The Pros And Cons Of Solana — How To Solve Solana’s NFT Problems
The basis of what Solana is today was first proposed by Anatoly Yakovenko in his whitepaper written in November of 2017. It described a new technique for keeping time between computers that do not trust one another, called Proof of History. After prototyping and a rebrand to the Solana we know, and by June of 2018, the team had scaled the technology to run on cloud-based networks. And by December that year, the team had managed to demonstrate running an average of 200,000 transactions per second.
Today, Solana has risen to be many people’s top blockchains for NFTs. When compared to its main competition, Ethereum, the differences are clear. With the high-speed transaction processing and low gas fees from their hybrid approach of using Proof of Stake and Solana’s Proof of History, Solana has now positioned itself as a perfect blockchain for fast and accessible NFTs at scale.
What are the benefits of Solana?
One of the plagues of Ethereum is the fees required for any transaction. Solana is proposed as a high-speed, low-cost blockchain that is an antidote to the problems Ethereum has. What exactly does this mean for NFTs? Well firstly, Ethereum’s gas problem is a massive barrier to entry for people. The idea of spending anywhere from up to hundreds of dollars just for a transaction can be enough to turn some people’s stomachs. So when you compare it to the average cost of transactions on Solana, at a staggeringly low $0.00025, and with scalability ensuring transactions remain less than $0.01, it’s evident that NFT investors shouldn’t have to put up with high gas fees anymore.
Another comparison between Solana and Ethereum that highlights the benefits of Solana is in the blockchains’ high transaction speeds. Theoretically, the chain has a peak capacity of 65,000 transactions per second, and Solana touts itself as the fastest blockchain in the world. Its ability to scale is what makes Solana different from other blockchains. With advances in technology, where hardware gets faster, the network will also get faster, enabling developers and users to use apps on the blockchain without hindrance. This scalability is important when you’re the fastest-growing ecosystem in crypto with thousands of DeFi, NFT, and Web3 projects launching every day.
Energy-Efficient and Eco-Friendly
At the time of writing, it is 2022, and the consensus around the issues with our climate is clear. With countries setting green-energy targets and even companies becoming carbon-neutral in an effort to stave off global warming. The past year has put a laser focus on blockchain and how intensive mining, required to manage the demand, is having a hugely damaging effect on the planet. It’s worth noting that Ethereum is moving to consensus mechanisms like Proof of Stake, the same one that Solana uses to confirm transactions, which should improve its environmental impact eventually. However, Solana has already proven its commitment to reducing its footprint. In late 2021, the Solana Foundation announced that with carbon offsets the blockchain has become carbon-neutral. The announcement has since put large pressure on other blockchains to reduce their effect on the climate.
Read About Solana’s Energy Use Report: March 2022
The Flip-Side
While Ethereum uses the less efficient Proof of Work method for confirming transactions, it is seen as a more secure consensus mechanism. Ethereum is being upgraded to Ethereum 2.0 which aims to improve such areas as network scalability and security by switching to a different consensus mechanism Proof of Stake. The full upgrade is expected to happen in 2023. It’s not entirely clear whether this is going to solve the problems Ethereum is facing but it looks promising.
I mentioned that the low gas fees would improve accessibility within the NFT space. However, this will undoubtedly mean there will be an increase in bad-actor projects whose only aim is to rug-pull or those who just don’t have the experience to run a successful project. The following project aims to support projects that want to create positive change, to improve their general standards around security, social engagement, roadmap quality, and more.
Being Part Of The Solution
So what can we do as a space, to help prevent rug-pulls happening in the first place? Well, the emerging project SolSeals is one of the projects that set out to, as they put it, “fight the war on rugs”. They are a team of cyber security professionals that have created a comprehensive assessment framework, that holds projects to a certain standard of quality and security. The aim is to reduce people’s chances of investing in a rug-pull and to create a safer, more profitable NFT ecosystem. The team creating the collection of 3,333 Seal NFTs chose Solana for its potential to be the leading blockchain for NFTs, with the understanding that there are problems that need to be solved.
Leading the project’s assessment development is Sergeant Major, or Serg for short. He is a cyber security consultant with 5+ years of experience and a BSc (Hons) cyber security degree. He has experience working for a big four consultancy where he became a seasoned professional in auditing large companies with industry-standard frameworks such as NIST and ISO. After being rugged by a Solana project, Serg saw the necessity to utilize his experience to develop an innovative assessment framework to ensure the members of the Solana community are safe from rugs. His passion comes from the potential he sees for the entire NFT ecosystem and believes that there is a gap in the way that NFT projects are currently assessed, if at all. He is part of a team that has a vision of implementing a new assessment standard for projects to prove their legitimacy.
SolSeals is building a dashboard before mint that is going to centralize the projects that they have assessed into a platform that can empower investors with the knowledge to make better investment decisions. They also have plans to create a set of ‘Do Your Own Research’ tools, with the intended consequence of educating investors so they will be able to recognize a bad project or rug-pull when they see one.
Read More About The NFT making moves to clean up the space with NFT Assessments and a ‘DYOR’ Dashboard
