Solana

Solana is an open source project implementing a new, high-performance, permissionless blockchain. Solana is a general purpose blockchain similar to Ethereum. End user applications as of now include decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), marketplaces, games, and more. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko published a whitepaper describing Proof of History, a technique that would become critical to Solana's blockchain infrastructure, in Nov. 2017. 

Co-founder Greg Fitzgerald, who had worked with Yakovenko at Qualcomm, began prototyping the open source implementation of the whitepaper. It was published under the name Silk in 2018. 

After starting the company under the name Loom, Yakovenko, Fitzgerald, and other co-founders rebranded to Solana. Solana launched on Mainnet Beta in March 2020.

Solana was built to facilitate the development of scalable, user-friendly decentralized apps with low costs and high speeds for transactions.

Solana believes its unique blockchain architecture that combines the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and its own proof of history mechanism is the key to achieving these goals.

Proof of history works almost like a cryptographic timestamp that proves that an event has occurred at a specific time. It enables the blockchain to work fast while maintaining security and decentralization.

There are about 304 million SOL in circulation as of November 2021. Solana has an initial inflation rate of 8%, which will decrease by 15% a year until it reaches a long-term inflation rate of 1.5%. SOL is Solana’s native token.

Solana competes with other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and Avalanche to host crypto projects such as NFTs, decentralized exchanges, and gaming. 

Developers and users flocked from Ethereum to Solana due to high transaction costs, but many could gravitate back towards Ethereum if it manages to lower costs, which could happen as a result of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade and layer 2 rollups. 

Solana.com
Docs.solana.com/history
Forums.solana.com

Uniswap

Dallas Mavericks owner and investor Mark Cuban on Sunday unfollowed several cryptocurrency-related accounts on Twitter, triggering fears that he might be losing faith in the sector. What Happened: According to BigTechAlert, an account that tracks Twitter accounts of billionaires, Cuban unfollowed accounts of Uniswap, Dapperlabs, Defi Pulse, Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) and MetaMask, among several others.

Mark Cuban Losing Faith In Crypto? 'Shark Tank' Star Unfollows Uniswap, Solana, MetaMask And Others On Twitter

Solana's biggest project, the decentralized exchange Serum, had to carry out an emergency hard fork for fears that private upgrade keys held by FTX were compromised.

Tether Yanks $1B In USDT Off Solana As Blockchain's FTX Ties Cloud Future

Coin Bureau host Guy is sending out a warning that a top Ethereum (ETH) competitor faces more downside risks in the FTX fallout. The Coin Bureau host tells his 2.17 million YouTube subscribers that the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange has made the road ahead for Solana (SOL) difficult.

Leading Ethereum Rival To Plunge by Over 40% Amid FTX Collapse, Predicts Coin Bureau Host

Quick Take In this weekly series, we dive into some of the most interesting data and developments across the Layer 1 blockchain landscape, from DeFi and bridges to network activity and funding The sudden collapse of FTX and Alameda has sent shockwaves throughout crypto, imparting significant capital losses to a wide range of parties including users, developers, investors, and more Among L1s, the Solana ecosystem was impacted most severely by the incident due to early investments from FTX and Alameda, along with the two companies' roles in providing an extensive range of market-making and infrastructural services for the ecosystem Solana now faces a long and uncertain road to recovery, but steady network performance during the recent crisis offers a glimmer of hope that continued technical updates can lay the foundation for user interest and growth once more in the future 

Layer by Layer: Solana Ecosystem Contends with FTX Fallout

Ethereum

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, said it was conducting a chain swap to move 1 billion USDT from Solana to Ethereum. The post Tether says it's moving 1 billion USDT from Solana to Ethereum appeared first on The Block.

Tether says it's moving 1 billion USDT from Solana to Ethereum

The chain swap announcement comes as Solana faces difficulties.

Solana Loses $1 Billion in USDT to Ethereum in Tether Chain Swap

NFT protocol Metaplex is laying off staff due to to the "indirect impact" of the FTX collapse. The post Solana-based Metaplex lays off staff following FTX collapse appeared first on The Block.

Solana-based Metaplex lays off staff following FTX collapse

Multiple exchanges disabled deposits and withdrawals for Solana-based Tether  (CRYPTO: USDT) and USD Coin (CRYPTO: USDC) on Thursday. What Happened: Tether, in a blog post, said, “the move to suspend USDT deposits on these exchanges is likely just due to the heavy connections between FTX (CRYPTO: FTT), Alameda, and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL).

Tether Says Crypto Exchanges Disabling USDC, USDT Transactions Over 'Heavy Connections With FTX, Alameda, Solana'

While it had no financial exposure to the fallen exchange, Metaplex appears to be suffering from reputational damage spreading to Solana.

Solana NFT Protocol Metaplex Announces Layoffs in Wake of FTX Collapse

The only change is that Binance restarted Solana USDT — without explanation.

No Explanation Hours After Top Exchanges Halt Solana-Only USDC, USDT Trading

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Thursday temporarily suspended deposits of the stablecoins USDC (CRYPTO: USDC) and USDT (CRYPTO: USDT) on the Solana blockchain "until further notice," but resumed a few hours later. "After internal assessment and review, Binance has now resumed deposits for USDT (SOL)," the company stated in its official blog post.

Binance Temporarily Suspends USDT, USDC Deposits On The Solana Blockchain, Resumes Later

Binance has yet to provide an explanation for the move, which has been mirrored by other major crypto exchanges.

Binance Temporarily Suspends Deposits of USDC, USDT on Solana

The announcement from the largest crypto exchange by trading volume comes after rival OKX announced it will delist both USDC and USDT on Solana. The post Binance halts Solana-based USDC and USDT deposits, in line with rivals appeared first on The Block.

Binance halts Solana-based USDC and USDT deposits, in line with rivals

Former Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal says one of Ethereum's (ETH) top rivals offers a big opportunity to investors after a price fall. In a new strategy session video, the macro guru tells his 52,800 Youtube subscribers that Solana (SOL) has a lot working in its favor to ignite an eventual bull run.

Macro Guru Raoul Pal Says One of Ethereum's Top Rivals Reminds Him of When ETH Was Down 97% in 2018

Solana emerged as the week's worst-performing crypto asset as one of the project's early backers FTX went insolvent.

Solana Plummets More Than 41% Over The Week Amid FTX Collapse

Solana, a poster coin of the crypto future, is in trouble.

Cryptoverse: So long, Solana? Ether rival clobbered by FTX crash

The links between Solana, FTX, and Alameda are made clear as SOL continues to fall in price, now down 57% over the past week.

Solana Foundation Details FTX, SBF Financial Ties as SOL Struggles

The foundation addressed the fallout of the FTX debacle in a blog post.

Solana Foundation Invested in FTX, Held Millions in Sam Bankman-Fried-Linked Cryptos on Exchange

Serum (CRYPTO: SRM), a decentralized exchange software built in the Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) ecosystem, may have been compromised when the hacking of bankrupt FTX occurred on Saturday. FTX announced that the exchange had been hacked on its official Telegram message.

Solana-Based Serum May Have Been Compromised During FTX Hack, Fork Efforts Underway

Many Solana developers suspect the recent FTX hack may have compromised Serum, so they are forking the platform. The post Solana liquidity hub Serum to be forked after possible compromise in FTX hack  appeared first on The Block.

Solana liquidity hub Serum to be forked after possible compromise in FTX hack 

Developers are scrambling to create a new version of the on-chain liquidity hub that has no ties to Sam Bankman-Fried's burning empire.

FTX Hack Spooks Solana DeFi Community, Igniting Revolution at Alameda-Controlled Serum DEX

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took a dig at FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried over his donations to political leaders and said donating large amounts to politicians is what ended up breaking the cryptocurrency exchange. In an apparent jab at U.S. regulators, Buterin also said FTX is headquartered in the Bahamas and the location was chosen in part due to a lack of a regulatory framework, such as the one which exists in the United States.

'That's What Ended Up Breaking It': Vitalik Buterin Tells Benzinga What Broke FTX, Why Solana, Ethereum Didn't Fail

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) rallied as much as 25% earlier today, though overall market volatility resulted in the coin falling into the loss territory instead. Some in the community claim that despite the crypto's strong ties with Sam Bankman Fried — the founder and former CEO of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that filed for bankruptcy earlier today — this protocol has a bright future.

FTX Is Dead, Solana Is Not: SOL Sees Positive Volatility As Community Concurs Sam Bankman-Fried 'Is Not Solana'

Bitcoin Gold (CRYPTO: BTG) and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) are trading lower by some 3.30% to $14.45 and 4.55% to $15.42 Friday afternoon. Several altcoins are experiencing ongoing, marked weakness and trading lower after crypto exchange FTX commenced Chapter 11 proceedings.

Why Bitcoin Gold And Solana Are Trading Lower Again

FTX filed for bankruptcy and FTX US later froze withdrawals for certain assets.

News for Solana Crypto (SOL)