Poppin to Leverage Solana Blinks to Power Social Layer Application

Aiming to build a shared social layer across the entire internet, Poppin founder Lev Vercetti is excited about Solana Blinks potential.

Finn Miller

Published: Oct 11, 2024 at 15:00
Edited: Oct 11, 2024 at 16:35

Since the dawn of the Web3 age, social media has long been considered an area primed for disruption. Unfortunately, decentralized social media applications have consistently failed to meet expectations and attract sufficient user bases.

Poppin, an emerging Solana-based social layer, is taking a different approach. Instead of building a siloed platform, Poppin aims to meet users where they already are to make the internet a less solitary place.

What is Poppin?

Popping is a web browser extension designed to transform any webpage on the internet into a social hub. Instead of asking users to hop between separate applications like Discord, Telegram, and 𝕏, Poppin adds a social layer to existing sites straight from a browser extension.

Based on the teaser, Poppin users will be able to interact within any webpage, replicating typical social media behaviors like commenting, upvoting, and hosting live voice spaces for discussions.

Courtesy of Poppin’s integration with the Solana blockchain, users can also set up token-gated groups within social layers, similar to how holding certain onchain assets makes users eligible for specific Discord roles.

Similar to how Blinks are designed to integrate directly into existing webpages and bring the Solana blockchain to the world, Poppin aims to solve social media fragmentation. The emerging app aims to consolidate the online experience into composable social layers, meaning that users aren’t required to navigate away from the action.

Poppin Blink integration

Poppin co-founder Lev Vercetti expressed enthusiasm towards Solana’s Blinks technology. Vercetti commended Blinks on its simplicity, which the founder considers an essential tool toward streamlining Web2 user adoption.

“We make Blinks directly actionable within the extension to easily onboard Web2 users into crypto. While browsing and chatting, they can interact directly through Blinks in the chat.” - Lev Vercetti, Poppin co-founder

Poppin Founder Teases Private Beta

In an exclusive statement to SolanaFloor, Vercetti teased that early supporters will be able to assist the team with beta testing within a month. Following the public launch, Vercetti’s goals for the application are simply to find “people loving and using the product.”

Working alongside Solana Allstars has enabled Vercetti and the Poppin team to make meaningful strategic connections during the development process. Following the platform’s public launch, Solana Allstars will continue to assist Poppin, helping to drive grassroots adoption through its global network of Solana users.

“Allstars have been helping us on the business development side, connecting us with potential partners. The bigger collaboration though will be on the distribution side after the launch.”

"We’re starting with an invite-only private beta for bug testing and early feedback, which will be around in a month. After that, we’ll go public. Our main KPI is simple: people loving and using the product.” - Lev Vercetti, Poppin co-founder

SocialFi Struggles on Solana

Despite blockchain developers working for years to provide the ultimate Web 3 social media platform, no application has truly stood the test of time.

While platforms like friend.tech briefly attracted high levels of attention, SocialFi apps typically struggle to retain users long-term, often leading to abandonment of the protocol.

Likewise, Solana-based social media platforms have so far failed to witness high levels of adoption. Platforms like Solcial haven’t shared updates via 𝕏 in years and appear to have no active users.

Poppin may not be the ultimate social media tool to onboard the next billion users. However, the platform delivers a fresh approach to Web3 social media, proposing to bridge the gap between traditional internet and the Solana network.