Mobile hardware, stablecoins, applications, how many possibilities does Solana bring?

Author: David C, Bankless; Translator: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

Despite only being live for a few days, Solana’s Breakpoint is already resonating.

The flagship conference delivered a series of major Solana-related announcements, fueling many of the chain’s popular narratives while also feeding into the Solana community’s broader claim that the network is still the best chain for everyday use.

Let’s dive into some of the popular claims and see what the builders of Breakpoint have accomplished to add weight to the narrative!

“Solana is the best platform for mobile.”

Breakpoint highlights Solana’s continued investment in mobile development, including hardware like the Seeker phone and a growing ecosystem of mobile apps, positioning it as a leader in cryptocurrency’s inevitable mobile future.

Globally, about 60% of internet traffic now comes from smartphones, making internet usage more convenient. Interestingly, there is a strong overlap between the regions with the highest mobile traffic and the regions with the highest cryptocurrency adoption.

Standouts here include India, which ranked first in Chainalysis’ cryptocurrency adoption report, with about 70% of internet activity coming from mobile usage, and Nigeria, which ranked second in Chainalysis’ cryptocurrency adoption report, with about 80% of internet activity coming from mobile usage. Overall, there is a strong regional overlap in cryptocurrency adoption where mobile penetration leads the way in cryptocurrency usage, with a large concentration in Africa and Asia.

With mobile wallet usage recently hitting all-time highs, these adoption and usage trends make Solana’s mobile-first strategy, which includes Saga and now Seeker and the low-cost general-purpose Web3 smartphone JamboPhone2, key to reaching high-growth markets where mobile internet usage is dominant and cryptocurrency adoption continues to surge, putting it ahead of other blockchains that lack the same strategic focus and progress.

While much of the success of these phones can be attributed to airdrop hunting, they still represent Solana’s investment in researching how to best integrate cryptocurrency into a mobile environment. In addition to the new crypto phone, Breakpoint also unveiled new mobile apps from leading dApps:

• Jupiter, a leading aggregator for Solana, announced its upcoming mobile app on the Apple App Store and Google Play, featuring gas-free transactions, one-click swaps, zero fees, and support for Google and Apple Pay and credit cards.

• DRiP, the popular creator platform, launched a public beta of its mobile app on iOS and Android.

• Mobile horse racing game Photo Finish launched on the App Store after its previous game garnered over 15 million downloads.

These developments demonstrate that Solana remains the blockchain most poised for mobile crypto adoption, positioning it as the blockchain best positioned to capitalize on the shift toward mobile-first internet usage.

“Solana is the sweet spot for stablecoins.”

Building on the success of stablecoins, Breakpoint showcased Solana’s efforts to prove its network is superior to Ethereum and Tron.

PayPal’s head of crypto was one of the loudest voices on Breakpoint, stating that Ethereum “is not the best for payments,” while highlighting Solana’s token expansion (a feature that allows for additional functionality to be added to a token) as a big reason they are expanding to Solana.

Solana’s stablecoin supply is still a fraction of Ethereum’s, but has more than doubled so far in 2024. Despite a drop in transaction volume, Solana remains first in total stablecoin transfer volume, solidifying its position as the top stablecoin chain.

As stablecoin usage continues to grow, Breakpoint builders demonstrate the potential for more emerging use cases.

• Fuse Wallet announces the launch of a virtual Visa prepaid card that allows users to spend stablecoins while maintaining self-custody.

• Sling Money, a stablecoin payment service primarily serving Europe and Africa, announced support for USDC and Paxos USDP on Solana.

• Crypto payments provider Helio announced support for Solana Blinks on Shopify, allowing people to sell items directly on Twitter.

• Philippines-based cryptocurrency company Coins.ph announced it will launch a Philippine Peso stablecoin on Solana in Q4.

Alongside this, Sky (formerly MakerDAO) announced a proposal for a more native integration with Solana, while Perena announced a multi-token stablecoin swap, showcasing a broad effort to establish Solana as the home for stablecoin use.

“Solana is the best place to build everyday applications.”

Many of the top Solana projects launched new developer tools designed to enable a simpler user experience, abstracting the complexity of crypto into the background.

• Reown (formerly WalletConnect) launched Solana Appkit, providing developers with a comprehensive platform to easily integrate Solana into their applications and equipping them with features such as simplified onboarding and fiat-to-crypto on-ramps, while also supporting multiple coding languages.

• Phantom launched its new embedded wallet feature, designed to simplify the onboarding process for new users to dApps by eliminating the need for seed phrases and external application downloads — meaning no browser extensions to install. Instead, users can create a self-custodial account using just an email address and a four-digit PIN.

• Squads Protocol, a popular multi-signature protocol, announced its v5 update, which provides developers with more control, flexibility, and security. Key features include dynamic spending limits and expanded admin management, making wallets more like bank accounts with daily withdrawal limits or multi-factor authentication - expanding the possibilities for businesses to use wallets or provide security protection for users.

Overall, these announcements highlight the Solana community’s interest in differentiation through everyday usability, with a focus on expanding the developer toolkit so that dApps can improve the user experience.

All in all, Breakpoint makes it clear that the chain is more than just a narrative hub, but a frontrunner in supporting everyday cryptocurrency usage.

With mobile development continuing to make progress to match global adoption trends, stablecoin integration to support one of crypto’s most impactful use cases, and user-friendly developer tooling to deliver an application experience superior to Web2, Solana is proving that it is rapidly improving its market positioning.

In a world where different blockchains support different types of use cases, Solana’s builders are increasingly defining a clear path forward for the chain.