It also creates a new block in milliseconds.
Read on to learn about its ecosystem and how Solana works.
Core Principles of Solana
Solana uses its hardware to the fullest and optimizes its software to achieve the best results. This approach also means that where hardware capabilities increase, Solana can scale up. In contrast to other blockchains that use many linked chains, Solana is a connected blockchain.
This single-chain design implies that everything takes place in a single link. Solana’s single-chain feature encourages composability. That means—applications can integrate and use each other without the challenges.
Source: Helius
Due to the active development, Solana is expanding its horizons. New extensions and further scaling solutions such as SVM rollups and ZK Compression are coming in.
Some of these developments will improve Solana’s capabilities and throughput even more. The thing here is that they still need to be active on the network.
Transaction Lifecycle on Solana
We summarized Solana’s transaction cycle in the following steps:
- Initiation: In this step, you take a trade by connecting with a dApp or a wallet. The transactions are then sent to the current leader, which is the validator that generates blocks during a specific time.
- Compilation and Execution: In this step, the leader organizes transactions into a block for further processing.
Source: Helius
After block creation, it passes to the other nodes present in the network, which are validators and it goes on from there.
User Interaction and Wallets
Solana functions with wallet applications available on mobile devices or as browser extensions. Wallets create vital pairs—a public key and a private key. The public key is like your regular bank account number, and a private key is the same as a PIN code.
A public key is available for all network users, while the private key is confidential and serves as an authorization for transactions. The private key has principles that show changes you can make to an account.
Understanding Solana Transactions
Transactions on Solana operate with efficiency, unlike other blockchain networks. Each transaction includes several components:
- Account Addresses: Records of all the accounts that are in the given transaction to be able to gather information.
- Header: It includes links to accounts and signatures required for transaction approval.
- Recent Blockhash: It helps the system avoid handling the same transaction many times.
- Instructions: Specific actions that describe in detail what the transaction achieves at a greater level of precision.
Such a structure of transactions in Solana allows for parallel processing as they state all the participating accounts. This reduces conflicts thereby making execution easier.
Fees and Prioritization
Solana’s transaction fees are in the classes of a base fee and an optional prioritization fee. The base fee is cheap, standing at 5000 imports per signature. In times of traffic congestion, customers can opt to pay to ensure that they have high-priority transactions.
Some of these fees are burnt, which decreases the total amount of SOL, while the rest goes to the validators.
The concepts of RPC Nodes and Leader Selection
The RPC nodes are also responsible for the interactions with the Solana ecosystem on behalf of users. RPC nodes do not have any control over the network, as well as cannot sign transactions and create blocks.
But, they can help with the entry of transactions and information retrieval. Solana chooses leaders depending on the number of validators staked. The more validators staked, the more opportunity they have to create blocks.
Stake-Weighted Quality of Service (SWQoS)
Solana has designed the SWQoS, to counter spam and focus on actual transactions. In this mechanism, validators with high stakes get more bandwidth to handle transactions than those with lower stakes.
It improves network security and also guarantees more traffic to high-value validators.
Continuous Block Building
Solana does not wait for block establishment but instead implements an ongoing approach to block building. With Solana, block creation takes little time. Each leader gets the advantage of placing blocks during a turn lasting 400 milliseconds.
This process runs to ensure that Solana maintains its high throughput and low latency rate.
Solana Virtual Machine (SVM)
The SVM verifies and executes transactional logic so that processes are legitimate and conducted. It also manages the execution of smart contracts and other dimensions of transactions.
It freezes the required accounts, checks existing transactions, and only then carries out the commands. Once there is a successful transaction, they make changes, and the locks are then released.
Client Software and Validator Diversity
Solana launched with a single validator client, the Agave client. However, the network is improving with the introduction of the Firedancer client.
Firedancer brings efficiency, improved performance, and a stable network to Solana.
Conclusion
Solana’s role in enhancing the efficiency of the hardware, block construction, and the SWQoS enables it to manage transactions. As it stands, Solana is improving with new features, bringing it into the limelight. The second part of this article shares more insights into the Solana ecosystem.
Disclaimer
The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment, and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to the accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers and their risk tolerance may be different than yours. We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments so please do your due diligence. Copyright Altcoin Buzz Pte Ltd.
