Solana

Solana is a Layer 1 public blockchain platform known for its exceptional speed, low transaction costs, and scalability. Launched in 2020 by Solana Labs, it was designed as a high-throughput competitor to existing smart contract platforms like Ethereum.

• Native Cryptocurrency: The platform's native token is SOL. It is used to pay transaction fees (gas) and to secure the network through staking.
• Hybrid Consensus: Solana employs a unique hybrid consensus mechanism combining Proof-of-Stake (PoS) with a breakthrough innovation called Proof-of-History (PoH).
• Proof-of-History (PoH): This is Solana's core technological feature. It acts as a trustless, cryptographic clock that creates a verifiable, sequential record of time and events on the blockchain. This removes the need for validators to communicate to agree on a timestamp, which drastically improves transaction speed and throughput (processing thousands of transactions per second).

Key Features & Ecosystem:

• Scalability: The architecture is designed for massive transaction volume and is suitable for global, real-time applications.
• Low Fees: High throughput ensures low and consistent transaction fees.
• Ecosystem: Solana supports a thriving ecosystem of Decentralized Applications (dApps), particularly in Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), gaming, and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs).

In essence, Solana aims to provide the foundational infrastructure for widespread blockchain adoption by offering a fast, efficient, and scalable environment for developers and users.