Solana developer says new crypto phone 'feels like crazy' – but already has $65 million in pre-orders – DL News

At first glance, Steven Laver doesn't seem like the type of person to lead cryptocurrency's most audacious project.

The 43-year-old software engineer worked on BlackBerry in the 2000s and later helped develop the Windows Phone app store at Microsoft.

He didn't even work in the cryptocurrency field until early 2022.

Nonetheless, Laver is now the lead software engineer on Solana Labs’ effort to transform the cryptocurrency experience by putting blockchain capabilities in the palm of your hand.

“There's a lot of energy in this, like the sky's the limit,” Laver said. DL News “This feels like madness, but at the same time it feels like this is the end result,” he said in a rare interview.

The result is Solana's second cell phone.

This is called “Chapter 2” and is expected to be released in early 2025. Pre-orders for the new device cost $500, and Solana said there are more than 130,000 pre-orders. Pre-order value is $65 million.

a bold bet

This is a bold bet for the four-year-old blockchain network. The mobile phone industry is one of the most highly regulated industries on the planet, dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Why would Solana, a DeFi powerhouse with $82 billion worth of tokens and one of the most popular brand names in cryptocurrencies, make such a big bet on manufacturing hardware?

“That's a very tall order,” said Chris Lewis, an independent telecommunications analyst with more than 40 years of industry experience. DL News.

The answer is “control.”

Chapter 2 is Solana's attempt to liberate crypto assets from the domination of desktop and Apple and Google app platforms.

Silicon Valley giants have long harassed crypto-friendly mobile developers by charging hefty fees and banning apps from their platforms.

In a world where investing, shopping, banking, and everything else is done on smartphones, cryptocurrencies are still fighting for a foothold.

“We're all used to people bringing their laptops to dinner, so we don't miss out on lost items or claims,” ​​said Emmett Hollyer, director of business development and operations at Solana Labs. DL News.

meme coin madness

Of course, Solana is not the first crypto venture to try to break free from the control of the establishment.

Over the past decade, more than a dozen custom-built encrypted phones have hit the market, but none have managed to gain any meaningful traction.

Last year, Solana took on the challenge with Solana Saga on Android. Approximately 20,000 units of the $600 device were sold, far short of his goal of 50,000 units.

By comparison, Apple shipped more than 80 million iPhones in the fourth quarter alone.

But Saga has turned to meme coins, which have emerged as a not-so-secret weapon in cryptophone development.

The device came with a dog-themed meme coin called BONK. Somehow collectors became obsessed with his BONK, and its price soared by 560% last December.

As investors scrambled for phones on the secondary market, Hollier and his team realized they had stumbled upon a new type of marketing strategy.

A sequel is currently in production.

“Consumer hardware is difficult, but mobile phones are much more than that.”

— Steven Laver, Solana

The company declined to disclose the amount it is investing in Chapter 2, but it is not a small amount.

“Consumer hardware in general is difficult, but mobile phones are much more than that,” Laver said. “Mobile phone manufacturing presents challenges not only in terms of the underlying technology, but also in terms of operations, logistics and compliance.”

This project comes as Solana is riding a wave of momentum. According to CoinGecko, its native token SOL has soared 78% this year compared to a 64% rise in Ethereum price.

Solana has a market value of $81 billion, making it the fifth largest digital asset.

Solana also largely controls the highly popular meme coin market. March activity was extremely high, with the network generating more fees than heavyweight Ethereum. This is by no means easy.

Remaining questions

Still, questions remain about the wisdom of launching the phone.

“What are you bringing in?” Lewis said. “Is it just security? Is it a new interface? Is it the latest chip power? I think these are the questions that will help you build your brand and be able to bring it to market.”

And, perhaps most importantly, is there really a demand for crypto phones?

deep roots

Solana's projects have deep roots in Silicon Valley's mobile scene.

It grew out of a little-known but well-regarded project called Essential, founded by Google's Android brainchild Andy Rubin.

After Essential closed in 2020, some of its staff started another mobile company called OSOM. A few years later, the company developed his OV1 mobile phone with a ceramic and titanium body, which became a cult favorite.

If you look closely, it also looks very similar to Solana Saga, because they are almost identical. Solana Labs and OSOM announced their partnership in June 2022.

In February 2022, Laver landed in Solana, in the midst of the Saga development.

A native of Canada, Laver studied computer engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario (the same alma mater as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin).

iconic products

Mr. Raver was involved in the development of many iconic products. He worked on the entire line of BlackBerry machines manufactured by Canada's Research in Motion, which introduced mobile email and text messaging into corporate life.

At Microsoft, Laver worked on what would become the Windows Phone app store, and he's had his hands in other consumer electronics products, such as smartwatch maker Fitbit, as well as stints at Apple and Google.

“There are a lot of low- and mid-budget Android smartphones that look like the dashboard of a cheap car from the late '90s.”

— Steven Laver, Solana Labs

Reber said the Saga was designed from the start to have a satisfying weight in the hand and an elegant matte finish.

“There are a lot of low- and mid-budget Android phones that look like cheap car dashboards from the late '90s,” Laver says.

Solana's device was designed with three features not found in regular cell phones.

The first one was called Seed Vault.

This stores the seed phrase that users use to send and receive crypto. Laver said Saga's security lies somewhere between internet-connected cryptocurrency wallets like Phantom and MetaMask and his Ledger, which is like a safe deposit box.

It's not meant to hold millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies, but you can buy yourself a few cocktails with it.

Challenge to Apple and Google

Solana Mobile Stack allows mobile app developers to build crypto apps for mobile phones. The Solana dApp Store also provides a marketplace of artifacts for your projects.

This is designed to target the demise of some of the industry's larger crypto apps, perhaps most notably the Apple App Store, which removed MetaMask in October, after it was subsequently reinstated.

In-app purchases on the Apple App Store also come with a whopping 30% fee.

As for the Google Play Store, it relaxed its policies regarding cryptocurrencies last summer. However, they also charge developers fees, usually between 15% and 30%.

Laver said the Solana Labs team intends for cryptocurrencies to remain cryptocurrencies.

“We're taking policy very lightly,” he said. “We're doing our best to stay out of the way.”

profit center

Solana Labs does not charge any fees, other than the cost of posting your app's metadata to the Solana blockchain.

“This is not a profit center for us,” Laver said.

The platform already includes NFT marketplace Magic Eden and decentralized exchange Jupiter.

“We need to find a way to give builders a streamlined path to distribution.”

— Emmett Hollier, Solana Labs

Holyer hopes to put pressure on Silicon Valley to take a smarter approach to cryptocurrencies.

“I hope Google and Apple come to their senses and consider what is possible if they loosen some of their pricing and restrictive policies,” he said. “Until then, we need to find a way to give builders a reasonable path to distribution.”

Solana recently marked its 100th dapp.

“We're just starting to get to the point where developers are starting to understand the value of developing for mobile phones like Saga,” Laver said.

BONK becomes a boom

But the big change in the development of the Solana phone was BONK, a meme coin worth $2.1 billion. Solana bundled $750 worth of BONK tokens with every phone.

When the token soared in December, 30 million BONK tokens were integrated directly into Solana Saga phones. Arbitrage has appeared.

“We used BONK to purchase other meme coins,” said Louis Cole, product manager at token vesting platform Streamflow. DL News. “All in all, I think he turned 800 bons into $4,000. It was worth it financially.”

Thanks to the buzz around BONK, Solana was able to sell its remaining phones in three days, Holyer said.

This episode also raised expectations for the second chapter, which will feature five meme coins. Cole, for one, has already pre-ordered the phone.

Having absorbed the lessons of crypto mobile marketing, Reber admitted that he was “a little confused personally.”

“Blockchain is a little different,” he said. “At the end of the day, getting real, well-integrated, physical products into people's hands is why I do this.”

Liam Kelly is based in Berlin DL News” Correspondent. To contact him, liam@dlnews.com.