Epics DAO Updates Whitepaper and Highlights Critical Changes in Solana Development Environment

Epics DAO Updates Whitepaper

Epics DAO, operated by ELSOUL LABO B.V. in Amsterdam, has announced a significant update to its whitepaper, emphasizing the necessity to streamline the Solana dApp development environment. The project is at the forefront of open-source development, primarily centered around a competitive NFT trading card game, merging Web3 technology with incentives, gaming, and community contributions.

Prioritizing Development Environment Improvements

In the updated whitepaper, Epics DAO has declared a strategic focus on enhancing the overall Solana development framework before pushing for platform development. Notably, the Solana network has recently completed its v3 upgrade and is on the verge of introducing the next-generation speed update referred to as "Alpenglow". This upgrade necessitates the migration from the traditional @solana/web3.js library to the more modern @solana/kit, which has become essential for the optimal development of dApps and Web3 applications.

While @solana/web3.js has sustained approximately 870,000 downloads weekly, it is no longer in active development. Conversely, its successor, @solana/kit, has been experiencing proactive development, with the release of v5.0.0 just six days ago, yet it currently sees only around 30,000 weekly downloads. This discrepancy highlights the urgent need for developers to transition to the more advanced toolkit.

Solana Kit has made significant performance optimizations compatible with the Alpenglow era, enhancing communication efficiency, signature processing, and memory management. However, the lack of development examples and surrounding support for effectively utilizing its robust architecture has resulted in limited migration progress thus far. Meanwhile, the new Wallet Adapter is not yet available, and related projects like Wallet Standard and Gill are still in their infancy. Hence, many developers are constrained to using Web3.js while the essential need for migration remains unclear to some.

Addressing Challenges in the Development Environment

To address these challenges, Epics DAO is committed to improving the development environment centered around Solana Kit and promoting information sharing and case study development. The organization intends to ensure that all developers can leverage the latest development infrastructure in this new age of Solana.

Through its experiences while developing an NFT card game, Epics DAO encountered issues such as transaction errors and RPC connection instability. These challenges prompted them to create and release their proprietary validator operation and RPC management tool called solv, which later evolved into Validators DAO, SLV, and ERPC. These initiatives aim to alleviate technical debt within the Solana ecosystem and to standardize and stabilize the development framework. Epics DAO will continue to leverage its accumulated knowledge to foster an environment conducive to easier development and operation for Solana developers.

New Developments from Solana Foundation

The Solana Foundation also acknowledges these issues and has launched a new developer portal, "Launch," this month. This portal introduces a suite of tools designed to support the next generation of Solana dApp development, including Kora, CommerceKit, and Attestations.

- Kora: A cutting-edge technology allowing fee payments in currencies other than SOL.
- CommerceKit: A development kit for establishing e-commerce solutions on the Solana platform.
- Attestations: A framework that supports authentication and proofs on the Solana network.

Kora, in particular, aims to streamline transaction fees on the Epics gaming platform, making them solely payable with $EPCT. This shift directly enhances the user experience by eliminating the need for SOL in fee transactions, thus removing friction from the gameplay process.

Future Directions and Development Plans

Epics DAO has decided to temporarily delay the public release of its platform Beta version to prioritize open-source development surrounding the Solana Kit and wallet connections. Collaborating with Validators DAO and ERPC, the organization plans to enhance the necessary SDKs, integrate wallet connections (following the Solana Wallet Standard), and improve the network infrastructure to provide a safer and more efficient environment for developers to construct and experiment.

These research outcomes and tools will be progressively released as open-source resources, contributing to the broader Solana development community. Epics DAO aspires to champion open-source development as a public asset, envisioning a sustainable support model for development through innovative incentive design.