BEN SPARANG◎
@bennybitcoins
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prev. @Solana Foundation | Positive Sum Games
Joined October 2017
After nearly five incredible years, I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my role at the Solana Foundation. In the near term, I’ll continue in an advisory capacity to ensure a smooth transition of ongoing work and relationships to the rest of the team. Being part of.
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Insurance for crypto protocols is a $1 Trillion+ opportunity.
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Idk who needs to hear this, but:. Solana was built by a team of 5 people with the ethos of scaling blockchains to billions of users. This mission preceded the end of the ICO bubble. This mission preceded "DeFi" as we know it today. And this mission absolutely preceded Sam and FTX.
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Some innovation that's happening on @Solana and nowhere else:. - @DualFinance staking options.- @0xCoral Backpack "app store for dapps".- @lulo_finance / @JetProtocol fixed term/fixed rate CLOB lending.- @metaplex NFT compression.
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Just made a trade on mobile via my @SolanaMobile Saga device in under one minute. Solana Mobile Stack makes the wallet connection and transaction verification process as seamless as using Apple Pay. This is quite literally going to change the game
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Can someone explain to me how the lead actor of "The OC" was one of 4 people chosen to testify before Congress about the FTX fiasco?. How is this even in the realm of logical panelists for this situation. I'm actually at a loss for words.
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Ethereum is not dead. Solana has not “won” . We’re all still working towards a future of millions of concurrent users seamlessly transacting on chain. Enjoy the small wins. But don’t lose sight of the goal.
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London and Barcelona Hacker Houses are fast approaching!. If you're a Solana ecosystem project based in Barcelona or London, or if you'll be making the trip out. Drop a 👋 below!.
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Reciprocal (@CraigBurel).Placeholder (@cburniske).Assymetric (@joemccann).CoinFund (@AustinBarack).Multicoin (@KyleSamani / @TusharJain_ ).6th Man (@mdudas).Rockaway (@viktorfischer). Surely I'm missing a few, but these are some of the folks who never wavered.
any fund who was even remotely bullish solana from the lows its gotta be extremely easy to raise capital rn.
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One small step for man. One giant leap for silly dragons 🐉.
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I remember when Solana's biggest problem was that not enough people were launching tokens
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I must say: this is some double standard bs. Base goes down, not a peep about this from the media. “It came back up in 20 mins, not like Solana which takes longer”. Because unlike Solana, you can legitimately flip an on/off switch with a central sequencer. **screams in Rust**
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The @Backpack user experience right now is lightyears ahead of all the other wallets i’ve tried to use during the last 48 hours.
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2 years @Solana Labs today. What a wild ride it has been so far. It's frankly an honor to work with such outstanding people, both internally and in the broader Solana ecosystem. Feeling grateful for the opportunity today . Onward 👉.
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Now that the Solana ecosystem is slowly climbing the liquidity ranks again, I'm here to remind you once more: . TVL is a fundamentally inadequate metric. In the era of high-performance blockchains, what we should be optimizing for is capital efficiency of the assets onchain
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Thurs @ 2pm ET we will be hosting the first ever Solana DeFi Twitter Space!. Topics will include but are not limited to:.- Lessons from early Solana DeFi.- Institutional DeFi challenges.- Future token structures for building communities. Set a reminder!👇.
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Solana DeFi has effectively experienced a reset post-FTX. Users still have liquidity needs, yet there's no clear leaders. Rather than parroting "Solana DeFi is dead". Maybe take the blinders off and realize this is objectively the best time to be building product in Solana DeFi.
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Presume you are a start-up whiskey distiller. You’ve got a great idea for a new blend and intend to bring your product to life. You know that, on average, it takes a minimum of 6 years to age the whiskey before you have a viable product to sell, so you embark on a journey to
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Yesterday, @Meta announced support for Solana NFTs on Instagram. Excited to take this first step in an ongoing journey to democratize earning potential for creators worldwide on one of the largest creator platforms ever created!
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Idk if the devs did something . But the UX already feels better than the weekend. Trades are zipping through on @JupiterExchange using @phantom.
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In the following chart, I took the top chains by reported TVL from @Defillamma as well as their reported 24hr / 7-day reported volumes. I then calculated their “DeFi Velocity” . (volume per dollar of TVL)
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Ukraine Donation Update:. @solscanofficial now clearly marks the verified Ukrainian donation address in the UI
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Poetic that we get the ETF fifteen years later to the day. RIP Hal 🫡.
Running bitcoin.
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Use Solana DeFi without needing to compromise security of your assets. This is a *major* step forward in allowing more access to all the applications Solana has to offer.
From today, transact securely on @solana, through CopperConnect. We’re proud to announce that Copper has become the first digital asset custodian to provide access to DeFi connectivity with Solana. Full details: .Get in touch:
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Congrats to @coinbase on the launch of Base!. This is a massive step forward in pursuit of bringing more users to Web3 and we couldn't be more excited to have @solana connected to this new ecosystem 🔵.
3/ Base will be:. → The onchain home for @Coinbase.→ An open ecosystem where anyone, anywhere, can build dapps that reach the next 1B+ users.→ A bridge that brings our users onchain and enables them to go anywhere, including L1, other L2s, and ecosystems like Bitcoin & Solana.
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The rockstar research team @MessariCrypto is back with another report on the State of @solana . Highlights:.- Unique fee payers ⬆️.- Unique programs used ⬆️.- Nakamoto Coeff ⬆️.- Aggregate Validator Count ⬆️.
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Lots of misinformation floating around in the wake of yesterday's events!. Shoutout to the 🐐 @Melt_Dem for helping clear the air last night on CNBC
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Both USDC-SPL and USDT-SPL have been re-enabled on Binance.
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Can we *please* come up with a better metric than TVL for the next cycle?. It’s gotta be the most misleading metric we’ve collectively created due to its correlation with asset price. Asset price decline =! Asset exits from DeFi ecosystems.
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This is how easy it is to use Solana for payments. Wristband linked to my wallet. On-chain payment initiated and verified in one second. Powered by @venta_xyz
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Uhm. I just made back half the cost of my monthly @helium_mobile 5G plan. ….in one day mining $MOBILE with my phone. Effectively free cellular connectivity, nationwide. Tell me again how crypto has not enabled tangible use cases?
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As an ETH bagholder, I am stoked that the Merge went off without a hitch. That said. It’s comedic gold to see the Ethereum ecosystem now rationalizing their poor stake distribution post-merge after dunking on every other PoS chain about dEceNtRaLizAtiOn for the past 2 years.
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NYSE is down. Stock market is a scam and will never scale
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It's been an incredibly productive week on Capitol Hill. As someone who historically thought that Congress doesn't care about our industry, I'm here to tell you that's not the case. All we need is more human-to-human dialogue about why this tech is so exciting
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Excited to join @billyrennekamp, @VanessaGrellet_, and @jack_zampolin on DeFi & The Future of Programmable Money hosted by @TechCrunch!. Tune in @ 1pm ET / 10am PT at the link below!.
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Very excited to finally be welcoming @Paxos to the Solana ecosystem with USDP!. Solana now becomes the only other smart contract platform outside of Ethereum to have NYDFS approval for tokenized issuance.
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Please don't listen to crypto YouTubers. There are so many high quality thinkers in this space that you could get your information from. Dudes posting tradingview charts on YT are not it.
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We’re kicking off in one hour! 🚨. Join me and some of the top DeFi protocols in the Solana ecosystem to discuss a wide range of topics. Varying from lessons of early Solana DeFi to potential growth vectors for the space.
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My left eyelid has been twitching continuously for ~1 week now. It’s been a ton of fun so far but would really like it to stop now. Any suggestions from my fellow eye-twitchers on how to alleviate this issue?.
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How many times has Solana had a liveness failure (complete outage)?. Here's a quick thread with all you need to know!. Bookmark this thread and put it to work fighting FUD wherever FUD may be 🦾
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The truth has always been freely available to those willing to look at the data. Thanks to @UltimateMoney for putting together this thorough deep dive on the fallacies of regarding the @solana network.
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And if you still haven't signed up for the hackathon. what are you doing, anon?. - $5,000,000 in prizes.- Thousands of participants to team up with.- One high throughput, low cost blockchain full of good vibes 🌈.
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SIMD-228 votes by stake level tell a decisive story. Large validators are overwhelmingly in favor as they don't have to worry about their margin of profitability. Small validators are overwhelmingly against as they might not be in business under the new regime
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Difference between the Solana ecosystem and others is that we call out when the tech sucks. Happened in 2022 with spam pre- QUIC/QoS/Local fee markets. Problems were fixed and now the network is doing an order of magnitude more transactions than it was doing then. New problems.
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Highly recommend this @ngmi_podcast with @frankdegods . Best segment of the ep:. Frank talking about how DeGods was tanking, so he gathered his top 10 crypto Twitter critics to work with him and turned the project around 🤯. Epic move.
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Hot take: . the Solana ecosystem should stop parroting the "75 devs" joke because:. a) no one on Twitter ever understands sarcasm.b) it could be perceived incorrectly by parties external to the ecosystem.
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Ran an updated query on Dune for the @metaplex bot tax. 928.32 SOL already accumulated . That's 92,832 potential spam txs that paid the price 🦾
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Solana is the chain for Bitcoin finance.
1/ Introducing the cbBTC Growth initiative. Starting today, all Kamino users depositing cbBTC as collateral to borrow USDC will receive real-time USDC rewards, starting at 25,000 weekly USDC. It's time for BTC to thrive in Solana DeFi. Let's dive in⤵️
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Drawing similarities to the 2008 GFC: home mortgages were not the problem. The entities who constructed, packaged, and rubber stamped those mortgages were the problem. Thank you @SenLummis for very coherently delineating the differences between FTX's fraud and digital assets🙏.
"Digital assets are not on trial. Fraud and organizations are on trial," Rep. Cynthia Lummis says the Senate hearing on the FTX is collapse is conflating topics.
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It's about that time. Who am I going to see in Amsterdam next week?
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Coachella 🤝 FTX. One of a kind NFTs for lifetime passes? Photobook w/ 20 years of iconic photos? Redeemable experiences available for the first time?. That's just the start. To say we're excited about this partnership would be an understatement. Explore:
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The world's financial markets are coming onchain. And they're coming to @solana.
Two years ago, I left Compound Labs to found @superstatefunds with the goal to bring every financial asset on-chain, to integrate into DeFi protocols. You might know us for t-bills, so today I'm proud to introduce the next asset that we're focused on:. Stocks. On-chain, in DeFi.
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Make sure to check out the NFT gallery in the basement at #HackerHouseNYC . All art featured at I just secured myself this stellar piece created by @crisdmadeit
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Instant unstaking out of any LST on Solana is now possible thanks to @sanctumso and @JupiterExchange . Less than <20bps of price impact for a $1,000,000 unstake . 🤯🤯🤯.
8/ We’re thrilled to announce that @Jupiterexchange has fully integrated Sanctum. Users now can 1) find better routes for swaps between LSTs, 2) directly liquid stake their SOL and 3) unstake their SOL on Welcome to the next stage of Solana DeFi.
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The volume of things happening in the Solana ecosystem feels more intense now than it did this time last year. We're always looking for capable folks to join our ever-expanding team. If you're personally interested, or would like to recommend rockstar talent, my DMs are open.
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As a @Coinbase user myself, I know it's frustrating to have poor infrastructural support for the Solana ecosystem—especially during periods of high onchain demand, like we’re seeing right now. There have been many accusations of intentional malicious behavior, but I can assure.
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At what point are the Solana haters just simply wrong and we stop giving them the time of day. Anyone who fades this ecosystem, after everything we've collectively trucked through, is either:. a) intentionally misleading people. or . b) delusional.
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Seems like a good time to remind people of a few facts:. - Solana is a permissionless network, you don't need to talk with anyone in order deploy on it. - You can apply for grants @ - The Solana Foundation ecosystem growth/BD team is ~15 people TOTAL.
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Day 1 without coffee:. The birds stopped singing outside my window. Everything has shifted in color to a dull gray.
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That’s a wrap for Breakpoint 2024. One of the most energizing Breakpoints yet. Sincerely look forward to seeing you all here each and every year. Catch you in Abu Dhabi 2025 ✌️
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What are we ultimately looking for in measuring blockchain ecosystem health? 📈. We’re looking for a vibrant community that finds value in the tools available to them on that chain and an indication that they are using those tools frequently.
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Hot (maybe not so hot) take:. I think crypto twitter absolutely sucks these days. Bring back the 2016 vibes where everyone was dreaming big and talking about the possibilities. Rather than slinging mud at each other about their bags.
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@Jason for the record, SOL is not money nor is it ever trying to be. It's a medium of coordination enabling a trustless value transfer protocol.
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At this stage of crypto, debating scalability or median gas fees is just noise. the bleeding edge blockchains are fast and cheap enough *today*. The real signal: how many real businesses are being built on that infrastructure and what is their revenue potential.
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In the last 24 hours, we have had over 160 applications for the DeFi role at the Solana Foundation. I'm humbled by the interest in joining our team, however.please allow us time to parse the incoming applications 🙂. Contacting myself or members of the Foundation team outside of.
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Excited to have @TheTNetwork tBTC live on Solana!. I've been hearing whispers that DeFi is back. 🤔.
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Pls don't do this. Solana was launched into an absolutely crumbling covid 2020 world. Execute on the merits of what you're building, don't try to time the market.
it’s postponing szn now. many teams will drag out token launch, waiting too long and launching tokens too late in the cycle.
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stacked lineup . See you all next week 🇺🇸🗽.
The Accelerate Ship or Die agenda just dropped 🗽. Want the TLDR? Here's what to expect in NYC on May 22-23:. 1. East Coast: Internet capital markets, institutions, and tokenization.Kick off day 1 with Kevin Bowers and Brennan Watt on IBRL and scaling the infra layer. Going
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Awesome writeup from @mhonkasalo . It's clear that AMMs have inefficiencies that are unsustainable for users (mainly LPs) long term. CLOBs are the better construction, but are harder to bootstrap liquidity. Progressively moving from AMM -> CLOB is an elegant solution.
New blog post ✍️. How I changed my mind on the decentralized casino thesis (as a go-to-market strategy). History of DeFi shows that bootstrapping/growing a protocol requires a different strategy than what ultimately makes for the most efficient market.
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Solana is simply a better finance rail. I don't ever want to use a wire or ach or a debit card ever again.
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Working in crypto is as close as you'll get to "Learning full-time" . It's quite honestly a joy to wake up every morning with a sense of wonder and anticipation of what I'll learn about today.
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I will be speaking with my Representative's team today via Zoom to address this. I cannot understate how important it is for you to do so as well. Find your member at the link below and reach out asap.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 US Senator Elizabeth Warren says "there's a new threat out there, it's crypto" and "we can't allow that to continue."
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Just got two letters in the mail, both mailed on the same day, from the department of revenue. One letter says they believe I underpaid on my 2023 taxes and they're waiving the proposed fee one time only. The other letter says that I overpaid on my 2023 taxes and that they're.
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I'm going to be retweeting every DeFi team's posts about risk management. It is literally the most important thing the DeFi ecosystem could be focusing on and I am so proud of these guys.
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Stoked to join the Degen Labs team as an advisor 🦍. The DAA community has been a trailblazer in the #SolanaNFT ecosystem and I'm excited assist in growing this brand!.
Please welcome the inaugural members of the Degenerate Laboratories Inc. Advisory Board: @Austin_Federa and @bennybitcoins.
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If you're an OP user or investor can you DM me. I'm genuinely curious how to justify using / allocating to an L2 that is scheduling downtime like a cloud service provider.
A reminder that tomorrow, February 15 at 14:00 UTC, OP Mainnet will be paused to test Optimism’s incident response capabilities on a live network. The pause will last one hour, and does not affect other OP Chains. For updates, follow:.
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Good thread!
1/ Bitcoin has failed to scale. There is a short term fix (which you can profit from). And a much better long term one. Here's where Bitcoin can go from here👇
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