A key focus for blockchain developers and innovators are blockchains that is fast and cheap for developers to build decentralized apps (dApps) on. Solana has emerged as a top contender for such a blockchain in recent times, but what really goes inside it?<\/p>\n
The consensus system for Solana is built off two main innovations: Proof of History<\/a> and Tower BFT<\/a>. Proof of History is focused on the issue of \u201cagreement on time.”<\/p>\n In a trustless situation like a blockchain, \u201cnodes in the network can\u2019t trust an external source of time or any timestamp that appears in a message.” Solana uses a different model and works on proving that a certain message occurred before and after other events. This system allows Solana to order messages without needing a timestamp.<\/p>\n Proof of History is a Verifiable Delay Function where a sequential hash function\u2019s states are recorded to represent the passage of time.<\/p>\n A new message can refer to a specific recorded state to prove that it happened after that and can be added to the Sha256 loop to be hashed with the state to prove that it happened before the next recorded state.<\/p>\n Built on top of Proof of History, is a custom implementation of Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance called Tower BFT. It works by having validators vote on a certain Proof of History ledger and guarantee that they will not vote for another contradicting ledger for N hashes which is a timeout.<\/p>\n The timeout doubles for each vote meaning that, for example, if there were 32 votes in the last 12 seconds, \u201cthe vote 12 seconds ago now has a timeout of 2\u00b3\u00b2 slots, or roughly 54 years\u201d.<\/p>\n Top investors are paying attention to Solana. The startup raised<\/a> $314M from a16z and Polychain Capital earlier this month. Exchanges have also added support with Coinbase adding<\/a> SOL as well.<\/p>\n With a $1 billion market cap, SOL is ranked fourteenth among all other cryptocurrencies. Developers are starting to work with the platform too.<\/p>\n Welcome! If you\u2019re new to Solana, take a tour of our rapidly growing ecosystem:https:\/\/t.co\/cTGYoQyQen<\/a> (learn+build)@Phantom<\/a> Wallet (access code: COIN)@RaydiumProtocol<\/a> (swaps, yield farming, etc.)@Bonfida<\/a> (DEX & more)@MangoMarkets<\/a> (Margin Trading)@AudiusProject<\/a> (P2P Music) https:\/\/t.co\/y7VXkYQX2q<\/a><\/p>\n — Solana (@solana) June 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe blockchain has garnered a lot of attention<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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