Solana co-founder: Memecoins intuitively onboard users

Solana co-founder Raj Gokal told Consensus attendees that user demand is driving the popularity of memecoins and providing a fun way to attract new participants.

Solana (SOL) has become the blockchain of choice for memecoin speculation. While increased on-chain activity has been a boon for SOL prices, it has also sparked debate about the chain’s position in the blockchain ecosystem.

CoinGecko reports that Solana is the fastest chain processing thousands to millions of memecoin transactions.

On the other hand, developers have challenged many users through SOL memecoins, and celebrities are now fueling the craze even further by supporting memetic projects. “We haven’t done anything to make this happen. It’s just something that needs to be done,” Gökal said on the last day of Consensus 2024.

Celebrities are launching memecoins on Solana. Not on other chains like Ethereum

Solana is undervalued

— borovik (@3orovik) May 28, 2024

Solana aims for grassroots adoption with Saga Mobile

According to Gökal, the explosion of mobile crypto applications such as StepN in 2021/2021 was a precursor to the Saga Mobile device. The founder explained that putting the operability of blockchain and the utility of crypto in the hands of users offers a new way to encourage mass adoption.

Saga Mobile started with lackluster sales. But crypto’s resurgence last year, combined with the ongoing memecoin craze, pushed sales to over 150,000 units. Gökal said the next device is under development and is expected to be released next year.

New validator set to 1000x transaction capacity

Gokal confirmed work on a second set of validator clients called Fire Dancer. The initiative is expected to increase Solana’s transaction throughput by up to 1,000 times and increase speeds to 5,000 to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS).

Solana currently runs up to 1,053 TPS, but its theoretical speed can reach 65,000 TPS with scaling and upgrades. The team behind the Jito staking protocol is also developing a third set of validators focused on Maximum Extractable Value, known as MEV.