Powering the Growth: Overview of Solana’s Ecosystem
Together, we’re set to streamline onboarding and cross-border transactions.
Solana, perhaps the most notable breakout protocol in recent years, was founded by a former Qualcomm software engineer Anatoly Yakovenko in 2017. Since launching below $1 in March 2020, the novel Layer-1 project has claimed a spot in crypto’s top 10.
By supporting Solana Ecosystem with a range of payment solutions for user onboarding, Mercuryo.io is helping to bridge the gap between traditional financial systems and the world of crypto, helping drive the industry forward.

Structure

Solana can be distinguished from EVM-compatible networks due to its unique Proof-of-History (PoH) consensus model and in-house programming language, Rust. The protocol’s SPL mainnet has its own token standard and offers limited interoperability with Ethereum, opting instead to act as a direct challenger to Ethereum’s positioning as the number one smart contract platform in the space. 
Validators (and rotating leaders) are the two key roles used to validate transactions on the network.

• Validators are tasked with reassembling blocks and confirming the execution of well-formed entries.
• Leaders are responsible for sorting, filtering and arranging valid transactions into entries which can then be distributed and broadcast to the network. 

Consensus

Solana introduces Proof-of-History (PoH), a novel consensus mechanism for transaction validation. In a way, PoH is an evolution of Proof-of-Stake. The algorithm utilizes a Verifiable Delay Function (VDF), a method of computing block processing time, based on historical events. 
Like PoS architectures, Solana employs over a thousand validators to process transactions on the network. The result is an incredibly fast decentralized protocol that currently supports up to 50,000 TPS (transactions per second) with a hypothetical limit of 700,000 TPS. At the same time, the network is designed to remain low-cost regardless of scale, offering sub-cent fees and rapid finality.

Utility

SOL is Solana’s native token used for processing transactions and interacting with smart contracts. Apart from paying network fees, SOL can be staked and delegated to validators to enhance network security. The token continues to enjoy growing utility due to the expanding array of innovative DeFi and NFT platforms built on the Solana network. 

Community

Two years since its initial launch, Solana has cultivated a large and vibrant community of supporters and blockchain developers specializing in programming in Rust. Solana boasts a strong presence across global social media and developer channels. 
The protocol encourages supporters from all lines of work to join the Solana Collective, a community-driven initiative aimed at empowering users willing to help with building out the protocol. Solana also hosts frequent hackathons to ensure the platform’s integrity and source fresh talent.

Ecosystem

With an increasing adoption rate, Solana’s ecosystem has grown rapidly, acting as fertile ground for teams to build a robust infrastructure. Protocols such as OpenBook, Raydium and Magic Eden have seen incredible success in their respective sectors, with users benefitting from Solana’s low barrier to entry and rapid transacting.

Payments

The Solana FinTech stack, compiled by Yash Agrawal
Solana’s speed of settlement (the fastest in the industry) and cheap transaction costs make it the perfect venue for settling on-chain payments. Along with a vibrant ecosystem of stablecoins like USDC and USDT with over a $1.5 billion market cap, Solana Foundation is exploring native issuance of non-USD stablecoins to power domestic and cross-border payment use cases and create on-chain forex markets. 
Solana Pay is an industry-first payments framework, which enables anyone to integrate Solana payments with a few lines of code or via no-code ecosystem tools. Ecosystem projects have also been developing all kinds of payment solutions like checkouts, loyalty, tap-to-pay, automation infra, streaming, wallet-as-a-service, and others, powering payments for businesses and retail users. 

Looking Forward

Solana has emerged as perhaps the most prominent contender to Ethereum’s dominance in only two years. However, the use of Rust and the lack of EVM compatibility have made the network less interoperable than others. This hasn’t stopped users and builders from flocking to the lightweight protocol, a trend set to continue as Solana’s tremendous backing fosters further innovation and tackles Solana’s immediate issues of maintaining uptime during massive congestion.
As Solana continues to expand its ecosystem, it has recently introduced a new direction for the protocol – the Solana Saga phone. Developed by the Solana Mobile team, the Solana Saga phone is designed to provide a seamless and user-friendly experience for interacting with Solana-based applications on the go. The Solana Saga phone is set to further drive the growth of Solana’s ecosystem by providing a new way for users to access and utilize the protocol’s unique features and capabilities.
Speaking of access and barriers to entry, we believe that smooth on-ramping and off-ramping will be the key to user acquisition and retention of non-native users in the ecosystem. This is why we are building a user-friendly payment stack for cryptocurrency users and developers.