Dialogue with WIF Godfather Ansem: Why is Solana able to stand out in the cryptocurrency market?

Host: The Defiant

Guest: Zion Thomas (a.k.a. Ansem)

Organized & Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Key Points Summary

Zion Thomas, also known as Ansem, is an amateur boxer and a well-known figure on Crypto Twitter (CT), recognized for his insightful analysis of the crypto market. He is also building a project called Bullpen.

In this conversation, Ansem shared his journey into the crypto world, discussed his experiences as a CT influencer, and the challenges faced by Solana. He reflected on the ups and downs of Solana and what makes it unique. Ansem also revealed his favorite ecosystems and applications, provided advice, and briefly introduced his project Bullpen. Finally, he shared his future plans and some valuable Alpha.

Entering the Crypto Space

Before entering the crypto market, Ansem was a software engineer and a full-stack developer at Capital One. In 2016, Ansem learned about the importance of Bitcoin but did not buy it immediately.

In 2017, after graduating from Georgia Tech, Ansem became a software engineer and was influenced by his work mentor to start trading cryptocurrencies in his spare time.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the market underwent drastic changes, and Ansem continued to trade, performing well. In 2021, he decided to pursue cryptocurrency full-time and has essentially focused on it ever since.

As Ansem became more active in the cryptocurrency space, he found himself enjoying trading more and more. Ansem stated that trading provided immediate feedback, whether it was profit or loss, and this instant feedback fascinated him. This was in stark contrast to the fixed work hours and the sense of accomplishment after completing projects; the immediacy and continuity of trading aligned better with his interests.

Ansem previously served as the Head of Research at TCG Crypto and is now primarily working independently.

Crypto KOL

Ansem mentioned that his favorite moments are seeing people excited and making money because they followed his trades. He noted that some people tell him they made a lot of money because of his advice, even becoming millionaires. They are very grateful and say he changed their lives. Especially those fans who have followed him for years have witnessed Ansem's journey from receiving only a few likes when he started posting trading ideas in 2017 and 2018 to sharing all trading logs and analyses weekly in 2020 on a private page with only 100 members. These individuals saw Ansem's efforts and perseverance, which made him feel very proud and satisfied.

Ansem also shared the parts he dislikes. He mentioned that now with nearly 400,000 followers, he inevitably encounters some dissatisfied people. Some are unhappy because they lost money on a trade, over-invested, or misunderstood his words, or simply have opinions about him because he is a large account. Dealing with these negative emotions and private messages is his least favorite part. However, Ansem believes that, overall, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Solana's Development Journey and Challenges and Opportunities

Ansem first explained why he came to Istanbul. He stated that he came to Istanbul to attend the Slide Across Roads conference organized by Step Finance. This conference gathered developers, traders, community members, and those interested in cryptocurrencies.

Ansem emphasized the importance of face-to-face events, especially in a highly online community, as these events help build closer connections.

He also mentioned that his face-to-face interactions with founders and traders in the Solana ecosystem at last year's Breakpoint conference in Lisbon strengthened his confidence in Solana.

Ansem believes that future users will still be humans, not AI agents. He acknowledged that AI will integrate into every aspect of our future, but he believes humans will still be active on the blockchain.

The Ups and Downs of Solana

Ansem pointed out that Solana's speed of development and innovation sets it apart from many L1s. He believes that Solana's community building and rapid development pace are its biggest advantages.

He also mentioned that Solana and Ethereum have different goals, with Solana focusing on being an integrated L1, while Ethereum relies more on L2 solutions.

Ansem also reflected on the significant impact of the FTX collapse on Solana. Although this collapse led to a sharp decline in Solana's price, he pointed out that it did not shake the confidence of developers and the community within the Solana ecosystem. While external perceptions were affected, those who truly believe in Solana still firmly believe in its long-term potential.

What Makes Solana Unique

Ansem believes that Solana's rapid development and strong community support are key factors in its success. He mentioned that building a community in 2021 was one of Solana's biggest milestones. Solana successfully attracted developers through community engagement, NFTs, and built a strong online and offline community. When market conditions were poor, it was the long-term belief of these community members that supported Solana.

Another important milestone is Solana's speed of development. Despite a period in 2022 when the Solana network was nearly unusable, the team fixed numerous issues within months. This rapid development and repair capability allowed Solana to regain attention in 2023.

Ansem believes that Solana's uniqueness in the developer community lies in its top-down development model. The development team led by Anatoly adopts a "move fast, fix fast" strategy, which maximizes utilization in both hardware and software. He emphasized that Solana aims to be an integrated L1 blockchain, with execution, consensus, and settlement all occurring at the L1 level, while Ethereum relies more on L2 solutions.

Ansem noted that most early adopters of Solana were traders and developers active after DeFi Summer. In 2021, the rise of NFTs attracted a large number of retail investors to trade on Solana, laying the foundation for Solana's success.

Ansem explained the reasons behind the increase in Solana's trading volume. He believes that although Solana's price fluctuated between $15 and $30 for most of 2023, as demand exceeded supply, the price broke above $30, attracting significant attention and trading volume. Airdrops from projects like Bonk and Jupiter also contributed to the increase in trading activity.

OPOS

Ansem explained that "OPOS" stands for "Only Possible on Solana." This is a slogan proposed by Solana's marketing team in 2023, aimed at emphasizing Solana's advantages over other blockchains (like Ethereum) in handling high-throughput applications.

Ansem pointed out that some applications require a large volume of transactions and can only run on Solana. For example, Ethereum can only handle about 15 transactions per second, while Solana can handle much higher transaction volumes. Therefore, any application that needs to process a large number of transactions can only be realized on Solana. Additionally, users can conduct frequent small transactions on Solana at a very low cost, which is not feasible on Ethereum during peak trading activity due to significantly increased on-chain transaction fees.

Ansem emphasized that Solana also excels in user experience compared to other blockchains. Its low-cost, high-speed transaction processing capability allows users to conveniently perform various operations, such as dollar-cost averaging into meme coins. All of these reflect the concept of "OPUS," which can only be realized on Solana for such convenience and efficiency.

Future Market Trends

Ansem pointed out that Meme is currently very popular, becoming an effective tool for attracting retail investors in this cycle, similar to NFTs in the previous cycle. Memes are easy to understand and leverage the long-standing meme culture on the internet, allowing novice investors to join the community by holding memes and further explore other applications of cryptocurrencies.

Ansem believes that AI will become very interesting in this cycle. With the launch of ChatGPT, many AI-related cryptocurrencies have surged rapidly. He mentioned that decentralized computing applications and AI agents are two areas particularly worth watching. AI agents can perform automated trading on the blockchain, seeking optimal yields, thus greatly simplifying user operations.

After the release of ChatGPT, a large amount of capital flowed into the AI sector, but it is still unclear where the maximum potential lies at the intersection of AI and blockchain. He believes that while there may not be a clear 100x growth opportunity at the moment, there will definitely be some AI projects combined with cryptocurrencies that reach a billion-dollar level in the future. He mentioned some yet-to-be-released AI projects, such as Ritual and Gensyn, believing that these projects may hold great promise in the future.

About L2

ETH L2

Ansem pointed out that EVM L2 is overhyped. He explained that moving execution from the Ethereum main chain to these rollups aims to improve performance and speed, but if EVM continues to be used, it does not actually solve the core issues. He is more optimistic about rollups exploring alternative virtual machine structures, such as Arbitrum's Stylus and Movement's Move VM.

In response to another founder's criticism of L2, Ansem stated that he wouldn't call them "garbage," but he does believe that L2 projects have received too much funding. He explained that many people think Ethereum is the only L1, leading them to invest in related L2 projects.

Ansem believes that in the future, we will see fewer L2s. Although there are currently many L2s emerging, ultimately only a few will become long-term winners. He mentioned that just as many L1s appeared after Solana's success, L2s will undergo a similar process. In the future, application-specific rollups may use some shared SDKs (software development kits).

He specifically mentioned Sovereign Labs because they provide an SDK that makes it easy to build high-performance rollups. Once this approach becomes widespread, innovation in L2 will decrease, and developers will use existing SDKs.

BTC L2

Ansem also believes that Bitcoin's ordinals have huge potential in the NFT space because they are directly recorded in Bitcoin blocks, providing strong traceability.

He is cautious about the prospects of Bitcoin L2 in DeFi and other applications, believing that these L2s need to significantly enhance user experience to truly be effective. If it is just another EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) L2, it may not generate much interest, as they need to demonstrate clear advantages in practical use to enhance user experience.

Favorite Ecosystems and Applications

Ansem clearly stated that Solana is his favorite ecosystem.

The application he uses most frequently is Jupiter, which is an aggregation platform for trading. He also specifically mentioned Drip, which is an NFT platform where digital artists can publish their works, and users can subscribe to receive NFTs from their favorite artists. Drip performs excellently in user retention, as users frequently use the app without needing to speculate.

He also mentioned that Coinbase's L2 solution Base is his second favorite ecosystem. The reason is Coinbase's extensive influence in the U.S. market and its large user base (about 80 million users). Ansem believes that if Base can attract 10% of Coinbase's users, a large number of users will start using on-chain applications. However, as an EVM rollup, Base cannot compete with Solana in terms of throughput and fees and still needs technical improvements.

Ansem believes that many L1s and L2s will fail in the future, with only a few becoming winners. He mentioned that although they may be technically similar, once an ecosystem successfully attracts enough developers and community members, it becomes difficult for other ecosystems to compete. Currently, the blockchain industry is still in its early stages, making it hard to determine the winners of the next 20 years.

Crypto Investment Advice

Ansem advises diversifying capital across several major ecosystems. He personally invests mainly in Solana and Base. He also mentioned some interesting applications on Base, such as Friend Tech and Farcaster, believing that SocialFi has long-term development potential. He pointed out that influencers and content creators in Web2 have already proven their influence, and in the crypto space, due to the different ways capital is allocated, top creators may earn even more than in Web2.

Ansem also offered the following advice to those who wish to follow in his footsteps in the cryptocurrency industry:

• No need for credentials: Ansem emphasized that in the cryptocurrency field, you do not need any specific credentials or background; as long as you can prove your abilities in the public domain and show your efforts, you can achieve success.
• Keep an open mind: He pointed out that in the cryptocurrency industry, anything is possible. Regardless of your background, as long as you have the right mindset and persist in your efforts, you can achieve your goals.
• Advice for becoming a good trader: Ansem suggests that those who want to become good traders need to actively study past market cycles, learn charts, communicate with experienced traders, and understand the early development stages of other industries. He emphasized that practice is key to becoming a good trader; you need a lot of practice, and you may incur losses at the beginning.
• Content creation and influence: Regarding content creation and influence, Ansem stated that he has no specific advice, as his success happened more naturally. His experience shows that in the cryptocurrency industry, by showcasing your passion and efforts, you can naturally attract attention and gain influence.

Bullpen

Ansem is the co-founder of Bullpen, a social trading platform. The platform aims to provide a place for both cryptocurrency novices and experts to discover, learn, and trade. Users can access market trends, discussions from traders, and the latest news on the platform while being able to trade various cryptocurrencies with one click.

Bullpen analyzes information from various Telegram groups through a dedicated LLM (large language model) for cryptocurrencies, extracting the most relevant content and market trends, and pushing this information to users. Users can trade directly on the platform while obtaining information.

A key goal of Bullpen is to expand its user base. The more users there are, the more information the platform collects and analyzes, thus providing higher quality market insights and trading opportunities.

Ansem shared that the motivation for creating Bullpen stemmed from his years of experience in the cryptocurrency field and helping friends get started. He found that novices need a centralized platform to obtain information and trade, rather than switching between multiple platforms. Therefore, he hopes to provide users with a "one-stop" cryptocurrency trading and learning platform through Bullpen, enabling them to easily understand and participate in cryptocurrency trading, avoiding cumbersome learning processes and multi-platform operations.

Ansem believes that more projects like Bullpen will emerge in the future to simplify the trading and usage experience of cryptocurrencies. He mentioned that some Telegram trading bots have already proven this demand, and these tools may attract millions of users in the coming years.

Ansem's Next Steps

When asked if he considers himself "successful," Ansem stated that he believes he is successful because he is doing what he loves and no longer worries about market fluctuations. Regardless of how the market changes, he feels he is in a good position to engage in various interesting work, including trading, angel investing, and starting companies. He emphasized that success for him means being able to freely choose and pursue different career paths in an industry he enjoys.

Ansem plans to continue participating in boxing competitions and may take part in racing activities. He hopes to achieve more in these fields.

Ansem will be more active in angel investing, supporting founders who he believes are developing outstanding applications in the crypto space. Communicating with founders and helping them grow is one of his important tasks at the moment.

Bullpen remains one of his main projects. This social trading platform aims to simplify cryptocurrency trading and provide a centralized learning and trading platform for novices.

Ansem also plans to expand his media influence, particularly by creating video content on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. He hopes to educate people through videos, helping them enter the world of cryptocurrencies. He plans to produce short educational videos covering various topics, from setting up wallets to market dynamics, to help those who cannot pay attention to cryptocurrencies all day stay informed.

Ansem's Strategy

Ansem suggests allocating 70% of the investment portfolio to relatively safe assets, such as Solana, Coinbase stock, Bitcoin, and Prime. He stated that these assets will perform well in the long run, and he enters these markets through dollar-cost averaging at the right times.

The remaining 30% is for higher-risk investments, such as leveraged trading (perps), on-chain trading, small-cap coins, and memes. He advises taking profits from these high-risk investments and reinvesting the funds into safer investments to ensure long-term stable growth.

Ansem emphasizes using high time frame technical indicators to determine when to enter or exit the market. He recommends using moving averages and other high-level signals to identify market tops and bottoms.

He recommended the book "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets" by John Murphy, which provides foundational knowledge of technical analysis and helps understand market trends.

Final Thoughts

Ansem encourages those interested to enter the cryptocurrency field, whether you are a developer, business developer, marketer, or trader, there are opportunities suitable for you. Engage with others to understand your positioning and learning direction in this field.

He believes that now is the best time to focus on and invest in cryptocurrencies, as the market is recovering from the impacts of events like FTX and SBF, and people's attention and confidence in cryptocurrencies are rising. The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs and the influx of funds from traditional financial institutions also signify the stability and growth potential of the cryptocurrency market.