What is Solana (SOL)?
Solana (SOL) is a secure, open-source platform that utilises blockchain technology to provide decentralised finance (DeFi) solutions. Officially launched in March 2020 by the Solana Foundation, Solana was created by the engineers behind Dropbox and Intel who sought to scale transactional speeds without compromising on security or privacy.
Today, the Solana network can support up to 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) as well as thousands of nodes by using the Turbine block protocol. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Solana aims to improve blockchain scalability by combining Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of History (PoH) protocols. A significant aim of Solana is to improve the accessibility of decentralised finance (DeFi) on a larger scale.
You can buy Solana coin (SOL) in New Zealand directly through Swyftx.
Check out our deep dive on Solana, available on Swyftx Learn.
How to buy Solana in New Zealand
The simplest way to buy Solana in NZ is through a cryptocurrency exchange, such as Swyftx. Our trading platform enables you to purchase Solana tokens as well as a wide variety of other digital assets – all with low spreads. You can also swap and sell your crypto at any point, through our user-friendly app or desktop portal.
To get started, simply sign up, verify and deposit funds into your new account. We accept NZD deposits via bank account transfer, which typically take 1-3 business days to clear. Once your money is cleared, you’ll be able to buy and sell Solana and any other crypto you’re interested in.
What is Proof of stake?
Proof of Stake (PoS) is a consensus algorithm that was created to solve the perceived energy consumption issues of Proof of Work blockchains like Bitcoin. PoS blockchains select users to create new blockchains, as opposed to PoW blockchains that involve multiple computers racing to validate transactions. In order to be selected, users must stake a certain amount of crypto (i.e. Solana) to be considered for selection.
The Solana blockchain relies on a combination of Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of History (PoH) consensus algorithms in what is called an innovative hybrid consensus model. PoH records and processes bulk transactions, whereas PoS is responsible for monitoring the PoH mechanism and validating each sequence of blocks used.
Is Solana better than Ethereum
There’s been a lot of discussion around Solana since it launched, with some dubbing it an “Ethereum killer”. Whether or not Solana is actually better than Ethereum (ETH) though, is up for debate. SOL has been designed to address many of the weaknesses of ETH, like its lack of scalability and expensive transactions. Where Ethereum can handle around 30 TPS, Solana can do around 65,000. This is a feat that not even Visa has been able to achieve!
That said, Ethereum has been around much longer than Solana and is continuing to upgrade its network. So, while Solana may be making big strides in the crypto space, it’s still too early to say whether it will ever outpace Ethereum.
