Solana aims to tackle the scalability trilemma without compromising security or decentralization.
Founded in 2017, the Solana blockchain adopts a new method of verifying transactions. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many other projects suffer from scalability and speed issues. Using a method known as Proof of History (PoH), the Solana blockchain can handle thousands of transactions per second.How does Solana work?
Solana is a third-generation, Proof of Stake blockchain. It has implemented a unique way of creating a trustless system for determining the time of a transaction called Proof of History.
Keeping track of the order of transactions is hugely vital for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin does this by bundling transactions into blocks with a single timestamp. Each node has to validate these blocks in consensus with other nodes. This process adds in a significant waiting time for nodes to confirm a block across the network. Solana instead takes a different approach.What is Proof of History?
Solana events and transactions are all hashed using the SHA256 hash function. This function takes an input and produces a unique output that is extremely difficult to predict. Solana takes the output of a transaction and uses it as the input for the next hash. The order of the transactions is now inbuilt into the hashed output.
This hashing process creates a long, unbroken chain of hashed transactions. This feature makes a clear, verifiable order of transactions that a validator adds to a block, without the need for a conventional timestamp. Hashing also requires a certain amount of time to complete, meaning validators can easily verify how much time has passed.
Proof of History differs from the process Bitcoin uses as part of its Proof of Work consensus mechanism. Blocks on Bitcoin are large groups of unordered transactions. Each BTC miner adds the time and date to the block they mine based on their local clock. The time may differ according to other nodes or even be false. Nodes then have to figure out if the timestamp is valid.
By ordering the transactions in a chain of hashes, validators process and transmit less information in each block. Using a hashed version of the latest state of transactions greatly reduces the time of confirming a new block.
It’s important to understand that Proof of History is not a consensus mechanism. It is instead a way of improving the time spent confirming the order of transactions. When combined with proof of stake, selecting the next validator for a block is much easier. Nodes need less time to validate the order of transactions, meaning the network chooses a new validator quicker.Numbers
These features create a high-performance network that has 400ms block times and operates thousands of transactions per second. To put this in perspective, the block time of Bitcoin is around 10 minutes, and Ethereum roughly 15 seconds.
SOL holders can stake their tokens as part of the blockchain’s PoS consensus mechanism. With a compatible crypto wallet, you can stake your tokens with validators who process the network’s transactions. A successful validator then shares some rewards with those who have staked. This reward mechanism incentivizes validators and delegators to act in the network’s interest. As of right now, Solana has around ~900 validators, which is *fairly* decentralized. In comparison, Cardano has 2000 validators, ETH2.0 has 200,000 validators, while BSC has 21 validators, and Polygon has 100 validators.
Where Is The Best Place You Can Buy Solana In The UK
Where to buy on Binance?
Step 1: You will have to Register for an account on Binance
The first step is to register on Binance.
This is because Binance is the biggest platform in the market with the most alt coins.
So when you make an account you have so many options going forward when you trade with other coins.
Binance is the best because it has the lowest trading fees, plus having everything in one spot.
You can use your fiat directly on the platform here, which is what we will be doing in this guide to buy SOL.
We will be buying BTC to trade for SOL
Now lets get started and create your account.
Step 2: Lets Verify Your Binance Account
Next up we will verify the account, which is simple just look in your email inbox and confirm the account to make it.
To increase your limits you will need to do KYC on the account which will get you to upload your phone number and ID.
We’d recommend this because its for your own security, and really doesn’t take much time at all.
Step 3: Buy Your BTC from Binance Directly
So now just buy your bitcoin like shown in the image
Once you have clicked, like above you will see the image below.
When you see this you have a few options
Buy the Bitcoin with your card using your chosen currency.
Its as easy as that, you just buy it with your debit card like you would on any online shop.
Step 4: Now you have BTC trade it with your SOL.
In this step we are going to trade our bitcoin for SOL step by step.
Lets click on trade, once that is done you need to click on the option of classic trading.
Then click on SOL/BTC
This is done for this step
Find a good price.
You can learn about all the TA’s and trade at a great price.
Step 5: Trade your BTC for SOL, and buy SOL
Now you will see the image below, you need to choose the amount of SOL you want to buy and the amount of BTC you want to use.
You can use a simple sliding scale with percentages, so if you want you use all the BTC you just bought slide it to 100%
I’d recommend you use market price as its simple and will get you your SOL straight away.
Or you can get a limit order, which is choosing your price, which can be good if you want to get yourself a great price.
Click BUY, and done.
Get registered on Binance
Why is SOL a Good Investment?
It took ETH 3 years to hit the $100 mark. SOL did it in just a year. ETH fluctuated a lot afterwards but rarely went under $100. Why do I think most SOL predictions are conservative?
- It’s been mooning for months.
- Dapp library is growing by day and I think SOL now has over 400 Dapps.
- Anatoly Yakovenko is not known for his controversial tweets or drama, like some of the others. Therefore, SOL investors make their decision based on its capacities (scalability, transaction speeds, Dapps, pace of developments, funding etc.)
- Anatoly Yakovenko always has the future in his mind. Therefore SOL is way ahead of the competition and some might even say it’s an overkill.
- Speaking of investors, they raised $314 Million to Develop Faster Blockchain. The round was led by venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, with participation from Alameda Research, Blockchange Ventures, CMS Holdings, among others. These are big names in crypto. They’re not some pump and dump investors.
- Lots of cool projects already running on SOL. For a comparison, ADA has been doing pretty good for a speculative coin with no Dapps and smart contracts. There’s no way for SOL to do any worse moving forward.
- When it comes to “it’s too late to invest” mantra, people were changing that when BTC hit $1000 then 20k then it hit 30k and they were STILL chanting that.
- Finally, I think SOL is an undervalued coin, and considering all the factors above, it will reach $250 by the end of the year, then it will head towards thousands.
The most prominent partners of Solana are established players of the market, Circle and Tether. After all, it is crucial for a DeFi platform to incorporate solutions like stablecoins which found adoption in the sphere. Another example of Solana adopting DeFi staples would be the cooperation with Chainlink.
After the mainnet launch, there have been no set roadmaps for the platform. Instead, the devs and community focus on bringing more projects into the ecosystem. One of the latest hackathons organized by Solana and Serum, attracted 100+ projects, some of which received funding.
In other Solana coin news, already existing products built on the platform keep expanding. A streaming service built on Solana, Audius Music reported reaching 4 million monthly active users in March.
Solana itself is still receiving funding from companies interested in the development of its ecosystem. One of the recent investments totaled to $40 million and was received from OKEx and MXC.
What is Solana and SOL Use Case?
What is the primary use case of Solana? Of course, it’s DeFi! Low transaction costs and throughput of about 65 thousand transactions per second make it a legitimate alternative to Ethereum.
SOL can be put to use by staking. Anyone can become a validator, but the hardware requirements (more specifically, GPU specs) of running a node are rather high. In that case, a stake can be delegated to a validator, of which there are 592 at the time of writing.
At its core, the value proposition of Solana is not very different from Ethereum’s. It is a public base-layer blockchain protocol which is best suited for decentralized computing and creating decentralized applications (dApps). What is Solana’s improving, then?
By design, this protocol is near-perfectly optimized for scalability. As a result, dApp devs do not need to design around performance bottlenecks. This is achieved by combining a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm with a novel Proof-of-History (PoH) timestamp system.
Proof-of-History
Thanks to PoH, on Solana, automatically ordered transactions and sub-second settlements become real. In a very short amount of time, every 400 ms, validators vote on inclusion of transactions in slots. Each subsequent vote doubles the amount of time needed to roll the vote back.
PoH relies on Proof-of-Stake (in Solana’s case, the Tower BFT algorithm) for consensus. To pass it, at least two thirds of all nodes have to agree with each other. PoH is more an additional securing mechanism which prevents rollbacks.
History and Team behind Solana
In 2017, Qualcomm engineer Anatoly Yakovenko published the Proof-of-History whitepaper. With his colleagues, Greg Fitzgerald and Stephen Akridge, they built a prototype testnet in 2018 and founded Solana Labs. The team was joined by Raj Gokal, who is now the company’s COO.
Through 2018 to 2019, the team was fundraising and building the protocol in parallel. By March 2020, Solana Labs was ready to launch the mainnet, shortly after a Solana token auction which raised $1.76 million.
Solana Labs, which is still the major contributor to the development, itself is based in San Francisco, California. The team members can be found on every continent. There is also Solana Foundation, a non-profit working on promoting and supporting the project, based in Switzerland.
What is SOL Crypto?
What is Solana token, SOL? Just like ETH, it is the lifeblood of the platform. The ledger keeps record of transactions that are denominated in it or in the tokens.
Solana coin is inflationary but the rate of issuance is designed to be decreasing. In ten years, it is programmed to have about 1.5% annual inflation rate. Aside from the ~38% in the Community fund and founders’ ~12.5%, the rest of the supply (469,358,938 SOL at the moment) is liquid.
What is Solana and SOL Use Case?
What is the primary use case of Solana? Of course, it’s DeFi! Low transaction costs and throughput of about 65 thousand transactions per second make it a legitimate alternative to Ethereum.
SOL can be put to use by staking. Anyone can become a validator, but the hardware requirements (more specifically, GPU specs) of running a node are rather high. In that case, a stake can be delegated to a validator, of which there are 592 at the time of writing.
SOL is a fantastic purchase and in our opinion will get in the top 5 coins.