Crypto projects have become the talk of the town in recent days everyone seems to be getting on the crypto train. But within the crypto space as well, some projects have outshone the others. And one of the brightest shining lights in the crypto space is the Solana projects.
What is Solana?
Solana is a fast-growing scalable layer 1 blockchain that enables fast and cheap transactions and high throughput. Because it is fast and cheap, this third-generation blockchain is enticing new projects, especially in the NFT space.
Solana is a programmable blockchain that uses a Proof-Of-Stake consensus and Proof-Of-History. This algorithm is used to qualify nodes for validation and to provide a secure network activity.
Because Solana is an open-source blockchain, any developer can benefit from this and the result is that Solana already has more than 350 projects on its blockchain. This has also happened because Solana has provided Dapp developers with a cost-efficient ecosystem for developing applications.
The PoS mechanism offers a high degree of scalability and also an ability to process a high volume of P2P transactions. Because security and scalability are at the heart of the Solana blockchain, it can handle 50,000 transactions per second. Not only that, it charges the lowest transaction fee in the market which is $0.00025. And when the maximum number of validators join the network, Solana can scale its transactions per second up to 710,000 tps.
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Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is one of the fastest-growing spaces in the crypto world and in October 2021 the Total Locked Value of all the DeFi projects in the market was $174 billion according to DappRadar. The Dapp space has some of the fastest and most secure platforms and Solana is one of them with the Total Locked Value of $4.44 billion as of October 2021.
5 Exciting Projects Building on Solana
Solana is one of the most exciting blockchain ecosystems and it is making the crypto enthusiasts excited and intrigued. Here are 5 exciting projects that the being built on Solana that you should know about.
- Serum: Serum is a noncustodial, decentralized exchange(DEX). Serum was created by FTX, Alameda Research, and other partners and it is popular for its transaction speed and low fees. This up-and-coming DEX has some standout properties like it is the only decentralized crypto exchange that is running a fully on-chain central limit order book (CLOB) and a machine engine. Not only that, but Serum also supports cross-chain asset swaps and stablecoins.
Serum hopes to deal with DeFi issues such as high gas costs, slow transactions, centralization, low capital efficiency, and liquidity segmentation. The aim of Serum is also to achieve a transparent and fully trustless exchange whose governance will be handled by its users with Serums SRM token. SRM token allows protocol fees payment, grants voting rights to holders, and awards discounts to the traders. As of November 2021, SRM holds a market cap of $1,025,317,553 and was trading at a token price of $7.70.
- Fractal: Fractal is a new NFT marketplace based on the Solana blockchain and it was launched by Twitch co-founder Justin Kan. Fractal is focused on blockchain games. Fractal marketplace allows its users to buy and store NFTs. It also allows its users to trade these NFTs in different blockchain games. Fractal’s blockchain partnership games include The Sandbox, Nyan Heroes, Caveworld, and Genopets. Fractal allows its users to connect Solana-friendly wallets such as Phantom. They can then use these wallets to buy, sell, and trade any NFTs from Solana-based blockchain gaming projects.
- Mango: Mango is a Serum-powered platform for DeFi derivatives. Mango runs on a Solana blockchain. The thing that makes Mango stand out is that this platform promises to offer the lowest fees in the entire Solana ecosystem when it comes to lending, borrowing, or trading. Every asset on Mango is cross-collateralized and used as collateral to open leverage positions. Mango can do this because it benefits from Serum’s fully on-chain perpetual features order book and spot margin.
Another exciting feature for traders is that Mango offers you to earn interest on open interest, deposits, and collaterals. Mango aims to have the usability and liquidity available on centralized exchanges which it can then pair with the permissionless feature of DeFi. Mango also has its native token called MNGO. This is a governance token and it grants holders the right to vote for any changes in the governance structure. As of today, MNGO has a total market cap of $407,159,714. - Hubble: Hubble is also a DeFi protocol that is built on the Solana blockchain. Hubble is fairly new in the market and it promises to make borrowing as efficient, user-friendly, and profitable as possible. The interesting thing about Hubble is that users can deposit multiple types of crypto assets such as ETH, BTC, and SOL on this platform. Users can then borrow up to 90.9% Loan-To-Value in USDH. Users can also earn a return on their deposits with much greater benefits compared to a swap or stake in other SOL assets. Hubble also distributes 100% liquidation to its Hubble community.
Another interesting thing about Hubble is that it allows its users who contribute USDH to the Stability Pool to swap their stablecoins for other assets at a discount. Hubble has aimed for a future transition to a DAO and thus a small portion of liquidations are used to fund Hubble’s treasury to support the protocol through its future transition. Hubble is a one-stop shop for essential DeFi services and it is powered by the speed and efficiency of the Solana blockchain ecosystem.
- Solarians: Solarians is an interesting project. It is a collection of 10,000 fully randomised, generative NFT robots. These NFT robots are minted on the Solana blockchain. Each Solarian is an NFT and its history is stored on the Solana blockchain. There are 1800 bodyparts drawn by the team’s artists which ensures that each Solarian is different from others and unique in its own right. Some of these Solarian NFTs have easter eggs. These easter eggs are specifically drawn by the artist.
Dapp developers choose Solana because it is a scalable blockchain that has a cheap transaction fee. Solana network’s mainnet was launched in March 2020 and since then many interesting projects have been popping up on Solana.
The success of the Solana ecosystem is such that in November last year SOL reached its ALL-Time-High price. As Solana keeps adding more and more Dapp developers to its ecosystem, its ever-growing community will only increase. Maybe one day Solana can rival even that of Ethereum which is currently the market leader in smart contract platforms.
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