Solana is the fastest permissionless blockchain in the world and is called an Ethereum killer within crypto communities. It supports NFT, Defi, Web3, and more.
Consensus Mechanism. Proof of History (POH). It is a mix of Proof of stake plus a new variable time to the network. Each transaction is timestamped with a hash SHA256, sequential hashing verifiable delay function (VDF). Sha256 loops as fast as possible, such that each output is the next input. Solana uses ed25519 for encryption and Sha256 for hashing.
Solana’s number of key technical innovations, like Proof of history and parallel processing, reduce energy consumption. Each transaction uses only 0.0005 kWh or 1836 Joules of energy.
Activity |
Energy Used, in Joules (J) |
A single Google Search 1 |
1,080 J |
A single Solana transaction |
1,837 J |
Keeping an LED light bulb on for one hour 2 |
36,000 J |
Using a fully-charged iPhone 13 on battery 3 |
44,676 J |
Working for an hour with a computer and monitor 4 |
46,800 J |
One eth2 transaction 5 |
126,000 J |
Source solana.com
Validators-
A validator node is a special node that participates in consensus. There are 1960 current validators on mainnet and 30 super minority. Elections for a new PoH generator occur when the PoH generator failure is detected. The validator with the largest voting power, or highest public key address if there is a tie is picked as the new PoH generator.
Various types of rewards are
- Protocol-based rewards
- Staking
- Stake pools
Solana's innovations-
1. Tower- BFT (A POH optimized version of PBFT)-
Tower BFT leverages Solana’s PoH as a clock before consensus to reduce messaging overhead and latency.
2. Turbine- A block propagation protocol-
A Solana cluster uses a multi-layer block propagation mechanism called Turbine to break down blocks into smaller packets for the random validator.
3. Gulf Stream- Mempool-less transaction forwarding protocol
A mempool is a database for storing unconfirmed transactions. It lacks mempool as the transaction is processed immediately without waiting time. Solana can handle 100000 sized mempool in a matter of seconds.
4.Sea level- Parallel processing of smart contracts without affecting network performance.
5. Pipeline- Transaction processing units for validation. It helps to improve blockchain validation times.
6. Cloud break- Horizontally -scaled accounts database. It is used to achieve scalability on the Solana network.
Solana Vs Ethereum comparison -
|
Solana |
ETH |
Transaction per second |
65000 |
15 |
Average cost per transation |
$0.00025 |
$15 |
Consensus mechanism |
Proof of History |
Proof of Work |
Consensus Energy consumption |
Low |
High |
Block time |
400 milliseconds |
12 to 14 seconds |
programming language |
Solidity |
C,C++,Rust |
Defi market |
3.6% market share |
60% |
Adjusted Total value unlocked |
$2.1B |
$41.41B |
|
|
|
|
Solana |
ETH 2.0 |
Decentralization |
Less as validators require high-performance hardware and network |
High. It doesn't require any specialized equipment |
TPS |
65000 |
100000* |
Block time |
0.40 Seconds |
12 seconds |
Solana blockchain has more advantages due to high scalability and fewer transaction fees. But upgradation of Ethereum 2 will have a positive impact due to an increase in Transaction per second. The major disadvantage of ETH will be higher gas fees.
Top Dapps ranking:
|
Top Blockchain dApps |
|
|
|
dApp |
Category |
Blockchain |
1 |
PancakeSwap |
DeFi |
WAX,BNB Chain |
2 |
Gameta |
Games |
Solana, BNB Chain |
3 |
Alien Worlds |
Games |
WAX,BNB Chain |
4 |
Spinterlands |
Games |
Hive, WAX |
5 |
Atomic assets |
Other |
WAX,EOS |
6 |
Sweat Wallet |
Games |
ETH,NEAR |
Source- dappradar.com
Top Solana dapps - All blockchain (Games) |
|
|
dApp |
Category |
Blockchain |
Gameta |
Games |
Solana, BNB Chain |
Sweat Wallet |
Games |
ETH,NEAR |
Spinterlands |
Games |
Hive, WAX |
Alien Worlds |
Games |
WAX,BNB Chain |
Spinterlands |
Games |
Hive, WAX |
Source- dappradar.com
Top game dApps of August as per Daily Average Unique active wallets
|
Blockchain |
Daily AUAW |
Alien worlds |
ETH,BNB Chain |
197K |
Spinterlands |
SPS |
168K |
Farmers world |
WAX |
83K |
Gameta |
SOLANA |
54K |
Upland |
EOS |
39K |
Axie infinity |
AXS |
37K |
Era7:game of truth |
BNB chain |
24K |
Play mining |
DEAP |
23K |
In Aug average 847230 daily Unique Active Wallets (UAW) have connected to gaming blockchain 11% less compared to the previous month. UAW on the Binance blockchain increased by 8% mom. While Solana surged by 21% month-over-month. (source dappradar.com).
Top dApps Solana ranking (All category).
dApp |
Category |
ATVL |
Raydium |
DeFi |
$66.04M |
Marinade Finance |
DeFi |
$237.12M |
Solend |
DeFi |
$229.43M |
Saber |
Defi |
$42.13M |
Magic Eden |
NFT Market place |
$1.71B |
Solanart |
NFT Market place |
$658.51M |
Solsea |
NFT Market place |
$32.54M |
Source- dappradar.com
Defi dApps surged on Ethereum scaling solutions on account of the ETH merge. Ethereum controls the Defi market by a 69% share. Solana TVL dropped by 34% in August month as a result of a wallet attack.
Recent News:
According to Nansen’s state of the quarterly report, Solana's daily transactions increased to more than 40 million between April to June compared to Ethereum's 1 million.
Helium developers shifted the entire network to Solana blockchain to “improve operational efficiency and scalability.
Technical:
Solana's major resistance is around $50, and any breach above targets $56.50/$60. Any daily close above $60 will pave way for $100 levels. Significant weakness can be seen if it breaks below the $25 level. A dip to $11 is possible. It is good to add on dips around $30 with SL around $20 for TP of $100.