Hello beautiful builder!

I’m wrapping up this issue fresh on the heels of submitting a project for the Coindesk Web3athon in the Solana track (duh!)

I built Vanward, an on-chain app to manage and verify professional certifications.

Do I think it will win? Nah!

I was using the hackathon as a deadline to get v1 off of localhost and out into the world for some real user feedback.

I’ll be working on the next version as part of the Encode Club x Solana hackathon kicking off June 20.

I went solo for Web3athon, but I’m looking for front-end or full-stack developers for the next phase if you or anyone you know might be interested!

Ok, on to the fun stuff…

🤖 Solana ChatGPT Plugin

You can't read any (most likely AI-generated) article without being bombarded with how AI and LLM is going to change and/or ruin the world as we know it.

AI isn't the end of blockchain. In fact, they're very complementary technologies. If used correctly, AI will help onboard the "next billion users" to the crypto space.

Solana Labs is leading the charge by releasing a new ChatGPT plugin to query data across the Solana network.

The Solana ChatGPT plugin will “make it easier to understand Solana data and protocols, or surface data about Solana’s computing infrastructure and DeFi projects".

Solana is plugging ChatGPT into an RPC node that reads data from on-chain sources to answer user questions about NFTs, tokens, and inspecting transaction or account data.

The Solana Foundation is also increasing its funding for grants exploring the intersection of the Solana blockchain and AI to $10 million from its original pledge of $1 million.

The ChatGPT plugin is open source and can be downloaded from GitHub.

💣 Metaplex Protocol Fees

Developers whose apps include anything to do with NFTs got some very unwelcome news when Metaplex announced that along with making the Token Metadata program immutable (good), that change would also implement fees ranging from 0.001 to 0.01 SOL for actions taken on NFTs (bad).

Let's just say the Solana community had feelings about this announcement. Lots of discussion on how a "public good" like Metaplex should be able to fund and support development.

Developers like to eat too.

There is also ongoing development of alternative NFT metadata standards from GenesysGo and Glow.

Also worth noting is that compressed NFTs, which are minted via Bubblegum vs Candy Machine, are not affected by these fees.

Thankfully, and to Metaplex's credit, they have since modified the protocol fee schedule based on community feedback:

🔒 Light V3 Privacy Protocol

Light v3 is the first Solana ZK layer enabling private program execution with “Private Solana Programs”

Developers can build apps with private payments, encrypted order books, or on-chain games with private state with full zkSNARK verification in a single Solana transaction without requiring an L2 or rollup.

Light achieves this by allowing developers to move private program logic to the client. A Solana program can then verify the correctness of the transaction without needeing the full client data.

LightV3 is currently on Testnet, with a Mainnet release planned soon.

Getting Started with Light Protocol PSPs

💎 Solana Developer News

Blockworks announces Lightspeed Solana podcast - Tweet

Programmable NFTs (pNFTs) overview - YouTube

Upcoming Solana events - Tweet

Sign In With Solana (SIWS) coming to Phantom - Tweet

Solana Dev 101: Using DAS API to fetch NFT Collections - Tweet

Solana Interfaces overview - Tweet & Space

Mold Linker to optimize Rust compile time - Tweet

How Rogue Sharks converted to xNFTs - Tweet

⚙️ Tools & Resources

Devnet Proof of Work Faucet is addressing the Devnet SOL shortage by allowing users to mine Devnet SOL using Proof of Work. Miners who sign an airdrop transaction with a key that meets the difficulty requirement are sent the reward amount.

Comprehensive Rust Course provides a comprehensive understanding of the Rust language, and dives into delve into specialized topics such as Android development, embedded development, and concurrency.

Sig is an experimental Solana RPC client implementation written in Zig, a general-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal and reusable software.

🎙️ Listen to This…

Validated - The Philosophy of Ethereum

In this episode, David Hoffman (Bankless) and Austin have an honest and multi-faceted conversation about the differences between Solana and Ethereum’s decisions, community, and future.

David makes the case for an Ethereum-dominant future, and in doing so, illuminates much about Ethereum's philosophy of design and the culture of its most fervent believers.

Naturally, Austin makes a similar case on behalf of Solana. This is a conversation between two people who have mutual respect for each other, but fundamentally different opinions about how a blockchain should be built.

The Philosophy of Ethereum According to Bankless' David Hoffman

Thanks for reading ✌️

I hope you found something useful here! If you have any suggestions or feedback just let me know what you think.