What is Solana?
Solana is a blockchain project invented by Anatoly Yakovenko, trying to solve the scalability, without having to sacrifice security or decentralization. The main reason this is possible is because of Solana's minimum mempool of transactions, allowing incredibly short processing times the blockchain offers, at the same time increasing the number of transactions theoretically at an incredible 710.000 tps.
Because of the innovative hybrid consensus model containing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain, Solana is the most performant permissionless blockchain in the world.
Proof-of-History is the main component of the Solana protocol. PoH records successful operations and the time that has passed between them, ensuring the trustless nature of the blockchain. The proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus is used as a monitoring tool for the PoH processes, and it validates each sequence of blocks produced by it.
The SOL token can be used to run a verifier node and earn a staking reward. In addition to staking, SOL is used to transmit value on the Solana network.
A significant focus for the Solana Foundation is to make decentralized finance accessible on a larger scale.