Mainstream cryptocurrency analysis: Solana (SOL) - a challenger to high-speed public chains

Anatoly 2025-10-14 21:50 6777人围观 SOL

In the encryption world, some people regard Bitcoin as "digital gold" and Ethereum as the "blockchain operating system." What about Solana (SOL)? It is often called the “speed king among high-performance public chains”. Why? Because its core selling points are: fast, cheap, and able to carry large-scale applications. Today we will talk about what is special about SOL, its ecological development, and what potentials and risks it has.

Solana's birth background

Launched in 2020, Solana was founded by former Qualcomm engineer Anatoly Yakovenko. Yakovenko has accumulated rich experience in traditional communication systems. He believes that the key reason why blockchain is slow is that a suitable "time synchronization" method has not been found. Therefore, he designed a unique mechanism to improve the processing speed of the blockchain.

Solana's goal is clear: to create a blockchain that can rival Visa and even exceed the performance of traditional Internet applications.

Solana’s technical features

1. High performance: thousands of transactions per second

Ethereum can currently handle approximately 15 transactions per second；
Solana claims to be able to process more than 50,000 transactions per second.

This makes it particularly suitable for applications that require high-frequency interaction, such as games and decentralized exchanges.

2. Low handling fees

On Ethereum, a transaction can cost a few dollars or even dozens of dollars.

On Solana, the handling fee is usually less than $0.01, which is almost negligible.

3. Unique “Proof of History” (PoH)

PoH is not a separate consensus mechanism, but a "time stamping" technology. It allows nodes to quickly determine the order of transactions, thereby reducing network communication costs.

To put it simply: just like putting timestamps on all transaction orders and arranging them in order, the efficiency will naturally be greatly improved.

4. Ecologically supportive and friendly

Solana is developed using Rust and C language, which is more friendly to traditional software engineers and lowers the entry barrier.

Solana’s application and ecosystem

1. Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

There are many DeFi projects on Solana, such as Serum (decentralized exchange) and Raydium (liquidity protocol). They leverage Solana's high performance to provide a faster trading experience.

2.NFT market

In addition to Ethereum, Solana is also a popular platform for NFTs. Because of the low handling fees, many emerging artists and users prefer to issue and trade NFTs on Solana.

The representative market is Magic Eden.

3. Blockchain games

Games have high performance requirements, and Solana’s high TPS (transactions per second) and low latency exactly meet this requirement. Several chain games have chosen to build on Solana.

4. Payment and small transactions

The low cost gives it an advantage in payment scenarios. Some start-ups are trying to use Solana to achieve cross-border payments and instant transfers.

Solana Advantages

1. Obvious advantages in speed and cost

In terms of "fast" and "cheap", Solana is almost the benchmark for existing public chains.

2. The user experience is close to Web2

For ordinary users, the common problems of "stuttering" and high fees in blockchain are almost invisible.

3. Rapid ecological growth

In recent years, the number of Solana developers and applications has grown rapidly, attracting a large amount of funds and users.

4. Capital and celebrity support

Many industry leaders, including Sam Bankman-Fried (the founder of FTX, although FTX later suffered a thunderstorm), have strongly supported Solana, which made it a star public chain for a time.

Challenges and Risks of Solana

1.Network stability issues

Solana has experienced multiple network outages that halted the entire blockchain for hours or even days. This is a serious trust issue for a "high-performance public chain".

2. Centralized questioning

Although it is positioned as decentralized, Solana has a relatively centralized number of nodes and high hardware requirements, resulting in a limited number of nodes that can actually participate.

3. High competition pressure

In addition to Ethereum, other public chains such as Avalanche, Polygon, and Aptos are also competing for the market. Performance is no longer Solana's only strength.

4. Market fluctuations and ecological dependence

The collapse of FTX had a major impact on Solana, with prices plummeting and ecological development also suffering setbacks, indicating that it relied heavily on external capital.

The meaning and future of Solana

Despite the challenges, the emergence of Solana proves that blockchain can not only be "decentralized" but also approach the traditional Internet experience in terms of performance. It represents a path - blockchain that pursues large-scale applications.

Future opportunities for Solana lie in:

Further improve network stability；
Attract more developers to build killer apps；
Really implement it in NFT, games and payment scenarios.

If it can solve the problems of downtime and centralization, Solana has the opportunity to play an important role in the large-scale popularization of Web3.

Summarize

Solana (SOL) is positioned as a "high-performance public chain":

Fast transactions, low handling fees, suitable for large-scale applications；
The ecosystem covers DeFi, NFT, games and other fields；
Facing the challenges of network stability, centralization and competitive pressure.

It does not emphasize value storage like Bitcoin, nor does it focus on smart contract ecology like Ethereum. Instead, it focuses on "speed and experience."

——Next time someone asks you: “What’s the difference between Solana and Ethereum? ” You can answer simply: Ethereum is the blockchain with the most prosperous ecosystem, while Solana is the public chain with the fastest speed and the experience closest to Internet applications.

This article is only for science popularization and sharing and does not constitute any form of investment advice. Digital assets carry higher risks, please participate with caution and at your own risk.