| | Welcome back to 0xResearch. Here's what we've got for you today: | | | Alliance DAO Demo Day | Alliance DAO continues to shape the crypto landscape as an influential accelerator, supporting Web3 innovators with high-growth potential. | With thousands of applications each year, Alliance leverages its extensive dataset to track trends and offer insights into evolving crypto sectors. This was evident in Alliance's latest Demo Day yesterday, where a cadre of crypto prospects showcased their latest and greatest ideas to provide a snapshot of the future of crypto development. | The startup pitches jived well with Alliance's recent report on industry trends. The report highlights Ethereum's ongoing dominance as a preferred blockchain for building dapps, where approximately 62% of startups in Alliance's program are rooted. Yet, interest in alternatives, particularly Solana, is growing. | Optimistic rollups like Optimism, Arbitrum and Base are seeing rapid adoption relative to zk rollups. Base has captured significant developer interest since its launch in 2023, and now comprises a major portion of L2 activity. | Solana has rebounded strongly in the two years following the FTX collapse, accounting for 18% of recent Alliance applications. Meanwhile, Polygon, once a favored EVM scaling solution, has seen waning interest as it pursues a switch to a zk validium. | Projects like Amihan game Farm Frens and Offramp are deploying as Telegram apps while tapping into other networks in the background. Farm Frens relies on NFTs minted on Solana, while Offramp partners with wallet-as-a-service and account abstraction solutions from Dynamic and Zerodev to enable embedded, EVM-based non-custodial wallets. This helps Offramp deliver user-friendly blockchain interactions within Telegram while abstracting away complex technical details from its users. | Product verticals in the crypto space are undergoing a shift, with increased attention on infrastructure, payments and DeFi applications, Alliance found. | Infrastructure projects have steadily gained traction, partially due to their high valuations and investor appeal. DataHive, a distributed data collective powered by AI, exemplifies this interest by addressing the need for data democratization and privacy in a crypto-native framework. Starpower, a DePIN for sustainable energy, combines DeFi with real-world assets to support distributed energy resources. | In contrast, interest in DAOs and NFTs has receded as founders increasingly prioritize utility-based applications that cater to specific user needs over community-led governance structures. | Alliance partner Qiao Wang has also been vocal about the role of speculation in the crypto space, framing it as a pivotal driver for innovation and early-stage project growth. Wang argues that unlike traditional venture capital where risk aversion can stifle bold ideas, the speculative culture within crypto enables projects to secure resources and iterate rapidly. | This approach aligns with Alliance's selection of startups. It backs protocols including the likes of Whalefare, which merges speculative gameplay with the allure of applications like Candy Crush. The goal is to demonstrate the appeal of gaming as an accessible entry point for crypto adoption. | The theme carries over to Demo Day participants Force Prime and Kiss or Rug. Force Prime, a prediction market built for strategy games, exemplifies how startups are creating gamified experiences that also cater to high-risk, high-reward speculation. Similarly, but with a "SocialFi" bent, Kiss or Rug is trying a spin on the dating app by applying game theory to its matching system. | Geographically, the trends report notes a significant drop in applications from the US and Canada, whose combined share fell from 45% in late 2021 to 29% in 2024. | This decline can be attributed to growing regulatory challenges in North America, leading founders to either relocate or build in more crypto-friendly regions. Startups like RPS, a Twitch-inspired platform for monetized competitive games, embody this shift, tapping into Asia's active market for gaming and social platforms. Asia and Africa, meanwhile, are witnessing increased adoption, driven by real-world applications like stablecoins. | The report emphasizes that about 72% of startups within Alliance's accelerator operate fully remotely, a setup that aligns with crypto's inherently global and decentralized ethos. | However, Alliance still maintains a preference for in-person teams when possible, as face-to-face interactions are believed to foster stronger team cohesion and accountability. | — Macauley Peterson (X: @yeluacaM | Farcaster: @Macauley) | P.S. We're looking to improve the 0xResearch newsletter and make it more relevant to reader interests. Help us out by giving us your feedback in this 2-minute survey. | | | Crypto product categories: | | Alliance's applicant data points to the waning influence of NFT projects and the growth of infra, payments and AI plays. But "consider these numbers with a grain of salt," the group's industry trends report warns. | | | DA Exposé: Commodification of DA | The market is oversaturated with availability solutions. There are currently 12+ solutions for data availability, with around six solutions live today. DA capacity is increasing rapidly, and pricing for DA is a race to the bottom, leading us to believe that DA will be commodified. Even in a world dominated by high-throughput SVM rollups posting data, it is unlikely that current valuations of some high profile projects are justified. | Read more → | | Kamino: A Powerhouse in the Making | Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend v2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi. | Read more → | | | T. Rowe Price PM a 'big believer' in crypto | T. Rowe Price's technology ETF invests in companies across the hardware, software, internet and payments segments. | Read more → | | [Opinion] Bitcoin belongs on Broadway? | It's a play, it's a musical, it's a satire, it's a comedy — it's Bitcoin's first time on the small stage | Read more → | | |  | Jon Charbonneau @jon_charb |  |
| |
TLDR of all the L1/L2 fighting & whether "Solana can be an L2" for those of you who made the smart choice to ignore the million replies: Toly explains that you can make Solana (or any other chain) into an "L2" of Ethereum (or any other chain) by posting Solana ledger data onto… x.com/i/web/status/1… |  toly 🇺🇸 @aeyakovenko
L2s are just bridges gang is growing |
| | | 2:45 AM • Oct 31, 2024 | | | | | | 104 Likes 12 Retweets | 17 Replies |
|
|  | ALEX ZK ∎ @gluk64 | |
| | Replying to@jon_charb | I propose a different TLDR: It's easier for an existing ZK rollup, like ZKsync or Starknet, to embrace fast sequencing (which is a pure, straightforward engineering problem), than for Solana to become an L2 (which is a complex, nuanced, and unproven mechanism design task). | | | 3:45 AM • Oct 31, 2024 | | | | | | 18 Likes 1 Retweet | 2 Replies |
|
| |
|  | DeFi Cheetah - e/acc @DeFi_Cheetah | |
| |
What @jon_charb argued here is that, whether @solana can be an L2 is just a matter of choice:
With a bridge set up between @ethereum & @solana, @solana could be ETH's L2 if they don't have their separate set of fork choice rules, just like other L2s which have the social… x.com/i/web/status/1… | Jon Charbonneau @jon_charb TLDR of all the L1/L2 fighting & whether "Solana can be an L2" for those of you who made the smart choice to ignore the million replies: Toly explains that you can make Solana (or any other chain) into an "L2" of Ethereum (or any other chain) by posting Solana ledger data onto… x.com/i/web/status/1…x.com/aeyakovenko/st… |
| | | 10:59 AM • Oct 31, 2024 | | | | | | 3 Likes 0 Retweets | 1 Reply |
|
| |
|
| The insights, views and outlooks presented in the report are not to be taken as financial advice. Blockworks Research analysts are not registered broker/dealers or financial advisors. Blockworks Research analysts may hold assets mentioned in this report, further outlined in the Firm's Financial Disclosures. |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment