Solana Automation Projects Ecosystem

Mapping Out the Automation Landscape

Oghenetejiri Agbodoroba
5 min readJun 1, 2023

Automation tools are revolutionising processes, saving time, and increasing productivity. Even today emails, Google Forms, web scraping, and software testing are automated to improve efficiency. In this article, I will discuss the Automation Landscape on Solana, a leading blockchain technology platform, for various reasons. In this article, we will cover:

  1. Overview of Solana.
  2. The Solana automation landscape.
  3. Examples of automation projects on Solana.
  4. On-chain automation.
  5. On-chain automation versus web2 automation tools.
  6. Gaps in the Solana automation landscape.

Overview of Solana

Solana is a leading blockchain technology platform, offering high-speed transactions, low fees, and robust scalability. It is one of the most promising blockchain technologies for the future of decentralised applications that is slowly gaining popularity.

Image via solana.com

Solana offers developers several advantages, including high throughput, low latency, energy efficiency, and scalability. It is a popular choice for decentralised finance (DeFi) applications but also for gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other applications requiring fast transactions and low latency.

The Solana automation landscape

Solana is rapidly emerging as a prominent player in the blockchain technology automation landscape. For automation in blockchain, the industry is still exploring the best approaches. However, Solana has benefited from the learnings of earlier automation solutions that didn’t meet expectations.

Solana ecosystem executes predefined tasks and actions without human intervention. This allows developers to create sophisticated Smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) capable of autonomously processing a wide range of functions.

It is worth noting that Solana provides a powerful Smart contract platform that simplifies the development of decentralised applications.

Examples of Automation projects on Solana

Within the Solana platform, numerous groundbreaking projects are pushing the boundaries of automation and paving the way for innovative organisational structures and the automation of traditionally centralized processes. Here are a few examples:

1. Raydium

An automated market maker (AMM) built on the Solana blockchain which leverages a central limit order book to enable lightning-fast trades, shared liquidity and new features for earning yield.

Raydium is different from other platforms where transactions are slower and gas fees are higher. Raydium leverages the efficiency of the Solana blockchain to achieve transactions magnitudes faster and gas fees which are a fraction of the cost. It allows access to 3rd party order flow and liquidity on the order book. For traders who want to be able to view TradingView charts, Raydium sets limit orders so they have more control over their trading.

Image via raydium.io

2. Mango Markets

Mango Markets provides a single venue to lend, borrow, swap, and leverage-trade crypto assets through a powerful risk engine.

Funds are automatically borrowed for leverage trading, providing users with fast and cost-effective trading experiences. Mango Markets is completely open source, and this transparency is vital for the project as it increases the amount of people who understand and can improve the project.

Image via mango.markets

3. Serum

Serum is a protocol and ecosystem that brings unprecedented speed and low transaction costs to decentralised finance. The Ultimate Vision behind Serum is to drive the global mass adoption of DeFi. It provides a fully on-chain orderbook, allowing applications such as trading interfaces to ‘plug into’ Serum’s composable ecosystem.

It offers an Asset Agnostic order book for matching any Solana based trading product from options, futures, borrow lending positions, or any financial and non-financial instrument that can take advantage of Serum’s backend matching engine. Serum makes it possible for a diverse range of applications and participants to share middleware in one place.

Image via serum.com

What is on-chain automation?

One of the most fascinating aspects of Solana is its ability to enable on-chain automation which is revolutionising the way processes are executed in the decentralised ecosystem.

On-chain automation is a system that helps in the execution of automated tasks and processes directly on the blockchain. This is possible through the use of smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code.

The architecture of Solana enables the creation and deployment of smart contracts that can be triggered by specific conditions or events, allowing for seamless and decentralized automation.

On-chain automation versus web2 automation tool

Now let’s discuss the gaps in Solana Automation Landscape

Gaps in Solana Automation Landscape

In light of the popularity of Solana and how much it is evolving, there still exist gaps that need to be addressed to unlock the platform’s full potential in the automation landscape.

Some of these gaps to pay attention to are:

  1. User Experience: There is a steep learning curve for users to navigate and this complexity can be a barrier for mainstream adoption. Simplifying the user experience, creating intuitive interfaces, and providing educational resources will help in bridging this gap and make Solana more accessible to a wider audience.
  2. Interoperability: Despite Solana impressive speed and scalability, interoperability with other blockchain platforms remains a challenge. Seamless integration and communication between different blockchains is essential for unlocking the full potential of decentralized automation. Cross-chain automation and collaboration between different blockchain ecosystems will expand the possibilities for innovation and efficiency.
  3. Scalability: Ensuring that the platform can handle the increasing demand for automation without compromising performance is critical because this will position Solana as a go-to platform for automation projects and attract a broader range of use cases.
  4. Security: Vulnerabilities and exploits still occur despite the robust security features. Having more security measures will instill trust in the ecosystem, encouraging more users and enterprises to embrace automation on Solana.
  5. Regulatory compliance: As the industry continues to evolve, regulations around data privacy, financial transactions, and identity verification are becoming more rigorous. In order to have sustained growth and wider adoption, it is important for automation projects on Solana to adhere to these regulations.
  6. Education and awareness: Solana automation has gained a huge traction in the blockchain industry but still there is a need to educate more people about the benefits and potential of automation on Solana. Comprehensive resources, tutorials, and case studies highlighting successful automation projects will inspire more people to explore the possibilities.

Conclusion

The automation potential of Solana is vast, and by utilising its features, developers and business owners can create a more effective, open-sourced, and decentralised solutions for various industries. To learn more about Solana’s capabilities, refer to their documentation.

Resources

Solana documentation

Serum documentation

Mango Market Documentation

Raydium Documentation

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