Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S1W1 - Favorite Blockchain Network by @steemdoctor1
Hello everybody.
Welcome to this post. I hope that all of you will be fine and happy and enjoying your good health with the grace and blessings of Almighty God. I am very much happy to see the Crypto Academy back again once more with the Engagement Contests. In this post, I am actually going to participate in Season 1 and Week 1 of the Steemit Crypto Academy Contests. The topic of discussion for this week's contest is Favourite Blockchain Network. So, let's start the task without any waste of time.
As we all know Blockchain technology is growing day by day and new blockchains with impressive and unique features are coming into view. The developers of the new blockchains always try to cover the drawbacks of the previous blockchain and in this way, new blockchains are more accurate and efficient than some pre-existed ones. I think Blockchain technology is the future of the world and we can see that the world is progressing towards Blockchain technology very fastly. Let's discuss my favorite blockchain which is Solana (SOL).
Solana Blockchain
Solana (SOL) is an open-source blockchain platform that was developed in the year 2017 by Sir. Anatoly Yakovenko is one of the most popular personalities in blockchain technology. The co-founders of Solana blockchain contains Sir. Raj Gokal is also famous for his various blockchain contributions. Raj Gokal is now the COO and the Solana Board Member as well. While Sir. Anatoly Yakovenko is now the CEO of the Solana Labs.
Solana Blochain supports many smart contracts including the NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and a number of Decentralized Applications (DApps). The native currency of the Solana blockchain is the SOL which is one of the most popular currency in the crypto space at the time. The Solana Blockchain was actually developed to over the scalability problems in the previous blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The scalability of the Solana blockchain is much more impressive than the previous blockchains.
We all are well aware of the Blockchain Trilemma that there are actually three basic factors including Decentralization, Scalability, and Security. The developers of the blockchains have to sacrifice one of these factors. The main motto of the developers of the Solana blockchain was to develop a very scalable blockchain so they have to sacrifice the decentralization factor. Due to this sacrification, the scalability of the Solana Network is very well that is around 65,000 TPS (theoretically).
Most blockchain lovers including investors and developers of various projects are moving towards the Solana Network due to high transaction speed and very low transaction fees, as well. Different decentralized application developers and NFTs creators are moving their way toward the Solana blockchain due to the above-mentioned reasons.
The Solana blockchain is actually based on two types of consensus mechanisms. One of them is the Proof-of-stake and the second one is Proof-of-history. These two are discussed below.
- Proof-Of-Stake (PoS):
Most of the blockchains that are developing nowadays are using the Proof of Stake consensus protocol. In PoS, there are block validators that perform the same function as the miners play in the PoW mechanism. The users have to stake the tokens (SOL) in order to act as the block validator.
The validators are selected on the basis of the number of tokens (SOL) they have staked in the platform. The more the tokens they have staked, the more are the chances for that investor to act as a block validator. They process and validate the transactions that are taking place in the blockchain and then create blocks for the respective transactions.
- Proof-Of-History:
Proof-of-history is the new consensus protocol that is used by the Solana blockchain. In PoH, the validators are grouped together to form a team and one of the validators is selected as the head of the team. The head of the team is selected on the basis of the amount of SOL tokens he has staked in the network. The more the amount of staked tokens, the more will be chances to be the head of the team.
Every team is given by a time of 5 seconds. Suppose, there are four teams say A, B, C, and D. First of all, the team or slot A finds 5 seconds to find out the next blocks then team B performs this function within 5 seconds (5-10 seconds). After that, there comes the turn of team C who utilizes exactly 5 seconds (10-15) to perform the duty and so on. The reason to use the Proof-of-history mechanism is to improve or ensure the correct sequence of the transactions within the blockchain.
There are some solid reasons behind the statement that I made earlier that the Solana Blockchain is my favorite blockchain. These reasons could be guessed from the above discussion but I will explain them again in key points.
The first and the most important feature of the Solana blockchain is that the transactions are very much cheaper as compared to other Defi blockchains including Ethereum. This thing makes me very much impressed.
The scalability of the Solana blockchain is very much impressive (around 65,000 TPS). This TPS speed makes Solana, one of my favorite blockchains.
Another reason is the native token of the Solana Network (SOL). SOL is really a very powerful and strong token of the time due to its valuable use cases in the Solana blockchain.
The consensus protocols that are used in the Solana Blockchain (PoS and PoH) are also one of the reasons for being my favorite blockchain.
Most of the circulating supply of the SOL tokens is staked in the platform by the validators to get the block rewards. this thing makes the price of the SOL token to the moon sometimes.
In other smart contracts supporting platforms like Ethereum, many of the users find difficulty in accessing and developing the DApps and NFTs due to very high costs. But there is about a negligible amount of costs in the Solana blockchain (about $0.00025 on average).
As we know that nothing is perfect in the universe. Everything has pros as well as cons. Especially in blockchain technology, there is nothing perfectly accurate. Every blockchain has some drawbacks due to the Blockchain Trilemma. So, the same is the case with the Solana Blockchain. There are also some drawbacks of the blockchain that are discussed below.
- Lack of Decentralization:
As we have already discussed that the Solana Network loses the decentralization in various aspects as the developers of the blockchain have to sacrifice this factor in order to improve the scalability of the platform. It is said that almost 37% of the staked SOL tokens in the platform are held by AWS. This thing is claimed to be a bit centralized. Moreover, it is also said that almost half of the SOL tokens supply is owned by some high firms. This thing also makes this blockchain, a bit centralized.
- Case of the SOL supply:
The founder and the CIO of the crypto Cyber Capitals tweeted in November 2021 that the SOL blockchain is a lier as they claimed that the total supply of SOL was 8.2 million tokens but the total supply crossed the claimed total supply of more than 13 million tokens. In reply, Yakovenko said that the Solana Network lend the market maker 13 million tokens just for 6 month period to provide liquidity in the aftermarket.
- Staking System of Solana:
The staking system of the Solana also needs improvement. It can be seen that the block rewards are proportional to the staked tokens. Suppose, an investor divides his staked tokens among two different validators, he will get the same amount of the block reward as he lends it to a single validator but the block fees is double. This thing creates difficulty for the validators as well as the stakes.
- Outages:
The Solana Blockchain has also experienced many network issues and server errors. We have recently seen in September 2021 that the Solana blockchain remained shut off for about 17 hours due to some service errors of the blockchain. This thing also irritates the users of the blockchain.
The main and the only problem with the Solana Blockchain is the lack of decentralization. As I have discussed earlier that due to the blockchain trilemma, the developers of the blockchain have to sacrifice the decentralization factor in order to improve the scalability of the blockchain. The Solana Blockchain really misses the decentralization and I hope that it will gain decentralization in the future soon.
The Solana blockchain is the direct competitor of the Ethereum blockchain and we wish that the Solana blockchain will leave behind the Ethereum blockchain with its high scalability and low costs as well. The TPS value of the Solana blockchain and the low costs of the transactions along with high security is enough to make the system very successful but the factor 'decentralization' is always missed by the blockchain.
I wish to see the Solana blockchain as a successful decentralized blockchain in near future. The Solana blockchain is actually one of the youngest blockchains and we know that whenever a new blockchain is launched, it mainly focused on scalability and security and thus has to ignore/sacrifice the decentralization factor. So, the same is the case with the Solana blockchain. I hope that the decentralization of the Solana blockchain will improve in the near future as new projects are contracting with the Solana blockchain and the team have to increase the number of nodes for the validation of the transaction so that the decentralization of the blockchain could be improved.
There are a number of Decentralized Applications and NFTs that are based on or contracted with the Solana Blockchain and these projects are growing day by day in numbers due to the impressive features of the Solana Blockchain. One of the most recent and the most successful project of the Solana Blockchain is the StepN application. Let's discuss it in more detail.
- What is StepN?:
StepN is actually a Web3 lifestyle application that is built on the Solana Blockchain. It is one of the most popular projects of the Solana blockchain or even of the whole blockchain world at this time. It is designed with interesting and useful features like GameFi and SocialFi. Actually, it is a Move-To-Earn or Run-To-Earn application that rewards its users for walking or jogging.
- Token of StepN (GMT):
The native and the governance token of the StepN is GMT that is also known as Green Metaverse Token. The GMT token is one of the most successful and the most attractive token in the crypto space at the time. The high voltage of the GMT token is due to its relation with the most successful Defi application, StepN.
There is also another token of the StepN platform which is the Green Satoshi Token (GST). The GST token can be used as the in-game token for various activities within the game, like purchasing the sneakers, leveling up the sneakers, minting new sneakers, improving the efficiency and resonance of the sneakers, and many more.
- Working of StepN:
As we have discussed that StepN is a move-to-earn application. For being able to earn, first of all, we have to purchase the sneakers with unique features present in the marketplace of the game. After purchasing the sneakers with SOL, we have to burn our calories by running or walking physically. In this way, we are able to earn the GST token that can be swapped to GMT and USDC, as well.
- My Experience:
I was very much impressed by this project and I really need this project in my daily life as I have to reduce my weight which can be done by jogging or running. I also have purchased a sneaker of 11 SOL a few days ago. Now, I have leveled up my sneaker to the 18 levels and I hope that I will touch the 30 levels by the next month. I wish to mint more sneakers in the future as I am just leveling up my sneaker, instead of withdrawing the rewards.
So, that's all about the Solana (SOL) blockchain. I hope that all of you will like this post. Special thanks to the whole Steemit Team for providing such a great opportunity by organizing the Engagement Contests.
Participant: @steemdoctor1
Solana is the fastest blockchain in the crypto world. It is also my favorite blockchain network. The future of this blockchain is very bright accroding to my thoughts. Best of luck.... 🥰
Yes offcourse. Thanks a lot.
Sinceramente no había leído sobre el proyecto solamente lo había visto cuando apareció en binance y ahora que leo está publicación me arrepiento de no haber ingresado antes ya que ahora no poseo suficiente capital para participar activimente, pero igualmente te deseo mucho éxito en tu publicación amigo y saludos que tengas una buena semana.
Thanks a lot brother for going through the post. Yes, the StepN is really great.
Very extensive but educative aswell
Thanks a lot brother.
As you have explained each and everything about this great solana blockchain is a detailed way, Solana claim to be the fastest transaction per second , almost 50,000 transaction per second. As we compare it with Bitcoin it is 1000 times faster than BTC Blockchain. Solana also achieve high level of scalability. Once a gain thanks for such informative and detail lecture
Thank you very much dear friend. Yes, the TPS of Solana Network is really impressive.
Playa big role for keeping bockchain strong and powerful.
In NFT season,sol blockchain prove its strength with its faster transactions with cheaper price.
It become big compitator for Ethereum too.
StepN is most popular and real use case application on Solana,no doubt.
Here users earning free money just for walking and other real activities.
And also give multple X profits daily .
Nice explanation from you.
Thanks a lot for your syncing.
Tremendo articulo de calidad líder de su parte lo felicito
Thanks a lot brother 😊
One of the things that makes Solana blockchain unique is it's scalability... Thank you for sharing your favorite blockchain.
Thanks a lot for your comments. The scalability of the blockchain is really superb.
DDOS attack has also been lifted towards solana though if they maintain the decentralized system they gonna surely compete with other networks, might solana should also look to retain their hybrid Consensus mechanism.
I like your point regarding decentralization issue with solana. Well you wrote good wordings on SOLANA.
Thanks for your valuable thoughts about the Solana blockchain. Yes, blockchain will be toward the moon if the decentralization factor improved somehow.
I've seen this sudden and huge increasing price of GMT in Binance and I was wondering what's it about until I realized there's a big interesting project to incentive people for doing healthy jogging and walking. 👟 You can even purchase new shoes when they get damaged by a lot of usage and that's the idea of doing more workout. Regards from my part. Liked your post. #venezuela #affable
Thanks a lot, dear friend for syncing with me. Yes, the STEPN project is a much more impressive project of the time that is actually a move-to-earn project.
Thanks again.
Move-To-Earn... Sounds really good. It's the new NFT era. 😃
Yes 🥰