Have you ever played around with applications on the Solana blockchain? Well if you have, you’ve probably indirectly interacted with the subject of today’s piece, GenesysGo.

The project got its start by allowing users to stake their SOL. They later focused their efforts on providing RPC services. RPC is required by everyone, as it allows transactions to be sent from individual computers to the blockchain.

RPC networks are also essential for developers to be able to test their code and develop on the Solana blockchain.

How do RPC Networks work?

Thanks to our man Bill, here is a simple explanation of how a transaction occurs on the Solana blockchain:

  1.   You make a transaction via your phantom wallet
  2.   Transaction instructions are sent to an RPC server
  3.   RPC server sends your transaction to the validators to validate
  4.   Once validated, the RPC server relays this back to you and your wallet is updated on your screen

Now, do you see how important RPC is for a blockchain?

GenesysGo powers multiple popular NFT marketplaces. NFTs are some of the most popular products on the Solana blockchain. So, a high volume of transactions is fed through the GenesysGo RPC network. This makes GenesysGo a prominent player in the space, and it owns over 50% of the market share.

Shadow Protocol

For all blockchains, but proof of stake blockchains like Solana specifically, storage is key. A blockchain is literally a ledger that stores a full history of all the transactions that have ever taken place. So where are they stored? Right now, most of the data is stored on a Google database, but this doesn’t exactly scream Web 3 does it?

Enter Shadow Protocol- Google Drive, built on Web 3. The goal is to provide a decentralized storage solution for the Solana network.

The SHDW Token

GenesysGo has a native token called SHDW, which operates as the governance token to power the Shadow Protocol. SHDW was initially airdropped to NFT holders and then made available for purchase shortly after.

The SHDW token is the currency through which the protocol will run. Operators stake SHDW, and they will also earn SHDW for doing so. So, there is both a use case and a demand.

Super Shadowy Coders

GG also has its own NFTs called Super Shadowy Coders. These NFTs were launched to raise money. They periodically provide their holders with SHDW tokens and have seen solid growth in floor price since their initial mint.

Half of all the SHDW tokens in supply will come periodically through holding the NFT. There are 10,000 NFTs and 10,000 SHDW tokens for every holder.