As a crypto enthusiast, Ethereum may not be the new term for you. Over the last several years, this blockchain architecture has grown in popularity, allowing Smart Contracts and Decentralized Apps to be written and run without any downtime, control, or intervention from a third party. However, as time flies, Ethereum is forced to contend with the market's severe rivalry from other blockchain networks. Solana Blockchain, for example, has risen to become the most popular blockchain at the present. Because of its speed and reported throughput of 65,000 TPS (transactions per second), it is one of the world's first Web-scale Blockchains and quickest networks. So, let's follow this blog to get a better understanding of this new concept - the Solana network!

1. What Is Solana Blockchain?

Solana is a web-scale, open-source blockchain protocol that supports smart contracts, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps). This high-performance blockchain delivers the fully decentralized, secure, seamless, and highly scalable infrastructure that DApps and decentralized marketplaces will require. It makes use of a combination of ground-breaking processing technologies that can handle thousands of nodes, allowing transaction throughput to expand proportionally with network capacity. Thanks to its speed and low transaction costs, Solana currently has a potential peak capacity of 65,000 transactions per second and has become one of the most widely utilized blockchains today. Besides, the Solana ecosystem also grows by leaps and bounds, which can be proved by some Top Solana DApps like 1Sol, Serum, Audius, Hedgehog, Anchor, and Raydium. 

Native to Solana’s blockchain is the SOL token, which provides network security through staking as well as a form of payment. This token is now ranked #8 on Coinmarketcap and the Solana token price is $87,84 (as of 25 Feb 2022). Along with SOL, there are many other Top Solana Ecosystem Tokens by Market Capitalization, such as Tether, Terra, Chainlink, etc.  

Let's take a look at Solana token on Coinmarketcap.

2. Uncover Top Key Innovations Of Solana Blockchain

a. Proof Of History (POH)

It is a clock that runs before consensus in the Solana Blockchain, which addresses the clock problem in today’s blockchain-based networks. Previously, Bitcoin used the Proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, whereas Ethereum and other blockchain blockchains such as Qtum, Cosmos, and NEO alter to the Proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. All these mechanisms cause a transaction time issue, which accounts for discrepancies in confirmation times for transactions on the Bitcoin network. Such differences in transaction time could lead to inefficiencies in transaction processing. 

However, Solana has used a completely new timekeeping technique known as proof-of-history, which has been shown to be superior to the majority of the aforementioned measures. In case you may ask “What is Proof of history Solana?”. So, Proof of History is a computation sequence that can be used to cryptographically verify the passage of time between two events. It employs a cryptographically secure function that must be fully executed in order to generate the output, as the outcome cannot be predicted from the input.

b. Tower BFT

Solana public blockchain runs a consensus mechanism called Tower BFT on top of Proof of History, which is a PBFT-like algorithm that uses the synchronized clock authorized by PoH to achieve network transaction consensus. Tower Consensus, unlike PBFT, values liveness over consistency. Nodes, like PBFT, increase their timeouts exponentially to reach an agreement, but because the ledger is also a trustless source of time, nodes can observe and assess the timeouts of all the other validators in the network.

c. Turbine

To transmit blocks (communicate blocks between validators) independently of consensus, Solana employs a distinct but linked protocol called Turbine, which was inspired primarily by BitTorrent and is intended for streaming. It is a block propagation protocol that divides data into smaller increments, making data transfer between nodes easier. Turbine assists Solana in addressing bandwidth issues and increasing the overall transaction processing speed of the network.

d. Gulf Stream

As an innovative feature that enables Solana Blockchain Open-source to reach 65,000 TPS, Gulf Stream works with the mempool concept to act as a waiting room for the next trade, allowing forward transactions to be validated before the trade is completed. This enables network validators to execute transactions ahead of time, hence reducing confirmation time and the memory requirements on validators from unconfirmed transaction pools.

Top key innovations of Solana Blockchain

e. Sea Level

Another unique feature that makes many Blockchain experts show their preference for Solana Blockchain is Sea level, which has never existed in any other blockchain network. The term "sea level" refers to the ability of validators to run Smart Contract code in parallel. To illustrate, consider a human who must complete several tasks in a single day. To complete all of the tasks, he or she must complete them in the correct order. However, if you have a duplicate of yourself, you could complete such tasks concurrently. In that case, you're using sea level, which Solana accomplishes with its smart contracts. Every time Nvidia doubles the number of SMID lanes, the Solana network's computational capacity will double. To summarize, Sealevel enables concurrent transactions on the same chain, resulting in a faster network runtime.

f. Pipelining

Pipelining, which refers to the process of routing a stream of input data to various pieces of hardware for processing, is a common technique in CPU design. This allows quick transaction information to be replicated and validated across network nodes more quickly. 

On the Solana network, the Transaction Processing Unit (TPU) performs data fetching at the kernel level, signature verification at the GPU level, banking at the CPU level, and writing at the kernel level. The TPU has already accumulated the next batch of packets and is beginning to sign them by the time it starts sending blocks to the validators.

g. Cloud Break

Simply scaling computing isn't enough. Memory used to keep track of accounts soon becomes a bottleneck in terms of both size and access performance. Therefore, Solana Network has come up with Cloudbreak, a state architecture optimized for concurrent reads and writes across a RAID 0 configuration of SSDs. Each additional disk expands the amount of storage available to on-chain programs while making concurrent reads and writes between the network’s 32 threads possible.

h. Archivers

On Solana, data storage is delegated from validators to Archivers, a network of nodes. Archivers do not take part in consensus meetings. The state's past is fragmented into many pieces and erasure-coded. Small sections of the state are archived by archivers, who will be asked to confirm that they are storing the data required on a regular basis by the network. Solana makes use of Proofs of Replication (PoRep), which are largely influenced by Filecoin.

The remaining innovations of Solana

3. SotaTek’s Successful Solana Projects

Recently, SotaTek utilized Smart Contracts to develop SolBank, the most private and non-custodial Solana browser wallet. This platform allows users to conceal the amounts and origins of cryptocurrency held. This is made possible by implementing a Solana zero-knowledge privacy solution: a smart contract that accepts transactions in SOL (and, in the future, SPL tokens), allowing the amount to be withdrawn later with no reference to the original transaction.

Visit more: https://solbank.app/

Additionally, our Blockchain Experts have a chance to build Solminter, a solution to the SPL ecosystem. Solminter offers its users the following utilities:

• SPL minting and management
• NFT minting and management
• Ecosystem integrations

Visit more: https://solminter.com/

4. Final Thoughts: Get Started With Solana Blockchain

To conclude, it is understandable why Solana Blockchain is a great, powerful platform with tons of potential that appears to be a terrific fit for any DeFi project. Solana is a fast network with a revolutionary Proof-of-History consensus methodology, as well as sub-second block times enabling fast verification and low fees. Any good project that prefers excel requires quick confirmation times and a minimal network overhead.

Want to hire experienced Solana Developers to leverage the best projects on Solana? Our 600+ Technical Experts are exactly what you need. As a leading Blockchain Development Services, SotaTek can offer you high-class standard quality on blockchain-based platforms on Solana, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Tron, Polygon networks, etc. With our extensive knowledge, we create effective blockchain applications as well as engage and assist our clients with top-notch services. Starting with IT consulting to layout your development map, SotaTek team would help you to reach the best Blockchain solutions. So, why not contact us right now?