Solana Blockchain - Crypto Academy - S4W4 - Homework post for pelon53

Hello mates, this is week 4 of the 4th season of Crypto Academy and I believe it is running smooth for each one of us. Thanks to all the professors for their continuous support and lessons they give us and I am glad to take on the assignment as given by @pelon53 talking about the Solana network.

---

Introduction

---

The Solana network is a 3rd generation decentralized blockchain network known for its speed in transaction processing. Indeed, Solana prides itself to be the fastest blockchain network in the world with 400 milliseconds blocktimes and with about some 368 projects (at the time of preparing this) running on its network ranging from Defi, NFTs, Dapps and more. Aside its high scalability, transaction cost on the Solano network is relatively low as it remains less than $0.01.

The project was started in 2017 by founder Anatoly Yakovenko and was running on Testnet until march 2020 when the mainnet was launched. The Solana blockchain network uses the Proof of History consensus which I will discuss subsequently.

---

Solana's Proof of History (PoH)

---

The Proof of History consensus used by the Solana network is what sets it apart from the others. The Proof of History enables the blockchain to work fast whiles maintaining security. Proof-of-History consensus creates a record of transactions so that we can identify the time a transaction occurred using a Verifiable Delayed function algorithm to hash transactions and events.

This is what really happens in the Solana Blockchain network

_Source

---

Every transaction has a unique hash and count as a function of real time. This information (hash) will show the sequence of transactions as they occured on the network almost like a cryptographic timestamp which gives a verifiable ordering of transactions and events. Each node gets a cryptographic clock that helps the network agree on time and ordering of events without having to wait for confirmations from other nodes making transaction processing faster than the other traditional blockchain networks.

---

Use Cases of Solana blockchain network

---

Of the numerous projects running on the Solana network, I will like to talk about just two as required.

The first is Afflarium.

Afflarium is a fascinating and realistic gaming environment that combines VR technology, cryptocurrency, NFT, virtual property, real-world economics, and a one-of-a-kind gaming experience. The game is played online with a multiplayer option for users and can be played on desktop, mobile phones or using VR techology.

Afflarium does not have a linear plotline that the player must follow from beginning to end. The player is in charge of their own adventure as they navigate the universe of possibilities. Users get to explore different worlds to suit their tastes and needs, and each one is distinct and related to the others. Afflarium is designed with amazing graphics, which are made possible by cutting-edge technology that is always evolving. In Afflarium, you may interact, compete against other players, and engage in a variety of economic activities. Afflarium employs a real-world economy based on blockchain technology to provide a unique gaming experience. Your digital assets are yours to own, control, and profit from by trading them.

Afflarium has two tokens; a governance token - $AFF that gives you access to the game and the economy token - USDC or USDT used for the purchase of goods and other digital assets among other things.

---

The second is 8PAY

8PAY is a Defi platform for automatic trustless crypto payment using the Solana blockchian network. 8PAY prides itself to be the only crypto payment processor that lets you access single, recurring and on demand payments from a wide range of tokens automatically. Currently, 8PAY supports a wide range of tokens such as, BTC, ETH, BNB, DAI, USDTamong others. It also has its own token called the 8PAY token.

At the time of doing this work, the 8PAY token ranked #1870 and priced at $0.06658 on Coinmarketcap. See screenshot below for further details of the 8PAY token.

_{screenshot from Coinmarketcap}

8PAY is also compatible with wallets like Metamask, Trust Wallet and Ledger Wallet. It also works on exchanges like Uniswap, Pancakeswap, Bithumb Global and Bilaxy. All of this information and some many more are available on the official website.

---

The Sola Token

---

Sola Token is a Defi project built on the Solana blockchain network that provides liquidity for users using the new AMM mechanism. The Sola Token platfrom allow users to trade and swap faster and at lower costs.

Below are some screenshots from the official website of Sola Token.

---

The AMM algorith used by Sola Token is integrated with Serum making all orders and liquidity on Serum available in the Sola Token platform. The Sola Token is still in the development phase and their road map is set to begin soon.

Sola Token has a native token SOLA and below are some details of the token as provided on Coingecko.

---

When did Solana Blockchain see its operations disrupted? Why?

---

During September 14 and 15, the Solana blockchain was attacked, which resulted in the validator nodes shutting down and restarting the blockchain network. Solana attributed the 17 hour shutdown of the blockchain network to a denial-of-service targetted at the Initial DEX Offering (IDO) of the Grape Protocol. This affected all projects running on the platfrom too.

In a response to the situation, Solana foundation stated that as the Grape Protocol released its IDO on the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium, bots flooded the network overwhelming the network with over 400,000 transactions per second. Nodes went offline as they run out of memory to process the mass number of transactions coming in.

A hard fork was passed after obtaining approval from 80 percent of the network's active stakers, thanks to a collaboration between Solana engineers and more than 1,000 validators to recover the network.

---

Check 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.

---

To check for the last block generated in Solana, we use the Solana Explorer.

As at the time of doing this work, the last block generated was 99,085,517
Block hash: EXrFrK5VXsUsJw4CXGf8YTVTiPBDuT2RMghT228nf27p

See screenshot below

Now, the Solana network started in March 2020 and the first block was generated the same period which is some 18 months ago.

Expressing this in seconds = 18months*total seconds in a month.

where total seconds in a month = 2,629,743.83

Total seconds in 18 months = 18 * 2,629,743.83 = 47,335,388.9 seconds

To find each blocktime, we divide the total seconds in 18 months by the total blocks currently.

47,335,388.9 / 99,085,517 = 0.477 ; approximately 0.5 seconds.

The calculation above indeed proves that the Solana blockchain network uses an approximate 0.5 seconds to generate a block so therefore in a second, 2 blocks are generated.

---

Conclusion

Solana blockchain network is the fastest blockchain network as we have discussed with the capacity to generate blocks in split seconds. It also uses a Proof of History consensus mechanism to increase scalability whiles maintaining security.

Thanks for reading and credits to @pelon53 for this insightful lecture.

Regards

@kayduke