The Solana ecosystem has garnered renewed attention recently, primarily due to the proliferation of memes. Beyond the memes, some existing sectors and narratives have begun to evolve on their own, such as the often-discussed topic of Liquid Staking (LST).

Traditionally, the logic behind LST is straightforward: you deposit, you stake, and you earn rewards. However, this simplicity is primarily appealing to seasoned DeFi enthusiasts. Solana, often referred to as a “retail chain,” has a significant number of casual investors, making it unnecessary to expose the underlying logic of LST directly to attract them.

The newly launched LST protocol, Windfall, has taken the idea of “lowering barriers” to new heights—transforming the user experience so that participants are unaware they are engaging in DeFi; instead, they feel as though they are playing a game.

The logic behind the project seems to be that users earn rewards by playing a game, with these rewards derived from the staking yields of LST/LRT. When new narratives are hard to emerge, making slight adjustments to existing narratives to align with the new trend of “consumer-grade crypto applications” is certainly worth noting.

Front Store, Back Factory

If you are completely new to crypto and DeFi, there is a significant gap in understanding LST:

You may not even know why staking is necessary, let alone comprehend the hardcore rationale of staking to protect a Proof of Stake (PoS) network. In simple terms, the traditional approach to LST has never been considered from the perspective of mass adoption; instead, it has always catered to a somewhat exclusive crowd, focusing on the profits of degens and large investors.

Upon reflection, even within the crypto community, it can be quite challenging to grasp a series of complex designs involving yield stacking, asset layering, and borrowing leverage—elements that have a distinctly financial essence—without regular engagement in DeFi.

Thus, Windfall has taken a different approach: if something is difficult to understand, it’s better if you simply don’t see it.

From the user’s perspective, what you see on Windfall are various mini-game interfaces, similar to those shown above. These games are relatively simple in terms of gameplay and understanding, often featuring reward tiers, lucky draws, and prize pool designs.

Throughout the process, you are essentially playing a series of mini-games, where you can earn rewards based on different rules. The rewards from these games come from various LST/LRT protocols on Solana:

1. Staking Yields: Players deposit SOL into Windfall, which appears to be spending money to play a lottery-style game. However, the deposited SOL is transformed into windSOL through the liquid staking protocol Sanctum, generating basic staking yields.
2. Re-staking Yields: Similarly, the LST tokens (windSOL) that have already been staked can be further staked through Jito-supported fragmetric re-staking protocols to achieve compound yields.
3. The staking and re-staking yields generated from all the SOL deposited by users are pooled together and distributed to game participants according to the game rules.

This is a classic example of the “front store, back factory” model: the consumer-facing side offers food, while behind the scenes is a complex food processing factory.

For retail investors, the focus is on playing reward-based games, while the underlying mechanism is a nested structure that generates yields from liquid staking and re-staking. Users do not need to understand the production mechanisms within the factory; they simply engage with the games.

Clearly, this front store, back factory model is much easier to understand than delving into the complex mechanisms of yield generation in the factory, making it more appealing to external users.

Collaborative Approach

The gamification of LST cannot solely rely on Windfall; the project wisely chooses to collaborate with other projects in the ecosystem to attract more users.

From an operational perspective, how can such games draw in more participants?

The general approach revolves around two strategies:

1. Enhancing the game’s intrinsic appeal
2. Allowing holders of different assets to participate

Following these two paths, Windfall is actively increasing its allies:

First, to enhance the game’s appeal, it maximizes the value of various meme IPs. The different casual and luck-based mini-games provided by Windfall will collaborate with Solana NFTs, memes, and other IPs (such as @bonk_inu and @MadLads), exemplified by the Bonk block mining mini-game mentioned earlier.

Second, in expanding asset options, Windfall has integrated more DeFi protocols, allowing participants to use assets beyond SOL to play the games. For example, through @KaminoFinance, stablecoin deposits can be utilized; through @EclipseFND, Ethereum deposits can be used; and through @ZeusNetworkHQ, Bitcoin deposits can be accepted.

Furthermore, regarding the fairness of the games themselves, as they fundamentally operate on a lucky draw basis, the randomness, transparency, and efficiency of the lottery become increasingly important. Windfall’s official Twitter indicates that the project is collaborating with MagicBlock and Light Protocol to use ZK compression technology to process large-scale lottery rewards associated with the game more efficiently.

This approach of collaborating to enhance core business KPIs by addressing shortcomings and needs is likely to become more common in new projects within established narratives. For new projects, leveraging existing functions of established projects can facilitate business development without reinventing the wheel. For older projects, offering partial capabilities to share in future expected revenues can also be beneficial.

Currently, Windfall has not fully unveiled its official website or product details and is still in the phase of generating buzz and anticipation on social media.

For early-bird degens, the best course of action is to fill in their SOL address to join the official waiting list for a chance to participate in early trials and gain additional benefits.

While a grand narrative is yet to emerge, incremental optimizations continue unabated.

The current crypto market may still be waiting for a glimmer of hope.

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