GM NeoSwappers!
This week we saw Solana announce the first physical web3 store! It’s not your traditional store mind-you, it is an educational space, a community space, a retail space and general spot for budding degens.
Based in Manhattan, we expect it to make some waves and continues Solana’s move into ‘meatspace’ (as some of Crypto Twitter so affectionately call it) as they announced the Solana Phone earlier this year.
We think it is an interesting move by the L1 to capture cynical or previously out-of-reach users. The phone opens up crypto to people without internet, or who just generally spend most of their time online using smartphones. Solana has continued to attract game builders too, as we have a suspicion this may lead them into more aggressively capturing mobile gaming markets with a blockchain application.
The retail stores will offer a range of educational experiences and easy onboarding to curious crypto customers, including:
– User onboarding with Phantom Wallet, Solana’s largest self-custody wallet app
– Digital tutorials in partnership with Orca, STEPN, Solana Pay, Metaplex, and Magic Eden
– Solana Saga, Solana’s flagship Web3 mobile phone, for customers to preview in person
– Interactive art installation that features a data visualization of what is happening on the Solana Blockchain in real time
– Solana 101, an educational presentation on Solana’s technology
– NFT Gallery and limited-edition merchandise featuring new collections every month, starting with Degenerate Ape Academy, one of the most iconic NFT collections on the Solana blockchain
– Full retail store with exclusive merchandise and NFT collection drops
New users are able to see how simple and quick crypto can be. There are all great and important steps in demystifying crypto, wallets, tokens and all the fun in between. In an interview with Frank Chaparro at The Block, COO of Solana Labs, Raj Gokal said:
“There’s hundreds of people coming through — just starting their first Phantom wallet, sending their first USDC, and learning, ‘okay, using crypto is like not that complicated.’”
All of which serves to further NeoSwaps confidence in picking Solana as the next ecosystem to launch in. Solana’s support of NFTs and the wider gaming space, mixed with their move into the ‘real world’ all points to a long-term vision for NFTs and bringing more people on-chain. With an already budding NFT ecosystem, speed and low transaction costs, we believe Solana represents an amazing opportunity for NeoSwap. We can bring a much needed(and fun!) solution to the community.
To be clear, we will still be supporting Stacks and developing there. Stacks is an amazing community and have been so supportive of us. We believe this will also be mutually beneficial as we can cross-pollinate users and also in the future being to facilitate cross-chain swaps.
We are excited by this announcement from Solana and to begin our development there.
If you’d like to join our beta-testing list, contact us on Twitter or Discord while there are still a few spaces left!
The NeoSwap team
Source : Solana medium.com
