Hi everyone, it's rexxalo again, and this time I am going to be reviewing and answering the questions given to us by professor @pelon53 after his detailed lecture on the Solana blockchain. His lecture served to reveal to us the total awesomeness and efficiency of the blockchain. The Solana blockchain is one of its kind and is unique in so many ways, and I especially thank professor @pelon53 for the lecture and the tasks. Without further ado, let us dive into answering the questions asked.
Explain in detail the PoH of Solana.
In a blockchain system, it is very necessary that the records of transactions carried out are recorded and kept for proof and for rendezvous reasons and transparency too. Other blockchains have utilized what is known as timestamps to curb the problem of double-spending.
Solana has successfully replaced the use of regular timestamps, with a new idea of transaction recording. This idea is summed up with a name that makes it sound like it is a consensus algorithm, which it is not literally, it is a system that works hand in hand with a consensus algorithm like the proof of work, to ensure speedy transaction execution and formidable scalability.
The Solana project developed the Proof of history to further place the integrity of timestamps in the system at a higher pedestal, It is meant to reduce the time taken for transaction verification, as timestamps creations happen after a series of confirmations. The proof of History replaces timestamps with what we know as VDFs ( Verifiable delay function).
This VDF verifies and encrypts the transaction details into a hash in a way that it portrays that the transaction happened before and after certain events and shown that these events did not occur at the same time. One thing we have to note though is that in order to create a publication of a unique hash, a series of steps are taken even though these steps are quicker to execute than the verification processes involved with timestamping.
The Proof of history system is pretty brilliant in the sense that it uses the end of the series of steps to begin a new series of steps for verification of another transaction publication. So in essence it is like a cycle of sequential steps that serve to make transactions smoothly executed and recorded.
The picture above shows how the system makes the output the new input for a new output. I know that sounds confusing, but every hash is in between two other hashes, with a time difference in-between made by the sequential steps carried out to reach a result. This whole protocol is given a name known as the SHA256 hashing function.
The input
The input in the proof of history system is gotten from the result of a former sequential series of processes. When an input is being enlisted, It automatically changes the fate of the results of the next hash, meaning if there is a different beginning, the results must be different, this makes it impossible to make a parallel depiction of results and functioning of the system.
The screenshot above shows how the input drastically changes the results of the steps, and how the results of the previous steps turn to the inputs for the new sequential steps.
Back references
Another thing that we can note about the proof of history is that there is a possibility of a user showing that his hash is peculiar by assigning a signature, making the hash impossible to edit without access to the user's private keys.
Back references are like proof that a user actually had a huge hand in creating a hash, more like the user taking a selfie with the hash in his palm, which is not literally possible. Now, this signature is usually stamped before the result is published to show actual ownership.
Now with the Proof of History in the hands of the solana blockchain, It has proven to be very efficient, as it is rated as the fastest blockchain, executing around 50,00 transactions per second. Now combining the consensus algorithm of Proof of Stake with the Proof of History, the system is balanced and efficient in scalability and decentralization.
Explain at least 2 cases of use of Solana.
Well, Solana is a huge family of very powerfully promising projects and boasts of supporting about 400+ projects at the point of creating this article. These projects come in different types, ranging from NFTs to Defi, to even crypto wallets too. Here are two examples of projects that make use of the Solana system.
EVERLAND
The everland lending protocol is a system based on the Solana blockchain that deals with lending assets that will be used in liquid staking and yield farming.. It was built by Attic lab, and Everstake, and it is mainly a cross-chain system. It is a decentralized finance system and is highly based on the solana blockchain, meaning that it also uses the proof of history protocol to ensure scalability optimization. There isn't too much to write on everland lending protocol because it is a very new project which has not been fully launched, but the project is very promising as they provide a room for liquid staking of assets.
EXODUS
The second project I would like to talk about amongst the many projects that solana supports, is the Exodus crypto wallet. The Exodus wallet is a crypto wallet that supports the SOL asset, and shows decentralization in a copy cat way from the solana blockchain.
The Exodus crypto wallet is a wallet-type project, and it is really thriving with a heavy backup from the Solana blockchain.
It was first created only able to hold the Bitcoin assets, but expanded, making partnerships with the Solana blockchain, and then expanded from there, in both ability to hold different types of assets and popularity. It is pretty fast, and it is in combination with new projects like the Vechain, tezos and so on.
The Exodus wallet has now successfully listed 150 different crypto assets and it is definitely growing at a fast and steady pace and is a very beautiful wallet to watch out for.
Detail and explain the SOLA token.
The SOLA token is a decentralized finance project based on the solana blockchain that has a very impressive way of sustaining improvement on in asset management. Let us look at the details of the token on coingecko because for some reason, I could not find it on the coinmarketcap platform.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Ranking | 1821 |
| Circulating Supply | 27,153,077 |
| Total Supply | 27,153,077 |
| Max Supply | 27,153,077 |
| Market Cap | $1,763,720 |
| 24 Hour Trading Vol | $50,963 |
| Fully Diluted Valuation | $1,763,720 |
| PRICE | $0.065065 |
There are plans to increase the circulating supply of the tokens, so that more tokens will be available for new projects that are about to be launched. The long-term goal for the circulating supply of the token is 21 million.
When did Solana Blockchain see its operations interrupted? Why? Explain.
The solana blockchain has gone through its own phases of problems, and the recent breakdown of the system was on the 14th of September this year being 2021. The breakdown took almost a whole day for the system to recover from.
The cause for the breakdown was released to the masses through tweets by the solana team, and this cause was the problem of the system handling so many transactions per second, even getting up to 400,000 transactions per second, which could even be in the Guinness world book of records!. It was caused by a new project that was being launched on Raydium, which was relatively robot generated.
The system later managed to resolve the memory filling of other projects, by the next day around 5:30 in the morning, by creating an update in the system to create a more elastic system capacity. This means that now there are extreme modes to which the system can stretch, and this is totally impressive.
Check the last block generated in Solana and make an approximate calculation of How many blocks per second have been generated in Solana, taking into account from the initial block to the current one? Justify your answer and show screenshots.
to answer this task, I will be using the solanablockexplorer but unfortunately, it seemed that the blockexplorer site was unavailable and blank as I have shown below, this hinders me from carrying out the exploration sadly.
CONCLUSION
The solana blockchain is a beautiful and effective creation in almost all ramifications, and even though like every other thing it is not perfect as some of its sites and projects have crashed once in a while, and as I have shown above, the explorer hangs and does not load once in a while, it is a very great blockchain system in general, and we can say that it still has a lot of room for improvement.
special thanks to @pelon53 for the lecture, I hope you understand that sadly the explorer refused to lad, and so I could not complete number 5, I hope you liked the other part of the article.. until next time Adios amigios!