When Solana Labs launched the Solana blockchain in 2017, Ethereum was already peaking, gaining market capitalization, and becoming developers’ favorite tool for dApps like CryptoKitties. Still, from the beginning, it was revolutionary. It employed the consensus mechanism of proof-of-history, allowing for fast transaction settlement times. Hence, Solana is now a leader in network scalability.
Solana became faster and more affordable than Bitcoin and Ethereum could be (at the moment). With additional unique features like staking, dApps, and governance, Solana’s vibrant community made the blockchain a potential hub for the tokenization of real-world assets, AI, and DeFI. Therefore, the price of Solana is expected to sustain its growing popularity with a +5% surge by 2030.
Besides its price, Solana’s true value lies in its blockchain features, making it developers’ first choice for designing apps in various industries. One of Solana’s latest achievements is the Bio Protocol DeSci (decentralized science) project, which is why the team board chose to launch it on the Solana mainnet.
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Solana offers a high throughput
Solana can withstand over 65,000 transactions per second (TPS), but the network capacity currently supports up to 3,000 TP, allowing for millions of transactions per day. Parallel processing on Solana through Sealevel, a smart contract runtime program that enables transactions to overlap, ensures tens of thousands of smart contracts can run in parallel.
The high throughput benefits developers who create dApps in finance or gaming because speed is crucial for attracting customers. Many blockchains compete to provide the fastest and most innovative dApps, as their growing popularity will lead to profitable outcomes in the future, but Solana primes with efficiency and speed.
Solana has low transaction costs
Solana is a cost-effective blockchain solution for microtransactions or high-frequency trading apps. The computational resources for processing transactions contribute to low gas fees, as the base fee is 0.000005 SOL per transaction signature. Of course, developers can pay priority fees for faster block inclusion.
The transaction processing model and block production make Solana one of the most affordable blockchains on the market, especially since the network’s scalability features prevent congestion. On the other hand, Ethereum is known for network congestion problems, leading to fees as high as $196.638 in 2022.
Solana leverages Proof-of-History consensus
While Bitcoin still uses proof-of-work and Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake, Solana breaks the pattern by employing proof-of-history in combination with PoS. The first consensus allows users to agree on the order of transactions without communicating since the network records transition, creating a verifiable chain of events.
PoH offers faster synchronization for validators to verify transactions and supports faster processing in smaller batches to address scalability. On the other hand, PoS confirms the current transaction sequence following the PoH generator and is also used for voting. Together, they contribute to one of the fastest decentralized networks on the market.
Solana offers a user-friendly environment
While Ethereum has more complex technologies for developers, such as the Solidity programming language, Solana is developer-friendly. Developers have access to an extensive tool library, while the Rust programming language makes it fast and easy for developers to write programs. Solana also supports the general-purpose programming language C.
While the steep learning curve benefits developers, their creativity led to the creation of numerous dApps, decentralized games, and NFTs, such as the Lido staking platform, the Orca DEX, or the SharkyFi NFT protocol. To access these dApps, users need a wallet supported by the Solana architecture, such as Phantom, which is also compatible with Ethereum.
Solana is energy-efficient
Many blockchains, such as Bitcoin, the leading polluter in the crypto industry, struggle to maintain low energy levels for transactional operations and mining. Unfortunately, hardware prices boomed as competition arose among miners, but these pieces could not be recycled. In addition, they consume massive amounts of electricity. For example, mining one Bitcoin is equivalent to one month’s electricity in a regular US household.
According to the latest energy report published by Solana Foundation in September 2024, the network has reduced its carbon footprint by 69% since 2023. It has also employed blockchain-based carbon offsets and created biodiversity credits for ecological data on the chain. Hence, the organization is actively working towards a positive impact on nature.
What are some aspects Solana has yet to succeed in?
Although the blockchain is efficient and prices are affordable, Solana is still developing, so it’s far from perfect. For example, in 2022, Solana experienced serious network outages, leading to considerable downtime. In addition, the lack of infrastructure reliability affected users’ trust.
On the other hand, rising centralization concerns influence investors’ confidence since cryptocurrency and blockchain are founded on decentralization pillars. Centralization in crypto could lead to a loss of autonomy, transaction bottlenecks, and unnecessary bureaucracy.
Solana also faces competition from emerging blockchains like Ethereum. Although the networks have similar features, Ethereum is considered more popular and has been present on social media for a long time, while Solana’s fame came later. Therefore, investors and interested users might notice a difference in power balancing in the future, when Ethereum’s high gas fees and complex technology will drive developers to Solana.
A challenge facing the entire crypto industry involves regulatory uncertainty. Few global governments are actively working on a framework for the use of cryptocurrency and the protection of investors and crypto users, so the lack of guidelines hinders businesses in the industry.
Moreover, most countries don’t agree with cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology due to their lack of centralization. Complex knowledge is also a barrier to a steep learning curve, but progress has been observed in recent years as people become more concerned about increasing the value of their money.
What do you think about Solana?
The Solana blockchain and cryptocurrency are valuable tools for driving decentralization and high-tech solutions. Due to its low fees, fast transaction speeds, and user-friendly architecture, Solana is among the top choices for developers. However, Ethereum still clouds its popularity. Still, experts offer a positive forecast for Solana’s future in terms of prices and technologies.