Solana

Solana is an open source project implementing a new, high-performance, permissionless blockchain. Solana is a general purpose blockchain similar to Ethereum. End user applications as of now include decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), marketplaces, games, and more. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko published a whitepaper describing Proof of History, a technique that would become critical to Solana's blockchain infrastructure, in Nov. 2017. 

Co-founder Greg Fitzgerald, who had worked with Yakovenko at Qualcomm, began prototyping the open source implementation of the whitepaper. It was published under the name Silk in 2018. 

After starting the company under the name Loom, Yakovenko, Fitzgerald, and other co-founders rebranded to Solana. Solana launched on Mainnet Beta in March 2020.

Solana was built to facilitate the development of scalable, user-friendly decentralized apps with low costs and high speeds for transactions.

Solana believes its unique blockchain architecture that combines the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and its own proof of history mechanism is the key to achieving these goals.

Proof of history works almost like a cryptographic timestamp that proves that an event has occurred at a specific time. It enables the blockchain to work fast while maintaining security and decentralization.

There are about 304 million SOL in circulation as of November 2021. Solana has an initial inflation rate of 8%, which will decrease by 15% a year until it reaches a long-term inflation rate of 1.5%. SOL is Solana’s native token.

Solana competes with other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and Avalanche to host crypto projects such as NFTs, decentralized exchanges, and gaming. 

Developers and users flocked from Ethereum to Solana due to high transaction costs, but many could gravitate back towards Ethereum if it manages to lower costs, which could happen as a result of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade and layer 2 rollups. 

Solana.com
Docs.solana.com/history
Forums.solana.com

Ethereum

Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal thinks investors should view crypto projects like digital nation-states rather than assets or tech advancements. The former Goldman Sachs executive says in a new blog post that crypto ecosystems are networks that produce intrinsic and extrinsic value.

Macro Guru Raoul Pal Picks ‘Perfect Setup' for Crypto Markets, Updates Ethereum, XRP and Solana Outlook

Tensor, which brands itself as "the Blur of Solana," raised $3 million in a seed funding round.

Tensor — the ‘Blur of Solana' — raises $3 million in seed funding

Another popular project leaves the blockchain once called the "Ethereum killer."

Blockasset Athlete NFTs Drop Solana for Chiliz Sports Platform

More than 40 athletes offer NFTs via Blockasset, including soccer star Wayne Rooney, the NHL's Alex Ovechkin, and the UFC's Jorge Masvidal.

Blockasset Athlete NFTs Expand Beyond Solana to Chiliz Sports Platform

Several huge crypto wallets have simultaneously sent millions of dollars worth of Solana (SOL) to Coinbase in a flurry of transactions. The series of whale transfers was initially detected by blockchain tracker and analytics tool Whale Alert.

$61,779,976 in Solana Abruptly Sent to Coinbase in Series of Massive Crypto Transfers

Solana (SOL) has strayed below the moving average lines despite a sideways trend.

Solana Revisits $20 Low, But Could Rise Further

Bitcoin

Shiba Inu

While cryptocurrencies are no stranger to sudden market movements and volatility, the latest market shake-up has left many in the industry reeling. A large red bar appeared on trading charts of major cryptocurrencies on Friday, with their values plummeting by hundreds of millions of dollars within hours.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana And Shiba Inu Drop: Major Reasons For Growing Fear In Crypto

A Solana cofounder said last week's 1.14 network update has raised concerns about maintaining stability during major updates.

Solana Will Improve Network Upgrades to Improve Stability

The 3D gaming tech company is highlighting Web3 tools for its massive game developer community.

Game Engine Unity Adds Verified Web3 Toolbox for MetaMask, Solana, Dapper Labs

The leading platform for game developers introduces an online storefront for decentralized tools, adding support for major Web3 players.

Gaming Engine Unity Taps MetaMask, Immutable X and Solana for Web3 Developer Tools

Following the initial incident on Feb. 25, Solana resolved the blockchain's performance degradation after validators decided to restart the network. According to an outage report following more than 24 hours of downtime, Solana developers detailed that the “root cause is still unknown and under active investigation.

Solana Faces Renewed Criticism After 10th Downtime and Bumpy Restart, but Developers Remain Optimistic

Arbitrageurs are eating up precious blockspace with pointless transactions, according to Jito Labs.

Solana's Spam Problems Persist Despite Tech Improvements, MEV Researchers Say

"Solana is like a lifestyle-friendly blockchain because you can have nights and weekends off," one disgruntled Twitter user said.

Solana Still Doesn't Know Why It's Suffered Yet Another Outage

The idea, the company says, is to give better access to wealth-building via real estate on-chain. 

Tokenized Texan house listed for sale on Solana

The top US crypto exchange Coinbase says Solana (SOL) is poised to become one of the strongest layer-1 blockchain projects. New Coinbase analysis says Solana is likely going to emerge as one of the top Ethereum (ETH) rivals among the multiple layer-1 blockchains fiercely competing against each other for capital and users.

Coinbase Says One Ethereum Rival Emerging As Major Long-Term Layer-1 Competitor

The Solana blockchain was stuck for more than one day over the weekend, recovering only after validators restarted the network.

Solana Developers Say Reason For Network Outage Still Unclear

Two days after a major outage, the Solana Foundation says it's still investigating why the network went down for almost 20 hours.

Solana Foundation Still Doesn't Know What Caused Weekend Network Outage

ALSO: CoinDesk Chief Content Officer Michael Casey considers why the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has overreached in its recent actions against crypto entities, and that the crypto industry must improve its lobbying efforts; bitcoin's price rises.

First Mover Asia: Solana in the Green After Weekend Deep Freeze

The Solana blockchain is back online after two attempts to restart the network, according to network monitoring site Solana Status.

Solana network back online following second restart

The price of Solana (SOL) is currently falling as it breaks below the moving average lines.

Solana Reaches Bearish Fatigue And Recovers Over $22

The Solana network's deep freeze continued Saturday as validators were preparing a second restart attempt that they hoped would restore service to users of the blockchain.

Solana Validators to Make Second Restart Attempt as Transaction Freeze Drags On

The Solana smart contract token network experienced a technical glitch on Saturday, February 25, 2023, known as a “large forking event,” causing transaction failures for some users. Solana's incident report referred to it as “cluster instability” and indicated that a coordinated restart was launched to accelerate block finalization.

Solana Blockchain Experiences Technical Glitch Causing Transaction Slowdowns

After a technical disruption, Solana validators have been instructed to restart its network clusters.

Solana blockchain impacted by technical issue

Validators and Solana Foundation and Labs engineers are investigating the issue.

Solana Network's Transaction Processing Craters After ‘Forking Event'

Across from a seedy 7-Eleven and around the corner from a Victorian-style municipal hall in central Salt Lake City, Utah, Solana developers flock for a month-long coding retreat: mtnDAO.

News for Solana Crypto (SOL)