Solana is an open source project that uses blockchain technology’s permissionless nature to provide decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions. The idea for the project began in 2017, and Solana was officially launched by the Solana Foundation in March 2020 with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Solana protocol is intended to make DApp development easier. It aspires to improve blockchain scalability by introducing a PoH consensus working in tandem with the existingPoS consensus.
The Solana Foundation’s hybrid consensus model attracts both small-time traders and institutional investors. One of the foundation’s primary goals is to make decentralized finance accessible to more people.
Solana’s most important person is Anatoly Yakovenko. His professional career began at Qualcomm, where he progressed quickly and became a senior staff engineer manager in 2015. Then, his career changed dir6ection and Yakovenko took on a new role as software engineer at Dropbox.
In 2017, Yakovenko starts a project that would later become Solana. He gets help from his Qualcomm colleague Greg Fitzgerald, and together they establish Solana Labs. They also manage to get several other former Qualcomm colleagues involved in the process, who contribute to releasing the protocol and token to the public in 2020.
Neurosurgeon-turned-CEO Anatoly Yakovenko developed Solana’s proof-of-history (PoH) concept to allow for improved protocol scalability and, as a result, enhanced usability.
Solana’s attraction derives from the speed of its blockchain processing, which is unrivaled in comparison to other cryptocurrencies. The hybrid protocol permits both transaction and smart contract execution to achieve validation rapidly. Consequently, Solana has garnered a great deal of attention from financial institutions.
The Solana protocol is designed for both small-time users and enterprise customers. One of the main benefits of using Solana is that you won’t have to worry about increased fees and taxes. The protocol is designed to be scalable and fast, while still keeping transaction costs low.
As of September 2021, Solana is ranked number 7 in the CoinMarketCap ranking. This is due to the professional expertise that creators Anatoly Yakovenko and Greg Fitzgerald bring to the project.
Recently, Solana experienced an influx of investors which caused the price of SOL to increase by over 700%. This was due in part to the launch of the Degenerate Ape NFT collection. The subsequent rise in developer activity on Solana as well as growing interest from larger organizations helped push prices even higher resulting in an all time high (ATH) above $216.
While Solana has been applauded for its fast speeds, it has also suffered from persistent outages that have caused dips in price and investor confidence. Some say the network favors venture capitalists over regular users, stifling growth of the ecosystem.
The recent retrace in the price of SOL is due, in part, to February 2022. It’s possible that more bearish short-term price action will follow. In the long run, however, Solana should appreciate because exchanges like FTX are offering strong support.