How Solana is Changing Trade, Art and Artistry

When Bitcoin came into being about more than a decade ago, it set about to solve a big challenge: peer to peer monetary transaction — making it possible for “strangers anywhere in the world to make financial transactions over the internet without financial intermediaries and payment processors like Visa or Mastercard assisting the transaction.”   

This tech know-how that makes decentralized transactions possible — and which created the universe of cryptocurrencies as we have comr to know — is called a blockchain.

But, blockchains previously had one major downside compared to centralized networks like the ones credit-card companies use: they’re slower. As of August 2021, Ethereum typically processes fewer than 15 transactions per second, compared to tens of thousands for Visa’s network.

Solana, on the other hand is one of many new crypto solutions aiming to make crypto networks faster and more scalable. It uses a suite of clever technologies, including a novel mechanism called “proof of history.”

Solana Dreams Big.

With over $30 billion market cap, Solana isn’t interested in competing with Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies on every front. All it really wants is to completely disrupt Wall Street and the rest of the global markets. Solana is building “an open, fair, censorship-resistant global marketplace” that’s better than anything inside of the New York Stock Exchange or any other means of settling trades.

With many developers flocking to Solana, here are some of the exciting projects that are happening on the Solana blockchain.

A Metaverse Platform for Androids, Aliens and Humans

Build, Own, Earn is the mantra of Star Atlas — a blockchain-based multiplayer exploration game. The game is still in its early stages of development, but some parts of its metaverse have already been opened for exploration as it undergoes a staged release. 

Star Atlas claims it’s the ultimate haven of “universe of opportunities” thanks to its dual economy, which uses ATLAS tokens as its main currency and POLIS tokens for governance. Players get to complete challenges and earn rewards in both ATLAS and NFTs. 

Speaking of NFTs,

1. Magic Eden has become the dominant NFT Marketplace on Solana, generating 95% of the transaction share across all Solana-based NFT Marketplaces.
2. Michael Jordan's Solana Athlete App HEIR ( a fan engagement platform) drops first NFTs.

A Platform to Earn Tips Just for Liking!
TikTok, Here I Come!

Chingari is a TikTok-style short video sharing app and a social media platform to date to launch its official cryptocurrency. Users will earn GARI tokens for creating and sharing content that goes viral and to tip other users if they enjoy their videos.

“With Chingari, powered by $GARI, you can create and share fun videos on the award-winning app and earn special Chingari tokens, or $GARI, which you can trade in the global crypto marketplace.” Users may also tip other users if they enjoy their videos.

According to GenX Analytics, GARI has already become the second most widely held cryptocurrency token on the Solana Blockchain.

A Platform to Interact with Your Favorite Brand

Imagine you could earn daily rewards for interacting with your favorite brands.
Now you can.

That’s the idea behind Crowny, a privacy-focused solution that works for both brands and end users. The mobile application allows users to control which type of content and deals they wish to see and when, while brands can reach their target audience through push notifications, geofencing and QR codes.

The native $CRWNY token plays a key role, flowing into the wallets of those who participate in campaigns tailored to their area of interest.

A Platform for Lovers and Creators

Blockchain-enabled music streaming platform that gives creators full control over the content they produce, it’s no surprise to see Audius is gaining popularity. “When artists upload content to the platform, they can produce immutable records fully secured by a decentralized network of nodes. They can then charge a fee for network users to download and listen to their content.”

Originally launched on the Ethereum Blockchain, it now resides on Solana.
Touting over 5 million listeners each month, its native AUDIUS token is now the 5th most widely held on the Solana Blockchain.

A Platform for 3D Virtual World Immersion

Enter Solice.
Users can build and monetize mini games, complete quests and clear dungeons in return for crypto rewards, then sell the assets they earn through its integrated marketplace. 

It’s a play-to-earn metaverse experience that allows anyone to participate.
Unlike other platforms, Solace has a custom SDK for users to create their own NFTs that can be used in the game or sold.

A Platform for Merchants and Traders

Enter Solana Pay

Solana Pay allows merchants and users to pay in real-time, in $SOL, or any other supported Solana token, such as real-time payments in USD Coin (USDC), without involving a third-party such as a bank or payments processor.
Moreover, Solana Pay doesn’t allow for chargebacks, removing a costly issue that traditional merchants often face.

Moreover, Solana Pay offers detailed reports on every transaction such as wallet destination, currency type, the transaction amount and text fields for the merchant to describe the said transaction — doing all this while keeping it private from the rest of the network.

For other Solano cutting edge projects explore here.

The Desire to Dream Different

Whether Solano can take over Wall Street is yet to be seen.
But, it all started with a dream.

In late 2017, Solano's founder Anatoly Yakovenko published a whitepaper draft detailing a new timekeeping technique for distributed systems called Proof of History (PoH), the key to dreaming different.

In blockchains like Bitcoin and Etheruem, that depends on Proof of Work (POW), one of the limitations to scalability is the time required to reach a consensus on the order of transactions. Having thus said, Ethereum is upgrading to Proof of Stake (POS).

The world received a taste of the scalability problems in 2017 and 2018: severe transfer delays and high fees on the Bitcoin network, and the notorious Cryptokitties app that congested the Ethereum blockchain network (a network that thousands of decentralized applications rely on).

Anatoly believed his new technique could automate the transaction ordering process for blockchains, providing a key piece that would enable crypto networks to scale well-beyond their capabilities at the time.

As the saying goes, the rest is history.
Or, you could say, the rest is doing the dream.