Investing in cryptocurrency has been extremely challenging for investors this cycle; picking the wrong sector can even result in losses. StarEx believes the future requires embracing vibrant projects and ecosystem tokens, with SOL and TON currently being very popular.
TON has developed many phenomenally popular mini-games through the social media platform Telegram, spreading widely, which has kept it strong this cycle.
SOL’s main highlight is becoming a platform for meme coin speculation, generating significant wealth effects through various meme coins emerging this cycle.
Ethereum, on the other hand, has been involved in numerous “staking and re-staking” projects and a lot of ETH locking for points in L2, listing at high market values, enriching the founding teams and VC institutions, but leaving investors struggling.
Beyond speculation, real blockchain applications are still not visible. If SOL is just about meme coin speculation, it will also decline as the speculation fades. However, recently, SOL introduced an innovative feature: Blink, which is expected to change the existing blockchain ecosystem. It’s worth observing whether it can lead the blockchain into a new ecological development field.
In simple terms, Blink integrates blockchain links directly into users’ live streams, web pages, and applications, allowing them to click and call their wallet to complete purchases, with merchants earning commission, similar to the web2 payment experience. This significantly lowers the barrier for users to enter the blockchain.
It has already started being used in many scenarios, such as:
Prediction markets: Platforms like HedgeHog, with public opinion polls already appearing on Twitter. With cryptocurrency, you can spend your money wisely—predicting sports events, outcomes, or voting for prediction proposals directly through Twitter feeds.
Multisig Blink in DMs: Do you have multiple signatories for transactions with friends or co-founders? Just send them a Blink, and they can sign directly in the chat.
Mini-games: Games like Chomp and Blessed Burgers create interactive on-chain mini-games and quizzes, gathering input directly from user feeds. Additionally, check if players are eligible to play by viewing NFTs in their wallets.
Payment requests and settlements in DMs: Platforms like PayPal and Circle allow sending, requesting, and settling payments. An on-chain Splitwise can simply be a group chat with friends—sending or requesting USDC in the chat and settling transactions within the chat interface.
GitHub sponsorships and tips: Create a Blink button, allowing people to tip or sponsor their favorite developers directly on GitHub.
YouTube will become a powerhouse: Crypto super chat functionality lets viewers of YouTube creators send crypto super chats and reward creators during live streams. Rewards: Tip Link enables creators/audiences to create wallets using their YouTube email IDs.
And more…
In the future, Blinks can turn any application into a Solana application, like shopping directly from live stream apps, Bountycaster on Twitter, social commerce—purchasing directly from TikTok or Insta stories. Blink’s developer experience is ten times better because it doesn’t require using SDKs, but can use APIs directly, making it easier to create super apps, embed into any website, and more.
Of course, StarEx notes that there are security risks, as there are many phishing and scam links online. Clicking on these could lead to wallet theft, requiring gradual improvement.
The major application scenarios for blockchain are payments, RWA, and web3. SOL’s Blink is indeed impressive, at least showing users real-life applications. StarEx believes that with the gradual implementation and improvement of blockchain technology, some commercial scenarios will gradually emerge, waiting for the moment of ecosystem explosion.
From a trading perspective, since TON and SOL are popular sectors, their ecosystem tokens can be considered for low-entry attention, such as JUP, RAY, PYTH, JTO, etc.
