Solana: A Promising Crypto on the Rise
It’s been an exciting time in the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin (BTC) continuing its upward trend. The general trend has helped SOL too, with Solana’s bulls urging the crypto on.
The altcoin found some support around the $20-level last week, with the bulls briefly pushing it above the $24-resistance level. In fact, its price rose by over 15% over a 7-day period. The optimism around Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade helped propel SOL on the charts too.
However, at press time, some correction seemed to be in order. In fact, the said correction was seen in the hours right before press time.
History and Popularity
Solana (SOL) has been one of the best blockchain platforms in recent years, attracting many investors with its fast transaction speeds and low fees. This year has seen significant price volatility for Solana (SOL), but it has been overwhelmingly positive, with the price increasing by more than 100% since the start of Q1. In fact, the cryptocurrency was trading at $25.10, at press time.
Its increasing popularity can be assessed by the fact that popular American comedian and television host Steve Harvey also joined the bandwagon. He did so when he changed his Twitter profile to that of a Solana Monkey Business NFT in September last year. American singer Jason Derulo tweeted about his excitement for the token last year, confirming that he had bet on Solana.
In early August 2022, thousands of Solana accounts were drained. The Solana Foundation, however, told the Financial Times that it “does not appear” that the exploitation had affected its core infrastructure, but rather was caused by a bug “in software used by several wallets popular among Solana users.” Cryptocurrency VC fund Cyber Capital’s Justin Bons had tweeted that Solana has far too many red flags such as multiple downtimes.
Current State of Solana
At press time, SOL was trading at $22.97, with a market cap of $9 billion. It was the 11th-largest cryptocurrency in the world at this time, with a daily trading volume of $287 million. SOL was down by over 8% on the 24-hour charts.
The Solana network is currently one of the best places to explore NFTs and DeFi apps. Billionaire entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, better known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, announced on Twitter on July 2022 that he was releasing a series of Solana-based NFTs based on images created using OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 AI software. He added that he would auction the first piece starting on Magic Eden, the largest Solana NFT marketplace. Magic Eden is the leading NFT marketplace on Solana. Its focus on the artistic community, availability of simple tools, and the diversity of tokens created and offered to make it a force to be reckoned with in the NFT community.
Essentially, Solana has emerged as a paradigm for other blockchains looking to grow.
The Unique Features of Solana
What is unique about the Solana blockchain is that it is the first platform to adapt the “proof of history” mechanism for crypto mining. Its innovative approach to technology has gained significant traction in the market. Ergo, investors must be well aware of its previous performance, current market trends and potential risks before investing. here are the remaining features of the Solana blockchain: Tower BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance): This consensus algorithm is used by Solana to maintain network security and prevent double-spending attacks. It enables validators to agree on the order of transactions and create new blocks in a decentralized and trustless manner. Gulf Stream: This is a feature that enables fast propagation of information across the Solana network. It is responsible for streaming data to validators, allowing them to process transactions more quickly and maintain network consensus. Turbine: This feature optimizes transaction processing by enabling parallel processing of transactions. It allows Solana to process a high number of transactions per second (TPS) compared to other blockchain networks. Sealevel: This feature provides a runtime environment for executing smart contracts on the Solana blockchain. It is based on the Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) technology, which is widely used in the networking industry. Sealevel provides a secure and efficient environment for developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) on Solana. These eight features make Solana a highly scalable, secure, and fast blockchain network. Solana’s architecture has been designed to support the future growth of the decentralized ecosystem and enable developers to build innovative applications on the platform.
