What is Solana?

There are more than 7000 cryptocurrencies in the world, and almost every one of them offers a unique project. However, most of them have not been implemented. But Solana is not one of them. This is a crypto project that uses a completely different approach to the work of the blockchain. In this article, you will learn what the Solana cryptocurrency is, how the Solana blockchain works, what prospects it has, and where to buy Solana.

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What is the Solana blockchain?

Solana is a decentralized blockchain platform of a new generation. Solana uses a consensus algorithm Proof of Stake. The platform is capable of processing more than 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) with a theoretical limit of up to 700,000 transactions per second without compromising security. At the moment, it is the fastest blockchain in the world. This makes Solana a serious competitor to Ethereum, which has serious problems with scaling and processing large volumes of transactions.

Who developed Solana?

The Solana blockchain was developed by the company of the same name under the leadership of Anatoly Yakovenko in California (USA). Former employees of Google, Apple, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Dropbox are working on the decentralized platform. Solana is one of the first blockchains together with Cardano, which solved the problems associated with processing large volumes of transactions. Until recently this temporary problem did not allow companies to work with blockchain for a long time.

How does the Solana blockchain work?

To understand how Solana works, it is important to get acquainted with its main functions:

1. Proof of History (PoH). Solana is the first and so far the only one who uses the Proof of History protocol. This protocol ensures that the means of verifying transactions is time, ensuring efficient and lightning-fast trading. In September 2024, Elon Musk shared on Twitter about Solana that "time is the best currency." Given Musk's influence on the world of cryptography and blockchains, you can imagine that Solana has potential. Watch the video from the developers of Solana, in which they explain the Proof of History protocol.

2. Tower BFT. Tower BFT is a Solana blockchain algorithm. The advantage of this algorithm is that it does not need to iterate over all kinds of processes, which allows you to consistently optimize the transaction speed.
3. Gulf Stream. Gulf Stream is the foundation of Solana's incredibly high transaction speed. This is due to the fact that 50,000 TPS (transactions per second) are performed in this block chain. The Gulf Stream protocol ensures that all transactions are cached, that is, stored at different levels, and then referenced to the network boundary. As a result, validators actually work ahead of schedule, drastically reducing memory requirements and confirmation time.
4. Sealevel. The fourth of the eight major innovations of the Solana blockchain is Sealevel. Sealevel allows Solana to switch horizontally using graphical processesquarrels and solid-state drives. In practice, this means that parallel transactions can be executed simultaneously, which improves execution time. Solana is the world's first parallel smart contract execution environment.
5. Turbine. Turbine is officially called the block distribution protocol, which solves the problem of blockchain scalability. Ultimately, it's all about bandwidth, which puts pressure on the number of transactions. This protocol allows you to divide processes into smaller stages, which simplifies data transfer. The purpose of this is to increase the speed of transactions.
6. Pipeline. This is a transaction processing unit, thanks to which you can quickly check the transaction information.
7. Archivers. When we talk about decentralized data storage, archivers play a very important role. Solana validators ensure that data is loaded correctly into nodes, also known as archivers. These are ordinary PCs or laptops that are used in the process of storing data.
8. Cloudbreak. Here we are talking about the structure of the Solana database. Cloudbreak allows you to read and edit the database, while intensive cooperation with the above protocols (Pipeline and Archivers) takes place. Without Cloudbreak, there is no way to increase the scalability of the platform.

What makes Solana so special?

The fact that the Solana blockchain can process 50,000 transactions per second seems almost unrealistic. For comparison, the speed of Bitcoin (BTC) is 7 transactions per second, and Ethereum (ETH) is 15 transactions per second.

In addition, Solana has a block time, that is, the time it takes to create a new block in the block chain, equal to 600 milliseconds. At the same time, Solana charges 0.00025 ddollars per transaction, which is much cheaper compared to Ethereum, which charges $6.86.

Solana Ecosystem

Solana has the fastest growing cryptocurrency ecosystem, with more than 400 projects operating. Developers can create decentralized dApps applications on the Solana network protocol. Thanks to this, the technologies of the decentralized Internet, also called Web 3.0, appeared. In addition, the following projects have been developed on the basis of Solana:

1. Serum is a decentralized DEX exchange built on the Solana ecosystem. This is an important project in the ecosystem, because Solana and Serum together form the basis of many projects.
2. Oxygen is a prime DeFi brokerage service aimed at ensuring that you can effectively receive passive income from your assets.
3. Raydium is an automated market maker and liquidity provider for the decentralized exchange Serum (DEX).
4. Kermit Finance is a decentralized peer-to-peer protocol that simplifies interaction between users and blockchains.
5. Atomic is a wallet for cryptocurrency without a deposit, which supports SOL and SPL tokens created on the Solana network.
6. 1Sol is a cross-chain DEX aggregator for decentralized protocols on Solana, providing transparent, efficient and secure operations in DeFi.
7. Audius is a music social network similar to Soundcloud or Spotify.
8. SolDate is the first dating app built on blockchain.
9. Aurory – NFT game with the Play to Earn mechanism, in which you can earn cryptocurrency during the game.
10. SolFarm is the first yield aggregator that uses strategies for automatically generating passive income in the Solana ecosystem.

What is Solana cryptocurrency?

In addition to the Solana blockchain, we also have the Solana (SOL) cryptocurrency, which is currently being talked about a lot in the news. The price of Solana has grown significantly since the spring of 2024 and currently stands at $ 176.

The goal of most readers is to make a lot of money using cryptocurrency. Besides the fact that this coin can greatly increase in price, you will also need SOL for other purposes. Suppose you want to create dApps on the Solana platform yourself, then you will have to pay using the SOL cryptocurrency. Transaction costs are also charged if you want to execute smart contracts.

Where to buy Solana?

You can buy Solana on well-known exchanges such as Binance. It is expected that this cryptocurrency can seriously grow in price, given the explosive growth of SOL in recent months.

How to store Solana?

If you need a Solana wallet for your SOL coins, it's useful to know which ones are compatible. It is best to use a hardware wallet, for example, Ledger Nano X, since this is the safest way to store cryptocurrency.

You can also use mobile and online wallets, such as Exodus and Atomic. In addition, you can store SOL on the wallet of the Binance exchange, which also offers a free crypto card with which you can pay with cryptocurrency without commissions in stores.

Conclusions

The Solana cryptocurrency has great potential because it has the fastest and most secure blockchain in the world. We all know that scalability is a big problem in the blockchain world. Solana solves this problem. Thanks to innovative solutions, transactions have become faster and cheaper, which opens up new horizons for projects of the Solana ecosystem. This is also an incentive to invest in the Solana cryptocurrency, as it may significantly increase in price in the future.

Read also the article "What is IOTA?".