Where did Solana come from?

Solana is part of the third generation of cryptocurrency networks. Bitcoin laid the foundation as part of the first generation and was followed by Ethereum, the second generation of cryptocurrencies generally focussed on facilitating smart contracts.

As part of the third generation, Solana follows on this legacy by seeking to clear many of the hurdles that the early cryptocurrencies continue to struggle with. Hurdles that include the speed at which transactions on the networks are settled, the cost of settling these transactions, and the volume of transactions cryptocurrency networks can handle.

Who founded Solana?

Computer engineer Anatoly Yakovenko and venture investor Raj Gokal started work on the Solana project in 2017 and officially launched the Solana blockchain in 2020. From the outset, Yakovenko and Gokal were on a mission to solve the transaction-related issues of speed, volume and cost, culminating in the design of a new, faster method of validating transactions, called proof-of-history (POH).

While Solana and peers such as Cardano have been labelled “Ethereum killers”, Yakovenko says he sees Solana not necessarily as a competitor but a complement to Ethereum, elaborating in a tweet that he can’t imagine a world in which Solana succeeds because Ethereum fails.

Management of Solana

The Solana ecosystem is managed by two entities, namely Solana Labs and the Solana Foundation. Solana Labs is headquartered in San Francisco and creates decentralised applications that feed into the Solana ecosystem, while the Solana Foundation, a non-profit organisation headquartered in Switzerland, is dedicated to the decentralisation, growth and security of Solana.

In 2022, Solana Labs famously launched a Solana smartphone aimed at gapping the bridge between Web 3 and mobile.