Crypto Academy Season 4 | Intermediate Level Course for Week 4 : [ Solana Blockchain] by @pelon53

Solana is one of the quick most nonproprietary software i.e. open-source in the Crypto world. It was developed by Anatoly Yakovenko in 2017. It reduces the stress of users about a large number of invasions of transactions at a time by improving scalability.

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The Solana blockchain uses its own specified coin i.e. SOL. Solana can provide quality services by utilizing Proof of stake and proof of history. Proof of Stake is a protocol for blockchains that performs with a selection of validators of crypto proportional to the sum of their holding. To learn what is Proof of history i.e. POH let’s get started with the first reply of our assignment.

1.- Explain in detail the PoH of Solana.

In order to understand the Proof of the history of Solana one needs to what PoH is.

WHAT IS PoH?

It is a protocol-based blockchain that offers cryptographic i.e. secured between validator and receiver, method of transaction. In this system, the transactions are made in a pattern of hashes. It is used to make time-saving valid transactions.

PoH of Solana

The PoH is the fundamental feature of the Solana blockchain. It is the first blockchain using Proof of history.

With Proof of History, one can generate a verified record that proves that a transaction has taken place at a specific time.

The PoH of Solana is Verifiable Delay Function (VDF) based, which is a function that requires a number of sequential steps to figure out, yet produces a unique has which can be efficiently and publicly verified.
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The PoH of Solana works on making the blockchain highly efficient. Earlier in Proof of Work transactions done in block i.e. a large number of transactions were scattered the trader had to enter dates and times in every entry of the transaction. However, The Solana uses SHA-256 hash which stands for Secure Hash algorithm 256-bit.

A hash is a cryptographic method that stores data in the form of random input The SHA-256 provides users with an unalterable and special hash. This type of method of the transaction includes transactions in chains of hashes. The information provided in the first chain is already stored in the second one. Here the investor inputs fewer details in the next chain of functions as compared to “proof of work” rest of the details are provided by the system itself as transactions are being done by hashing process. This now saves the time of the investor and also helps them to verify the time taken in order of transactions.

2.- Explain at least 2 cases of use of Solana.

Oxygen

Oxygen is a Defi built on Solana that provides intermediary services in terms of borrowing or lending, trading, obtaining liquidity of your digital assets or crypto assets. It assures transactions without including any centralized operator. It is developed in order to support millions of investors or traders.

According to information provided by solona.net Oxygen allows for a more efficient use of your assets in three key ways

• Multiple uses of the same collateral- Oxygen enables you to generate yield on your portfolio through lending out your assets and borrowing other assets at the same time.

• Cross-collateralization - With Oxygen, you can utilize your portfolio as collateral, when you want to borrow other assets. This should mean lower margin call/liquidation risk for your portfolio.

• Market-based pricing - Oxygen protocol is order-book based, rather than following a pre-set market model that needs to be manually adjusted. This means you get the best/fair price for borrowing/lending every time.

The Oxygen Defi has its own native currency I.e. OXY tokens which protocol this exchange governing it and its revenue. The total supply of these Oxy tokens according to stats provided on orxygen.org is “10,000,000,000”

SOLONAX

Solonax is an automated market maker and non-custodial i.e. 100% of access to your crypto asset is under your control. An automated market maker (AMM) is a decentralized exchange operated by automated trading that provides liquidity i.e. converting your crypto asset into another or cash. Solonax supports trades taking place in the Solana ecosystem.

Solana is working on establishing the quality of decentralized exchange to make it more secure for users. Solana launched this Solonax Defi protocol on June 9th. Here in the picture, the aims of Solonax can be seen.

Regarding the launch, the team said,

“SOLANAX is attempting to eliminate centralized intermediaries and pave the way for full decentralization, censorship-resistant, and safe trading within the Solana ecosystem and beyond.”

On 25th June the Solonax launched its own native token known as $SOLD for developing the projects.
The solonax facilitates stress-free trading on Solana with High liquidity. Solana being one of the fastest blockchains has designed this exchange to offer quick transactions.

Solana is continuously working to bring more features into this decentralized exchange for making it the highest scalability protocol for investors.

Here are all the media contacts that can be used for contacting Solonax gathered from

Detail and explain the SOLA token

The Solana is a cryptocurrency built on with a combination of both DEX AND CEX i.e. decentralized and centralized exchange. The solatoken is a powerful Defi and native currency of solatoken.net. One can easily involve in features offered by solatoke.net if he’s a SOLA token owner. This high-performance token is built to get facilitated with quick transactions at cheap costs.

Statistically speaking there is currently 27, 153,077 circulating supply of SolaToken according to the solatoken.net operating system.

At the time of the assignment, the price of one solatoken is $0.055399 according to the information gathered from coingecko.com. According to the same platform, I.e. coingecko Raydium is the most active exchange of Solatoken currently with a market cap of $1,504,251and a total volume of trading of $43,580.

According to Solscan, there are currently 1,907 sola token holders.

The basis of information available on solatoken.net is currently restricted to only one exchange i.e. trade however is aiming to be available on NFT, Lottery, and Stake soon.

When did Solana Blockchain see its operations interrupted? Why? Explain.

One of the fastest and advanced blockchains met with sudden disruption leaving the people with how’s and why’s.

When?

On September 14 of 2021, which makes it approximately 2 weeks old? The Solana ecosystem experienced a huge shutdown that lasted for around or more than 1020 minutes. It sudden outage of the network kept the total sum of $11 billion of investors locked during shutdown hours.

Aftermath

The striking profits of SOL, a native currency of Solana ecosystem, from its release was of $1.86 in January 2021 gained $171 till the time of incident of 14 September 2021. However after the major breakdown the value of SOL coin decreased from $171 to $142.

Why?

The breakdown of blockchain raised many questions one of which was what caused this major shutdown? Well the team of Solana explained as they named it “The 9-14 network outage” by releasing network outage initial review.

https://solana.com/news/9-14-network-outage-initial-overview

They said the system was recovered within the period of 24 hours with zero loss of investors’ funds. They said the cause of this breakdown was a “denial of service attack”. In simple terms, the outage happened due to over transactions i.e. 400,000 TPS. Solana came on Twitter and explained the issue. Here’s what Solana had to say to public.

RESTARTING THE NETWORK

The system was successfully restarted by engineers, Once the Bug was diagnosed the team of engineers' hard work made the restarting of the system in the period of 14 hours.

Checks the last block generated in Solana and make an approximate calculation of how many blocks per second have been generated in Solana, taking into account from the initial block to the current one? Justify your answer and show screenshots.

Solana’s coin named sol token Is the native Coin of the Solana blockchain.

In order to see the latest number of blocks generated by the Solana blockchain, I'll explore Solana blockchain by visiting Solana explorer present on the Solana blockchain.

As you can see in the picture below that I’ve now reached the Solana explorer page. It can be seen that the last block at the time of this assignment being done is 99, 090, 374.

We are aware it’s been an year and 8 months ever since Solana has been operated in order to generate the number of blocks Solana generated here’s little math required.

Formula: Total time since an operation in seconds
Total number of blocks

As we know the total time since the operation of Solana is 18 months in order to convert it into seconds I used an online app for calculation:

Now putting values in the formula:

47340000/99, 090, 374 = 0.4 = 0.5

As we have calculated it can be seen that Solana greatest every new block in 0.5 sec being the fastest blockchain

Bottom Line

Solana has been shooting up ever since the operation came into existence i.e. in April 2020. The initial worth of Solana was $1.50 which now has risen up to about or more than $208. It is now a tough competition for rival decentralized exchanges. The ability of the blockchain to restart after its shutdown with no loss of funds has assured users with its strong backup. Solana is all set to make Defi exchange trustable among individuals.

Regard
@aizazghumman