Solana Changelog: Cubik, SPL-token, and Solana-Tools

In the ever-evolving world of blockchain technology, Solana continues to make waves with its rapid developments and ecosystem growth. The latest Solana Changelog, featuring Jacob and Jonas, brings us up to speed with the most recent updates and changes in the Solana ecosystem. From the bittersweet news of Cardinal Labs' shutdown to exciting advancements in Token 2022 adoption, this changelog covers it all. Let's dive into the details of what's happening in the Solana space.

Cardinal Labs Shutdown

One of the most significant pieces of news in the Solana ecosystem this week is the announcement of Cardinal Labs' impending shutdown. Cardinal Labs has been a cornerstone in the Solana developer community, providing a range of valuable tools and services that have contributed to the ecosystem's growth and innovation.

The news of their shutdown has been met with a wave of support and appreciation from the community, highlighting the impact Cardinal Labs has had on Solana's development landscape. As Jacob mentions, "They've been really good developers and have provided a lot of great tools for people to use in the past. So it's very hard to see them go."

For developers who have been utilizing Cardinal Labs' services, it's crucial to start looking for alternatives and begin the migration process. The shutdown is scheduled to occur within a three-week period, giving users a limited window to transition their projects and dependencies.

Jonas adds a positive note to this news, stating, "Everyone said it's sad to see you guys leave and they did a great job and everything is open source. So it's still a great resource for the community." This open-source nature of Cardinal Labs' work ensures that their contributions will continue to benefit the Solana ecosystem even after their departure.

Jupiter's Token 2022 Adoption

On a more optimistic note, Jupiter, a popular decentralized exchange aggregator on Solana, has taken a significant step forward by adding support for Token 2022. This new feature allows users to interact with Token 2022 tokens through Jupiter's interface, marking an important milestone in the adoption of this updated token standard.

Jacob explains the significance of this development: "What you can do now is it will support routes with Fluxbeam, which is the only DEX out there right now that has Token 2022 support, and it will allow you to basically use Jupiter and get Token 2022 tokens."

While the current usage of Token 2022 is still limited, this early adoption by Jupiter is a promising sign for the future of the standard. As Jacob notes, "There's not many people using Token 2022 today, but it's cool to see this early adoption. And we're really excited for when Token 2022 gets full adoption at a later date."

Jonas expresses his enthusiasm for this development, highlighting the potential implications: "I'm also very excited about this one because there's also lots of discussions about what can be done with it now that wasn't possible before. There's also a new metadata standard which could be connected to it eventually and confidential transfers and so on using some pools. So yeah, it's really nice to see the adoption of this program."

Cubik's Tooling Round

Cubik, a platform designed to support and fund projects in the Solana ecosystem, has launched an exciting new initiative - a tooling round for the best tools currently built on Solana. This round provides an opportunity for the community to directly support and fund the development of crucial tools within the ecosystem.

Jonas explains the process: "You can log in, approve yourself with some authentication methods like for example connect your Google account and your GitHub account and so on, and then you can provide some money to these projects and then it will be quadratically increased."

This quadratic funding model means that even small contributions can have a significant impact. As Jacob elaborates, "If people donate $1, I believe you get like $20 in match at $1 donation." This approach democratizes the funding process and allows the community to collectively decide which tools are most valuable and deserving of support.

The list of projects participating in this round is impressive, including session keys, Renaissance, Wormhole, UnitestJS SDK, Cubic itself, Tiny Dancer, and Carvia, among others. This diverse range of tools showcases the depth and breadth of development happening within the Solana ecosystem.

For developers who have created tools for the Solana ecosystem, this round presents an excellent opportunity to gain support and recognition. Jacob encourages participation: "If you do have a project like a tool that you've been building in the Solana ecosystem, apply for the round and get your project in there so that it can be open for donations and be matched quadratically with the matching pool."

sRFC-14: Rethinking SPL-token

The Solana ecosystem is constantly evolving, and part of this evolution involves critically examining and improving existing standards. The latest step in this direction is sRFC-14, which aims to address some of the limitations of the current SPL-token standard and propose solutions for the future.

Jacob outlines the key issues addressed in sRFC-14: "This outlines issues like barriers to innovation because of the single program, there's not clear governance, and then gives you some proposed solutions." The goal is to create a more flexible and innovative token standard that can better serve the needs of the growing Solana ecosystem.

This proposal is not standalone but is closely tied to other Solana Request for Comments (sRFCs). Jacob explains, "Ultimately this ties in very greatly with sRFC-15, which is interfaces, and sRFC-10, which is the traits. So all these different sRFCs are working together towards a common goal of making it easier to both create new tokens in the future as well as new multiple programs that maybe follow one singular interface to do the same thing, both enabling innovation and less singular control over a program."

The open nature of this discussion is a testament to Solana's commitment to community-driven development. Jonas encourages community participation: "If anything is bothering you about it or if you have ideas how it could be better in the future, just come in here and write your comments. They're discussing it openly. So it's a great chance to help."

Rust Version in Solana Programs

On the technical side, a new commit has been highlighted that allows developers to specify the Rust version in their Solana programs. This seemingly small change can have significant implications for development workflow and debugging.

Jonas explains the importance of this update: "It lets you add the Rust version to the Solana program. So there's no these accidental problems anymore that you install the wrong platform tools and suddenly you can't compile anymore. You run into some issues which are very hard to debug."

This change is expected to alleviate some of the compatibility issues that have been observed between Anchor (a popular Solana development framework) and native Solana programs. Jacob confirms this, stating, "This would probably help out with some of the incompatible issues that we've seen with Anchor and native in the past."

Solana Tools Repository

In an effort to centralize and organize information about the various tools available in the Solana ecosystem, a new Solana Tools repository has been created under the Solana Developers organization. This repository serves as a comprehensive list of tools that developers can use when working with Solana.

Jacob encourages community contributions to this resource: "I'd recommend if you go there and you don't see your tool listed, make a PR. Let's get it added so that we can have one singular location that has basically an awesome list of tools within Solana."

This initiative reflects the Solana community's commitment to improving the developer experience and making it easier for newcomers to discover and utilize the rich ecosystem of tools available.

Compressed NFT Utilities

The Solana ecosystem continues to innovate in the NFT space, particularly with compressed NFTs. A recent pull request (PR) by a community member known as "Bob burger" has added new utilities for working with compressed NFTs to the program examples.

Jonas highlights the significance of these additions: "He did a bunch of very cool and compressed NFT utils in addition to the ones that are already there in the program examples. Now you can also, I think he has transfer, mint, and verify, which is also very nice because before it was kind of difficult to figure out if the NFT is actually valid in the program, and he has an example for that."

These new examples are particularly valuable given the initial complexity surrounding compressed NFTs. Jacob recalls, "When compressed NFTs came out, everybody was still chewing glass on how to do it on the program side. So this helps out a whole bunch."

This contribution exemplifies the collaborative nature of the Solana ecosystem, where community members actively work to improve documentation and provide examples that benefit all developers.

Solana Stack Exchange

The changelog discussion also touched on the importance of the Solana Stack Exchange, a platform where developers can ask and answer questions related to Solana development. Both Jacob and Jonas emphasize the value of this resource and encourage community participation.

Jacob explains the long-term benefits of using Stack Exchange: "The reason why we do this is that for all of those questions and answers, they'll get indexed by the search engines. And then when people have issues in the future, they don't have to go to a Discord server to get their answer. They can just do a quick Google search, get their answer immediately from the Stack Exchange, and move on."

Engagement with the Solana Stack Exchange not only helps current developers find solutions quickly but also contributes to building a comprehensive knowledge base for future Solana developers. Jacob encourages various forms of participation: "Both do the question answers and what helps us greatly is if you increase engagement by upvoting good questions and answers on the Solana Stack Exchange."

Jonas adds that participating in the Stack Exchange can be enjoyable and rewarding: "It's actually also a decent amount of fun because you get points when people upvote your questions and approve your answers as correct, and you also get some badges. And then you get some new abilities that you can review other questions and so on. So it's a fun thing."

By actively contributing to and engaging with the Solana Stack Exchange, developers can play a crucial role in improving the overall developer experience within the Solana ecosystem.

Conclusion

The Solana ecosystem continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with new developments, tools, and initiatives emerging regularly. From the bittersweet news of Cardinal Labs' departure to the exciting advancements in Token 2022 adoption and the ongoing efforts to improve core standards like SPL-token, the Solana community remains vibrant and forward-thinking.

The introduction of Cubik's tooling round provides a new avenue for supporting crucial infrastructure development, while initiatives like the Solana Tools repository and contributions to program examples demonstrate the community's commitment to improving documentation and accessibility.

As the ecosystem grows, platforms like the Solana Stack Exchange become increasingly important in fostering knowledge sharing and problem-solving. The Solana community's collaborative spirit shines through in all these developments, promising a bright future for the blockchain platform.

Stay tuned for more updates, and don't forget to engage with these various initiatives to contribute to the growth and success of the Solana ecosystem.

Facts + Figures

• Cardinal Labs announced their shutdown, with a three-week period for users to migrate their dependencies.
• Jupiter added support for Token 2022, allowing interaction with these tokens through their platform.
• Cubik launched a tooling round for funding the best tools built on Solana, with a $20,000 matching pool.
• A $1 donation in Cubik's tooling round can result in a $20 match due to the quadratic funding model.
• sRFC-14 proposes rethinking the SPL-token standard to address issues like barriers to innovation and lack of clear governance.
• A new commit allows developers to specify the Rust version in their Solana programs, potentially reducing compatibility issues.
• A new Solana Tools repository has been created under the Solana Developers organization to list and organize ecosystem tools.
• New utilities for working with compressed NFTs have been added to the program examples, including transfer, mint, and verify functions.
• The Solana Stack Exchange is being promoted as a key resource for developers to ask and answer questions, with the added benefit of search engine indexing.

Questions Answered

What happened to Cardinal Labs?

Cardinal Labs announced that they will be shutting down both their protocol and services. This comes as a significant loss to the Solana ecosystem, as Cardinal Labs has been a major contributor of developer tools and services. Developers using Cardinal Labs' services have a three-week period to migrate their projects to alternative solutions. Despite the shutdown, all of Cardinal Labs' work remains open-source, ensuring their contributions will continue to benefit the community.

How is Jupiter supporting Token 2022?

Jupiter has added a new feature that supports routes with Token 2022 tokens. This means users can now interact with Token 2022 tokens through Jupiter's interface, specifically through Fluxbeam, which is currently the only decentralized exchange (DEX) with Token 2022 support. While adoption of Token 2022 is still limited, this move by Jupiter represents an important step towards wider integration of this updated token standard in the Solana ecosystem.

What is Cubik's tooling round?

Cubik has launched a tooling round to fund the best tools currently built on Solana. Users can authenticate themselves and donate to projects they believe are valuable. The funding uses a quadratic model, meaning even small donations can have a significant impact due to matching. The round includes a $20,000 matching pool, with a $1 donation potentially resulting in a $20 match. This initiative aims to support and encourage the development of crucial tools within the Solana ecosystem.

What changes are proposed in sRFC-14?

sRFC-14 proposes rethinking the SPL-token standard to address several issues in the current implementation. These issues include barriers to innovation due to the single program nature of the current standard and a lack of clear governance. The proposal aims to make it easier to create new tokens and multiple programs that follow a singular interface, enabling more innovation and reducing centralized control over the program. This sRFC is closely tied to others, including sRFC-15 (interfaces) and sRFC-10 (traits).

How will specifying Rust versions in Solana programs help developers?

A new commit allows developers to specify the Rust version in their Solana programs. This change aims to prevent accidental issues caused by installing the wrong platform tools, which can lead to compilation errors and hard-to-debug problems. It's expected to help resolve some of the compatibility issues that have been observed between Anchor (a Solana development framework) and native Solana programs, thereby improving the overall development experience.

What is the Solana Tools repository?

The Solana Tools repository is a new initiative under the Solana Developers organization. It serves as a comprehensive list of tools available within the Solana ecosystem. Developers are encouraged to contribute to this repository by submitting pull requests to add their tools if they're not already listed. The goal is to create a centralized location where developers can easily discover and access the wide range of tools available for Solana development.

What new utilities have been added for compressed NFTs?

New utilities for working with compressed NFTs have been added to the program examples. These include functions for transfer, minting, and verifying compressed NFTs. The verify function is particularly noteworthy as it addresses the previous difficulty in determining the validity of a compressed NFT within a program. These additions aim to simplify the process of working with compressed NFTs, which was initially quite complex when the feature was first introduced.

Why is the Solana Stack Exchange important?

The Solana Stack Exchange is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it serves as a platform where developers can ask and answer questions related to Solana development. More importantly, these questions and answers get indexed by search engines, making it easier for developers to find solutions quickly without having to navigate through chat platforms like Discord. By actively participating in the Solana Stack Exchange, developers contribute to building a comprehensive knowledge base that benefits the entire Solana community, both now and in the future.