SOLANA
Learn about one of the fastest and cheapest blockchains out there today
Solana is an open-source project implementing a new, high-performance, permissionless blockchain. Faster and more powerful than Ethereum, this cutting-edge technology was created by Anatoly Yakavenko after working with tech giants Qualcomm for about a decade.
Launched in 2017 Solanas native token $Sol has done amazing numbers helping Solana emerge as one of the most successful blockchain projects in 2021.
Solana is popular for a number of things but by far the most notable one has to be speed. The blockchain can process over 65,000 transactions/second and aims to achieve a technological feat of 710,000 transactions/second. They do these via a rather simple principle but immensely complex algorithms. First off it’s important to note that Solana uses a different programming language than Ethereum. The latter utilizes the Solidity programming language ( Lightweight, Can be copied and pasted, Easy to use) while Solana leverages on the Rust programming language (More powerful, faster, more difficult, does not support copy and paste).
Solana decided to opt for Rust because they want real professional developers on their network, which makes sense as many upcoming projects these days simply copy and paste other existing Dapps. Some of these developers don’t even have a deep understanding giving room for scam projects or pump and dump tokens which are quite rampant on the Binance network. Anatoly understands that the web3 we all thrive to build needs skilled and tasteful developers who are interested in building the future of innovation, not developers who want to enrich their pockets. With that being said, let’s take a look at how Solana actually attains such astonishing speed and remains extremely cheap at the same time.
The Science behind Solana
Like I said Solana attains high speed with a relatively simple principle, Synchronization.
Now, in Cryptography, every transaction basically has to be verified by a node or set of nodes. Solana uses a set of nodes called a Cluster. These transactions are added to a distributed ledger to keep records of every transaction on the network. Bitcoin uses the same blockchain technology as well as Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
Right in the core of blockchain cryptography exists a function called Verifiable Delay Function which Bitcoin uses, the function is a way for objects interacting in the code of the network or nodes to identify when time has passed. We can call it the blockchain clock. Solana understands these functions and realized that there is so much time to save if they go by a different function which is called a SHA 256 hash chain. With this Solana is saying we can share time when nodes cannot rely on one another.
Solana incentives the nodes to validate the transactions on the network using its native currency Sol which is passed via Solana clusters to the nodes.
Sol can be staked for yielding which is a factory settings feature of all cryptocurrencies. Solana adopts an impressive economics towards the minting, burning, allocation and distribution of their tokens which is quite different from the staking mechanisms adopted by proof of stake blockchain networks like
Solana charges a fee for every transaction where the nodes have validated the entry. The transaction fees are the backbone behind Solana Tokenomics. They;
. Provide payment for the cost every nodes incure for processing transactions on the network. (costs includes hardware requirements for computer nodes to run)
. Reduce network spam by introducing real cost to transactions
. Provide potential long-term economic stability of the network through a protocol-captured minimum fee amount per transaction
Each node uses signatures per slot (SPS) to estimate network congestion and SPS target to estimate the desired processing capacity of the cluster. The validator learns the SPS target from the genesis config, whereas it calculates SPS from recently processed transactions. The genesis config also defines a target code function, which is the fee to charge per signature when the cluster is operating at SPS target.
Time is Money
Solana is by far cheaper and faster than Ethereum. (Usually for a network to become way faster it would have to forgo some decentralization and become a bit Centralized) Solana became a big deal because they didn’t have to forgo any bit of decentralization all because they save time.
For a transaction to run successfully on the blockchain, a consensus has to be made. Consensus is usually attained via 2 means; Bitcoin and Ethereum’s proof of work (Although Ethereum has begun plans to switch to the proof of stake model) and Avalanche or Cardanos proof of stake consensus model. Solana however, uses a consensus model called Proof of History which is a technique for keeping time between computers that do not trust one another. With PoH Solana implements a kernel that allows validation in a synchronized manner, the kernel takes care of synchronization so that the nodes don’t have to perform all the tasks at the same time.
In other blockchains like Ethereum, when a transaction is initiated on a network the nodes on that network all validate the transaction and register proof that they indeed oversaw the viability of the transaction then the network adds it to its ledger. In this case, the nodes are all performing the same tasks where they could otherwise do each task separately so more tasks are done quicker. This is essentially what Solana does. They developed a method whereby the nodes operate independently taking on their own tasks. Leader nodes “timestamp” blocks with cryptographic proofs that some duration of time has passed since the last proof. All data hashed into the proof most certainly have occurred before the proof was generated. The node then shares the new block with validator nodes, which are able to verify those proofs. The blocks can arrive at validators in any order or even could be replayed years later. With such reliable synchronization guarantees, Solana is able to break blocks into smaller batches of transactions called entries. Entries are streamed to validators in realtime, before any notion of block consensus. Solana technically never sends a block, but uses the term to describe the sequence of entries that validators vote on to achieve confirmation. In that way, Solana’s confirmation times can be compared apples to apples to block-based systems. The current implementation sets block time to 800ms. This method however is called the Optimistic Concurrent Control and was introduced in the year 1981.
Overall Solana is bullish on innovation and gradually cementing itself on the foundation of web3. On June 23rd 2022 Solana announced the first-ever crypto-based mobile phone alongside its own SDK suite for easily building mobile applications and a Dappstore which would bring decentralized applications to mobile for the first time ever. Also launched a $100M grant the same month. Solana is literally growing at the pace of the speed of light and the web3 community is nothing but excited.
You can read Solanas white paper to get a more in-depth understanding of Solana.
Thanks for reading. I have more contents and a handbook on Web3, Follow me on twitter @Danny_navigator.
