April wins

• Launched in Solana Mobile dApp Store

• Won Solana Mobile Hackathon

• Got rejected from 10+ acceleration programs (yea, that’s a win)

Solana Mobile Hackathon win

That was a huge milestone. Won $10000, marketing support from Solana Mobile team, a call with Toly (founder of Solana), and more. It feels prestige, and it could help me to push Cashflow to the next level.

Colosseum Frontier Hackathon

Ten days left till the end of the Frontier Solana Hackathon, and I am shipping hard. I am going launch one more update in dApp Store, talking to users every day to collect feedback, and actually already got solid feedback. Users mention features that I postponed, but they say that “this is the killer feature that could bring me to Cashflow“.

Anyways, 10 days left. I have to ship one more updated, grow the users a bit, and prepare the pitch & video.

Family Savings App

Cashflow is a personal finance app, but I am also thinking about making Cashflow Family. So that you and your partner could have the multisig and manage it together. Invest together, collect for the new car / house / trip to Japan etc.

At the same time having some features for kids, to teach them how to treat finances.

Going to build it later this year.

No AI here.

I’ve started my newsletter around 5 years ago, when we didn’t have ChatGPT, Claude, etc. And I am going to write it without AI. Even if I have some grammar errors, or not the best english - I don’t care. It’s my personal journey here.

Wanna follow the journey in real-time?

I am posting a lot on my X: https://x.com/heymike777

And in my Telegram channel: https://t.me/founders_journey

I will keep this newsletter on a monthly basis.

See you next month.

I’ve recently won 2nd place in DeFi track of Sonic Mobius Hackathon and won $50,000 and that was crazy. I got a lot of traction and early users. I am not stopping on it and building like mad every day.

I’d like to share my recent updates and upcoming trading event announcement with $10,000 prize pool!

Announcement

We've just hit $1,350,000 in Trading volume 🔥🔥🔥

1200 users actively using Light. But that's just a start.

We need to hit $4,000,000 trading volume on SonicSVM by the end of July.

If we hit it - we'll giveaway $10,000 to our most active traders 💰💰💰

Go trade in Light on SonicSVM today, and if we hit $4M in volume (currently have $1.3M, so only $2.7M left) - you'll be surprised!

Product development

1. First of all, we've launched a new product - Pump Farm on SonicSVM.
It's a volume booster & DEX points farmer. It works through Sega DEX, and if you want to farm Sega Points or Sonic Mobius Campaign - jump into our TG bot and try it out.

2. We've reduced fees to 0.5%. Lowest trading fees on the market. And it works through all our products on all chains.

3. We've launched Trading Events, and our traders on SoonSVM already got first $SOON prizes. The more you trade - the higher rewards you receive. It's that simple. A new trading event is coming soon.

4. We've built a custom router for SonicSVM and now $CHILL is tradable inside Light Telegram Bot. SOL → SONIC → CHILL (double Sega farming, btw).

Try Light Telegram bot

It’s a good time to launch a new product, and since I am a dev, I want to tell a bit about dev tools that I use. Today - Jupiter dev integration.

If you’re cooking up a project on Solana that needs next-level token swaps, you’ve gotta check out Jupiter. It’s the aggregator that’s basically got all the Solana DEX hookups—Serum, Orca, Raydium, and more. In plain English: one endpoint to rule them all, so your users can ape into tokens with the best possible price routing.

But wait—there’s more! Jupiter doesn’t just serve front-end users. The real alpha is in the Jupiter Developer Integration. You can tap into Jupiter’s SDK or Self-Hosted Swap API to pump instant, cross-DEX liquidity into your own dApp. Ready to do your dev thing in degen style? Let’s dive in.

Why Bother Integrating Jupiter?

1. Best Price, Every Time
   Users love those big brain aggregator routes that reduce slippage and maximize yields. If your dApp doesn’t optimize swaps, you’ll look like a boomer DEX in no time.

2. More Volume, More Hype
   By hooking into Jupiter, your dApp auto-unlocks liquidity from multiple sources. That means more potential volume—and more volume means more eyes on your project. It’s a win-win for devs and degen traders.

3. Seamless UX
   No one wants to switch tabs five times to do a single swap. With Jupiter, your users do everything in one interface—your dApp. Easy-peasy.

The Degen’s Dev Path to Integration

1. Scope the Docs
   Jupiter’s developer docs are stacked with examples, walkthroughs, and code snippets. Even if you’re a die-hard degen, reading docs is a necessary evil—it’ll save you from writing cringe code.

2. Choose Your Poison: SDK or Self-Hosted

   • Jupiter SDK: Great if you want a quick integration, directly importing the aggregator logic right into your dApp.

   • Self-Hosted Swap API: Perfect for power users who want a dedicated back-end solution. Spin up your own instance so you’re not reliant on third-party infra. If you wanna go full-blown dev wizard, this is the path.

3. Link Your Wallet
   You’ll obviously need a Solana wallet for testing. Phantom, Solflare, or a local keypair works.

4. Initialize Jupiter
   Whether it’s the SDK or the API, you’ll typically:

   • Import the library.

   • Connect to your Metis and RPC endpoints (I got from QuickNode).

5. Call the Quote & Swap Methods
   In a typical integration, you:

   • Fetch a quote for a token pair (e.g., “How many USDC can I get for 1 SOL?”).

   • Confirm you like the route the aggregator provides.

   • Execute the swap with a single transaction.

   • Celebrate when it goes through in a blink of an eye.

6. UI/UX Polishing
   Don’t just dump a JSON response on your users. Dress it up. Show token logos, slippage stats, route details—make it look sexy. People love data, especially when they’re risking their precious SOL or that obscure memecoin they YOLO’d into.

Pro (Degen) Tips

1. Watch Out for Slippage
   Even though Jupiter is an aggregator powerhouse, your users might still face slippage on illiquid tokens. Give them a heads-up and maybe a slippage tolerance slider.

2. Front-Running Defense
   On Solana it’s less of a plague than on Ethereum, but it never hurts to watch your transaction simulation and keep an eye on big bots.

3. Stay Updated
   The Solana DeFi scene moves at lightning speed. Keep an ear to the ground for new DEX integrations—Jupiter is always hooking up with new protocols, meaning more liquidity for your dApp.

4. Set Up a Fallback
   If Jupiter or your RPC is down for any reason, fail gracefully. No one wants their swap or your entire dApp to just freeze up.

Hype Up Your Users

Once you’ve integrated Jupiter, don’t forget to let your community know. “One-click trades across the entire Solana ecosystem, right in our dApp!” That line alone is enough to get degens foaming at the mouth. More trades = more volume = more hype. Everybody wins.

Final Words

If you’re building on Solana, ignoring Jupiter is like skipping the biggest party on the block. The aggregator does the heavy lifting so you can focus on making your project dope. Your users get premium routes and lower slippage, you get more volume and an edge in a crowded DeFi market. That’s the real alpha, fren.

So go forth, integrate Jupiter, and become the lord of liquid tokens on Solana. WAGMI, frens—we’re all gonna make it… provided you don’t push buggy code to mainnet.

Good luck, dev degens!

Disclaimer: This is not financial or coding advice. DYOR on your stack traces and code your swaps responsibly.

It’s been a while since my last article, and much has changed. BTC hit ATH and dropped 10% instantly after that. I was a bit scared yesterday evening, for real. But I haven’t sold anything for low. And today, BTC is $67k again :)

Sold trash coins

I decided to sell my trash coins. Sold:

• All my CHONKY for 27.5 USDC

• All my CWIF for 0.12 SOL

• All my DAWG for 0.11 SOL

Of course, all these coins are not trash. I love Doge Capital and hold 9 Doges. Both CHONKY and CWIF look good. But I have so few bags of them that it’s even a bit fun to worry that any of them dropped by 10-20%. That’s why I decided to sell.

New airdrop

BSKT is coming to Solana. I checked all my wallets using the Solana Airdrop Checker, and five of them are eligible. You can also go to the claim website, connect your wallet, and check your allocation.

https://claim.bskt.fi/vesting

It uses vesting, and you can claim daily. Or just come in 30 days and claim all (that’s what I’ll do). I now have 700k BSKT, which is worth around $30. I'm going to hold it and check what happens next.

Trading WEN

Four days ago, I decided to start trading WEN. I received 6.4M WEN for free and held it for over a month. And I decided, why can’t I sell it for high and repurchase it for low? And I started.

I used Jupiter to make either swaps or limit orders. Used WEN-USDC pair. I made eight swaps, and now I hold 8.1M WEN. That’s +25% during just four days!

Here is my strategy:

1. I had to choose the coin that I was confident in. I am sure WEN will grow in the long term. In this case, I won’t lose all my cash when I buy tokens that drop to zero.

2. If I sell WEN to USDC and WEN pumps, I would consider that I cashed out and switched to another token.

In my opinion, that’s a WIN-WIN strategy. At least, for now, it works.

Summary

That’s all for these two weeks. It’s time to check the whole vault.

101.7M BONK = $3180
9700 JUP = $5626
8.1M WEN = $2240
326 USDC = $326
430,001 GECKO = $50
11.23 SOL = $1478
1035 USDT = $1035
700k BSKT = $30
1 CryptoUndead = 2.7 SOL = $355

Total: $14,322 (+$4746 since the previous week).

Follow me on X

I decided to buy Solana Mobile #Chapter2! I paid 450 USDC for it (swapped 4.4 SOL).

I locked 56M BONK on bonkrewards.com in three different wallets. It looks like a new initiative by the BONK team to reward loyal holders. We’ll see. It’s the last day when you can lock your BONK to build a Dragon!

I swapped all my SAMO to BONK to lock it for rewards.

I’ve also sold all my SHIT into SOL. With losses, but that’s ok.

40M BONK I locked a week ago already gave me 500k BONK. Nice APY.

My current bag

101.7M BONK = $1225
430,001 GECKO = $41
298 USDC = $298
990,750 CHONKY = $10
11 SOL = $1166
1832 DAWG = $10
1 CryptoUndead = 4.5 SOL = $477
6.43M WEN = $561
9700 JUP = $4753
1035 USDT = $1035

Total: $9,576 (-$24 since the previous week).

Also, I just got 200 DYM and decided to sell it for $1035.

Set It and Forget It: A Look at Limit Orders on Jupiter

If you’re an active trader on Solana—or simply a degen who wants more control over your entries and exits—then you’ve probably heard of limit orders. Imagine not having to stare at the charts 24/7, waiting for that perfect price point. That’s exactly what limit orders are for, and Jupiter has your back when it comes to maximizing your Solana trading strategies.

Below, we’ll break down what limit orders are, why you might want to use them, and how Jupiter makes them seamless.

What Are Limit Orders?

A limit order is essentially a “set it and forget it” approach to trading. Instead of executing your swap at the market price (which can cause slippage, especially when liquidity is limited), you choose a specific price at which you want to buy or sell a token. If the market hits that price, your order executes—if not, it just hangs out there waiting.

Key Benefits of Limit Orders:

1. Price Control: You lock in a specific price, so you don’t get burned by unexpected market movements.

2. Reduced Slippage: By avoiding market buys or sells, you can potentially dodge sudden price swings, especially on lower-liquidity tokens.

3. Stress-Free Trading: No more refreshing price charts every five seconds—once your order is set, you can go about your day.

How Jupiter Simplifies Limit Orders

As a liquidity aggregator on Solana, Jupiter routes your trades through multiple DEXs to find the best price. With limit orders, Jupiter takes this advantage a step further by tapping into order books (like Serum) and other liquidity sources where limit orders can be placed.

Why Use Jupiter for Limit Orders?

• Multiple DEX Integrations: Get the best fill possible across different platforms, all in one place.

• User-Friendly UI: Jupiter’s interface is designed to make complex actions simpler—even for those new to Solana DeFi.

• Speed & Low Fees: Thanks to Solana’s high throughput and low transaction costs, placing and canceling limit orders won’t break the bank.

Setting Up a Limit Order on Jupiter

1. Connect Your Wallet
   Head over to jup.ag, click Connect Wallet, and choose your preferred Solana wallet (Phantom, Solflare, etc.).

2. Select “Limit Order”
   Switch from the default “Market Swap” or “Swap” tab to the “Limit Order” option (the interface may vary based on Jupiter’s latest updates).

3. Pick Your Tokens
   Choose the token you’re selling (From) and the token you want (To). For example, you might be selling SOL for USDC, or some memecoin for SOL.

4. Set Your Price
   Decide the price at which you want your order to execute. This is where you become the boss of your trade.

   • If you’re selling, set the minimum price you’re willing to accept.

   • If you’re buying, set the maximum price you’re willing to pay.

5. Enter Order Amount
   Type in how much of the token you want to sell or buy. Jupiter will show the total cost or proceeds based on the limit price.

6. Preview & Confirm
   Double-check the details—especially your limit price—before confirming. Once satisfied, submit your limit order.

7. Relax (or Keep Trading!)
   If the market reaches your limit price, your order will automatically fill. If not, it’ll remain open until you cancel or adjust it.

Managing Your Limit Orders

View Active Orders

On Jupiter’s interface (or in your connected wallet’s transaction history), you can usually see your active limit orders, including the price, size, and time placed.

Cancel or Adjust

Market conditions change fast in crypto. If you want to adjust your limit price, you’ll need to cancel the existing order and place a new one. Canceling is generally free or very low-cost on Solana, so it’s not a big deal to tweak orders on the fly.

Order Execution & Settlement

If your limit order is filled, the tokens automatically show up in your wallet. That’s the beauty of self-custody—you don’t need to do any extra steps or withdraw from an exchange.

Pro Tips for Limit Orders

• Check Market Depth: See how much liquidity is on the order books so you know if your order is likely to fill.

• Avoid Over-Optimistic Orders: If you set your limit price too far from current market conditions, it may never fill. Balance ambition with realism.

• Stay Updated: Crypto moves fast—sometimes it’s good to modify or cancel orders if market sentiment suddenly shifts.

• Beware of Fees: Solana’s fees are low, but keep in mind Jupiter may split trades across routes, so factor in any minimal transaction costs.

Final Thoughts

Limit orders on Jupiter marry the best of both worlds: the efficiency of a Solana-based aggregator and the precision of setting a specific buy/sell price. Whether you’re a day-trader or just want to snipe a meme coin at a bargain, limit orders give you that sweet control without gluing your eyes to the screen.

So next time you’re gearing up to trade on Solana, remember:

1. Go to jup.ag.

2. Set your limit order.

3. Let Jupiter handle the rest.

Happy trading, and may your limit orders fill exactly where you want them!

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post constitutes financial advice. Always DYOR (Do Your Own Research) and understand the risks before placing any trades.

And, the most expected drop - JUP!!! I claimed 9700 $JUP = $6130.

Also, I bought 1.23M SHIT for 2 SOL. Now it is worth 0.94 SOL = $94.

My current bag

101M $BONK = $1100
430,001 $GECKO = $60
298 $USDC = $298
990,750 $CHONKY = $20
10 SOL = $1009
1832 $DAWG = $17
1250 $SAMO = $14
1 CryptoUndead = 7 SOL = $706
1.23M $SHIT = $94
6.43M $WEN = $604
9700 $JUP = $6130

Total: $10,052 (+$6746 since the previous week).

Damn, I can’t believe I made $10k on meme coins within six weeks!

The Alpha on Jupiter Aggregator

In the Solana jungle, there are a ton of DEXs: Raydium, Meteora, Orca, you name it. But hitting up each one to scope out the best deal? Ain’t nobody got time for that. That’s why Jupiter is the go-to aggregator on Solana—it automatically hunts for the dopest routes so you don’t end up getting rekt by slippage.

• One-Stop Shop: No more jumping between a million sites; Jupiter does all the heavy lifting.

• Max Gains, Minimal Slippage: Every basis point counts—especially when you’re flipping 24/7.

• Saves Precious Time: Time is money, and you’d rather be surfing degenerate NFT mints, right?

Why You Need It

Ever tried to swap some random degenerate token and ended up paying through the nose in slippage? Brutal, right? Jupiter’s like that buddy who always knows a guy—except this time it’s a machine learning whiz that knows the cheapest route across Solana’s DEX ecosystem. It’ll route your trade from A → B → C if that’s how you squeeze out the best price. And guess what? It’s all on autopilot.

Key Perks:

1. Best Price: Aggregator magic means you’ll likely get a juicier fill than if you went solo.

2. Fast & Furious: It’s Solana, so transaction times are basically blink-and-you-miss-it.

3. Smooth Swaps: Slippage is minimized because Jupiter splits trades if needed—no more 10% random dips.

How to Ape In

1. Hit up jup.ag in your browser.

2. Connect your fav Solana wallet—Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, whatever gets you going.

3. Pick your “From” and “To” tokens. If you’re farming some $BONK or going full degen on random tokens, Jupiter’s probably got it listed.

4. Approve the transaction—and bam, you’ve got your new tokens, locked and loaded.

Safety First, Frens

While we’re all about the degenerate vibes, don’t forget the usual disclaimers:

• DYOR (Do Your Own Research)

• Don’t YOLO all your funds into questionable tokens

• Keep your wallet secure—phishing links are everywhere

Jupiter’s legit, but DeFi is the Wild West. Stay strapped with knowledge, and you’re golden.

Final Alpha

Jupiter Aggregator is your secret weapon in the Solana DeFi game. Want to swap fast? Want to snag the best prices without opening 50 tabs? Jupiter’s got you covered. It’s like the high-speed bullet train for your trades—just hop on, and you’ll be at your next moonshot destination in no time.

So, degens, if you’re prowling for alpha on Solana, give Jupiter a spin. You might just find that the “best route” to the moon is closer than you think.

WAGMI—we’re all gonna make it. Hop on Jupiter and let’s farm some gains together!

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. Do your own research before aping into anything. Stay degen, but stay safe!

It was not too active week for meme coins. I got two airdrops - $BOZO and $SAMO. Also, I am waiting for $JUP on January 31st

$SAMO

I got 1250 SAMO as a Saga owner.

$BOZO

1.9B BOZO from different wallets. Swapped to 2.92 SOL.
I also waited for BOZO for Ducks, but it looks like they rugged us.

My current bag

101M $BONK = $1414
430,001 $GECKO = $95
298 $USDC = $298
690,420 $CHONKY = $30
18.92 SOL = $1844
1832 $DAWG = $35
1250 $SAMO = $16

Total: $3732 (+$280 since the previous week).

$GOO

I’ve claimed 103,400 $GOO on my main wallet and swapped it to 1.06 SOL.

I’ve claimed 238,000 $GOO on my other wallets, held them for two days, and swapped them for 1.66 SOL.

Total $GOO profit - $300.

You could think that’s the end with GOO. But no, I made one more cool shit, I’ll mention about it at the end of the post.

$DRAKO

I’ve received an airdrop of 5,544,000 $DRAKO for holding some NFTs and swapped it to 0.27 SOL (around $30).

As a holder of 9 Doges, I’ve received 7,907,174 $DRAKO, which were instantly swapped to $DAWG. So I got 1832 $DAWG, that worth $50.

Total $DRAKO profit - $80.

Saga Monke

On Saturday, I noticed I got a Monke airdropped on my Saga. It’s a new NFT collection that was airdropped only for Saga holders. Well, FP was around 4 SOL, but for some reason, I decided to list for 6.5 SOL (7.05 SOL with royalty and fees). And that was an all-time high for today! It was sold for 6.5 SOL, and the floor dropped to 3 SOL right after it. Lucky flip. I guess I have some experience with such assets.

Profit: 6.5 SOL

$GECKO

I decided to stake my 430,000 ECKO for 12 months.

Dymension drop

Check if you are eligible for Dymension drop.

https://twitter.com/dymension/status/1742185621299265738

I expect to receive 126.98 DYM, and this airdrop should happen in 12 days. We’ll see how much it could be worth.

$JUP

Jupiter airdrop is scheduled for the end of January. It’s my most awaited airdrop. It should be huge!

$BOZO

I got 200M BOZO on my Saga. 200M BOZO is worth around $4 now. I expected them to make a bigger drop. But I am still waiting for the $BOZO for Danger Valley holders. It could be more enjoyable with my 500+ Ducks.

$GOO on ArtRaffle (+ trading)

We hosted a raffle with the GOO founder. He shared it in GOO Discord. From my side, I burnt 50% of $GOO from this raffle.

Anyways, I received 210,333 $GOO. And 210,333 $GOO burnt. That was the fastest raffle sell-out. 7 mins. LFG.

Profit: 210,333 GOO.

This time, I decided to trade it a bit. $GOO seems a volatile asset, and that’s good.

First, I swapped 210k GOO to 1.5 SOL.

I bought 1.2M GOO for 1.5 SOL the next day.

In 3-4 hours, I sold these 1.2M GOO for 3.73 SOL.

The next day - I bought 2,310,000 GOO for 3.73 SOL.

We’ve also decided to create 1/1 Duck in partnership with GOO and raffle it for $GOO. We sold 2110 tickets for 833 $GOO. Of course, 50% of GOO was burned. In the end, I got 700k GOO. So, 3M now :)

…

I thought I’d finish this post with 3M GOO, but I’ve just swapped it to 5.5 SOL. I am going to continue trading GOO on Jupiter. I connected with the founder, and we discussed his upcoming plans. Even if the token is volatile, when you can be sure that it won’t be rugged in the upcoming weeks - you can try to trade it. That’s what I will do, especially when I get these tokens for free (airdrops + raffles + trading).

Total profit

+16 $SOL ($1616)

+ 1832 $DAWG ($50)

+ 200M $BOZO ($4)

My current bag

101M $BONK = $1326
430,001 $GECKO = $134
298 $USDC = $298
690,420 $CHONKY = $24
16 SOL = $1616
1832 $DAWG = $50
200M $BOZO = $4

Total: $3452 (+$1517 since the previous week).

I’ve found a few X threads about more perspective airdrops (only for paid subscribers).

Read more

I’ve received a few trash drops on my Saga and instantly sold them for $USDC. I got 58 $USDC in addition to the 130 $USDC I got from $analoS. So I have 188 USDC, and I decided to stake them on Parcl. The minimum lock period is 30 days, but we are not looking for a fast profit.

So now, I am earning 564 points per day for the $Parcl airdrop.

I also swapped my 100,000 ACS to 22M BONK. Is it a dumb decision? We’ll see. I love the idea behind the Access Protocol. But I don’t believe that the market needs it now.

Airdrops for Danger Valley holders

I got $WACKY, $GOO, and $BOZO for Duck holders. Working hard to get more drops. If you want to participate, buy a Duck on Tensor, and you’ll be eligible.

Of course, join our Discord server to check announcements about new drops.

I sold my $WACKY for 110 USDC.

Waiting for $GOO on Jan 3rd and $BOZO also soon.

Current Vault

101M $BONK = $1440
430,001 $GECKO = $170
298 $USDC = $298
690,420 $CHONKY = $27

Total: $1935 (+$150 since week 1).

If you want to know which airdrops I am farming right now, become a paid subscriber to my newsletter :)

Read more

So, I started a week ago and participated in a few airdrops.

BONK

I got a 30M $BONK airdrop as a Saga owner (Solana Mobile).

I also participated in the BONKmas - BONK rewards event.

You had to do some simple on-chain and off-chain tasks:

• Stake some BONK on MarginFi

• Buy art for BONK on Exchange Art

• Use BONKBot

• etc

I’ve completed half of the tasks and received 38.8M BONK, which cost around $750.

In addition, I staked a few of my Danger Valley Ducks and received some BONK.

In total, I have 70M BONK. I loaned all of it on MarginFi to earn points there and get their token drop once they launch it.

GECKO

I’ve received three GECKO drops as a holder of different NFT collections on Solana. I think two of them were because I hold two SMB Gen3 NFTs. And the third one - I don’t even know, maybe FFF :)

430,000 $GECKO in total.

ACCESS PROTOCOL

I claimed 100,000 $ACS as a Saga owner. You can also claim here if you have a Solana Mobile phone.

analoS

It looked a bit scammy to claim an unknown token from the main wallet (you can’t use a burner there), but it worked fine for me.

Check if your wallets are eligible here: https://www.analos.meme/claim?id=9Xt9Zj9HoAh13MpoB6hmY9UZz37L4Jabtyn8zE7AAsL (referral link, I’ll get some too).

I claimed 270,000 tokens and decided to give 10% to Memo, who told me about this airdrop. Remaining analoS I’ve just swapped to USDC and got 130 $USDC. We’ll see what I can buy for it.

CHONKY

Got an airdrop of 690,420 $CHONKY. Now it is worth $24. Free cash.

Not gonna sell it for now; we’ll see what it can do in 1-2 weeks.

Upcoming drops and plans

I am waiting for $GOO, $PRNT, $JUP.

I am thinking about $Parcl, but I have not started to earn points yet.

I'm also trying to get as much as possible for Danger Valley Ducks holders. As I am one of the whales, I’ll also get the airdrops :)

And I am registered on DopTest. I need three referrals - https://doptest.dop.org/id=PqbvIcl. It’s not Solana, but they will have some airdrop on their network. You have to complete a few simple on-chain tasks and invite three friends.

Current Vault

70M $BONK = $1105
$430,001 $GECKO = $184
130 $USDC = $130
690,420 $CHONKY = $24
100,000 $ACS = $342

Total: $1785.

Good start! Subscribe to read weekly posts about my journey from $0 to $50,000 on Memecoins!

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I know a lot about scammers, fishing, etc. And I am always aware of it. I have a cold wallet, where I save most of my assets (NFTs and tokens). I have burner wallets. I check almost every transaction instructions if I sign anything on an untrusted website.

But…

One guy wrote me in Discord a few days ago, and we started to chat. He seemed legit, and it looked like he was trying to help. We began to talk about the grant opportunity for Danger Valley so we could speed up our building process and launch more tools in a shorter amount of time. To be clear, I am looking for a grant. I send many requests to Solana Foundation, Superteam, Workmhole, Instagrants, etc. I even thought about getting a grant from Polygon, but cmon, we are on Solana, and we love it :)

So, it was not a surprise for me that someone reached out to me to discuss the grant opportunity. He started asking legit questions about our team, the product we built, our plans, our collections, why we can do it, etc. So, I thought he was legit and wanted to give us a grant.

We made a deal! We are dealing with a $50k grant in exchange for 3.6M BEAK tokens. That’s the token’s current price because I consider the BEAK price 1 SOL = 5k BEAK.

So, we started to talk about how to proceed. I was looking for a tool that would allow us to make a p2p SPL-to-SPL swap on Solana using a trusted escrow. And… I found nothing! Do you know that there is no p2p SPL-to-SPL swap tool? I think I’ll build it :)

So, I wasn’t able to find any trusted swap tool and offered him to do it manually. So after he sends me 50k USDT, I’ll send him 3.6M BEAK and both of us will be happy. And to my surprise - he accepted! That was the first sign that he was a scammer because I would never accept a manual swap. Anyway, I sent him my wallet address and started to wait. Actually, I went to put my son to bed, and when I returned in 30 minutes, he wrote something like

My funds are locked on Binance, I can’t send you anything.

Can you send me $30-40 for the transaction fee?

This time, I finally understood that he was a scammer. But I spent time with him, so I wanted to have fun. And I agreed :)

I asked for his wallet address, but I sent him some SOL. Of course, not $40, but only 0.01 SOL. This is enough for 1000 transaction fees on Solana.

He was pissed.

You ask me about $50k and can’t send me $40?!

I had so much fun.

The morality of this story - always be careful!

• Don’t send any funds to anyone untrusted.

• Don’t connect your wallet to an untrusted website.

• Always use a burner wallet.

• Buy a Ledger and store all of your valuable assets there.

• Don’t send your passwords or private keys to anyone.

• Just be careful and take care of yourself.

• Subscribe to my newsletter and my Twitter.

Love you all. See you in the next post.

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Brief

I have been a full-time entrepreneur since 2015 and have tried different ways to make money. I built over 100 mobile apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Tizen, and other operating systems. I had my outsource software development company, where we helped startups build their mobile and web applications, and I exchanged devs hours for $.

Danger Valley

Two years ago, I founded a Danger Valley - Solana-based dev team & community, where we build different tools and games on the Solana blockchain. That was my first significant income. I made over $1M. Well, that was not my money because they belonged to Danger Valley, and we had to build a lot of stuff and increase the value of our Danger Valley Ducks NFT collection. But anyway, I had them in my crypto wallet.

It was in 2021, and since then, we have built many products and, of course, spent a lot of money on devs, server infrastructure, marketing, rewards for holders, sweeping floor, etc. And we got out of DV money at the beginning of 2023.

Employment

I was happy that I still had some MRR from my mobile games, outsourcing agency, and other revenue streams, so I could still cover the expenses. But a few months ago, I decided to find a job to be able to pay for my personal expenses (rent, food, child’s toys/clothing/diapers, etc). It was a great decision because it helped me make life-changing decisions about my future.

The plan was to work around 5 hours a day “on a full-time job“, and another 5 hours a day on Danger Valley. I work seven days a week without weekends, so the plan seemed good.

But I didn’t predict that I hadn’t worked for someone since 2015 and was not ready to follow someone’s orders. I had to work on tasks that my manager gave me. I had to answer many calls daily because they didn’t know that remote work should be async. I had to work on Windows because of their policy, even though I had never used Windows since 2013 when I bought my first Macbook. And so on.

Damn, that’s so different from what I love to do. I understood that I work not because of money but because of passion. I love to build and launch products and earn on them (even though it’s not too high income for now).

I resigned on a second day, lol 🤣

Decisions I made

So, what about life-changing decisions? I decided that I would be an entrepreneur for life. No more employment in any company. Just business, entrepreneurship, product development, and generating income on it.

Entrepreneurship, for me, is Freedom. Freedom to choose when and where to work (by the way, I usually work much more than any of my devs). Freedom to decide what to build, which technologies to select, what tools to use, etc.

I am trying to generate new revenue streams all the time. For example, I am growing my Twitter, believing it will pay off one day. Also, I’ve just added the Ukrainian language to the Alias game for iOS and Android, and I plan to add more languages by the end of the year. I am also trying to grow this newsletter, so subscribe if you have not yet subscribed.

Subscribe now

And, of course, building new products for Danger Valley is my full-time job. We’ll launch a new product next week 😉

That’s my passion, and this company helped me to understand this. I am grateful to them, they reminded me about what I love in software development, and why I am here.

One more thing

I need a few minutes of your time. Please review the following resources, rate them in the AppStore, and share them on your socials. It will take just a few minutes, but it will help me.

Danger Valley

Twitter: https://twitter.com/danger_valley
Website: https://dangervalley.com/
MagicEden: https://magiceden.io/marketplace/danger_valley_ducks
Tensor: https://www.tensor.trade/trade/danger_valley_ducks

Mobile Games

Alias for iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1434309264
Alias for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=5628953384314675479
1010: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1052607388
Eggy: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1013597626

Socials

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/heymike_sol
My newsletter:

Founder's Journey

I am building Web3 apps on Solana.

By Mike

Thank you for reading. That’s important for me to share what’s on my mind.

I am writing this article while my 1-year-old son is sleeping on me, and he is so cute now 🥹

Share

We are hosting our First Solana Chess Tournament!

When: Sept 23, 6 pm-8 pm UTC
Entrance: FREE
Game mode: Rapid, 10 min.

Prize pool:
1st - 3 SOL
2nd - 2 SOL
3rd - 1 SOL
4th-6th - 100 BEAK
7th-10th - Danger Valley Dialect Sticker Pack

Register: https://xchess.io/events/650b45ee29a1098682821e4a

Register

What we built:

• Play Chess with your friend.
  Share the game URL with your friend, and he can join.

• Play with AI.
  We integrated the most powerful AI into xChess. Try to beat it!

• Play with random people.
  You can play chess even with someone from another continent.

• Different game modes.
  Classic, rapid, bullet, etc.

• Hints from AI.
  You can buy them for SOL / USDC / BEAK.

• Arena.
  24/7 rated tournament.

• Team Tournaments.
  We’ll host team tournaments for the most active OG communities on Solana. NFT-gated participation.

• Rating & ranks.

• Chat with your opponent.

• Viewer mode.
  You can view someone’s game.

What’s coming

• NFT skins.

• Daily missions.

• Team tournaments with OG communities.

• Leaderboards.

If you are a project founder or community moderator and want to host a chess tournament for your community or compete with any other project/DAO - fill out this form, and let’s get in touch!

Play Chess Now

Today, I will tell you my plan how to build the next unicorn.

Math

Let’s do simple math. We have 7777 ducks and 2222 pigeons, so total 10k NFTs. What floor price do we need for a $1B market cap?

I expect SOL to go to $300-500 on the next bull run, so let’s imagine it hits at least $200. That’s the minimum, for sure. So we need 500 SOL floor price.

Strategy

We are trying different ways to increase the value of the Ducks. Some people could say that we don’t have a strict roadmap and that we don’t follow what we planned at the beginning. But that is our strategy - to try different things until we find our blue-chip project.

We created non-custodial NFT Staking when every project used escrow-based staking.

We built a casino-based gaming platform with a bunch of cool in-house-built games.

We created a raffle platform where every project can host their raffle with any SPL token absolutely for free.

And now, we are building xChess - a web3 chess platform, and Laboratory - the place where all Ducks will find what to do.

I talked to a few VC investors, and all of told me that move valuable in their decisions is the team, but not a product. We have the vision what we want to achieve for Danger Valley, and we are building it step by step.

How far do we plan?

Well, we have two different types of planning: long-term and short-term.

Long-term plan is for 1+ year. We are going to start the Season II in August, but we already write the roadmap for Season III. We already write down our ideas for Season III, and I know what’s gonna happen with Ducks on Spring-Summer 2024.

Short-team plan is usually for 2-3 months. Because most project can be built for more or less 2-3 months.

Marketing plan

We stopped building the casino, so we are opened for the usual web2 marketing, of course with the elements of web3.

Our current main project is xChess, and it’s not yeat launched, but we have already started to market it. We’ve launched Google Ads and Facebook Ads, and testing creatives. People subscribe to our waitlist, and we already have a bunch of emails of chess-lovers outside of the Danger Valley community.

Second part of the marketing plan is to partner with a lot of Solana communities to host Team Tournaments. That’s how we call this unique tournaments feature. Nobody has it yet, no chess.com, no lichess, no any other chess platform. I am pretty sure there is a bunch of chess lovers in the Solana communities, and we are going to unite all of them.

What else are you building?

I do really want to win one of the Solana hackatons. To do that, we need to build not just a cool consumer product, but also innovate the tech. You’ll see one of these innovations on xChess. But that’s just a start.

I want to help other developers and founders to build and market their product on Solana. So most likely Danger Valley will launch a few dev-tools later this year. We are going to try them for Danger Valley first, and if we see the good traction, we’ll allow other communities to use them.

So, what about $1B?

There are a few steps how we are going to reach 500 SOL FP.

1. We will continue building consumer products and going to bring as many web2 users to Solana as we can.

2. We will increase the benefits from holding a Duck.

3. We will increase the value of $BEAK by giving it more utility in xChess, Laboratory, and our upcoming products. By the way, $BEAK will be renamed in the Season III.

4. We need more visibility for Danger Valley inside the Solana community. From the team side - we’ll partner with other Solana projects, take part in Hackathons, visit Solana Breakpoint, etc. But we also need help of you, our holders. Show your Ducks, set it as your pfp in Twitter, Threads, Instagram, Discord, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. Be proud of the community where you are a part of.

That’s just the beginning.

To be continued…

Degenerate Ape Academy

First, I noticed it with DAA when they launched their staking rewards. You receive Opals there, which are not withdrawable and transferable! And you will be able to spend them inside the Academy ecosystem.

I thought - WTF?!

But I just staked my Apes and said, "ok."

DeGods

Then - y00ts Points. I am not a y00t or DeGod holder, but I follow what they create. Same - you can use points inside the DeWorld. Frank always makes something unique and innovative, so it didn't surprise me. And they already had $DUST and "normal" staking.

Famous Fox Federation

A few months ago, I joined the Famous Foxes community. Their Missions is something incredible!

But wait, Missions - is their Staking V2!

Yes, they have the usual staking with a $FOXY token. But at least half of the holders send their Foxes to Missions to earn XP and Chests.

With XP, you earn Levels, and after reaching a specific level, you can upgrade the Art of your Fox by paying $FOXY.

That's fascinating.

BTW, you can transfer part of the fox's XP to your other fox, with a 20% penalty.

Mad Lads

And yesterday, I aped into Mad Lads.

They just launched their staking rewards a few days ago.

And what did I see? It's a similar mechanic. You receive points for staking, and you can use them inside the Mad Lads ecosystem.

No transferable. No withdrawable. Using xNFT.

My thoughts

These projects noticed that SPL-token-based rewards don't work. People just dump the token price, and all your math becomes broken.

The project has to build such a strong utility and community to protect the token price, which is almost impossible.

Only one project which I know succeed with it. That's DeGods with their DUST.

- Upgrade from DeGods to DeadGods
- Raffles
- y00t mint
- Halvings
- Frank

That worked. But, well, don't try to replicate it. Most likely, you fail. I think a lot of projects have been tried.

One more project whose SPL token is still alive is Famous Foxes. But they are so focking strong builders. They have plenty of tools where you pay with FOXY.

Though, the price of FOXY is pretty low. I receive 100 FOXY per FFF, and that's just 25 cents.

With Fox $825 price.

But I will still hold 2 FFF and 1 TFF just because they are focking builders. I have my missions and plenty of tools built by the FFF team, and I am proud to be an FFF holder.

When we launched our staking for Danger Valley in January 2022, we had almost nothing but the community.

I always knew that we'd go the builders' road. And we must launch holders' rewards. So I didn't have any options (as I thought) except giving away SOL and launching BEAK.

But now I see better ways to reward our holders. And we are going to change the existing rewards for holders in Season II. Season II will start in August.

Summary

- SPL-token-based staking doesn't work.

- TOP projects noticed it a long time ago and modified their rewards.

- We are going to upgrade Danger Valley rewards in Season II.

- I love to be a part of the TOP Solana communities. We build it together.

Today I want to talk about ChatGPT and other AI tools. I hear a lot of talks that AI will replace software developers, UI/UX designers, and artists (hello, Midjourney) soon. Will it happen in the upcoming 1-2 years? Read the article till the end, and you’ll understand.

This was the day I created my first website without writing a single line of code.

So why did I decide to use ChatGPT? Well, I needed to create a simple form for the admin panel of the ArtRaffle, so any admin could easily add the SPL token without my help and without using Postman. But I am not a front-end developer. I developed backend, iOS apps, Android apps, flash games, C++ programs, and even smart contracts on Rust. But not front-end using simple HTML and CSS.

Of course, I could google it and make a simple HTML, but I wanted to make it fast and not waste much time creating a simple form.

As a result, I spent around 30-40 minutes creating this simple website using ChatGPT while sitting in Starbucks during my son was sleeping in a stroller.

Here is the result.

How to create a website using ChatGPT?

Well, you need to understand what you want to achieve. And try to describe it one by one to the AI.

There are a few first messages that I sent to ChatGPT:

I need a simple html webpage which i can upload to basic hosting

Please add form there with fields: API key (string), Token mint (string), Where to buy token (string)

Send this form as POST request to "https://api.artraffle.io/api/v1/tokens"

Of course, I had to create the API for this form, but I am a back-end dev :)

A few changes:
1. Send data as raw json
2. tokenBuyLink is not required field
3. Rename page to "ArtRaffle Admin: Add SPL token"

Etc.

So just using these simple one-by-one commands, I received the more and more filled HTML page.

Here is my full chat with ChatGPT:
https://chat.openai.com/share/d5eb08e5-c308-46ad-9fe8-4adadea37a5f

Then I just deployed it to the DigitalOcean, and that’s all! I spent around 30-40 minutes, and my first website, created by ChatGPT, was deployed and live.

So, will AI replace the developers? No way. Maybe juniors, but not Middle or Seniors. You can create a simple webpage using AI, but AI won’t help you at all if you need a complex solution. So developers and designers, relax. You’ll be ok, at least in the upcoming 5-10 years.

But don’t ignore the AI tools. It can speed up your work 10-20 times, and you could deliver much more results within the same timeframe.

If you like my articles, subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on Twitter.

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Hey, friends!

I am stoked to announce that our first 3D Duck Toy is available now!

This bad boy is the perfect combo of quality and fun, and it's sure to provide hours of entertainment for kids and adults. We're not trying to break the bank so you can snag one for just 100 USDC, paid in SOL.

And we're keepin' it exclusive with only 333 of each of the four ducks available. So, don't wait too long to grab yours! I hope this new toy will make our current holders happy and bring in some new ones.

You can mint the 3D Duck Toy NFT today on the Metaplex Studio website.

MINT NOW

Oh, and if you're a collector, you can get free delivery if you collect all four toys. How cool is that? Get ready to quack up with the 3D Duck Toy!