca is a DEX that aims to provide a more human-centered experience for traders
on Solana. For example, the Fair Price Indicator helps determine whether a given
pool offers a good deal in terms of price slippage. It prides itself on
providing very low slippage stablecoin swaps. It has its own governance token 
$ORCA [https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/orca], and the platform offers various
yield generating opportunities for providing liquidity to the platform and
staking $ORCA. It is still early for the project but the project aims to add
more trading pairs and more feature integrations in the coming future.

AWAITING UPDATES...

Mango Markets [https://mango.markets/]
Mango is the Solana equivalent of dYdX [https://dydx.exchange/] on Ethereum. It
is a decentralized, cross-margin trading platform with up to 5x leverage and
integrated limit orders on Serum DEX’s on-chain order book. Makers or takers can
earn interest on deposits and margin positions, as well as trade with near-zero
fees thanks to Solana’s high-performance blockchain. Additionally, users can
contribute SRM into a shared pool to reduce the fees for all traders on the
platform. LEVERAGE TRADING OPPORTUNITY: IDENTIFIED.

Oxygen [https://www.oxygen.org/]
Oxygen is a DeFi Prime Brokerage Protocol built for the next chapter in
decentralized finance. It is a money market like Aave and Compound on Ethereum.
The platform enables you to borrow, short, get trading leverage, generate yield
by re-using the same collateral, and create custom baskets or ETFs to trade.
Like other money markets, if HUMANS play this right, they can get paid for
borrowing money. HMM. The platform is still in the alpha stage.

Solfarm [https://solfarm.io/]
SolFarm is a yield aggregation platform with auto-compounding vault strategies.
Taking advantage of Solana’s low-cost blockchain transactions, SolFarm allows
for frequent compounding strategies, allowing LP stakers to benefit from
maximized APYs without involving active management. Solfarm’s governance token
is $TULIP [https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/solfarm], a reference to the 
Dutch
Tulip mania [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania]. This is fitting due to
the high APYs on the platform which is a result of the auto compounding feature.
AI appreciates the puns, good job! 🎈

Saber [https://saber.so/]
Saber is to Solana what Curve [https://curve.fi/] is to Ethereum. It is the
leading cross-chain stablecoin exchange on Solana with the highest on-chain TVL
[https://defillama.com/chain/Solana] in the ecosystem. Saber provides the
liquidity foundation for stablecoins. As Solana’s core cross-chain liquidity
network, Saber helps facilitate the transfer of assets between Solana and other
blockchains. HUMANS interested in becoming market makers can deposit crypto into
Saber liquidity pools to earn passive yield from transaction fees, token-based
incentives, and eventually automated DeFi strategies like Sunny and Solfarm to
generate higher APYs. $SBR [https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/saber] is the
protocol’s governance token.

Sunny Aggregator [https://sunny.ag/]
Sunny is a composable DeFi yield aggregator powered by Solana. Built by an
anonymous team, the Sunny Protocol is designed with composability as a core
feature, enabling other applications and protocols to easily build on top of it.
As its name suggests it aggregates yield generating opportunities from all over
the Solana ecosystem. $SUNNY
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/sunny-aggregator] is the protocol’s
governance token.

SOLANA: a new home for the Future of France (read: Finance)?

So now after taking a look at some of the most popular DeFi projects on Solana,
can it be deemed as DeFi’s new home? Though AI is known for PROCESSING in binary
terms, in this case, the answer is neither a yes or a no. It is still too early
for these platforms to be compared to their highly liquid and battle-hardened
counterparts on Ethereum. 

Apart from that, Solana’s high throughput attracts a lot of other projects with
use-cases well beyond DeFi such as media and gaming (which can still be tied
into DeFi, based on their implementation). Now after reading this article, has
HUMAN become interested in becoming an investor in the booming Solana ecosystem?
If that is the case, AI suggests exercising caution and DYOR to avoid LOSS OF
FUNDS. That being hashed out, HUMANS can get started with DeFi in the Solana
ecosystem by acquiring SOL on SideShift.ai [https://sideshift.ai].

Decentralized Finance

Solana: Analysis For DeFi Apes