TL; DR
Full story
Imagine if you had a PlayStation AND a Nintendo 64 growing up…
We know, we know – mom would never have allowed it (she said you should go outside and “touch grass” long before Crypto Twitter existed).
But that’s the situation dual users of Ethereum and Solana find themselves in, thanks to a classic case of “competition breeding innovation.”
Here’s the timeline:
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December 5, ’23: Coinbase wallet is launched shareable crypto payment linksallowing anyone to send/request crypto payments via a web link.
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January 26 ’24: Ethereum-based Twitter-like social platform Warpcaster is launching ‘Frames’, which will allow people to virtually encode crypto cash registers into their social posts.
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June 5 ’24: Coinbase launches the first Ethereum-based ‘smart wallet’, allowing users to sign up/log in to their wallet with FaceID or a Google account (no 12-word seed sentence needed).
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June 12 ’24: Mergelaunches the Solana-based smart wallet.
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June 25 ’24: Solana launches ‘Flashes‘ (aka: blockchain links), which is a bit like a combination of Coinbase payment links and Warpcaster’s Frames, where users can embed crypto interactions into a single link (think: voting, donating, minting NFTs, trading tokens and people pay) and share them anywhere online.
Here are our two big takeaways:
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Competition between these two ecosystems breeds painful/tired tribalism, yes…
But for those who can’t give up the silly game of “one or the other, not both,” this competition is bringing great new features at a breakneck pace.
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Both ecosystems do something that the crypto space desperately needs to scale:
Bridge the gap between web2 And web3.
These seamless login/signup and purchasing interactions are something internet users have come to expect, and they won’t give it up for a worse user experience.
Meeting consumers where they are makes the transition easier.
We give these developments two emphatic thumbs up, four chef kisses and eight molto bene’s.