2021 was an adventurous year for cryptocurrencies. While institutional interest in assets like Bitcoin and Ether surged, several other altcoins performed notably well. Solana (SOL) is one such coin.
Solana's price jumped over 100% since the start of August 2021, making it one of the hottest coins in the market. According to experts, investing in Solana right now could make you a millionaire retiree. But first, let us understand what Solana is.
Solana Investment Could Make You a Millionaire in The Long Haul
Become a part of the growing Solana ecosystem by buying SOL, one of the top-performing assets.
Solana is a fourth-generation blockchain and cryptocurrency that leverages an open infrastructure to provide greater scalability. In addition, the network has introduced various new and unique technologies to provide users with unmatched transaction speeds and enterprise-level security. Consequently, the network has seen considerable growth since its introduction in 2017.
There are multiple pain points in the market that Solana attempts to rectify. The network’s architecture was structured to be expandable and resilient to censorship. This trustless and distributed blockchain tackles both transaction settlement speed concerns and bandwidth via this design.
Solana: Solid Fundamentals
Solana has got strong fundamentals, making it a must-buy cryptocurrency.
Solana is one of the fastest programmable blockchains in the crypto market right now. It is also one of the many coins viewed as potential successors to the Ethereum (ETH) throne.
So what are programmable blockchains? These blockchain networks can store tiny pieces of code called smart contracts, which can be programmed to carry out some actions when the contract conditions are fulfilled.
Ethereum was the first programmable blockchain and attracted various developers, who used it to build decentralized applications (dApps). However, the network is congested due to heavy traffic. Its fees have also become expensive, and it has a large carbon footprint. A major upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 is in the works to address these issues, but it will not be fully rolled out until 2022.
As a result, several new programmable blockchains are jostling to take some of Ethereum's market share. They are designed to be faster, cheaper, and more sustainable from the get-go. Notably, Solana is the fastest of them all.
Solana: Scalability
Invest in the future of cryptocurrencies by buying SOL right now.
Scalability issues continue to plague the crypto market. Early blockchain networks' reliance on the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism has led to many congestion issues. Top coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum were designed to increase transaction fees as the network’s congestion rose.
Solana avoids these issues by introducing systems that allow the network’s transaction throughput to scale proportionally to its bandwidth.
The Solana network can process 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) or more. It says that number could increase to as much as 700,000 TPS as the network grows. For comparison, Ethereum currently processes 15 to 45 TPS. Visa says its payments system processes about 24,000 TPS.
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Solana: Unique Features
Solana has the potential to grow, making now an excellent time to buy SOL.
Solana is a Delegated-Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network. DPoS networks differ from PoS networks in a couple of ways.
Both mechanisms utilize Validators to process transactions. Validators are chosen based on their overall holdings in the network. Therefore, the more SOL you hold, the higher the chances you get selected as a validator. This strategy ensures that only those vested in the network have this position.
The Proof of History (POH) mechanism used by the platform serves a vital role in the Solana ecosystem. This protocol increases the efficiency of the blockchain by integrating timestamps in every transaction approval. These timestamps enable nodes to establish the sequence of events. In this way, the system serves as a cryptographic clock for the network.
Investing in SOL
SOL is the native token of the Solana network. SOL’s spectacular gains have followed the network’s foray into non-fungible tokens (NFT) and the launch in particular of the “Degenerate Ape Academy,” an NFT that was built on Solana’s network in August 2021.
The initiative was so successful that over 10,000 NFTs of cartoon apes were sold in the first ten minutes after it launched. As people needed SOL tokens to buy the cartoon apes, the price of SOL dramatically shot up in value.
Antoni Trenchev, the co-founder of crypto lender Nexo, said that proponents of NFTs tout SOL’s success as a key reason to invest. “Solana has a growing ecosystem, projects are being built on it and it’s benefited hugely from the mania that’s taking place in NFTs.”
NFTs are unique (non-fungible) cryptographic tokens that are recorded on a blockchain. You can use them to prove the authenticity, ownership, and provenance of anything (physical or non-physical) such as artwork, collectible cards, videos, etc.
Is Solana a Good Investment?
Buying Solana (SOL) now could help you diversify your portfolio with an emerging crypto token. If you envision a big future for smart contracts and blockchain technology, it would be worthwhile to invest in Solana.
Diversification of assets is always the smart thing to do when it comes to investing.
Bottom Line
The Solana blockchain ecosystem is rapidly growing and is seeing strong adoption. It has seen a 130% growth in its projects over last summer (over 180 projects). Solana’s total value locked in smart contracts is now north of $3.5-billion, growing 200% in August 2021 alone.
If you are buying Solana because you are hoping for another 100% jump next month, you might want to think again. Solana may be a good long-term choice, but it is never a good idea to invest in the hope of making a quick buck. Instead, look at the fundamentals and use them to evaluate how Solana stacks up against other investment opportunities. Investing in Solana now could make you a millionaire retiree if it continues its growth trajectory.
Notably, if you plan to buy and hold Solana (SOL), you should be able to stake your holdings to earn interest. Staking is key to the network's validation and security, and token holders can earn rewards by tying up their coins for a set period.
Investing in any crypto can be risky. Perform due research and past performance analysis before pouring massive amounts of money into Solana.
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