Exploring Solana: The Revolutionizing Blockchain Technology

What is Solana?

Solana is one of the Blockchain technologies like Ethereum blockchain technology and it is also an open source blockchain. In this Blockchain, decentralized applications(dApp), decentralized finance applications(defi), and also NFTs are also built on this network by writing smart contracts which are digital agreements programmed to automate the tasks.

Solana was developed by Qualcomm executive Anatoly Yakovenko in 2017. They mainly focused on providing secured transactions faster than other blockchains. Also they aimed to enhance the scalability of the blockchain technology and they wanted to accomplish faster and secured transactions with low gas fees or with low cost. Solana has achieved 7,10,000 transactions without any additional or extra layer.

Solana is unique because it is a single layer network to achieve scalability and secured transactions. Whereas Ethereum is a multilayer network approach used to achieve its scalability. The concept behind the solana blockchain is that having a small number of fast computers maintains the network and this helps to store large amounts of data that is created by it. Solana had launched its token, the mainnet SOL in March 2020 after multiple phases of testnets. Solana blockchain grew rapidly and placed among the top 10 positions in market capitalization.

The Uniqueness From Other Blockchains

Solana works by the consensus mechanism which creates or saves the history of transactions with that particular time and this is known as Proof of history. Whereas other blockchains don't store data of every transaction but only stores or have proof of work and proof of stake. Other blockchains store the history only if the tokens are staked in the network. Solana is unique by storing the history with the time of transactions. Solana has the ability to process over 65000 transactions per second (TPS) and this is a higher transaction ratio compared to other blockchains. Also Solana costs low transaction fees compared to other networks.

Smart contracts are the digital agreements or set of codes which executes the functions or automates the tasks coded in the smart contract. To write these smart contracts on Solana blockchain technology, Rust is the programming language commonly used to develop smart contracts, defi, dapps etc. Developers prefer Rust mainly for its memory safety, speed and efficiency to handle complex computation required by dapps or defi. Dapps are the decentralised applications which are developed by the smart contracts written on that particular blockchain technology. Defi is also a decentralised financial applications which is developed for financial operations on solana blockchain or any other blockchain networks.

How to create an Solana wallet

First go visit any wallet decentralized applications like Phantom, Coinbase, Solflare or any other wallet applications and install its browser extension in your browser.
Click the option "create new wallet"
A group of words which is known as seed phrase will be given to you and you should have noted down it
Only these seed phrases help to access your Solana wallet in other devices. So save your seed phrases and don't share it with others.
Now you will be asked to set a password to your wallet.

What does staking on Solana means?

Staking is a way of earning rewards rather than just holding the funds in our wallets on a particular network or blockchain for a period of time which in return rewards you as interest rate per year. It is similar to mutual funds that making your SOL coins to make rewards but it doesn’t buy shares or any bonds, it supports the blockchain network’s security and operations of that particular blockchain Due to this you can earn rewards and also you can unstake your SOL tokens or coins at any time if you want and you can sell them and make it them in currencies. When you stake SOL coins per year you will be getting a reward of 8% of your tokens you staked as an interest amount of your staking.

Let’s say, You have staked 200 SOLANA tokens on a phantom wallet or any other wallet for a year. Then after a year you are unstaking your SOL tokens and you will be rewarded 8% of 200 SOL which is 216 SOL tokens as you reward for staking on the network.

How to stake on Solana?

To stake on Solana, you should purchase or buy SOL coins from any exchange.
Then you can transfer the SOL tokens to your desired wallets on Phantom, Solflare, Coinbase or any providers which support the Solana network, also it should support staking on Solana Network.
To stake your coins you should choose the validators by your wish to stake your coins.
Now you can stake your funds on the Solona ecosystem.

What are Solana NFTs?

NFTs are non fungible tokens which represent the ownership and proof of a unique item. It is also one of the digital assets as cryptocurrencies which might be digital artwork, videos, 3D animated characters and many of the artworks designed using blockchain technology were known as NFTs. NFTSs in the Solana network benefit from high-speed transactions and low transaction fees. Benefits of NFTs in Solana network is that Solana network can process over thousands of transactions per second.

How To Mint Our Own NFTs On Solana Network?

To mint your own NFT, you should first create an Solana wallet on Phantom, Solflare or from any Solana compatible wallet platform.
By using this wallet you can store your SOL tokens, Solana based NFTs.
Secondly you should purchase some SOL coins which will be stored in your wallet. You will be paying SOL coins for transactions fees and minting charges while you mint
Then you should choose a mining platform like Metaplex, SolSea and Magic Eden. Based on the platforms you choose, minting charges and set of features differ accordingly.
By signing up into the mint generating platform, you can upload your image or video or any other artwork you wanted to mint as NFT and you can add the details like adding title to your NFT collection.
Once the NFT is minted, then you can list it out for sale with your own price in the same platform where you minted or also you can list it out on other platforms too which supports Solana NFTs.

Trading on Solana

Solana trading is trading the Solana cryptocurrencies or NFTs build on the Solana network or blockchain.
You can also trade SOL coins by purchasing it from anyone and sell them or trade them with your desired price.
You can also trade NFTs by purchasing NFTs minted by someone else and can trade it with your own price.