Monthly Community Update | April/May 2022

by Solana Foundation

Monthly Community Update | April/May 2022

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Transaction Requests: Bringing smart purchases to Solana Pay

It was a packed house at San Francisco’s Atlas Cafe on May 5th, 2022. The Solana Pay team had taken the iconic coffeehouse to show the world its latest innovation — transaction requests.

https://twitter.com/solana/status/1522597374559981570?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1522597374559981570%7Ctwgr%5Eb4a37fbd75ba95dd0197302d1e978c86e2cdecdb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsolana.com%2Fnews%2Fmonthly-community-update-april-may-2022-2

“What transaction requests do is allow any NFT to act as a loyalty token,” said Sheraz Shere, head of payments for Solana Labs, in a video from the event. People at the event received a special NFT, which automatically generated a 20% discount when using Solana Pay. “NFT loyalty, in a box,” he said.

When it was introduced in February 2022, the Solana Pay protocol acted as a one-way payments rail that allowed people to easily transfer tokens using a QR code, making it easy to connect wallets for IRL purchases.

“But with transaction requests,” writes Solana Labs engineer Jordan Sexton, “it’s now possible to bring any Solana transaction into the real world through an interactive request between a checkout app and a mobile wallet, enabling NFT minting, dynamic discounts, tokenized loyalty programs, and so much more.”

That means that purchases can become much more than a single, one way transaction — they can become conversations. Taking the dynamic experience of Solana transactions IRL means that consumers and merchants can both benefit more meaningfully from a commerce transaction.At Atlas Cafe, more than 400 attendees received the NFT loyalty token establishing a lasting, direct connection between the cafe and its customers, many of whom had never used a crypto wallet before attending. That’s something to celebrate!

Learn more here.

Top Solana News

Solana NFTs are coming to Instagram

This is big. Instagram announced it would be integrating NFTs on Solana and several other chains!

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced that Instatgram would allow people to display the NFTs they either made or bought in a tweet. The initial rollout will go to a small test group. "We wanted to start small and learn from the community," he said.

Learn more at Coinbase.

Major League Hacking hacks on Solana

Good news, students and people new to the Solana ecosystem! Major League Hacking, a global community for student builders, is teaming up with Solana Labs for a new summer fellowship program. Fellows will team up with a mentor, receive a stipend, and get a chance to interview for roles in the ecosystem. Find out more.

DeGods DAO buys a basketball team

https://twitter.com/DeGodsNFT/status/1519672039962935297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1519672039962935297%7Ctwgr%5Eb4a37fbd75ba95dd0197302d1e978c86e2cdecdb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsolana.com%2Fnews%2Fmonthly-community-update-april-may-2022-2

Score. DeGods DAO, the decentralized organization that came out of the Solana NFT project, has purchased a professional basketball team.

The Killer 3s are part of Ice Cube's Big3 League. The DAO has announced they plan to offer tickets, merch, and "part-ownership." Learn more here.

Ecosystem Headlines

Here's what's new this month:

  • Phantom wallet is officially live on Android.
  • Everlend, a decentralized meta lending protocol with a built-in money market and yield/loan aggregator, is now live on Solana mainnet.
  • Glow Wallet, a wallet to store, send, receive, stake and swap tokens on the Solana blockchain, has integrated Solana Pay SDK.
  • Releap, a platform for Musicians and music NFTs built on Solana, launched the beta version of their app.
  • Zebec Protocol brings customizable multisig to the Solana ecosystem.
  • Umbrella Network, a decentralized community owned layer 2 oracle, launched on Solana mainnet.
  • Bridgesplit is bridging the gap between NFTs and DeFi on Solana.