As one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world, it is no wonder that many people are curious about Solana . The easiest way to define Solana is as a programmable blockchain network. In the world of cryptocurrencies, it is currently one of the fastest and most popular in the world.
Solana’s ambitious design aims to solve the blockchain trilemma , a concept proposed by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, according to which a blockchain has to sacrifice one of the three key aspects ( decentralization, security and scalability ) in favor of of the other two.
One of the fastest blockchains in the world
Solana currently has the capacity to process more than 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) . The developers claim that as the network grows, transaction speeds could approach 700,000 TPS . This is considerably higher than Ethereum’s current processing speed of between 15 and 45 TPS.
Solana Project
Many developers have been attracted to the blockchain because of Solana’s speed and low transaction costs. The Solana project currently hosts a diverse set of dApps (decentralized apps) and smart contract initiatives. As a result, SOL is a widely used cryptocurrency in the world, in the Top 10 in market capitalization , surpassing DogeCoin or Polkadot.
Solana’s scalability favors low cost
Solana’s scalability ensures that transactions remain below $0.01 for both developers and users. Solana, according to some market insiders, is at the start of its growth cycle and has the potential to match Ethereum in terms of price and market value in the coming years.
Blockchains have greater scalability, depending on the number of transactions per second they can support, as they scale better and better. In decentralized ones, time discrepancies and higher performance slow them down, which means that network congestion can lead to exorbitant prices.
Solana’s design solves this problem by having a lead node elected on a Proof of Stake (PoS) basis to reduce its power consumption and increase transaction speed. Unlike Proof of Work (PoW) blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin, which makes it more eco-friendly .
This is combined with Proof of History , a sequence of calculations that provides a digital record confirming that an event has occurred on the network at any time, to create a trusted system for determining the time of a transaction.
Safer transactions
Solana events and transactions are using the SHA-256 hash algorithm . This function takes an input and produces a single output that is extremely difficult to predict. Solana takes the output of one transaction and uses it as input for the next hash.
According to their blog , the Solana team has developed eight basic technical features to help the blockchain match the capabilities of a centralized system for security measures, including Turbine and SeaLevel.
Solana Pay
They recently announced Solana Pay, a new decentralized , open and truly peer-to-peer payments protocol “to pave the way for a future where digital currencies prevail and digital money moves across the internet like data, without censorship and without intermediaries who tax each transaction”.