With blockchain technology being implemented in almost every industry in the world, blockchains now have to process a large number of transactions per minute. First generation blockchains like Bitcoin only process 4.6 transactions per second. A second generation like Ethereum isn’t much better and can only process 10-15 transactions per second.
If blockchains technology wants to have a real impact on this world, these slow blockchains aren’t up to the task. Even the co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin has admitted this problem from Ethereum. If the status quo persists, the industry infrastructure will not be able to cope with it.
Recently, many new blockchain protocols have emerged that promise high TPS speeds. One of them is Solana, which claims to be the first blockchain on the web scale. So what is it
What is Solana?
Designed in 2017, Solana is a PBX (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) based PoS (Proof of Stake) blockchain built from the ground up by Solana Labs in Switzerland to address one of the biggest challenges facing technology: scaling the blockchain for global acceptance.
The network is backed by the raising of over $ 25 million from well-known investors including Multicoin Capital, Foundation Capital, Distributed Global, CMCC, Blocktower Capital, NGC Capital and Rockaway Ventures.
Solana’s history dates back to November 2017 when CEO Anatoly Yakovenko published a white paper describing Proof of History, a technique for telling time between computers that don’t trust each other. That should introduce a clock ahead of consensus on blockchains.
Solana promises a throughput of 50,000 TPS in a network of 200 nodes, all without sharding and additional UX, latency or composition problems for developers.
8 core innovations
In a publication, Solana CEO Anatoly Yakovenko, describes 8 core innovations that separate Solana from other blockchain networks. These innovations include Proof-of-History (PoH), a PoH-optimized version of PBFT called Tower BFT, Turbine – a block propagation tool, Gulf Stream – transaction forwarding protocol without mempool, Sealevel – running time of parallel smart contracts, pipelining – a transaction processing unit for validation optimization, Cloudbreak – scale out account database and a distributed ledger store called Archivers.
PoH is the most outstanding trait of Solana. Let’s take a look.
Proof of History (PoH)
According to Yakovenko, the main idea behind the Solana is to find a way for a “decentralized network of nodes that matches the performance of a single node”. To achieve this, we must first optimize the communication between the nodes in the network.
The core innovation of Solana is the introduction of a new concept called Proof of History (POH). This is basically a clock on the blockchain that works before consensus. Unlike other blockchains, where validators talk to each other to agree that the time has expired, each Solana validator maintains its own clock by timing the time out in a simple verifiable delay function (VDF) with sequential hashing according to SHA- 256 encoded.
Since each validator keeps his clock, the block producer is selected for an entire epoch in advance – before a consensus is reached. Each validator runs the VDF to prove that it acquired its slot for transferring a block and validators. With PoH, the network as a whole advances regardless of network conditions, as the network can decide to rotate validators without either of the validators talking to each other.
In this way, PoH reduces the messaging effort and the computation, so that Solana can achieve a high throughput of 50-80 kbit / s.
Stake out and validate
Validators are an integral part of the Solana ecosystem as they provide computational resources to maintain ledger integrity while earning rewards. Anyone can run a validation node on Solana’s permissionless Testnet and Mainnet Beta networks. The platform also hosts Solana’s testnet event Tour De SOL, where validators can improve their validation skills, earn tokens and secure the Solana network.
Interested examiners from around the world, with the exception of the USA, can register for the Tour de SOL by submitting a form and then completing a KYC / AML. Then they have to join a Discord channel as this is their primary communication channel.
Betting on Solana is the same as with other PoS blockchains. For staking, users can transfer their SOL inventory to a wallet that aids in staking. SOL holders can delegate part of their SOL to one or more auditors who process the transactions and operate the network on their behalf.
The stake premiums are based on inflation and a portion of the transaction fees. Since the Solana is currently in the beta mainnet, stake awards are not activated in the network, but can be activated in the future.
Summary
With the help of these 8 main innovations, Solana uses the inherent architecture of a CPU to provide high throughput. Solana achieves 50,000 TPS on a network of 200 physically distinct nodes around the world using software that allows the hardware to operate at full capacity as it naturally scales with bandwidth, SSDs, and GPU cores.
Solana is currently running in mainnet beta. The first mainnet start was planned for the beginning of 2020, but has not yet taken place. The new start date is also not yet known.
Swell:
Documentation: https://docs.solana.com/
Whitepaper: https://solana.com/solana-whitepaper.pdf
Website: https://solana.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/solana
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