“Solana”- you may have heard that quite a lot over the last few days if you’re even remotely involved with cryptocurrency. However, have you actually looked into what it is yet? If you have, you really don’t need to read this. If you haven’t? Let me tell you about what it is and how you can get started with it.
What is Solana?
Solana is a cryptocurrency like Ethereum and Bitcoin. It’s not a token on the Ethereum blockchain like many people are talking about at the moment. This is a coin. What does that mean? It means Solana has its own blockchain.
Over the last few weeks, we have seen Solana rallying up to a $200 price from a mere $25 or so in early August. However, many don’t understand why. Why is Solana taking over the market and why is it here to stay? Let me tell you.
To understand why Solana is making its way to the top and why it is battling Ethereum, we have to understand why people are not satisfied with Ethereum.
The problem with Ethereum
Ethereum has been amazing for the cryptocurrency space. We have seen the rise of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain with platforms like OpenSea and Rarible facilitating sales and purchases. However, for the NFT space specifically, the transaction fees are just getting too damn high.
Right now, your NFT flippers and long-time cryptocurrency holders don’t mind paying thousands of dollars in transaction fees to purchase their NFTs. However, if we ever want to take NFTs mainstream we need to make it affordable for your average Joe to invest. Joe doesn’t have thousands of dollars to spend paying GAS so he can get an NFT! Joe just wants to purchase a cute kitten image. Ethereum won’t spare Joe any mercy. If he doesn’t want to pay that high GAS on mints, he will have to find somewhere else. Initially, Joe was confused and didn’t know what to do. He was considering packing his bags and quitting the NFT game on his first day.
This is the problem with Ethereum. The high GAS costs on buying, selling, minting and even transferring NFTs. It’s not sustainable.
This is where Solana comes in…
Why Solana?
Solana is a relatively new technology having only been available for a year. In essence, Solana is pretty similar to Ethereum (from a user standpoint). It has smart contracts which means it can do everything Ethereum can do. NFTs? Yep. Tokens? Yep. Dapps? You know it! However, what makes it different to Ethereum is one key thing: minimal transaction fees.
If you have ever sent a friend some money on Ethereum, you have probably paid somewhere around $7/$8 to do so (in recent times). That is quite a lot! Imagine if you wanted to pay in Ethereum at a shop and you were only buying $5 worth of stuff. You’d be paying more in GAS than the price of your items. This turns many people away from Ethereum and it makes it harder for us to get the masses to embrace cryptocurrency. Furthermore, if we could get the masses to use Ethereum, the GAS prices would go even higher because as with any cryptocurrency: the more people using the network, the higher the fees.
So you spend $8 to send a friend some money on Ethereum. How much do you spend on Solana? As of now, you’ll pay easily under $0.10. I’ve been quoted as writing this $0.001 in GAS fees on a transaction to send money to a friend.
Now that’s what I call scaleable!
So I know what you’re thinking…
What about Layer 2 on Ethereum?
Well honestly, Layer 2 is still getting there on Ethereum and it’s still not being used by many popular NFTs. At the end of the day, the NFT boom is happening now and Solana is ready for it now.
So in conclusion…
Ethereum could kill Solana when its Layer 2s are properly ready. But until then, Solana has the torch and it is running with it.
If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and get some Solana. It can’t hurt! If you are not on any exchanges, you can use the Exodus wallet to convert your Ethereum into Solana. If you want to access the NFT side of Solana, you’ll need to use Phantom wallet (a browser extension like Metamask for Ethereum).
Thanks for reading and I hope I educated you on Solana and why it is being adopted so quickly.
Donations accepted :)
Ethereum — 0x7428e44758BaA002297002004816d2EF70DF0BE5
Solana — 95fQjFr4kEDvTEfVW3fSHH3hkompNoJgkYNY2D8zFA2J
