🌊Solana

About Solana:

Solana is a blockchain platform built by Solana Labs (based in San Francisco), and currently run by Solana Foundation (based in Geneva).

It was proposed by Anatoly Yakovenko (a former executive at Qualcomm) in a white paper published in Nov 2017, and launched in Mar 2020. It uses a "proof-of-history" (PoH) consensus mechanism, which uses timestamps to define the next block in Solana's chain. It can theoretically process over 710,000 tps (transactions per second) without any scaling solutions needed.

For the sake of brevity, we will not go into too much techincal details, but here are some additional reading materials if you're interested:

• https://solana.com/

• https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-is-solana-and-how-does-it-work

• https://www.investopedia.com/solana-5210472

At the time of writing (26 Feb 2023), Solana is the second-largest blockchain for NFTs by volume according to CryptoSlam! with >$90mil in 30-day volume.

Key Players in Solana NFTs:

• Blockchain: Solana

• Infrastructures: Metaplex

• Marketplaces: Kyzzen, Magic Eden, Hyperspace, Hadeswap

• Launchpads: Kyzzen, Magic Eden, LaunchMyNFT

• Wallets: Phantom, Solflare, Backpack (more about wallets in the next section)

• Analytics: SolanaFloor, Hello Moon, NFTInspect

• Rarity Ranking: MoonRank, HowRare

• NFT Lending: Frakt, Sharky, Citrus (Famous Fox Federation)

• NFT Raffles: Famous Fox Federation

• Messaging/Notifications: Notifi, Dialect