Crypto Summer Pt. 1
Solana: Everything You Need to Know About the “Ethereum Killer”
Proof of History, Scalability and Ludicrous Speed — Oh my!
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Earlier this week I began a new job as a lead writer for a cryptocurrency startup. There’s one guy on the project who’s insanely smart and I’m half convinced is a wizard.
He knows altcoins like the back of his hand and speaks in technical analysis like it's a second language. Whenever he talks I can feel the cogs in my brain grinding to a halt.
Thankfully, the wizard is altruistic and has pointed me to a few projects worth examining under the microscope.
The first I’d like to start with is Solana.
The Ethereum Killer 🔪
Solana is a… it’s a, *yawn,* “Ethereum Killer.”
Oh boy — here we go again.
Ethereum is like Rocky Balboa and the “killers” are those kids trying to keep up on his jog in Rocky 2. Only one, in the end, is going to get a statue built for them in front of the Philadephia Art Museum, and it isn’t going to be those kids.
So whenever something calls itself an Ethereum killer, be cautious; it’s probably going to end up a three billion dollar mistake like EOS.
Conversely, Solana has three key advantages over its competitors. Let’s break them down.
1. Proof of History
I’m not sure who’s creating these crypto buzzwords, but could they chill out? I swear cryptocurrency has more made-up words than a Tolkien novel.
Anyway, Proof of History isn’t a new consensus mechanism like Proof of Work or stake. Proof of History works in conjunction with POS.
It’s very difficult to tell time within a blockchain — as Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin found out. In a decentralized system, you cannot rely on an external clock that could be subject to manipulation or failure. The blockchain needs to run independently. This is something that Bitcoin critics don’t understand about Bitcoin mining or consensus mechanisms.
Q: Why did Satoshi Nakamoto create such an inefficient wasteful invention?
