What is Solana (SOL)?
Solana is an independent Layer 1 blockchain created as a fast and efficient network with an underlying smart contract protocol. Since its 2020 launch, Solana has often been dubbed the “Ethereum killer” for offering faster transaction speeds, significantly lower fees, and a highly developer-friendly architecture.
The network’s scalability, combined with its low fees and high speed, makes it a leading choice for many NFT-based decentralized applications (dApps), as well as decentralized finance (DeFi) and digital blockchain-based payment ecosystems.
The Solana network focuses on high transaction throughput and short processing time, which it achieves via its Proof-of-History (PoH) technology. Solana claims to be able to process 65,000 transactions per second, making it one of the fastest in the industry.
The Solana blockchain linearly hashes transactions to create a verifiable order of all the network's activity in order to reach the aforementioned speed. Because of this, there's no need to rely on a block creator's timestamp, or for network validators to check the transaction order.
The Solana network was co-founded in 2017 by systems engineer and computer programmer Anatoly Yakovenko and current Solana COO Raj Gokal. The network operates on the PoH timing mechanism, which was implemented prior to the consensus layer that now operates on a proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm.
Solana’s native token, SOL, plays a central role in powering the network. It is primarily used for staking, which secures the blockchain and supports the validation process, and for paying transaction fees on activities like peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, DeFi interactions, NFT trades, and other Solana-based dApp operations. The network follows a controlled inflation model, where 50% of the SOL collected as transaction fees is burned, helping balance supply and maintain long-term sustainability. Additionally, SOL is used for governance participation, allowing holders to influence future protocol upgrades and ecosystem developments.
What’s the Next Solana Upgrade, and When Is It Scheduled?
The Solana network is gearing up for two major 2025 upgrades, Alpenglow and Firedancer, focused on boosting speed, scalability, and reliability. Alpenglow, currently in validator voting, introduces a new consensus model using Votor and Rotor, enabling near-instant transaction finality (~150 ms) while maintaining stability even if up to 20% of validators are offline. Meanwhile, Firedancer, a next-generation validator client, has shown over 1 million transactions per second in testing and is expected to roll out fully by late 2025. Together, these upgrades aim to make Solana faster, more secure, and better equipped to support its expanding DeFi, NFT, gaming, and Web3 ecosystem.
SOL is listed on Binance for trade and purchase. The current price of SOL is available and updated in real-time on Binance.