If you have been wondering whether to buy or not, looking at the eye-catching Solana coin price, then let us tell you there is more to this cryptocurrency than most know about!
Here are 7 facts about Solana that are sure to take you by surprise. Read on.
- Ethereum's Biggest Competition Is Solana
Solana's exponential rise can be attributed to the need for more efficient alternatives to Ethereum.
Ethereum's network is getting congested, and transactions are getting more expensive, so smart contract developers are looking for platforms with faster speeds and lower prices. 'Ethereum killers' are trying to attract new users by offering an affordable alternative with better functionality than Ethereum.
Solana is the cryptocurrency of a smart contract that is a strong competitor to Ethereum. Over time, Solana's price has reflected its competitiveness. As late as 2021, Solana was among the top ten cryptocurrencies, and it holds that position and is getting more popular.
- All major blockchains are faster than Solana
The efficiency of Solana is one of the reasons it is so popular. The network can process 50,000 transactions per second (TPS), much higher than Ethereum, which ranges between 15 and 45 TPS. Ethereum is undergoing an upgrade, but it is likely to match Solana sometime soon.
The race for the fastest cryptocurrency has always been interesting, but only some cryptocurrencies can match Solana. It is also worth noting that Solana beats Visa regarding transaction speed. Thus, centralized finance's current leaders have some serious competition ahead.
- Solana Uses A Unique Consensus Model
Blockchain technology is changing the world in a way that takes power away from banks and governments. A good example is Bitcoin (BTC), which has no backing and allows two parties to do things they would not be able to do otherwise.
As middlemen, banks keep centralized finance secure, while blockchain networks need their own security and fraud prevention systems. It takes a lot of resources to validate Bitcoin using a proof-of-work model, but it works. Since the computations involved are a lot, a bad actor couldn't create false records. However, Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work consensus could be more efficient and has gotten a lot of criticism despite its effectiveness. For this reason, new consensus methods like Proof-of-Stake have been developed.
Proof-of-Stake allows only those with a certain number of coins to validate transactions. It is an incentive to keep bad actors away if you have a stake in it. Solana uses Proof-of-History to take consensus to a new level. It is quick to process transactions when using proof-of-history validation. Solana uses timestamps to expedite transactions as part of its proof-of-history validation model. Every node does not have to stake SOL to validate a transaction, so this consensus method is fast.
- The Solana platform hosts over 1,000 Dapps
There are a lot of decentralized apps on Ethereum, which have been around for a long time. That is probably because developers are familiar with Ethereum's platform or programming language. It is easier for them to work with Ethereum than newer, more efficient blockchains because they are used to it.
Despite this, other networks are catching up, including Solana. Today, more than 1000 Dapps are running on Solana, up from 300 in 2021. Various projects are being worked on, from DeFi projects to NFTs. Both Decentralized Finance and NFTs could drive the growth of Solana.
- SOL has gained over 10,900% since the launch
Solana is a relatively new project compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Solana floated under the radar a few years ago, but by 2021, it'd risen. As impossible as it seems, Solana spiked from a dollar in January 2021 to $260 by the end of the year.
Currently Solana is trading at $22.31 as of writing this and is ranked 11th in terms of market capitalization. It's also easy to access on most top cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Hardware Optimization Is Easy With Solana
Solana's software allows hardware to operate at full capacity. Thus, bandwidth, GPUs, and SSDs should be scaled simultaneously. Currently, this is the only major blockchain that can do this, making Solana one of the most advanced.
- Taking on Solana's challenges head-on is working
Solana experienced two network outages in 2021. The challenge is related to Solana's largely untested Proof-of-History consensus. These issues have been addressed by the Solana team, however. As Proof-of-History is better understood and weaknesses identified, Solana outages may be eliminated.