What makes Solana different from its competitors is that the blockchain is scalable at its base level or Layer-one and it does not require layer-two solutions to increase scale. Scaling the main blockchain is the key aspect of any blockchain technology to maintain a secure and decentralized network on a public chain. Currently, Sharding and sidechain are the mainstream solutions for major blockchain to scale the public chain which consists of millions of nodes and validators solving cryptography and creating new blocks. Blockchain companies like Ethereum and bitcoins slow down this process using proof-of-work mechanisms while newer companies like Solana depend on proof of history mechanisms to compete in scaling the ever-growing public chain. Here are some of the ways Solana has managed to scale the public chain.
1. Turbine block propagation protocol
A key component of Solana’s blockchain that aid in this scalability is the Turbine block propagation protocol. It helps breakdown data down into small fragments, making it easy to transfer it across the network. This allows the network to handle the large number of nodes transmitting from the public blockchain. The clusters of data divide themselves into a smaller collection of nodes called the neighborhood. These nodes interact with each other within the neighborhood as well as propagate the data onto a small set of nodes in other neighborhoods. This process keeps the network scalable by reducing the data propagation time.
2. Tower Byzantine fault tolerance
Solana utilizes its version of pBFT (practical Byzantine fault tolerance) called the Tower Byzantine Tolerance. The TowerBFT will rely on Solan’s proof of history timestamps where the system node allows transactions to take place and records the state of the transaction and then uses Proof of History (PoH) to verify the transaction using timestamps. This removes the need for nodes to communicate with each other in real-time, thereby improving the overall efficiency and reducing the block validation time.
3. Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream allows the Solana network to process 50,000 transactions per second. The process involves caching transactions and routing them over the network. It is a mempool-less transaction forwarding standard that pushes the transactions to the edge of the network. This allows validators to propagate transactions much ahead of time. This technique saves time, computational power, and bandwidth.
4.Sea Level
Traditional blockchain like Ethereum runs transactions one at a time, Solana runs transactions in parallel making thousands of modifications to the network state simultaneously this is done by Solana smart contract called the sea level. In contrast, Solana can process tens of thousands of contracts in parallel, using as many cores as are available to its validator. Solana also has its virtual machine called the Berkeley Packet Filter virtual machine (BPF virtual machine) to run smart contracts. The BPF virtual machine is used in the Linux kernel and has already been tested over time. BPF bytecode is well known for the fast execution of codes. Solana supports BPF byte codes for just-in-time compilation which increases the speed of execution of BPF contracts.
All of these features combined make for a highly scalable, efficient, and low-fee blockchain to develop a decentralized application.
