Solana

Solana is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain built to make decentralized applications fast and cheap enough for mainstream use. Rather than splitting activity across shards or extra layers, it keeps a single unified ledger and scales by processing transactions in parallel, routinely handling thousands of transactions per second with sub-second finality and fees typically under a cent.

Solana was founded in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko, a former Qualcomm engineer, and its mainnet went live in 2020. Development is supported by the Switzerland-based Solana Foundation and Solana Labs, with early backing from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital.

How Solana works

Solana combines Proof of Stake with an innovation called Proof of History — a cryptographic clock that timestamps transactions before consensus, reducing the coordination overhead between validators. Its Sealevel runtime executes non-conflicting smart contracts in parallel across CPU cores, and the Gulf Stream protocol forwards transactions to upcoming block producers ahead of time to cut confirmation delays. SOL, the native token, is staked by validators and delegators to secure the network and is used to pay transaction fees. SOL has no fixed maximum supply; new tokens are issued as staking rewards on a disinflationary schedule, partially offset by burned fees.

Role in the ecosystem

Solana hosts one of the most active on-chain ecosystems, spanning DeFi trading, NFTs, payments, and consumer apps that rely on its speed and low costs. Institutional interest has grown as well, including spot Solana ETFs, cementing its position as one of the leading smart contract platforms alongside Ethereum.