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The cryptocurrency that Trump loves: Solana

Anatoly 2025-10-20 10:52 88070人围观 SOL

1. What is Solana? In one sentence, Solana (referred to as SOL, sometimes also referred to as its token SOL) is a blockchain platform targeting high performance and high throughput. You can think of it as: providing a "highway and foundation" for decentr



1. What is Solana? Getting Started in One Sentence


Solana (SOL for short, sometimes also referred to as its token SOL) is a blockchain platform targeting high performance and high throughput. You can think of it as: the chain in the blockchain world that provides "highway and infrastructure" for decentralized finance (DeFi), NFT, and Web3 applications, rather than being mainly used for "value storage" like Bitcoin or "truck jams" under high load like Ethereum.

Solana's goal: to achieve fast transaction speed, low cost, and good user experience as much as possible while ensuring security and decentralization.

2. Solana’s historical trajectory: from conception to direction

Origin and founding


  • The early ideas for Solana can be traced back to 2017, when Anatoly Yakovenko (former Qualcomm engineer) wrote the first draft of the white paper for the concept of "Proof of History" (historical proof/timestamp chain).

  • Later, he, Raj Gokal and others, together with a group of developers with blockchain and systems engineering backgrounds, established Solana Labs in 2018.

  • The Mainnet will be officially launched in 2020 (that is, open to real transactions), and will gradually attract projects and developers to settle in.

The ups and downs of development


  • In the early days, Solana was regarded as one of the “potential competitors to Ethereum” or one of the “more scalable chains” due to its high performance, high throughput, and low transaction fees.

  • However, Solana has also experienced several network outages: for example, in September 2021, there was a shutdown/restart due to a surge in transaction volume and divergent verification node status.

  • In addition, with the overall encryption market fluctuations, regulatory turmoil, and intensified competition, Solana's value and confidence have also been raised and then pulled back.

  • Until recent years, Solana is still a relatively important public chain in the encryption market and is favored by multiple projects and funds.

To sum up: Solana is not a "myth of smooth sailing", but it does have many bright spots in terms of technical roadmap, community support, and ecological expansion.

3. Solana’s core technology and algorithm: Look at this “magic””


To understand "why Solana is fast" and "why it can scale", we must have a look at the technical structure behind it. I try to talk in chunks and use diagrams/process ideas as much as possible.

Core concept: “Write time” into the blockchain—Proof of History (PoH)


Traditional blockchains (such as Bitcoin and early Ethereum) require all nodes to "know the order". The common approach is for each node to communicate, compare and reach consensus with each other. But this itself becomes a bottleneck: communication, waiting, and confirmation all take time.

Solana's breakthrough lies in: PoH (Proof of History, historical proof/verifiable delay function), which actually adds an "encrypted timestamp chain" to all events, allowing nodes to know "this transaction before/after that transaction and how long the interval is" without always relying on communication. (Solana)

A simple metaphor: If you want to prove which of two things A and B happened first, the tradition is "I tell you, you ask others", while PoH is "I leave a chain record that cannot be forged (like a verifiable clock). Through this chain, you can tell who came first and who came last." This reduces the overhead of communication confirmation between nodes.

Technically, it uses a method called Verifiable Delay Function(Verifiable Delay Function, VDF), combined with hashes such as SHA-256, forces the node to perform a series of calculations, strung together in chronological order.

PoH is not an "alternative consensus", but based on the existing consensus (such as PoS), it provides a "chronological skeleton" within the network to reduce repeated communication.

Structural modules and parallel processing


Solana is able to squeeze out high throughput not only by time stamps, but also by its unique "engine design." The following are several important modules:
namerole/role
PipelineA CPU-like pipeline allows transactions to flow through multiple stages of verification, copying, execution, etc. in parallel instead of "doing it one after another" (BCAS Blog)
Gulf StreamThis is a "pre-transaction forwarding" mechanism: pushing the transaction in advance to the node (leader) that is expected to package the transaction, reducing mempool waiting and increasing the confirmation speed. (BCAS Blog)
CloudbreakThe storage/status reading and writing module is designed to be horizontally scalable, allowing multiple nodes to process the reading and writing of different accounts/status paragraphs at the same time. (BCAS Blog)
SealevelAn environment for running smart contracts/programs in parallel. That is, different contracts/instructions can be executed in parallel at the same time (as long as they do not conflict). (Medium)

This may not be intuitive enough. Here is a flowchart idea. It will be helpful if you draw it in your mind or on paper:
用户发起交易 → 交易发送到网络 → 根据 PoH 时间戳排序 → 流水线处理(验证 / 执行 / 写状态)→ 被打包进区块 → 共识确认 → 成为最终链上记录

In this process, every step is designed to be as parallel as possible to reduce waiting and repeated communication.

Consensus mechanism: PoS + PoH hybrid


Although PoH is Solana's characteristic star, it is Proof of Stake (PoS) that really determines which node will "produce the block", who will verify it, and who will write the status. Nodes participate in the competition based on the number of SOLs they have locked, reputation, performance, etc.

PoH here is not about "choosing who will block", but "giving a verifiable time sequence to each event on the chain." PoS determines who has the right to produce blocks and who participates in the consensus. The combination of the two can achieve a better compromise between efficiency, decentralization, and security.

Transaction fees, inflation mechanism, etc.


  • SOL is Solana’s native token/asset and is used in the following places:
    1. Pay network transaction fees (even if the fees are very low) (Investopedia)
    2. Lock/stake to participate in network security and consensus mechanisms.
    3. Used as voting weight in certain governance/possible future protocol upgrades, etc.

  • A portion of each transaction fee is usually "burned" or allocated to validator nodes (as a reward), thus having a certain "deflation/anti-inflation" tendency in the design. (Medium)

These designs are not perfect, but they can support Solana to maintain low cost and good experience under high-frequency use.

4. Solana’s application scenarios: what it can do


After talking about technology on one side, ecology is on the other side. The following are several typical and representative application directions. Novices can also perceive these "on-chain use cases":

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)


This is one of the core uses in the crypto world: such as decentralized exchanges (DEX), lending platforms, asset management, derivatives, stable coins, cross-chain bridges, etc. Because of its fast speed and low fees, Solana is very suitable for high-frequency trading/high liquidity DeFi applications.

For example, Serum, Raydium, Mango Markets, etc. are well-known DeFi projects in the Solana ecosystem (providing decentralized trading/leverage/lending and other functions).

NFT and Digital Art/Collectibles/Games


There are many NFT projects on Solana, including works of art, tradable props in games, digital collectibles, and more. What users like: low mint/transaction costs, fast speed, and smooth wallet experience.

Game + metaverse is one of the directions Solana is often mentioned - imagine you are running and jumping in the game, and the transaction items are confirmed immediately without any lag.

Web3 Applications & Decentralized Social/Identity


In the future, many on-chain applications will not only be "money/asset transfers", but may also be social networking, identity verification, decentralized publishing, identity authentication, decentralized storage, etc. This scenario has higher requirements for chain performance, scalability, and user experience.

For example: If you use a decentralized social app, and every post/like is on the chain, then you want the experience to be as fast as posting an ordinary social media post, otherwise no one will use it.

Payments/Micropayments/Cheap Transactions


Because Solana’s transaction fees are very low, it can theoretically support scenarios such as “very small payments” and “instant transfers”. For example, in the game, you pay a little money to buy a prop, and it will be credited to your account instantly. ; Or give others a tip of a few cents or a few millidollars.

Infrastructure/Tools/On-Chain Services


In addition to direct user-facing applications, there are also many "underlying tool/infrastructure" projects on Solana: on-chain data indexing, or off-chain data acquisition, or cross-chain bridges, security audits, wallet services, RPC node services, etc. Without these infrastructures, the ecology cannot be implemented.

5. Advantages, Challenges and Risks: Don’t just look at the glamor


Before we talk about the future, let’s be honest: Solana is good, but it’s not without its problems.

Advantages (its strengths)


  1. High throughput/high performance
    Solana is designed to handle thousands or tens of thousands of transactions per second (theoretically)

  2. Low transaction fees
    In most cases, a transaction fee may be a few cents or even less, which is extremely user-friendly.

  3. Newer technical architecture/parallel design
    The adoption of PoH + modular design, pipeline processing, parallel execution, etc. makes it more durable than some old chains when the load is high.

  4. Ecologically active/developer community
    There are many projects, tools, and funds supporting Solana.

  5. Suitable for high frequency application scenarios
    Scenarios such as games, transactions, and high-speed financial services require speed and low cost, and are more likely to fall on chains like Solana.

Challenges and Risks


  1. Network outage/stability issues
    As mentioned earlier, there have been several times in Solana's history that the network was temporarily interrupted and reorganized due to pressure, node differences, etc. For a chain that faces the public and carries value, this is a big risk.

  2. Decentralization vs backbone node pressure
    In order to maintain high performance, some designs of Solana prefer certain high-performance nodes (higher hardware requirements), which may lead to a higher "resource threshold" and thus affect the degree of decentralization.

  3. Security/Smart Contract Vulnerabilities
    In any chain, especially high-speed chains, smart contract errors, cross-contract calling vulnerabilities, hacker attacks, flash loan attacks, etc. are all potential risks.

  4. Competition is fierce
    The entire blockchain space is very competitive. Ethereum is working on expansion plans (Layer2, sharding, etc.), and other high-performance chains are also squeezing the market. Solana must continue to evolve.

  5. Regulatory/Legal Risk
    The crypto space has always faced policy uncertainty. If a country suddenly imposes regulatory restrictions or pressure, on-chain projects may be affected.

  6. Token economics/inflation/unreasonable fee distribution
    If the token supply/reward/fee destruction is not designed well, it may bring inflationary suppression to currency holders in the long term, or unbalance network security.

6. Solana’s future: Where to go?


When it comes to the future, there are always dreams and uncertainties. However, based on current trends, several possible directions/evolution paths can be listed.

Expansion, stability, and availability continue to be polished


This is almost the first lesson Solana needs to make up for in order to make the network more stable and more resistant to stress (without problems under extreme trading peaks and extreme market emotions). It is also necessary to lower the node threshold, allow more people to participate, and improve decentralization.

Cross-chain/multi-chain collaboration


The future is likely to be an era of "interoperability between different blockchains" - assets and data can flow across chains. If Solana wants to occupy a place in the multi-chain ecosystem, it must build bridges with other chains, develop compatibility protocols, and provide cross-chain services.

Infrastructure improvements such as on-chain identity/decentralized identity (DID)


For example, proof of "who you are" on the chain, privacy/zero-knowledge proof, permission control, on-chain authentication, mortgage identity reputation system, etc., will become increasingly important. Solana has the potential to work in these infrastructure areas.

Richer Web3+ application scenarios


The future chain is not just "transaction + money flow", but may also be a scenario of "decentralized social networking, games, content platforms, computing markets, AI and chain integration". For Solana to be part of these futures, it must attract these types of applications.

Evolution of economic/governance mechanisms


Token economics, fee design, reward mechanisms, governance mechanisms, community governance upgrades, etc., may all evolve. In the future, Solana may add more governance mechanisms to give users/communities more say.

7. Trump/Trump family actions in Solana or crypto circles


This part is more interesting.

  1. $TRUMP Memecoin — on the Solana chain
    Trump himself/his team launched a memecoin called $TRUMP, which was made using the Solana chain.
    According to the information: 1 billion coins were created during the issuance, 800 million of which were held by Trump-related companies (not released for circulation), and 200 M were sold to the outside world.
    There are reports that on the day of issuance, its market value was once very large, and the value of the Trump team’s currency holdings was also pushed to a very high level. However, most of this valuation is based on market sentiment and is very speculative.

  2. The Trump Family and “World Liberty Financial””
    According to Reuters and other reports, the Trump family took over a crypto/financial project called World Liberty Financial (WLF/WLFI), claiming that they control most of its revenue/governance.
    Some information states that they have more than 60-75% ownership rights in token sales and operating income.

  3. Thumzup / Invest in Solana
    There is also news that Thumzup, a project supported/intervened by Donald Trump Jr., has added SOL (Solana) assets to its strategic expansion.

  4. Solana is included in Future ETFs/Portfolios
    Trump Media has announced that they plan to launch a “Crypto Blue Chip ETF”, with some Solana (about 8%) included in the asset allocation.

  5. Denial/Dispute
    It is worth noting that regarding the wallet launched by the "Trump Official Wallet" in cooperation with Magic Eden, some people have promoted that it is related to the Trump family, but Trump's sons have publicly denied: "Our family is not involved in that wallet project."

To sum up: Trump/his family is indeed involved in encryption and has intersection with Solana (especially through memecoin, token projects, investments/asset portfolios). But many of the details are controversial/have yet to be fully transparently evidenced.

8. Some understanding suggestions and warnings for beginners


  • Distinguish between "projects" and "hype": like memecoin, the kind with strong publicity, high risk, leverage/emotional components, suitable for understanding, don't rush into it all.

  • Technology is just a means, not a guarantee: the chain can be fast and low-cost, but contract vulnerabilities, user wallet security, and external attacks are still big pitfalls.

  • Look more at the project team/code/audit/community activity: especially when choosing on-chain applications or investments.

  • Regulatory risks need to be considered: the risk of a country suddenly saying "a certain currency/chain is a security/illegal" cannot be ignored.

  • Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: Even if you believe in Solana, you don’t have to put all your assets on one chain or one token.



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