Categorising Solana applications for clearer reading
Our editorial taxonomy — DeFi primitives, NFTs, infrastructure, and why labels matter.
The Solana application landscape grows faster than any single reader can follow. We use a stable taxonomy in the journal so articles reference the same categories year over year.
Infrastructure
RPC providers, indexers, oracles, and bridging components. Risk focus: availability, data correctness, and upgrade governance.
DeFi primitives
DEX pools, lending markets, stablecoin mechanisms, and aggregators. Risk focus: smart-contract logic, oracle dependencies, and liquidity depth.
Consumer and NFT experiences
Marketplaces, gaming assets, and social applications. Risk focus: custody models, royalty enforcement, and off-chain metadata availability.
Payments and commerce
Merchant tooling and point-of-sale integrations. Risk focus: settlement finality perceptions versus actual on-chain timing.
Why taxonomy helps briefings
When a reader asks about “a Solana app,” we first align on category assumptions. A briefing on NFT marketplaces differs from one on liquid staking — even if both appear in the same headline feed.
We revise category definitions when documentation introduces materially new program types. Changelog notes appear in the Reading Room.