#402: Token Extensions On The Solana Blockchain Are Unleashing Opportunities For Developers, And More...

The recent token extensionⁱ upgrade to the Solana blockchain is empowering developers to add custom features to Solana-based digital assets. The upgrade enables better know your customer/anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) compliance enforcement, new transfer fee models, and confidential transactions that use zero-knowledge proofs to conceal the value of assets being transferred—all important for enterprise use cases to comply with financial regulations.

Solana’s token extensions are like the "hooks" in Uniswap's v4 protocol on Ethereum, which also offer extensibility, with one important distinction.ⁱⁱ Uniswap’s hooks offer customization only to how assets are traded on the Uniswap protocol, whereas Solana’s token extensions can be leveraged by any Solana-based token and enforced across all protocols on the blockchain—not just one. The deployment of extensions at the token level, rather than at the application protocol level, as in Uniswap’s case, should support a broader array of use cases with less incremental effort from developers.

Designed with the input of large institutions, this upgrade should help businesses move on-chain in the Solana ecosystem. Already, companies like Paxos are leveraging the extensions to issue stablecoins on Solana.

Last week, Starship Technologies—not to be confused with SpaceX’s Starship—secured $90 million to fund the global rollout of its sidewalk robots. To date, its robots have made more than six million deliveries, primarily on 50 college campuses.ⁱⁱⁱ

Historically, Starship mapped the surroundings around which robots have made autonomous deliveries.^iv That “minimum viable product” on college campuses has enabled both Starship and Alibaba to scale their autonomous delivery solutions, as shown below.^v

_{*Figures estimated based on available data. Robot delivery companies have different package capacities per robot, so some can make more deliveries per run than others. Sources: ARK Investment Management LLC, 2024. This ARK analysis is based on a range of underlying data from external sources as of February 9, 2024, which may be provided upon request. For informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any particular security. Past performance is not indicative of future results.}

That said, such solutions might be unlikely to scale beyond the sidewalks of college campuses. Our research previously has suggested that robots integrated into traffic on roads instead of sidewalks could be more viable in scaling robotic delivery.

As outlined in our updated research for ARK Invest’s Big Ideas 2024: Disrupting The Norm, Defining The Future, proprietary data could determine which autonomous logistics companies will enjoy commercial success. We are wondering if data collected on college campuses will prove useful in scaling robotic deliveries off-campus.

Last week, the CEOs of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Merck (MRK), and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) testified^vi before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The debate centered on why the US is paying the highest prices in the world for many drugs, including Bristol Myers Squibb’s Eliquis, Merck’s Keytruda, and Johnson and Johnson’s Stelara.

Eliquis is a blood thinner, the list price of which is $7,100 in the United States, more than seven-times the $900 in Canada, $770-650 in Europe, and $940 in Japan.^vii Between 2012 and 2022, Eliquis sales were $34.6 billion in the US, 54% more than the $22.5 billion in the rest of the world.^viii According to Bloomberg analyst Robert Langreth, the prices of US drugs are higher because they are not regulated and can be accessed quickly and easily.^ix We would add that many middlemen are taking tolls in the US healthcare system compared to those in more government-controlled health care systems elsewhere in the world.

While none of the CEOs who testified during the Senate hearing agreed to match lower prices in other countries, Merck CEO, Robert Davis, and Bristol Myers Squibb CEO, Chris Boerner, said they are anticipating and will welcome^x less expensive options when their best-selling drugs lose exclusivity and are subject to generic competition.

_{[i] Solana. 2024. “Permissioned tokens on a permissionless network.”}

_{[ii] Adams, H.2023. “Our Vision for Uniswap v4.”}

_{[iii] Kunde, I. 2024. “Starship Technologies raises $90M as its sidewalk robots pass 6M deliveries.” Tech Crunch. and Starship Technologies. 2024. “Starship Technologies offering autonomous robot delivery on 50 US college campuses as students go back to school.”}

_{[iv] Lääne, J. 2020. “How Starship Delivery Robots know where they are going.” Medium.}

_{[v] Starship Technologies. ND. “Introducing the world’s leading robot delivery service for University college campuses.”}

_{[vi] U.S. Senate Committee On Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. 2024. “Why Does the United States Pay, by Far, the Highest Prices in the World for Prescription Drugs?”}

_{[vii] Luhby, T. 2024. CNN. “Medicare now negotiating price of drug that costs $7,100 in US vs. $900 in Canada.”}

_{[viii] U.S. Senate Committee On Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. 2024. “Why Does the United States Pay, by Far, the Highest Prices in the World for Prescription Drugs?”}

_{[ix] Langreth, R. 2023. “Why Prescription Drug Prices in the US Are So High.” The Washington Post.}

_{[x] Constantino, A.K. 2024. “J&J, Merck and Bristol Myers CEOs defend high drug prices in Senate hearing, as Biden tries to cut costs.” CNBC.}