SOL is the native cryptocurrency of Solana. It is employed to settle transaction costs, debt, and security for stable coin loans made through Defib apps on Solana.
Key conclusions
- Solana, a blockchain platform established in 2017, facilitates the development of decentralized applications, smart contracts, NFTs, and other things.
- When compared to rival networks like Ethereum, Solana’s network is highly known for its capacity and speed to process transactions as well as having reduced transaction costs.
- To confirm and authenticate transactions, Solana employs a hybrid consensus approach that combines Proof of Stake (PoS) with Proof of History (PoH).
What sets Solana apart?
Between Solana and its forerunner Ethereum, there is one significant distinction. More than 3000 times faster than Ethereum, it can execute 50,000 transactions per second (TPS). There is no need for expensive ASIC miners because this performance can be achieved with GPUs.
Without sacrificing security or decentralization, it has continuously kept TPS high.
Additionally, Solana’s growth appears to be comparable to the leading third-generation blockchains, such as Cardano and Polkadot, both of which were developed by two of Ethereum’s founding members.
Intriguingly, Solana is a layer-1 network, which means that in contrast to the blockchain networks discussed above, it does not rely on side chains running in parallel to enhance capacity.
What makes Solana go fast?
A proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus protocol is used by Solana.
This implies that there is at least one group of validator nodes monitoring user inputs from throughout the network, such as requests for transactions, and that a designated short-term block leader will verify requests and enter data into the blockchain.
This is not unusual. An energy-efficient and perhaps more secure alternative to the Proof of Work (PoW) system used by bitcoin is called Proof of Stake (PoS). Many next-generation networks, including Cardano and the upcoming version of Ethereum, utilise PoS.
However, the issue with conventional PoS is that validators are unable to independently validate transactions. They need to be chosen as a block leader before they can start working. In this approach, there will be discrepancies regarding the order of the transactions if all validators operate concurrently.
This creates a bottleneck right out of the gate.
Proof of History (PoH), which Solana introduced, provides a solution to this issue. PoH is an addition to the existing Proof of Stake mechanism rather than a consensus protocol.
A simplification of how Solana operates is as follows:
- Every node in Solana’s network has a cryptographic clock that operates in sync and makes use of a verifiable delay function. The system as a whole can agree on a uniform yet distributed time measurement.
- The current block leader will put all messages and transactions in the correct order depending on the earliest timestamp available for each message after this validator delivers the data package to him or her.
- Solana’s block time is only 400 ms because the block leader completes its term after 1.6 seconds, leading to the completion of four blocks. As a result, the block leader orchestrated 20,000 transactions in one block time (50 transactions per millisecond).
Solana’s other innovative technologies to help achieve its speed
Solana has access to other technology in addition to Proof of History. The network must include seven additional technologies for the system as a whole to function.
- Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) for towers. This is Solana’s interpretation of the Byzantine Fault Tolerance algorithm, which enables consensus among blockchain nodes.
Sealevel. Transactions can be processed concurrently by all Solana nodes. - Sealevel’s smart contract parallelisation technology is employed in this setting to guarantee that consensus is attained.
- Turbine. Data is divided up into smaller packages by this programme, which also helps the network’s bandwidth.
- Middle Stream. This part speeds up confirmation time by allowing transactions to be transmitted to validators and block leaders.
- Cloudbreak. a productive data structure tailored to Solana.
Archivers. a unique collection of nodes that preserves the history of the entire Solana ledger and stores validated transactions..
Why should you believe in the next-generation blockchain network, Solana (SOL)?
The company’s founders previously worked for Qualcomm, a global American company that makes chips, offers services, and develops software to support various wireless technologies, including 5G, 4G, and others.
In addition to Mesosphere and Dropbox, Anatoly Yakovenko has expertise creating distributed systems for Qualcomm.
He acquired the knowledge to develop the best data compression algorithms because of his expertise working specifically for Dropbox.
NFTs are new to you? View our non-fungible tokens (NFTs) guide.
Solana is the best platform for minting, selling, and exchanging NFTs due to its fast speed and minimal fees. To help people who want to start using NFTs, Solana even has its own NFT standard and minting programme, called Metaplex.
Metaplex makes it easier to establish NFTs, host auctions, build shops, and other things so that creators may concentrate more on their work and audience and less on the details.
The Solana ecosystem is also continuously growing thanks to additional NFT markets like:
To quickly and easily add cryptocurrency funds to your wallet so you can start buying, trading, and generating NFTs on Soles, Soarant, and other platforms, use Easy Crypto.
