WEBVTT - What next for Solana? and China's Scramble for Africa 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.040 Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest episode from the 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.440 midweek edition of the coin Bureau podcast. Every week, I 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:09.040 pick out two of my favorite videos from coin Bureau's 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.440 YouTube channel to present to you in podcast form. The 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.120 audio you're about to hear is from those videos I've 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.880 chosen this week, and I hope you enjoy listening. The 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.440 fallout from the collapse of f t X and Alameda 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:24.160 Research continues to dominate the crypto headlines and is likely 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.440 to do so for some time. There are well founded 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.000 concerns that the contagion from this disaster could spread to 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:35.120 other crypto companies and projects in due course. One project 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.240 that could be most at risk is Slana, thanks to 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.080 the fact that f t X and Alameda were its 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:46.560 biggest investors. Slana is, or rather was, f t x's 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:51.240 day facto exchange chain too. The project is therefore uncomfortably 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.720 exposed to the fallout, and Soul's price has already crashed 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.440 much harder than most other cryptos. It's not just Slana itself, though, 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.080 the projects in its ecosystem are also at risk, which 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:05.480 means a lot more pain is coming for them. For 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.320 Salana and for the crypto market as a whole. So 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.480 here's a breakdown of what Salana is all about, why 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.800 it's so threatened by ft x IS collapse, and why 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.160 there may still be hope for the future. Next up, 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.880 it's mercifully time to move away from crypto for a 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:24.440 while and look at something happening in the wider world. 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:28.200 Aging populations in the West and elsewhere mean that Africa 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.240 is projected to become increasingly influential in coming decades as 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.479 it reaps a demographic dividend from its higher birth rates 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.920 as well as young working age people. The continent is 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.840 also rich in other resources too, and as such is 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:46.040 attracting increasing amounts of investment from countries looking to capitalize 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.200 on its riches. One country has been more proactive than 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.360 any other in this regard, and that is China, which 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.640 has invested billions of dollars across Africa as part of 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.360 its Belt and Road initiative. An increasing amount of Africa's 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:03.760 infrastructure has been built using Chinese money, and naturally, China's 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.520 influence across the continent has grown with every railway laid 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.520 and airport terminal built. But as some nations have discovered 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:15.079 to their cost, Chinese money can come with some unpleasant 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.240 strings attached, and many are worried that the ultimate cost 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.520 of China's largesse may be greater than what many in 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.720 Africa bargained for. In the second part of today's episode, 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.680 you'll hear the story of China's own scramble for Africa, 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.520 how it's gone down with Africans themselves, and what the 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.880 future might hold. Thanks for listening to today's episode, and 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.400 there'll be more coming your way soon. And if you 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.040 want even more content from coin Bureau, be sure to 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.520 subscribe to our YouTube channels and visit us on social 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.960 media too. And one more thing. This year at the 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.720 coin Bureau, we're celebrating Black Friday with up to fifty 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.640 off items in our merch store. There's a link in 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.320 the description of the podcast, so please do check it 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:20.519 out and see if there's something you fancy. The collapse 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:23.960 of f t X and Alameda Research has done serious 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.600 damage to the crypto market, and it seems that Slana 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.600 was one of the most affected crypto projects. Now this 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.679 makes sense given that Salana was the day facto exchange 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.120 chain of f t X, and that both f t 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:43.760 X and Alameda were big investors and participants in Salana's ecosystem. Today, 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.000 I'm going to give you a quick recap of Salana, 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.600 tell you what's been going on with the project, and 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:53.360 examine whether Soul will survive the f t X Alameda meltdown. 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.080 I want to start with some transparency, and that's that 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.200 I no longer hold Soul as part of my crypto portfolio. 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.480 If you're subscribed to my weekly newsletter, you'll know that 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.480 Soul accounted for almost eight percent of my portfolio until 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.520 last weekend. Note that you can find the link to 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:15.800 my weekly newsletter in the description. Now, my decision to 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.080 sell Soul was based on many factors, including the current 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.080 state of the crypto market, but there is no denying 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.719 that the ft X Alameda situation was top of mind 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.800 for me. Now, I must also stress that this is 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:33.040 not financial advice. It's just my opinion, and you will 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.479 obviously have yours. That said, I will give both a 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.440 bearish and a bullish case for Salana in today's video. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.159 That's because there does seem to be some hope for 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.960 Soul on the horizon. It just looks very far away 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.800 from where I'm standing. That's just my perspective, though, and 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.640 I would love to get yours in the comments section now. 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.479 As many of you will know, Slana was founded in 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.919 twenty seventeen by former Qualcom engineer and a Toty Yakovenko. 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.200 The Salana blockchain was built by Salana Labs, which is 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.719 based in the United States, and its ongoing development is 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.880 coordinated by the Salana Foundation, which is based in Switzerland. 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:20.240 Salana raised twenty five million dollars across various I c 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.480 o s between twenty eighteen and twenty, and raised an 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.480 additional three hundred and fourteen million dollars from crypto vcs 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:32.000 last year. F t X and Alameda Research were two 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:35.960 of the largest investors in Salana and were two of 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:40.400 the largest investors in Salana's ecosystem, that is, crypto projects 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:46.240 building on Salana. This is because Salana's original goal was 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:50.720 to become a decentralized alternative to centralize stock exchanges like 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.680 the NASDAK. Now this is a goal that f t 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:58.159 X and Alameda founder Sam Bankman Freed could get behind, 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.719 given that his endgame was also to displace the existing 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:06.960 institutions with his own infrastructure. Salana's main net went live 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:11.240 in twenty twenty and its blockchain is still technically in beta. 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:16.200 Recent comments by anatotally suggest that Salana may soon be 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.560 entering its alpha stage, which is surprising given that the 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:24.440 Salana blockchain continues to experience issues. More about all that 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:29.400 later on. Under the hood, the Salana blockchain uses a 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.760 novel proof of state consensus mechanism that time stamps transactions 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:38.479 using a technology called proof of history. This consensus mechanism 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.520 makes it possible for the Salana blockchain to process up 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:46.320 to sixty five thousand transactions per second. Until recently, the 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:50.520 Salana blockchain was secured by almost twenty two hundred validators. 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.839 Salana's validate account was just eighteen hundred and fifty when 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.120 ft X and Alameda collapsed. This suggests that f t 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.479 X and a meda we're running lots of Salana validators. 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:08.600 Note that Salana transactions are processed by clusters of up 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.840 to one hu fifty validators now. Soul is the native 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:17.400 cryptocurrency coin of the Salana blockchain. Like all cryptocurrency coins, 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.679 Soul is used to pay for transaction fees. Of every 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:26.480 transaction fee is burned, with the other half going to validators. Obviously, 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:31.120 Soul is also used for staking staking rewards are currently 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.720 around eight percent for both validators and delegators with a 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.920 five day lock up. There is no minimum stake for 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.720 validators or delegators, though the hardware requirements for running of 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:48.560 validator are very high. Misbehaving validators are also slashed. Staking 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.240 soul as a delegator can be easily done using the 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:56.240 Phantom Browser extension wallet, which also acts as a gateway 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:01.360 to Salana's ecosystem. The Phantom extension has been downloaded over 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.400 two million times on Chrome and dab Radar's data suggests 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.800 that Salana's DAPs have at least half a million monthly 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:14.800 active users. The focus of Slana's ecosystem was initially defy. 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.640 This was in large part due to f t X, 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:22.400 which had its own defied project called projects Serum. What's 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.680 crazy is that the order book based Serum decks lay 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:30.520 at the heart of Salana's entire defy ecosystem, providing liquidity 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.720 and pricing data to many other major DeFi protocols. To 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.480 my knowledge, most of Serum's liquidity came from f t 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.440 X and Lameter. Now, the massive draw down in the 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.920 total value locked in Salana's DeFi protocols following terrorist collapse 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.920 in May. Therefore, suggests that this is when ft X 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:55.040 and Alameda started to experience the issues that ultimately lead 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.880 to their collapse. You can learn more about the ft 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.280 X an Alameda situation using the in the description I 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.680 digress now. It's barely been three months since our last 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.360 covered Salana, but a lot has happened since then, and 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.599 not just stuff that's related to Alameda and f t X. 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.440 Shortly after our last update, a group of Salana projects 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:19.120 announced the creation of a cross chain messaging protocol. If 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.480 you watched our Cosmos update from around that time, you'll 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.199 know the announcement seems to have been a not so 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:30.960 subtle response to cosmos announcement about its upcoming interchain security. 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.760 To my mind, Salana's subsequent announcement underscored the multi chain 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:41.760 future of crypto. Institutional crypto custodian fire Blocks also announced 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:45.079 that it had added support for Salana DeFi protocols and 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.400 Salana n f t s in case you missed the memo, 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:54.560 Salana was becoming increasingly popular with institutions. This was in 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.120 large part due to Salana's close relationship with f t 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:02.959 X and Alameda. In early September, a crypto project called 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.720 Sui announced that it had raised three hundred million dollars 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:11.280 from various crypto vcs. Now this is significant because suey 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:15.319 has its roots in Facebook's failed digital currency project d 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.960 M a k A. Libra, just like Aptos, and Aptos 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.120 is considered by many to be a Salana killer. This 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.520 arguably makes Sue a Salana killer too. This is in 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:32.600 part because both Sue and Aptos are coded in Move, 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:37.720 a novel programming language developed by d MS developers. Move 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.319 is based on the Rust programming language used by Salana, 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.800 but is much more developer friendly, or so I've heard. 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.840 For those who don't know, Sue and Aptos are considered 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.920 to be Salana killers because they're all backed by the 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.640 same entities. Ft X Ventures was a big investor in 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.400 both Aptos and Sue, and aptos co founder Mohammed Shake 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.240 confirmed in an interview that the project was working very 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:09.920 closely with fd X. Fortunately for Slana, Aptoss and Sue's 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.960 exposure to ft X so early on in their development 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:17.960 could set them back quite a bit. Unfortunately for Slana, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.880 it's even higher exposure to f t X could mean 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.920 that it will be the crypto project that picks the 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:29.440 shortest straw. More on that in a moment anyways. Another 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.480 Salana related announcement in early September came from coin base, 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.839 whose cloud division spun up archival notes for the Salana blockchain. 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.840 This is significant because Salana's full transaction history was only 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.719 being stored on Google Big Table, which made it quite centralized. 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:51.319 In mid September, sec chairman Gary Gensler said that proof 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:56.320 of state cryptocurrencies could be securities. Although Gary's comment was 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.480 likely about Ethereum's transition to proof of steak, Slana Labs 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:05.200 was recently accused of selling securities that is soul, which 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:09.000 could put it at risk. At the end of September, 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.440 the Helium community voted to migrate it's peer to peer 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.920 networks from the Helium blockchain to the Salana blockchain. This 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.760 is something we had predicted in one of our earlier 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.680 Salana updates. Were it not for the f t X 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:28.760 Alameda situation, this would have been bullish for h and However, 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:33.040 the ft X Alameda situation wherein has made Helium Salana 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.880 integration incredibly bearish for h n T, and not just 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.920 because it's a part of Salana's ecosystem. Back in February, 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.400 Helium raised two d million dollars in a funding round 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.319 co led by you guessed it, f t x Ventures. 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:55.640 At the end of September, Circle also announced that it 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.840 would be expanding its USDC stable coin to five additional 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:05.839 smart contract cryptocurrencies and introducing its own cross chain interoperability protocol. 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.920 Now this is evidence that Circle is moving away from Salana, 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:16.880 which is apparently the official chain for USDC. In early October, 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:22.160 the Salana blockchain experienced yet another outage. This time it 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:27.040 was due to a misconfigured validator node. For context, most 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:31.320 of Slana's outages have been due to spam transactions facilitated 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.360 by its block chains fixed transaction fees, which are extremely low. 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.640 In mid October, app toss announced its main net launch, 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.280 and if you watched our video about the project, you'll 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.920 know that the launch was pretty badly botched. It's still 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.720 boggles my mind that a project with so much funding 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.440 and backing managed to make so many mistakes, but hey, 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.760 let's not go there. At the end of October, a 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.800 crypto project called trip Protocol announced it would be creating 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:04.200 a decentralized alternative to right sharing apps like Uber built 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.680 on Salana Now, this is the kind of DAP that 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.360 could reach serious mass adoption, and it's such a damn 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.480 shame that it's been set back by recent events. In 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:20.400 early November, almost half of Salana's validators went offline after 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:25.040 a German cloud service provider called Hetzner banned all crypto 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:29.760 companies and projects from using its services. The huge impact 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.720 this had on the Salana blockchain raised even more questions 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:40.000 about Salana's supposed decentralization. Luckily, for Solana, this bearish news 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.160 was quickly overshadowed by all the bullish news that came 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:47.400 out of Salana's annual Breakpoint conference in Lisbon. The biggest 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.880 news was that Google Cloud had begun running a validator 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.840 on Salana, which logically means that Google had purchased lots 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:59.000 of soul. Google Cloud also announced that it had released 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.840 software too, in decks. Slana's transaction history, which your recall, 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:07.080 is being stored on Google Big Table. Now. This is 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:11.160 significant because Anatole had mentioned in earlier interviews that it 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:16.720 was extremely difficult for developers to analyze Salana's transaction history. 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.560 Helium also announced that it was building out a mobile 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.440 network and would be giving out simcards with a free 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:28.440 thirty day trial to everyone who purchased Salana's upcoming Saga phone. 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:33.080 Helium also recently partnered with telecoms Giant T Mobile to 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:37.720 increase five G coverage in rural areas, another great initiative 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.160 now under threat now. The announcement that everyone seemed to 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:46.120 miss was that Salana's Neon layer would be launching sometime 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.720 in December. If you've been keeping up with our Salana updates, 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:54.040 you'll know Neon supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine or e 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:59.200 v M. E v M compatibility could supercharge Salana's adoption. 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.480 As a cherry on top, Circle announced that it would 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.360 be bringing it's recently released eurostable coin to the Salana 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.720 blockchain next year, making Salana the second smart contract cryptocurrency 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:16.280 to support euroc after Ethereum. This suggests that Circle hasn't 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.600 given up on Salana just yet. And then f t 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.720 X and Alameda blew up. Not surprisingly, the price of 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.960 every single cryptocurrency that f t X and Alameda had 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:32.320 invested in instantly plummeted. As ft X is day facto 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.840 exchange chain, Soul was at the top of the list. 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:40.320 Souls price was only the tip of the Iceberg, However, 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:45.000 as its entire ecosystem also went into crisis mode, loans 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.560 were liquidated, wrapped tokens issued or backed by f t 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.640 X and Alameda d pegged. The total value locked in 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:57.280 Slana's DFI protocols fell off a cliff. The upgrade keys 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.720 for Project Serum and the Serum DECKX were revealed to 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.200 be in the hands of f t X, causing the 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.760 community to fork what was left of the protocol. Soul 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.080 holders also feared that nearly a billion dollars of Soul 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.679 set to be unlocked would be sold now. Their fears 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.080 were calmed after the Salana Foundation announced it would be 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.240 postponing the unlock of the thirty or so million Soul 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:28.120 once again, though calling Salana's decentralization into question. To add 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.439 insult to injury, Google Cloud announced that it will also 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.800 run validator notes for the ap toss blockchain, and that 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:39.000 it had partnered with the project for a developer accelerator program. 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:44.239 The timing couldn't have been worse given the circumstances. So 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.119 as you can see, Soul's price was holding up quite 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:52.840 well until the FTX Alameter situation. Now this is impressive 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.920 considering that Soul's supply has increased by around fifteen millions 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:01.479 since August. Assuming an average price of around thirty dollars 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.320 per soul, this means Soul experience up to five hundred 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:09.159 million dollars of cell pressure. On the demand side, it 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:13.240 seems that Solana's n f T marketplaces were absorbing most 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.480 of this supply shock. Institutional investment vehicles for Soul also 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:21.160 still have more than one hundred million dollars invested at 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:26.080 Soul's current prices. This is scary considering some of these 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.199 et f s were seemingly issued with the help of 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:33.480 f t X. What's even scarier is that analytics on 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.800 the Salana Explorer show that transactions on Salana have fallen 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:41.639 off a cliff over the last week. The silver lining 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.080 is that the analytics also suggests the drop in Salana's 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:49.320 validate account was due primarily to Hetzner's crypto ban and 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:53.560 not the f t X Alameda situation. In any case, 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:57.119 it's clear that the demand for Soul is down, and 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:01.400 it's easy to understand why some have begun to question 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.040 Solana's future. And this is in large part due to 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.520 the massive amount of Soul that f t X and 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.119 Alameda will be forced to sell when the time comes 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:15.879 to compensate their creditors. According to the coindesk article that 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.040 kick started the concerns about f t X and alamedas 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:23.639 balance sheets, Alameda held roughly one point to billion dollars 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.719 of soul in June. Assuming the price was around forty 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.159 dollars per soul at the time, This works out to 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:34.640 around thirty million soul held by the market maker. As 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.879 for f t X, recent leaks suggests the exchange held 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.720 around one billion dollars of soul as of a few 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.240 weeks ago. Assuming an average price of around thirty three 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:46.920 dollars per soul, this means that f t X held 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:51.879 an additional thirty or so million soul now. It's not 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.400 clear how much soul f t X and Alameda currently 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.199 hold for what it's worth, these numbers are consistent with 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.760 the recent disc closures by Solana Labs and the Salana 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:06.520 Foundation about their exposure to f t X and Lameter. 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.840 Slana Labs and the Salana Foundation sold a total of 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.080 fifty eight million soul to f t X and Alameda 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:18.440 over the course of more than two years. At current prices, 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.919 this soul is worth roughly nine million dollars and accounts 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:27.440 for more than fifteen percent of souls total supply. While 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:29.879 not all the Soul held by f t X and 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:32.960 Alameda is liquid, the fact of the matter is that 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.520 it will inevitably be sold at some point as part 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.720 of their bankruptcy proceedings. As I mentioned a few moments ago, 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.160 Soul managed to survive half a billion dollars of cell 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:47.879 pressure over the last three months. However, this assumes that 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:52.000 the fourteen million Soul that entered circulation were sold, which 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:56.520 is unlikely. This means that Soul may not be nearly 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.879 as resilient to sell pressure as it seems. More importantly, 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:03.760 the demand for Soul is not nearly what it was 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.360 even just two weeks ago. This could make it difficult 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.360 to absorb the hundreds of millions of dollars of cell 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.359 pressure that's coming. And that's just from f t X 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:18.399 and Lameter. There are certainly other institutions and retail investors 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.320 who will sell their Soul, never mind all the promising 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.480 Salana projects that will die because of their exposure to 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:29.520 f t X and Lameter. To make matters worse, the 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.560 bottom of the cryptobar market probably isn't in yet. This 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.439 means that Soul will go lower even without all the 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:41.560 cell pressure from these entities. It's long term price charts 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:46.280 suggests Soul could fall to eight dollars. This would be 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:50.840 consistent with the estimated percentage loss in other large alts. Now, 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.000 if you're wondering how long this cryptobear market will last, 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:56.440 be sure to check out our video about that from 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.240 a few months back. I reckon it still holds true 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.159 and be doing another video about the potential catalyst that 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.280 could take us out of the crypto bear market lows 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:10.320 in the next week or two, so stay tuned. Now. 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.360 Whether Soul will ever rally back to its all time 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.480 highs and beyond depends on the project's upcoming milestones. These 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:19.960 can be found in an October blog post on the 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.800 Salana GitHub and in interviews with Salana founder Anatoly Yakovenko. 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:29.399 The October blog post in question is called quote Salana 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:32.520 Network Upgrades, and it appears to have been published in 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:36.639 response to the outages Solana had experienced earlier that month. 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.639 The next milestone on the list is the introduction of 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:45.200 different fee markets for different types of transactions. After that, 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.960 Solana will be increasing the size of the blocks on 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:53.320 its blockchain. This should make Salana even faster, but it 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:57.359 will likely make its blockchain even more centralized and could 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:01.760 further compromise its security. As a alt more about the 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:05.520 tradeoffs of tps using the link in the description. The 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:09.440 third milestone noted in the blog post is compact vote state, 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:12.760 which can be simply understood as reducing the size of 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:17.920 certain transactions. This could further increase Salana's TPS while protecting 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.359 against some of the centralization and security issues that could 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:25.359 arise from the block size increase. Now, what's funny about 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.480 these milestones is that they're eerily similar to aptosses milestones. 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:33.440 Ap toss is currently working on implementing different fee markets 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:38.640 for different types of transactions. Salana's inspiration doesn't stop at 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:43.000 transactions either. That's because a repository on the Salana gitub 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:46.119 suggests that it's looking to make it possible to build 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:50.879 on its blockchain using the move programming language. This is 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:54.320 significant because the difficulty of building on Salana has been 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:58.680 one of the project's biggest drawbacks. The Salana gitub also 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:02.560 contains many repositi trees related to on chain governance, something 0:24:02.680 --> 0:24:06.280 that's been in the works for a while now. I 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:09.160 don't imagine Solana is in a rush to roll out 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:11.919 its on chain governance now that a significant chunk of 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.320 Soul's supply is in limbo via f t X Alameda 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:20.840 and other affected crypto vcs. Speaking of which, anatotally dropped 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:24.960 a bombshell about Salana's development during a panel discussion at 0:24:25.000 --> 0:24:30.560 the project's aforementioned Breakpoint conference earlier this month. He basically 0:24:30.600 --> 0:24:33.600 said that he will consider Solana to be out of 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:38.520 beta once a second validator client has been completed. Now, 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:41.920 this is huge news that seems to have flown under 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:46.159 everyone's radar because of the ft X Alameda situation. To 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:48.960 be fair, and it's only only said that he would 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:51.600 consider Salana to be out of beta at that point, 0:24:51.920 --> 0:24:55.800 not that it necessarily would be. Even so, it's the 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:59.080 closest thing we've got to an alpha timeline thus far. 0:25:00.400 --> 0:25:04.440 The thing is that Salana still seems to be unreliable, 0:25:04.520 --> 0:25:08.119 and its block chain and especially its ecosystem seem to 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:12.280 be in a more vulnerable position than ever. This makes 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:16.040 it hard to understand how Salana could be considered complete 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:21.679 when it's still experiencing so many issues. This brings me 0:25:21.840 --> 0:25:25.440 to my concerns about Salana, and my first concern has 0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:29.879 to do with Salana Labs and the Salana Foundation, specifically 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:33.960 their balance sheets. The blog post detailing their exposure to 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:37.600 f t X and Alameda suggests that the Salana Foundation 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:41.439 only has around one hundred million dollars of cash on hand. 0:25:42.600 --> 0:25:46.000 In case you're wondering, the foundation only had around one 0:25:46.200 --> 0:25:50.000 million dollars of cash on ft X when it collapsed. However, 0:25:50.080 --> 0:25:52.600 it had two hundred million dollars worth of f t 0:25:52.720 --> 0:25:56.440 T and s r M sitting there. These tokens are 0:25:56.480 --> 0:26:00.240 now essentially worth nothing, along with the three point two 0:26:00.240 --> 0:26:05.320 million shares of ft X the foundation also holds. Frustratingly, 0:26:05.600 --> 0:26:09.320 the blog post didn't reveal how much runway Salana Labs has, 0:26:09.359 --> 0:26:12.240 but Anna Totally mentioned on Twitter that it has enough 0:26:12.280 --> 0:26:15.480 money in the war chest for another thirty months or so. 0:26:16.400 --> 0:26:20.120 Anna Totally specified that this runway is in dollars, which 0:26:20.200 --> 0:26:24.120 begs the question of how much soul Salana Labs holds, 0:26:24.320 --> 0:26:27.480 and a Totally also confirmed that Salana Labs had no 0:26:27.600 --> 0:26:31.879 assets on ft X, which is certainly good news. The 0:26:31.960 --> 0:26:34.600 bad news is that f t X and Alameda were 0:26:34.680 --> 0:26:38.920 the primary money funnel for the Salana ecosystem. What's more 0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:42.600