🇳🇱 Only Possible On Solana

Hey from Amsterdam 👋

I’m attending the Solana Breakpoint Conference where the slogan ‘Only Possible on Solana’ is holding true:

In this week’s newsletter I discuss:

• Everything going on with Solana Pay and payments on Solana

• Camera minting NFTs

• Web3 domain renewals

Cheers!

Richard Patey

CRYPTO

I’ve been mentioning why I’m so bullish on Solana in previous issues here and here in August (when $SOL was in the $20-24 range), at the start of September ($18-20 range), and at the start of October ($21).

Now at the start of November, $SOL is over $37 as I write and schedule this issue in the early hours!

Other than the simplicity and speed of trading NFTs on Solana, the biggest reason the blockchain has had my focus is Solana Pay, having recently integrated with Shopify and then Visa.

And now at the Breakpoint 2023 conference, Solana Pay has been at it again, this time partnering with Venta, Monstre and Decaf to combine on-chain payments and tap to pay with Selecta smart fridges:

Let’s break down what all the different companies in this partnership are doing, but first a word from today’s sponsor:

Monstre

Monstre helps web3 projects and protocols acquire real-world users ‘with just a tap’. They do this through NFT and USDC gift cards, as well as payments with the Breakpoint Playbands.

The co-founder of Monstre is CM, who did a panel yesterday with Venta and Decaf (mentioned below):

The video wasn’t up on the Solana Foundation YouTube channel at the time of publishing but will likely be there now.

Right, next up in the partnership is…

Venta

I had a great chat with Izaac Moran, Managing Director of Venta which created the Venta playbands and web app that you use to tap to pay:

To get going, you simply tap the playband to your phone to access the app:

You then top up from your web3 wallet, such as Phantom in my case, or with credit cards using GateFi by Unlimit.

You can then use Venta’s POS with Solana Pay and purchase specialty coffees in USDC with one tap:

Talking of coffee, I like mine with less caffeine…

Decaf

If you still have USDC left on your playband at the end of the conference, this is where Decaf Pay’s off-ramping comes in.

I spoke with Rick Martin the co-founder of Decaf who have a partnership with Moneygram where you simply fund your withdrawal and and take out cash:

To cash out you use the Decaf Wallet, select ‘Withdraw cash at MoneyGram, and you get assigned a reference number. You then go to a MoneyGram location (which are all over the world), provide your ID and reference number and pick up your cash. I actually walked past this location in Amsterdam earlier in the week:

Decaf also have a POS solution that works on a tablet, is powered by Solana Pay, and is being used at Community Basecamp at Breakpoint, where you can buy merch in USDC:

Sling

Also at Breakpoint is sling which offers peer to peer payments in any currency where all transactions are sent using USDC.

It’s a combination of banking and community, replacing sort codes and routing numbers with people.

Sling is by Avian Labs (funded by Ribbit Capital and Slow Ventures) and whose founder Mike Hudack was at the UK fintech Monzo.

Mike opened his talk by saying that sling is also ‘only truly possible on Solana’ with Matt Wyndowe, CBO at Solana Foundation, stating it’s like a next generation Venmo:

You can also watch the video on YouTube on the Solana channel here.

Helio

And last, but not least, is Helio which provides a Solana-native payment system that integrates with web2, such as powering the USDC Breakpoint ticket sales.

Helio has raised $3.3M to date according to Crunchbase by Solana, funds and David Szekely. The company enables you to sell NFTs, subscriptions, e-commerce & digital products:

You simply launch a pay link and get paid instantly in $SOL - this video shows how to quickly get going with web3 payments:

Indeed, I recreated my Digital Asset Investor Manual product that I have at Gumroad into Helio in just 2 minutes. Here is the link to now be able to pay in USDC!

There is no log-in for end-users, you simply connect your crypto wallet and purchase.

NFTs

This issue is already super long so to try not to be clipped by gmail, I’ll let the post do the talking (but again, only on Solana)…

DOMAINS

Ishmilly.eth on an Unstoppable Domains space, asked the founder of UD Matt.x why he doesn’t think domain renewals are necessary, i.e. like you see with ENS and HNS domains.

Strangely, there was no mention of how renewals make domains available that would otherwise be squat on or lost.

You can listen here.

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this email is financial advice and I am not a professional investment adviser. I send weekly updates on digital asset news and what I'm doing personally - consider it informational and for entertainment purposes only. Thanks to atato for sponsoring this issue.