Now dominant in crypto, Solana community gathers in Istanbul

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One of the best parts of traveling is getting to meet new people, unless you’re traveling to a crypto conference. 

Solana Crossroads kicked off today in Istanbul, so a number of Solana builders decamped from New York and San Francisco to sip stale coffee halfway around the world while talking with the same people they see at Solana events in New York and San Francisco. Many attendees stopped by the Step Finance-sponsored community conference on their way to Dubai for TOKEN2049 next week before shipping off to New York City for Solana Accelerate in May.

Crypto itself may still be struggling to find product-market fit, but crypto conferences seem to have inelastic demand. 

After a year of explosive growth for Solana, Crossroads attendees didn’t seem too concerned with other ecosystems. Some complained that the yearly Ethereum conference ETHDenver talked too much about Solana and other ecosystems. At Crossroads, it almost felt like those other smart contract ecosystems didn’t exist. 

Solana teams hawked their wares on the conference’s expo floor. I held a prototype of the Solana Seeker phone. It wasn’t production-ready, so all I could really do was look at a promotional display on the screen, but I can now vouch for the fact that its casing exists, at least. 

The internet filtering startup DoubleZero had some conference buzz. One Solana founder said market makers offered up their connection with the network as a way to pitch their services. 

I caught DoubleZero co-founder Austin Federa near the media room and asked him some vague question about the state of high-throughput blockchains.

“Imagine if the sun disappeared,” he began before explaining the importance of being able to broadcast data.

While Crossroads is filled with many of the usual suspects, a number of locals showed up as well. 

“I’ve been impressed with frankly just the number of local Turkish people who’ve shown up,” Framework Ventures partner Brandon Potts said. “A lot of the conversations with locals I’ve had are just practical ones around stablecoins and like, ‘Hey … which one should I hold?’”

I chatted with a Turkish Solana developer who filled me in on the history of the land. He told me that coins were invented in Lydia, an ancient kingdom located in modern day Turkey. His father collects coins, he added.

“You collect coins, too. Shitcoins,” his friend shot back.

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