I started out with NFTs on Ethereum, with the Satoshibles collection. That was my first NFT project. It wasn’t a mint, but a secondary play that I purchased on Opensea for roughly US$600. It seemed like a lot of money at the time for a jpeg, and it took me a lot longer to pull the trigger than it does now. My first real mint was a Vudu Brigada on Cardano. Chances are, you’ve never heard of them, and that’s fine.
But my first mint on Solana was a Scoogi, and that was a game changer. Check out what my first Scoogi looks like below.
I own 5 Scoogis now, btw, and I’m not planning to sell. These are purely for sentimental value. (I vibe with them hard.)
But before we get into my collections and NFT trading strategy on Solana, let’s quickly go over why this guide might be worth a read for you. I’m not here to waste your time, and I know long guides can get pretty fucking boring, so let’s get these formalities out of the way.
Why listen to @Valerioshi?
Why should you listen to me, and not some other choom who’s shilling you his bags?
I’m fully doxxed. Look hard enough, and it isn’t that hard to find me. I’ve put in five figures into NFTs, and six figures into crypto. I’ve made a ton of money, but I’ve lost five figures too (e.g., Celsius, Voyager, yaddi yadda.)
I’ve written technical in-depth guides on consensus mechanisms, ETH mining, NFTs ad nauseum, DeFi protocols, and a whole host of other pieces about how to navigate this oft-confusing space.
I was early to Solana NFTs. Not early, early, but early enough to see the space taking shape. I was lucky enough to work with Magic Eden on their content strategy from the very beginning, and had a small part to play in helping develop the brand from the content side.
But more importantly, I’m an NFT Discord junkie. I’ve been researching projects for a while now. I link up with several alpha callers on a daily basis, probing them for how they evaluate the latest projects, etc. I spend several hours every day browsing projects, reading, researching, and so on.
But hey, that doesn’t mean I make better decisions. I’m still an idiot, albeit an informed (misinformed?) one. So take all this with a pinch of kek, and let’s get it.
Why Solana?
Let me say this: The minting experience on Solana was the smoothest thing I had experienced. In fact, at first I sat there wondering if the transaction had gone through. It didn’t take long to verify. After a few times refreshing my wallet, sure enough, my balance had changed for a lighter wallet, and a Scoogi sat in my Collections tab.
Other common reasons you’ll hear Solana being lauded are its delightfully smooth user experience, and its transaction fees, which cost peanuts. It’s actually quite impressive, considering how much shit Solana has eaten from other-chain maxis. I’m not a Solana maxi, but I’m a strong believer in Solana and its UVP.
But before we address two criticisms that do warrant attention, let’s talk for a sec on why Solana can afford to be so fast. This mainly has to do with its architecture, that is, the consensus mechanisms that enable it to secure the network, while providing wild speeds, a smooth-as-silk user experience, and transaction fees that feel like the coins caught up in your lint.
Solana operates based on two consensus mechanisms: Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and Proof-of-History. PoS is nothing new. Cardano uses it, and Ethereum is transitioning to it. Basically,
Solana criticisms
When it comes to the sunshine chain, there are two criticisms that merit our attention:
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Solana could be more decentralized. (Much, much more.)
This is a valid criticism. To become a validator demands a considerable upfront investment in hardware that’s dedicated to validating SOL. However, there are thousands of validators, and communicating via the Discord (like a DAO would) and reaching an agreement to reset the network is pretty awesome.
Hopefully, future updates will lower hardware requirements, and this bear market will also give users an opportunity to purchase some hardware for bargain prices.
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Solana’s top wallets are holding a huge chunk of SOL.