Solana 2021 Wrapped
Tags: Web3, Solana Network, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Crypto

Solana was, arguably, the crypto story of the year in 2021. As a self-appointed member of the community, I want to help the uninitiated understand what the hype around Sol is all about.

From humble beginnings

Anatoly Yakovenko, a former Qualcomm engineer who spent his days thinking about microsystems design while creating semiconductors, published a whitepaper in 2017 about Proof of History. This new way of reaching consensus in a decentralized system drew some attention, and Anatoly spent a few years working to make it reality.

Fast forward to March 2020, and Solana launches on mainnet. Right before the crash caused by the rapid spread of COVID-19. Talk about timing.

Moving on to early 2021, Solana mainnet has been live for nearly a year and has a demonstrated history of low fees and fast execution. This makes proponents of, um, other chains, take notice. After getting trolled on twitter, SBF writes this tweet delivering the now infamous punchline, “I’ll buy as much SOL as you have, right now, at $3. Sell me all you want. Then go fuck off”.

Today one SOL is trading for $170.

So what’s the blockchain all about?

Solana is able to deliver short finality times with low transaction fees, but how? Isn’t it true that once Solana reaches, say, as much traffic as Ethereum that it will run into the same scalability issues?

The Solana blockchain uses the concept of trustless time to order transactions, helping validators reach consensus faster. Validators are rotated, each serving as the ‘king’ validator for periods of time.

And that’s about as much as I understand, we can leave it up to the former researchers at $200B companies to sort out the details. Suffice to say that the the most complex attack vectors that you and I can think of have been considered. Only time will tell if Solana has solved decentralized scaling.

What does the ecosystem look like?

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Solana over the past year has been the explosive growth in the number of projects using the chain. From vibrant NFT communities buying and selling on the Sol Digital Eyes marketplace to traders using the Raydium DEX to people listening to songs on Audius, Solana is able to consistently deliver fast, low-cost settlement.

Projects like Serum provide critical infrastructure for DeFi developers. Instead of having to build an entire matching engine from scratch, developers use Serum to create markets that let users buy, sell, and settle transactions easily on Solana. Serum is used by many of the top Solana DeFi projects including Mango, Psyoptions, and Bonfida.

It’s wild to think that even Phantom was released in 2021. As you know if you have ever used a blockchain, a great wallet experience is absolutely essential and Phantom provides just that.

Wrapping up

It’s been a crazy year, but also a defining one for the Solana network. The Solana community is growing, and growing fast. Great builders, loyal community members, and advanced traders alike have migrated to Solana in shocking numbers. Here’s to 2022 being another year of community, underdog mentality, and… gaming?

P.S. I’m hoping to write more about the Solana community in the new year, be a good community steward and share =)