Max Kaplan

Eng @DRWTrading | Exited Founder | fmr @solstrategies @orangefincrypto (acq) @krakenfx | Opinions Are My Own

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

Bit of an announcement

Tomorrow marks my last day as CTO of @solstrategies

It's been an absolutely incredible ride. From starting @orangefincrypto , to coming onto SOL Strategies, to being the first Solana focused company ever to get listed on Nasdaq, to being the staking provider for an ETF, to so much more, it's been an experience I wouldn't trade for the world.

None of it would be possible without the amazing team I had the pleasure of interacting with. This includes @michael_hubbard , @Ehrls15 , @AfroMonkey404 , @coderigo , @TrilliumJohn and more that aren't on X, but appreciate them just as much. Thank you to all of you for being amazing to work with.

Additionally, I wanted to give a shout out to the @darklakefi team that have already brought such amazing energy and ideas to the company in @vitorpy , @DuchessofSOL , @yesjess , and the rest of the team. I'm super excited to see what the rest of you build!

Lastly, as far as the team goes, I'd like to also give a public shout out to @LeahWald , @TonyGuoga , and @moeadham . Thank you for bringing me on board, taking a chance on me, and teaching me many things I'll take with me for the rest of my life.

In addition to the team, I'd like to shout all the investors and ecosystem teams I have had the pleasure of working with. There's far too many to name, and because I don't want to risk forgetting to include one, I won't name any. But please know if I have ever talked to you, I appreciate you 🙏.

As for what's next, I'll continue to be involved in SOL Strategies as a consultant, helping to ensure everything operates smoothly and providing help in any place I can. Additionally, I plan on trying to find a happy balance between touching grass and experimenting with AI more 😀.

My thoughts on Solana and crypto overall remain unchanged. If you are a builder on Solana and need (free) help with anything such as intros, fundraising, technical advice, etc, don't hesitate to reach out. If there is a way I can help you, I intend to do my best to do so.

Thank you 🫶

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

@JonWalch Got a link?

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

Solana twitter has more drama than a teenage girl's group chat

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

@JonWalch I think so. What was the worst of it?

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

Gonna tell my grandkids this is what the revamped SFDP looked like

[supersimon @supersimon77]

They really did it

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

They are both made up, no? Why not just do an auction and kill the VAT and vibed cap on validators?

Highest n staked validators every epoch form the active set.

100 < n < 500 (vibes). Let's just say it's 200.

If you aren't in the top 200 validators by stake... Skill issue . Not part of the cluster

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

@alessandrod 💅💅💅. Not just you guys tho.

There seems to be lots of drama in rpc land these days also

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

Remember fucking FizzBuzz? 😂😂😂

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

@SEJeff Only a CPA can sign off on a SOC2 audit, that tells you enough.

It's just for compliance really

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@Owl_of_Atena @cradrrat Real men manage their own memory

[ChainflowSol @ChainflowSol]

SFDP’s new rules mean our time in the program is up.

We’ve run the same Solana validator since Tour de Sol, before mainnet. We’re independent, with no outside funding. We were an early adopter of Firedancer, genesis validator on the Alpenglow community cluster, we host and participate in the monthly community validator calls and governance sessions regularly, and we build tools for other validators to use.

The SFDP stake is just under 15% for us, but in a market this tight losing it makes it harder to continue to make the contributions that we're making.

If the goal is network health, keep backing the operators who deliver it, rather than retiring them on a fixed schedule. The open letter sets out the asks, and we support it:

[Finn @solace_fm]

If Fndn goes ahead with these SFDP changes, I would at least like to see the big dogs (who are historically useless when it comes to anything other than collecting staking rewards) absorb the independent operators and talent that have kept the lights on for many years.

That way, they can actually participate in a way you would expect from a large val with tens of millions at stake.

Would be a great shame to let that passion and expertise go to waste

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

@doublespends Thank you

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

Think it's obvious at this point that the foundation is overindexing on removing leaches.

Reading the announced changes, I can't understand any argument from first principles how new validators, which they are going to continue to stake, are more valuable than validators that have been around for 3+ years.

Validator count should go down, I have been on the record saying that for awhile.

Avoiding politics, the main issues are this:

1. Why does the new program value new validators over validators that have been around for 3+ years?
2. What are the funds going to be used for going forward? This is critical to all SOL holders as these funds are in "non circulating" addresses, where if the funds are moved, it's a dilution event for all SOL holders. Because of that, I do think that SOL holders have a right to know and potentially vote what the funds are being used for. https://t.co/APhr9GT1nK

Respectfully, I think the new program is likely worse than having no program.

Just my 2 lamports.

[ferric | stakeware.xyz validator (marketing arc) @ferric]

Man, looking at this list makes me nostalgic for all the stuff we did when the network was growing up. The yearly restarts, the summer of spam, the 3am pager duty calls while constantly being FUDded on the TL.

The problem now is that the network is stable, the software is good (soon: great), and we need to grow.

From that perspective, injecting new blood into the ecosystem is the right move however it doesn't solve the problem of what will happen once a successful team graduates.

There is no easy path from being staked by foundation to being staked independently, unless you are extremely successful (eg. Helius, Jupiter) - and stake keeps centralizing (as pareto distributions do)

Here's my extremely biased take on what @SolanaFndn as VC should do:
1) keep the new program, it is good, call it Seed stage - even if you get 1 in a 100 jupiter's per year, that's a win (VC odds)

2) Don't just shitcan the rest of the network with no warning, there are plenty of good and able contributors (with clankers), work with them to achieve your goals.

Most good validator operators would do anything to see the network succeed, put out an RFP with a 100 ideas and let teams build them. Kinda like @alessandrod did here with low hanging fruit: https://t.co/gMEaVecQJl

Judge on PMF not code quality, etc. Shitcan the non-participants.

As a validator operator, you always wonder what stakers want? Foundation being the biggest staker on the network has a generational opportunity to use its position to get exactly what it wants.

Or, you know, shitcan everyone and hope that magically next time around will be better. Idk, sometimes you just gotta reboot the box.

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

I think there is a very valid argument for that, but I don't want to go there only because I think it would take away from the actual issue.

If these funds were circulating, I wouldn't be raising it. In that case, it's SF's funds, they should be able to do whatever the hell they want with them.

However, with the SFDP funds, this is not the case.

Again, I'm not implying they are planning to do so, but IF they move the funds, it's a dilution event for everyone else at the time of the fund movement.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on what would be best for the funds. But considering that this affects ALL SOL holders, I do believe that SOL holders should have a say in where the funds go.

No different to tradfi above some certain thresholds.

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

Crypto is short for North Korean Venture Capital

[SolanaFloor @SolanaFloor]

🚨INSIGHT: North Korean hackers are laundering funds stolen in the $6.4B @Binance hack through disposable memecoins, including an "Elon 2028 President" token, according to Elliptic.

They create worthless tokens, pair them with real assets in DEX liquidity pools, then use separate wallets to buy and sell the tokens, making stolen funds appear as proceeds from ordinary trades.

On @Solana, the hackers swapped stolen SOL into existing wrapped and thinly traded tokens before selling them for USDC and moving funds across chains.

On NEAR, six newly created memecoins were used to move around 117,000 NEAR ($430K).

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

@cavemanloverboy Congrats on the autoscaling

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

@kaizng Best of luck, Kaiser! True legend in the space.

I know you'll crush it in whatever comes next.

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

I don't have a horse in the race, but I don't think the strategy makes sense.

You can either be a credibly neutral L1 or a vertically integrate. Not sure Solana is either rn, and it's hurting them.

There's clearly upset builders. There's also a ton of activity happening elsewhere.

Should just go all in on one.

[Max Kaplan @maxekaplan]

@cavemanloverboy Wow