I believe that the most powerful thing about crypto is the proliferation of public/private key cryptography for normal, everyday people. For over a decade, the most powerful self-custody experiences in crypto – the ones where users are signing transactions as easily and often as they can send emails – have been stuck on desktop. After all this time, the preferred method of interacting with crypto still involves installing a browser extension and plugging in a thumb drive.
In the past two years, Solana has seen rapid growth to millions of active addresses. It’s now the largest platform for NFTs, the most user-friendly onramp to crypto. Through a global community of developers launching thousands of diverse applications across DeFi, collectibles, gaming, payments and more, millions of people are already using private keys to authenticate transactions.
But every day, I hear stories of people leaving dinners, conferences, and vacations to get back to their computers and sign important transactions. The mints, trades, listings, and transfers critical to the daily life of crypto-lovers are dragging us away from our lives with others. The only companies with the resources to materialize the self-custody mobile future we’re all dreaming of, Apple and Google, have had no updates to give on their roadmaps for crypto.
It’s time for web3 devs to start building for mobile usage instead of around mobile usage. The blockers to achieving this goal are clear: The app store policies of Google and Apple haven’t evolved for web3. The custody solutions on phones haven’t materialized. The software and hardware haven’t been natively integrated.
It’s time for crypto to go mobile.
It’s time for the secure, biometric-integrated custody solutions we’ve been dreaming of, that have somehow failed to materialize on the roadmaps of the mobile giants. It’s time for an app store governed by users and developers, with no restrictions on tokens or NFTs, allowing for web3-native distribution models that could never be possible in the App Store and Google Play. These features have been technically possible for a while, so there’s no reason to keep waiting.
Less than a year ago, the Solana Labs engineering team started to re-imagine web3 for mobile. We started from first principles and focused relentlessly on removing friction for self-custody. We’re now ready to lift the veil.
- We are introducing today the open source Solana Mobile Stack for Android, enabling native Android web3 apps on Solana (read more here).
- Solana Mobile Stack includes Seed Vault, a secure custody protocol for mobile that facilitates instant signing of transactions while keeping private keys partitioned from wallets, apps and the Android operating system, along with Mobile Wallet Adapter and integrated payments capabilities.
- Solana dApp Store, a new app distribution system on Android for decentralized apps.
- We are revealing Saga, a flagship-quality Android phone shipping with Solana Mobile Stack by Q1 2023, with Seed Vault fully integrated in the trust zone and Secure Element (read more here).
- We are teasing the Saga Pass, an NFT accompanying the first wave of Saga devices and the first ticket to participating in community governance of the Solana Mobile Stack platform.
Any one of these things would be an achievement, but together this is the start of a huge leap forward for crypto adoption on mobile. It’s why we have support from across the entire Solana ecosystem, especially Coral, FTX, Kiyomi/OpenEra, Magic Eden, Okay Bears, Orca, Phantom, StepN, and more. Thank you, one and all.
Solana ecosystem developers have a hunger for constant improvement. Activity on Solana continues to climb, with monthly active fee payers at 2.3 million in June, up 44% from December, and daily programs used on Solana at 1,050 in June, up 169% from December. Attendance at our first 15hacker housesthe past year eclipsed 10,000. The ecosystem of validators and engineers are working hard on performance upgrades (join Discord for more).
The opportunity right now is to build features and experiences that take advantage of a smoother ability to do web3 transactions on mobile, to carry digital assets around anywhere (and how that unlocks new use cases), and an ability to tie mobile payments capabilities to web3 payments rails to eliminate intermediaries.
I’ve lived and breathed mobile for much of my career. I know how powerful it can be for sparking unexpected use cases and global reach. I participated in the earliest wireless technology that brought the first basic mobile games to cell phones and from that we are well into the 5G which is connecting everyone to everything.
I’m more excited about this than anything we’ve done since we launched Solana. Now, just like then, I can’t predict what will be built in the next few years– but I know this is a step we felt like we had to take.
FAQs
Purpose of the Solana Mobile Saga Phone
The primary purpose of the Saga Phone is to facilitate the integration of blockchain technology into everyday mobile usage. It is designed to cater to users who are actively involved in the cryptocurrency, NFT, and broader digital asset markets.
Who is behind Solana mobile? ›
Named after a small Southern Californian coastal city, Solana is the brainchild of software developer Anatoly Yakovenko.
How much will a Solana phone cost? ›
Solana Mobile has unveiled a cheaper $450 successor to its Saga crypto smartphone, expected to ship in the first half of 2025. Demand for Saga devices surged in December amid an arbitrage opportunity presented by the 30 million bonk tokens that come with the phone.
What is Solana mobile stack? ›
The Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) is a treasure trove of key technologies for building mobile apps that interact with the Solana blockchain. Mobile Wallet Adapter: This gem is a protocol for connecting mobile dApps to mobile wallet apps. It makes integrating with various wallets a breeze!
How much is a saga phone? ›
This innovation is a response to the market's demand for comprehensive Web3 functionality. Notably, Saga faced initial struggles, debuting at $1000, but a strategic price adjustment to $599 later garnered attention.
What do you use Solana for? ›
Solana (SOL) is a high-performance blockchain platform aiming for fast and low-cost transactions. SOL token is used for network operations, governance, and staking on the Solana ecosystem.
How many Solana Saga phones have been sold? ›
The success of Chapter 2 marks a significant turnaround for Solana Mobile, which faced challenges with its first smartphone, Saga, launched in mid-2023. Initially projecting sales of 25,000 to 50,000 units, Saga fell short, only managing to sell 2,500 units.
Who is suing Solana? ›
The SEC has also filed a lawsuit against a cryptocurrency exchange alleging that Solana should be regulated as a security. Solana's total market cap was US$55 billion in January 2022. However, by the end of 2022, this had fallen to around $3 billion following the bankruptcy of FTX.
Which network is Solana using? ›
Is Solana on the ETH network? No, Solana is not on the Ethereum network. Solana is a separate and independent blockchain network with its native token (SOL) and infrastructure. While Solana and Ethereum are both blockchain networks, they are not interoperable, and Solana has its own unique features and capabilities.
What are the benefits of Solana mobile? ›
Potential Benefits Of Solana Phones
With Solana phones having crypto wallets and Web3 browsers built-in, users can seamlessly access DEXs, NFT marketplaces, prediction markets, play-to-earn games, and other dApps running on Solana's high-speed network.
Two cat-themed memecoin airdrops for Solana “Chapter 2” mobile phone customers briefly covered the cost of the device on Thursday. The current value of airdrops for Chapter 2 is around $385, with pre-orders for the phone costing $450 ahead of its tentative 2025 rollout.
Why do people buy Solana? ›
With its high throughput and low transaction costs, Solana provides a compelling platform for NFT activities, positioning it as a strong contender for leading the market in 2024. “It has an opportunity to end 2024 with the largest majority of NFT volume if it can continue its recent trajectory,” Tan says.
What app uses Solana? ›
Solflare is a safe and powerful crypto wallet that brings all of the benefits of Solana to you. Buy, send, stake, swap and trade tokens right from your phone; use hardware wallets like Ledger, connect to Solana dApps, get blockchain notifications, and experience a whole new internet directly from your phone.
What is stack app on Android? ›
Google Stack is a document-scanning and -filing app. It digitally photographs and stores receipts, bills, and other papers as PDFs, organizing them into different categories. Free to download, it is available exclusively for Android phones and tablets in the United States.
What virtual machine does Solana use? ›
SVM: The Solana Virtual Machine is designed to leverage Solana's high throughput and low-latency infrastructure. SVM can handle a large number of transactions per second due to Solana's underlying technology, making it highly efficient for scalable applications.
What is Solana supposed to do? ›
Solana is a crypto computing platform that aims to achieve high transaction speeds without sacrificing decentralization. It employs a bundle of novel approaches, including the “proof of history” mechanism. Solana's native cryptocurrency is SOL, which is used to pay transaction fees and for staking.
What is so special about Solana? ›
One of the most exciting features of Solana is its speed and scalability. It is one of the few protocols that boast over 1000 TPS because of its genuine web-scale blockchain features. In addition, Solana supports at least 50,000 TPS, which is about 3800 times faster than Ethereum and 10000 times faster than Bitcoin.
What are the benefits of holding Solana? ›
Pro: Speed and Fees
Solana can support more than 2,600 transactions per second compared to only about 15 transactions for Ethereum. Solana's proof-of-history (PoH) and proof-of-stake (PoS) models verify transactions based on coin ownership. This ease of verification also helps Solana have lower fees than Ethereum.
How can I make money from Solana? ›
When can I start earning rewards with Solana? You start earning yield with most of the Staking and Standard Rewards assets once they are purchased. To earn yield by staking ETH or depositing assets in DeFi yield, you will need to purchase the asset and then agree to terms to enable the option and start earning rewards.
