Ecosystem

Beyond Currency

While many people associate Solana primarily with its native cryptocurrency SOL, it is important to understand that Solana is far more than just a digital currency. Solana is a high-performance blockchain network and an ecosystem that supports a wide array of dApps and use cases. Its architecture is designed for scalability, offering high throughput of up to 65,000 transactions per second, cheap fees and lightning-fast confirmations, making it suitable for demanding applications like decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gaming, and more.

Decentralized Supercomputer

Think of Solana like a vast, decentralized supercomputer spread across the globe. This network is like one huge, shared computer that anyone can use. The blockchain in this system acts like the computer's memory, storing all the information and transactions. Just as your personal computer runs programs, Solana can run dApps. The SOL is like the fuel that powers this computer, used to pay for using its resources. Validators in the network are similar to the different components of a computer, working together to process information.

Interconnected dApps

When making a dApp, developers can use other dApps that are already deployed on the network and incorporate them in their projects.

Example

Let's say you want to make an online fantasy trading card game. Instead of coding everything from scratch, you could:

  1. Use an existing dApp that creates unique digital cards (as NFTs).
  2. Add another dApp that handles in-game currency and player transactions.
  3. Include a dApp that manages player rankings and tournaments.

This is what makes Solana powerful. There are already many tools and dApps that are waiting for people to use and build upon.