Is Solana better than Bitcoin and Ethereum?
Let’s dive deep into working, history and architecture of Solana! As in old blockchain, every node was required to agree for timing of transaction. But this verification took time, because clocks couldn’t be synchronized easily just like every student in class has a different time on his watch, so the teacher always has to confirm at what exact time did the bell ring? Similar was the problem with older blockchain making bitcoin and Ethereum very slow.
In 2017, Anatoly Yakovenko (engineer of Qualcomm) thought blockchain is the future, but this future seems very slow. Why not make it faster by solving the issue of time? So he gave the idea of Poof of History (PoH), and that was the birth of Solana!
Imagine you and your friend is playing chess and every move needs to be monitored. After the game ends all those friends who were watching your game argue and then vote which move was made first and then which was made second and so on. This is the complete waste of time. Proof of History solved this problem by making a kind of central clock on which time of the event gets stamped beforehand and later it just needs to be confirmed. Every transaction stamps its time on this verifiable clock, now there is no need for the argument, every node can mathematically prove time of the transaction. This makes Solana 2000x faster than Ethereum (theoretically max, real world numbers are lower), making blocks within 400 milliseconds (0.4 sec) whereas Ethereum takes 12 seconds to make a block.
PoH is the secret sauce of Solana that takes it to 65000+ transactions per second whereas Ethereum can execute only 15-20 transactions per second.
But how does Solana work this fast?
Solana's speed comes from a pipeline of five components: Once time is stamped through PoH, Gulf Stream sends the transaction to the leader (validator who has highest staked coins). Whereas in normal blockchain, this process occurs once verification has been carried out completely. Now the part comes where transaction has to be processed. In normal blockchains only one transaction at a time can be processed but in Solana’s case, multiple transactions are processed at the same time without crossing each other’s path. This is called Sealevel. Smart contracts are also being executed at the same time. Cloudbreak updates data in accounts of the users. All these activities occur in pipeline manner (one after another without any disruption). Now when all the process is completed and block is formed, Tower BFT occurs where validators confirm if the block is valid or not. When block is finalized, old history is sent to Archivers (computers). Note that all this process occurs within 0.4 seconds.
But does this fast speed actually worth replacing Ethereum? How about you decide it yourself after knowing some facts about both Solana and ethereum?
Solana is faster than Ethereum but is somewhat centralized as compared to Ethereum.
Solana charges less fee than Ethereum but its developing (coding) is difficult.
Solana can execute 65k+ transactions within a second but it has also experienced outages in 2022 and Ethereum is still more secure than Solana.
Solana is indeed evolving but so are Ethereum’s layer 2 solutions. Speed vs. security, both chains are racing to outgrow their own weaknesses.
The real question isn't who wins, it's who fixes their flaws first.