Sol ($Sol) or Solana seems to be the forgotten child in the blockchain technology world. Many focus on Ethereum, Bitcoin, Polygon or even Cardano but seem to not remember Solana. Solana may be just the match for the gaming industry and other corporations to branch into the Crypto World.
Solana History
What makes Solana the possible go to cryptocurrency or blockchain technology that would entice the gaming industry? It was started by an engineer at Qualcomm named Anatoly Yakovenko. The DeFi blockchain can handle 65,000 transactions per second! That would definitely be eye opening for the gaming industry. Even though this token and blockchain debuted in 2017, it has implemented a third kind of proof for all their transactions. Most people are aware of Proof of Stake (POS) and Proof of Work (POW), but Solana utilizes a different one called Proof of History (POH). This POH allows for scalability while maintaining network security. Think of POH like a clock or timer. While the Solana blockchain begins the computations to execute the transaction, it gets a “time-stamp” to prove it took place. However, POH does rely on some POS metrics therefore not making it truly stand alone. The team behind the Solana Foundation, a non-profit organization headquartered in Switzerland, promotes and works with international partners to support Solana. Solana Labs, on the other hand, takes care of the protocol’s development.
Sol’s Big Bang
The value of $Sol was shot out of cannon since its ICO (Initial Coin Offering) in 2020. It has quickly climbed the ranks of both market cap and volume. At the time of writing it has surged to #9 in market cap according to Crypto.com. If you were to invest when at $Sol ICO, you would have an ROI (Return on Investment) of 14,159.88%. What caused this boom? Part of it was the NFT (Non-Fungible Token) gold rush. With Solana’s network being faster than Ethereum’s and being cheaper, people gravitated towards. Even with one project on there called Degenerate Ape Academy, had several sell for over $1 million USD! Moonrock Capital bought one for $1.1 million. With big money making NFT projects on the blockchain, it will only push the value of Solana higher. The question now is where is Sol going and will Solana have a bright future?
The Possible Sol Future
Most of the savvy crypto investors and researchers know that Solana is still in it’s “Beta Phase” of the network. Solana Lab co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko stated “2.0 or Mainnet, instead of Mainnet-Beta, will mark the end of Solana’s stabilization efforts. It will come after localized fee markets have proven to be able to support large scale NFT mints while reliably delivering Defi transactions. It feels more in sight now then ever before.” This was on July 26th, 2022 via Twitter but no real updates have been provided since then. What is so important about the beta exit? Currently it suffers outages or downtime due to bugs and still being in a beta phase. With the exit, it will also increase stability of the network and entice future partnerships with corporations. A recent one is their release of the Saga Android phone. Yes you read that right, Sol is coming to your mobile phone.
Saga Phone and Solana
“Almost 7 billion people use smartphones around the world and more than 100 million people hold digital assets. Both of those numbers will continue to grow,” said Anatoly Yakovenko. “Saga sets a new standard for the web3 experience on mobile.” A smartphone with Web3 capabilities. A true utility in the eyes of investors. This phone though comes with a high price tag. It will hit the market in early 2023 at a cool $1000 per phone. In order to secure the phone, you would need a $100 refundable deposit that would go towards the final cost of the phone. Having a smartphone mixed with NFTs and crypto just seems like the way forward for technology. Afterall, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are advancements of the technology used in computers today. If you would like to read more about the Saga phone, head over to Solana’s website.
Sol Coming Home
Solana and its blockchain technology is proving to be a contender. With a high ROI since its ICO and the new phone, investors may be chomping at the bit to invest. Currently Solana is down 74% from its ATH that was set at the beginning of November in 2021. Is this investor sentiment being played out or bad market conditions? Build your takeaways from this article and see if $Sol is the right blockchain for you.
