Solana is coming to Shanghai, what business do they want to do?

Author: Lawyer Liu Honglin

Solana has advertised at the Bund in Shanghai.

On the evening of October 14, the riverside curtain wall of the Citibank Tower in Lujiazui, Shanghai lit up with the Solana logo, and the official account also released a night view video with the caption "ni hao shanghai." Across the Huangpu River, this leading public blockchain in the cryptocurrency industry greeted Shanghai in a very direct way.

Also drawing attention were news about office spaces in Shanghai. Social media updates from Solana team members and foundation executives showcased images of the Shanghai office. Additionally, there are offline events organized by Solana, with Accelerate China starting in Shanghai on October 16, followed by events in Hangzhou on the 18th, Shenzhen on the 20th, and Beijing on the 22nd.

When looking at the advertisements, office spaces, and events in four cities together, this appearance in the Chinese market is indeed quite concentrated. For those accustomed to cryptocurrency projects maintaining a low profile domestically, this scene inevitably raises questions: Has the wind changed? Are there new opportunities for domestic Web3? What does Solana hope to gain by investing resources to engage with Chinese teams? After establishing connections with it, what can Chinese entrepreneurs leave behind?

All questions boil down to one: What business does Solana want to conduct in Shanghai?

Public Blockchains Also Need to Find Clients

Solana is a globally recognized public blockchain project, which can be simply understood as a public blockchain network that allows different teams to develop and run applications on it. SOL is its native token. However, when a public blockchain brand comes to China, the people it engages with may not only be those buying tokens. Engineers writing code, entrepreneurs developing products, and companies with overseas clients may all become the targets it hopes to connect with.

Suppose a Chinese team develops software aimed at overseas users that needs to handle account permissions, digital asset records, or access certain on-chain services in permitted markets. If they are familiar with the tools of a particular blockchain early on and know the service providers on that chain, it will naturally be easier for that blockchain to enter the candidate list when making product selections later.

My understanding is that Solana's visit to China aims to attract the next batch of capable teams to create products. By letting Chinese entrepreneurs get to know it and become familiar with it, they may be willing to choose it when developing products for the global market, thus turning this investment into a long-term ecological advantage.

Many people look at public blockchains by first examining token prices, then trading volumes, and finally what popular projects exist. These certainly affect market attention. However, from a business perspective, a blockchain must continuously answer one question: Why would the next startup be willing to use you?

You can imagine the public blockchain ecosystem as an industrial park that hopes to attract businesses to settle in. The park will build infrastructure, hold events, and provide support, hoping good teams will come in. Public blockchains will also provide development tools, technical support, and funding opportunities, hoping teams will create products on their networks. The legal nature of the two is different, but the logic of attracting businesses and projects has similarities.

The support programs publicly announced by the Solana Foundation include milestone-based funding and solicitations for specific projects. Applying teams need to explain the project's value to the network, the use of funds, and the results at various stages. These arrangements themselves indicate that attracting developers requires continuous investment.

When money is spent, what is expected in return? From the perspective of ecological development, it is more usable products and the service demands formed around these products. Applications attract users, users bring usage, and other teams may continue to develop around existing products. Only when this process runs smoothly can a blockchain have the opportunity to become the infrastructure that businesses are willing to adopt long-term.

The commercial interests here will fall on different participants. Companies developing applications earn product and service revenue, validators maintaining the network receive corresponding rewards according to network rules, and the foundation promotes ecological development by supporting developers. Transactions on the Solana chain require SOL to pay fees, but the relationship between usage, income from various parties, and token prices is not a simple one-to-one correspondence.

Therefore, seeing it advertise in Shanghai and hold events, I prefer to interpret this as an investment in brand recognition and business connections. Whether it can lead to valuable projects will depend on future collaborations and products. A light show can make people remember the name, but sustained use by businesses relies on products and services.

The Scale and Boundaries of Promoting Business in Mainland China

We know that public blockchains have both technical networks and tokens. Which part it promotes in China and what activities it conducts should be examined in detail.

Introducing developers to the technical architecture, demonstrating development tools, discussing how software is deployed and applications run—these types of exchanges have normal space for technical promotion. China has a large number of engineers, product teams, and companies working on overseas markets, and it is not hard to understand the commercial motivation for public blockchain teams to engage with them.

However, if an event shifts from discussing development to calling on attendees to purchase tokens, promising token holding returns, or guiding everyone to enter trading platforms, the nature of the event changes. There is a line that needs to be maintained between developer exchanges and token investment solicitation. The specific content of brand promotion must also comply with advertising and other regulations.

Mainland China's regulation of the blockchain industry has traditionally adopted a separation of technical applications from financial activities related to virtual currencies.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Central Cyberspace Administration of China have issued guiding opinions to promote the application of blockchain technology and industrial development, supporting technological research and integrated applications; however, virtual currency trading speculation, token issuance financing, etc., are subject to strict restrictions.

Thus, while encouraging blockchain technology, it is also possible to prohibit illegal financial activities related to virtual currencies. Speaking about technology to developers and selling tokens to investors are not the same thing. The focus should be on what the event discusses, what it guides participants to do, and what services are actually provided afterward.

From this perspective, Solana's efforts to attract developers in China have understandable commercial logic. A more valuable observation about this matter is whether it can support Chinese teams in creating applications aimed at the global market and how these collaborations will unfold.

Developing in China, Doing Global Business

For entrepreneurs in mainland China, a more pragmatic question may be: Can I use a public blockchain like Solana to develop products for the global market?

Using public blockchain technology does not equate to engaging in virtual currency trading. Chinese teams can study open-source code, develop software, and seek product demand globally. The compliance judgment of specific projects should follow the functions provided, the markets entered, and the users served.

For example, one team develops an on-chain data analysis tool for overseas companies, charging through software subscriptions; another team develops trading products, providing token exchange, asset custody, or yield services. Even if both use Solana for development, the business obligations involved are quite different. The former needs to handle data, contracts, and other issues, while the latter must further assess local financial regulations and licensing requirements.

Entrepreneurs should first identify the actual market they are serving, then design the product. Which users can use it, which functions require licensed institutions, who collects and safeguards the funds, should all be determined before going live. A business allowed in one overseas market may not be directly transferable to another country or region.

Particularly careful and cautious handling of mainland Chinese users is essential. If the product provides services such as virtual currency exchange, trading intermediaries, or token issuance financing aimed at the domestic market, it will encounter businesses that are clearly prohibited by current regulations. Registering a company overseas and applying foreign law to contracts does not directly resolve the issue of providing services aimed at the domestic market.

Therefore, merely writing target customers in the business plan is not enough; the product and operations must also keep pace at the practical level. How user access is managed, which regions' users cannot use specific functions, who the Chinese promotional materials are aimed at, and whether the domestic team is responsible for soliciting trading users and processing orders—these actions must align with business boundaries. If the team also plans to issue tokens themselves or turn domestic asset rights into tokens for overseas issuance, this involves separate regulatory requirements.

Returning to the initial question, what business does Solana want to conduct in Shanghai?

In my view, it hopes that Chinese developers and entrepreneurial teams will build more products on its network and then bring these products to the global market. For a public blockchain, the ability to continuously attract teams to develop and retain users is what provides long-term competitiveness.

For Chinese entrepreneurs, there are opportunities worth participating in here. Using global technological tools to solve real customer problems, entering different markets, and implementing compliance requirements into products and operations. The restrictions on financial activities related to virtual currencies in China and the participation of Chinese teams in global blockchain technology innovation are two matters that need to be understood separately.

What I would prefer to see is that after this excitement, some Chinese teams leverage new connections to truly sell products overseas and acquire paying customers. For Solana and these entrepreneurs, this is a business worth pursuing seriously.