Exploring the Solana Project — Part 1: The Technology Aspect
Author
Daeun Moon(@downy) | Sungkyunkwan University Blockchain Network SKKRYPTO 11th
Layer 1 Solana Series
- Exploring the Solana Project — Part 1: The Technology Aspect
- Exploring the Solana Project — Part 2: The Ecosystem Aspect
- About Solana Project
In 2020, Solana Labs introduced ‘Solana’, a fast, efficient, and decentralized public blockchain platform. Since then, Solana has been recognized as one of the fastest blockchains available. As a Layer 1 blockchain, it provides developers with a foundation to build sophisticated functionalities like decentralized applications. This focus on being a foundational network with an emphasis on scalability is what makes Solana a standout blockchain.
This unique blockchain, Solana, has secured scalability through its rapid processing speeds, almost negligible transaction fees, and a diverse DeFi ecosystem. However, it faces certain limitations in fully ensuring decentralization and security. These include predetermined block-producing nodes, high hardware specifications required for participating as a validator node, and susceptibility to DDoS attacks.
2. Proof of History; PoH
Solana has adopted Proof of History (PoH) as its consensus algorithm method. PoH can also be understood as a cryptographic clock. It uses hashes to timestamp transactions, thereby guaranteeing the validity of the moment when the transactions occur. Conceptually, it’s a method that cryptographically proves the passage of time and the placement of events within that timeline. Currently, it is not used alone but in conjunction with Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS).
We can also consider PoH as an improvement to the Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm. Let’s delve deeper into PoH and how it works in tandem with PoW.
Proof of Work (PoW) is a distributed consensus mechanism where participants expend computing power to solve mathematical problems within the network. This work is used to prove the veracity of new entries being added to the blockchain, a publicly distributed ledger. Solving these mathematical problems essentially involves finding a hash value.
This process is known as mining. It consumes high computing power and a significant amount of electricity; thus, participants are rewarded with the digital assets or tokens used within that blockchain network as ‘fees’.
Networks using the Proof of Work mechanism generate valid blocks at a rate of about one every ten minutes, leading to a bottleneck situation. This means that if block validation speeds up, more block collisions occur. Additionally, as the ordering of blocks requires the work of individual validating nodes, it can ultimately decrease profitability.
Proof of History (PoH) introduces a Verifiable Delay Function (VDF) to simplify consensus and adds information about the timing of transactions when encrypting them, allowing validators to reach consensus without having to individually verify each transaction.
As the time of transactions is recorded, nodes do not need to jointly prove and agree on when the transactions occurred. This shortens the time for consensus, leading to faster transaction processing speeds, increased scalability, and overall improved blockchain performance. While validation nodes still need to verify the legitimacy of incoming claims, they can assume that the transactions they are observing are initially valid in terms of time and order, thus eliminating the bottleneck of Proof of Work.
3. Turbine
Instead of sending a 100MB data file to all validator nodes, the technology involves splitting the data into 2,000 packets of 50KB each. Then, the leader node delivers these packets to the first group of validators, neighborhood0. Next, neighborhood0 passes the packets, excluding those they need to verify, to the subsequent validator groups 1, 2, and 3.
Turbine is a groundbreaking technology that significantly increases scalability and reduces network load. However, it also presents a risk to the security of the blockchain. If attackers target just the neighborhood0, they can disrupt transaction transmission and potentially compromise the network without needing to attack subsequent validator groups.
4. Transaction throughput
Despite various drawbacks and areas for improvement, Solana has demonstrated unparalleled speed performance compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum, thanks to its Proof of History (PoH) algorithm and Turbine technology.
And despite its overwhelming processing speed, the very low transaction fees on the Solana platform enable users to access its diverse ecosystem without much financial burden.
5. Blockchain Trilemma & Transaction Quality
The blockchain trilemma refers to the trade-off relationship that scalability, decentralization, and security — the three main issues in blockchain technology — cannot all be resolved at once.
It is widely believed that current cryptocurrencies can only solve one or two of these issues at a time, and it is physically impossible to satisfy all three simultaneously. The evolution of blockchain platforms from the first to the second and then to the third generation can be seen as an effort to address this trilemma.
The quality of transactions is determined by three factors: 1. Spam prevention, 2. Censorship resistance, and 3. Low transaction fees. Similar to the blockchain trilemma, it is not possible to have all three qualities simultaneously.
The Web2 that we have been using so far has compromised on censorship resistance in these quality factors. Bitcoin/Ethereum has given up on low fees, and Solana can be seen as having relinquished spam prevention. The key point here is that Solana’s maintained low fees make it highly vulnerable to server attacks.
5. DDoS Attack
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are a hacking technique where massive amounts of data are maliciously generated to target a specific server or network, exhausting network resources and causing disruptions.
Solana’s transaction fees, which are significantly lower compared to Ethereum and Bitcoin, have inadvertently reduced the cost burden for hackers to generate a large number of transactions, leading to DDoS attacks.
There are two possible solutions for Solana to address the issue of attacks due to its low fees:
- Increasing the minimum fee (fee floor) and introducing a fee market system:
This system, similar to Ethereum’s, creates a fee competition among network users. It can potentially lead to overheated prices but allows for flexible fee adjustments, somewhat preventing macro/bot transactions. However, competitive fees are meaningless if the minimum fee is too low to start with. Therefore, the minimum fee also needs to be raised. This approach was chosen by the sidechain Polygon. Polygon increased its minimum fee to 30 gwei, about 30 times higher than the original level, which effectively protected the network from DDoS attacks.
- Maintaining the fee structure but giving up on censorship resistance:
This method involves continuously monitoring the network by moderators/administrators, like Web2 platforms, and forcefully blocking transactions that are likely to be spam. This approach may slightly deviate from the decentralization philosophy of blockchain, but it maintains low fees and is notably effective. Immutable X is currently employing this method.
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