What Is Solana (SOL)?
Solana is a blockchain platform designed to host decentralized, scalable applications. Founded in 2017, it is an open-source project currently run by the Solana Foundation based in Geneva, while the blockchain was built by San Francisco-based Solana Labs.
Solana is much faster in terms of the number of transactions it can process and has significantly lower transaction fees than rival blockchains like Ethereum. The cryptocurrency that runs on the Solana blockchain—also named Solana (SOL)—soared almost 12,000% in 2021 and, at one point, had a market capitalization of over $75 billion, making it one of the largest cryptocurrencies by this measure at the time. In 2024, SOL remained one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.
History of Solana:
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko’s previous work experience was in the field of distributed systems design with leading technology companies such as Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM). This experience made him aware that a reliable clock simplifies network synchronization, and when that occurs, the resulting network would be exponentially faster, with the only constraint being its bandwidth.
Yakovenko surmised that using proof-of-history would speed up the blockchain tremendously compared with blockchain systems without clocks, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. These systems struggled to scale beyond 15 transactions per second (TPS) worldwide, a fraction of the throughput handled by centralized payment systems such as Visa (V), which reportedly see peaks of up to 65,000 TPS.
How does Solana work?
Understanding how Solana operates requires a deep dive into its unique approach to consensus mechanisms, particularly proof of history and proof of stake. But essentially, at the heart of Solana’s protocol is proof of history, providing a digital record of events occurring on the network at any given time. This can be visualized as a cryptographic clock, assigning timestamps to each transaction on the network, supported by a simple data structure. Proof of history works in conjunction with proof of stake to aid Solana in reaching a consensus, keeping the network secure and operational, and validating transactions.
All nodes on the Solana network are equipped with these cryptographic clocks, ensuring the efficient tracking of events and eliminating the need to wait for other validators to verify transactions. This is a significant factor contributing to Solana’s high throughput and fast block creation time.
Solana blockchain technology:
Solana has a unique combination of PoH and proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms. Its protocol introduces an inventive PoH timing mechanism that precedes and seamlessly integrates with its PoS consensus.
Solana’s blockchain mechanisms depart from traditional proof-of-work (PoW) systems utilized by early cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin BTC$95,695 and Litecoin LTC$101.05. Solana opted for a unique approach at the core of its protocol, providing a digital record of events occurring on the network at any given time.
Solana’s white paper highlighted that existing publicly available blockchains (PoW and PoS) lacked a reliance on time. Each node in their network depended on its own local clock without awareness of other participant’s clocks. The absence of a trusted time source or a standardized clock introduced uncertainty when utilizing message timestamps for accepting or rejecting messages.
With the introduction of PoH, Solana introduced a mechanism that enabled the blockchain to achieve consensus by validating the chronological order of events. In contrast to existing blockchains that lack a standardized clock, PoH provides a verifiable digital record of network events, facilitating consensus by encoding the passage of time into the ledger.
This synchronized, decentralized clock system equips all Solana network nodes, eliminating the need for validators to wait for transaction verifications. The result is an exceptionally high throughput and swift block creation time, distinguishing Solana as a frontrunner in efficient and scalable blockchain technology.
However, Solana has experienced several significant outages. One notable incident involved a misconfigured node that led to the network going offline. In addition, some outages were caused by denial-of-service attacks from bots targeting specific protocols within the network, such as the Raydium protocol, or the network became overloaded due to high traffic caused by NFT applications. These incidents have highlighted vulnerabilities related to the handling of peak transaction loads by validators on the network.
Key Takeaways:
- Solana (SOL) is a high-performance blockchain platform known for its scalability, speed, and low transaction costs.
- Aiming to address the limitations of existing blockchains, Solana introduced a unique consensus mechanism called Proof of History (PoH).
- The platform’s architecture is designed to support dapps and DeFi projects, offering developers a robust ecosystem for innovation.
- SOL, the native cryptocurrency of the Solana network, serves various functions, including transaction fees, staking, and governance participation.
- Solana’s innovative features and growing adoption highlight its potential to shape the future of blockchain technology.
Getting Started with Solana Development:
Welcome to the Solana developer documents!
This page has everything you need to know to get started with Solana development, including basic requirements, how Solana development works, and the tools you’ll need to get started.
High Level Developer Overview #
Development on Solana can be broken down into two main parts:
Onchain Program Development:
This is where you create and deploy custom programs directly to the blockchain. Once deployed, anyone who knows how to communicate with them can use them. You can write these programs in Rust, C, or C++. Rust has the most support for onchain program development today.
Client Development:
- This is where you write software (called decentralized applications, or dApps) that communicates with onchain programs. Your apps can submit transactions to perform actions onchain. Client development can be written in any programming language.
The “glue” between the client side and the onchain side is the Solana JSON RPC API. The client-side sends RPC requests to the Solana network to interact with onchain programs. This is very similar to normal development between a frontend and backend. The major difference with working on Solana is that the backend is a global permissionless blockchain. This means that anyone can interact with your onchain program without the need of issuing API keys or any other form of permission.
Solana development is a bit different from other blockchains because of its highly composable onchain programs. This means you can build on top of any program already deployed, and often you can do so without needing to do any custom onchain program development. For example, if you wanted to work with tokens, you could use the Token token program that is already deployed on the network. All development on your application would be client-side in your language of choice.
Developers looking to build on Solana will find that the development stack is very similar to any other development stack. The main difference is that you’ll be working with a blockchain and have to think about how users potentially interact with your application onchain instead of just on the frontend. Developing on Solana still has CI/CD pipelines, testing, debugging tools, a frontend and backend, and anything you’d find in a normal development flow.
Solana and its Message-Less Protocol:
A mempool, a repository of unconfirmed transactions waiting to be processed on a blockchain, serves as a critical component of network efficiency. Unlike blockchains such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, which may contend with mempools of thousands of pending transactions, Solana implements a mempool-less protocol. In this context, its Validators can efficiently handle 100,000 transactions within seconds without increasing its network throughput.
This mechanism, known as Gulf Stream, involves Validators forwarding transactions to their expected Cluster leaders in advance, enabling transactions to be executed ahead of time, reducing confirmation times, and alleviating memory pressure on Validators.
This approach is effective due to the deterministic nature of Solana’s cluster leader selection, which allows for optimised transaction handling. Interfaces used by users, such as wallets, sign transactions referencing a specific block hash, ensuring its validity within a defined time frame. Then, validators forward transactions to their upcoming cluster leader, enabling users to receive timely confirmations. This architecture enhances transaction processing efficiency and, by supporting prioritisation based on Validator staked amounts, fosters network resilience in the face of potential denial-of-service attacks.
Understanding the Solana platform:
At the core of the Solana ecosystem lies its blockchain platform. Designed to overcome the scalability limitations of traditional blockchain networks, Solana leverages innovative technologies to deliver a high-throughput, low-latency infrastructure. In doing so, it caters to various DApps, from finance to gaming, showcasing its versatility and adaptability.
What are Solana Accounts?
Accounts within the Solana ecosystem are the means to store and organise the wide range of data in the network, covering tokens, program variables and even entire programs. Each account occupies memory space provided by Solana Validators and subsequently incurs mandatory rent. This rent, paid in SOL, can be exempted if the account holds sufficient SOL to cover two years of renting. Conversely, insufficient SOL to pay rent may result in immediate account removal. Accounts have associated metadata, including SOL balance, ownership details, executable status, stored data, and the rent epoch.
Solana features two account types: executable and non-executable. Executable accounts contain the code that governs Solana programs’ logic. This code is executed through transactions initiated by users or other programs. On the other hand, non-executable accounts are responsible for recording changes to programs or, in other words, storing the state of executable accounts.
