Solana Spaces CEO Vibhu Norby said the new physical Solana stores will introduce up to 100,000 people per month to the Solana ecosystem, while also signalling plans to open a virtual storefront in the near future.
Utilizing a grant from the Solana Foundation, the first Solana Spaces shop opened in the swanky Hudson Yards New York shopping center on July 28.
Addressing the community in a impromptu Twitter AMA on launch day, Norby explained the store is meant to teach new users about how to use Dapps, and noted that it would be introducing thousands of people into the Solana blockchain.
“I don’t think people realize this but we’re going to bring 50 to 100,000 people into Solana every month through these stores — and that’s just this year.”
Speaking to Cointelegraph in a phone interview following the AMA, Norby said the shop had 400 visitors, hinting also that new U.S.-based physical stores were in the works, and that “the store was designed for people who are brand new to blockchain.”
Solana (SOL) is home to over a thousand decentralized apps (Dapps) ranging from trading platforms, gaming, and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to social media.
Solana Spaces NYC is now open: https://t.co/jZcZ99l5Cj
We’re the world’s first retail & educational space dedicated to Web3.
Brought to you in collaboration with @solanafndn, and partners @phantom, @stepnofficial, @orca_so, @magiceden, @metaplex, @degenapeacademy and more. pic.twitter.com/VoKnrIMmWP
— Solana Spaces (@solanaspaces) July 28, 2022
While it is technically a store that sells a limited series of Solana-based merchandise, it mainly serves as a retail-as-a-service tutorial hub where new users receive free instructional sessions on how to set up a crypto wallet and connect to various Dapps.
“It’s not a store designed to be a place where you buy things. It’s a store designed to be an educational experience. We do sell merch, Solana socks and hoodies and other fun things, but that isn’t the main point of it.”
Retail-as-a-service refers to stores that serve as showrooms for the products that customers can buy online. This encourages demonstration of the products and reduces the inventory requirements.
Norby added that the people who will get the most of the shop are those who have little to no exposure to blockchain. He said that half of the patrons who visited on launch day either had some exposure to Ether (ETH) or Bitcoin (BTC), or had no idea what any of it was. He said:
“You don’t need to be…
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