Solana

Solana is a public Layer-1 blockchain platform that uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and Proof of History to support high-throughput smart contract functionality and digital transactions. It powers applications including payments, decentralized finance, gaming, and digital assets. The project originated with a 2017 whitepaper by Anatoly Yakovenko; Solana Labs launched the network in March 2020. SOL serves as the native token for paying transaction fees and staking to secure the network.

• Anatoly YakovenkoCo-founder, CEO
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/anatoly-yakovenko
  • https://x.com/toly
  • https://github.com/aeyakovenko
• Raj GokalCo-founder, COO / President
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajgokal
  • https://x.com/rajgokal

Solana launched with 500 million SOL created in the genesis block and has no maximum supply. Current total supply is approximately 628 million SOL with circulating supply of approximately 580 million SOL. The protocol follows a disinflationary issuance schedule with an initial inflation rate of 8% that decreases by 15% annually toward a long-term rate of 1.5%, with 100% of new issuance directed to stakers and validators. SOL is used to pay transaction fees (with a portion burned), to stake for network security and rewards, and for governance voting on proposals; initial allocations included a community reserve of roughly 39%, team allocation of roughly 13%, foundation allocation of roughly 10%, and investor allocations.

1. 2017
   Solana Concept and Whitepaper
   Anatoly Yakovenko publishes draft whitepaper introducing Proof of History (PoH) for distributed systems.
2. 2018
   Solana Founded and Prototype
   Project founded by Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal; first internal testnet and whitepaper released by Solana Labs.
3. March 16, 2020
   Mainnet Beta Launch
   Solana mainnet beta goes live with first block; SOL token becomes publicly available following CoinList auction.
4. June 2020
   Solana Foundation Announced
   Non-profit Solana Foundation formed to own protocol IP and support ecosystem development.
5. June 2021
   Major Funding Round
   Solana Labs raises $314 million in SOL sale led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital.
6. September 14, 2021
   Major Network Outage
   Network stalls for 17 hours due to transaction spam from Grape Protocol IDO on Raydium; no funds lost.
7. November 2021
   Price All-Time High
   SOL reaches approximately $260 amid NFT boom and ecosystem growth; market cap exceeds $74 billion.
8. August 2022
   Firedancer Client Announced
   Jump Crypto announces development of independent validator client Firedancer to improve performance and resilience.
9. February 2023
   Validator-Induced Outage
   Malfunctioning validator causes major network halt lasting several hours.

• Solana Pay
  Standard protocol and reference implementations enabling developers to incorporate decentralized payments into apps and services.
• Solana Developer Platform (SDP)
  Unified API platform aggregating infrastructure for institutions and enterprises to build and launch financial products on Solana.
• x402
  Open internet-native payment protocol built on HTTP 402 status code enabling AI agents to make payments on Solana.
• Solana Attestation Service (SAS)
  Open permissionless protocol for verifiable credentials on Solana mainnet.

• officialWebsite
• docsDocs
• githubGitHub
• twitterTwitter
• discordDiscord
• officialSolana Foundation
• otherCommunity

The Solana network experienced a five-hour outage in February 2024 that halted block progression and required a validator software patch and coordinated restart. The Wormhole bridge protocol on Solana was exploited in February 2022 for approximately $326 million due to a signature verification vulnerability in its smart contract. In April 2026, the Solana-based Drift Protocol DeFi exchange suffered a $285 million exploit executed through a compromised administrator key rather than a code vulnerability.