Solana (SOL): What is it? Is it a good investment?

With more than 65,000 transactions per second, Solana is one of the best alternatives to Ethereum. The Solana blockchain attracts more and more users; because it solves problems that many other blockchains suffer from and cannot solve.

And as the number of users increases, it has a positive impact on Solana’s cryptocurrency – SOL. These reasons and more is why a lot of investors all around the world are interested in the SOL coin.

Are you also thinking of adding Solana to your portfolio? Then, you’ll find more details about the project and know if you can bet on it short term and long term.

About Solana

Solana’s origin date back to late 2017 when founder Anatoly Yakovenko published a whitepaper draft featuring a new time-tracking technique for distributed systems – called Proof of History (PoH). 

In blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, one of the limitations of scalability is the time it takes to reach a consensus on the order of transactions. 

Anatoly believes his new technique could automate the transaction ordering process for blockchains; enabling crypto networks to properly scale their capabilities at the time.

Solana’s team

It is important to know the team behind a crypto project; because the team has a lot to do with the success of the project. The team behind the Solana project is a strong one – that in itself is a good sign! 

Solana can also count on a team of experienced developers and professionals from different industries.

Many Solana developers have worked in the past on well-known projects; for example, Intel, Apple, and Dropbox. Let’s see a bit about them:

• Anatoly Yakovenko

Anatoly is the founder of the Solana Foundation. He has already led projects in the development of operational systems at Qualcomm, as well as distribution systems at Mesosphere. At Dropbox, he worked on data compression optimization. He also holds two patents for powerful operating system control protocols and is one of the developers of BREW.

• Greg Fitzgerald

Greg is a lead architect at Solana and is responsible for the development of embedded systems. He was also involved with the BREW operating system and has published several open-source projects, including a license analysis tool.

• Raj Gokal 

Raj is responsible for the product and finances. With more than ten years of management experience, he is considered an expert in this field. He is the founder of the medical company Sano, as well as the chief product manager at Omaha Health.

• Eric Williams

With a Ph.D. in Physics, Eric is one of the leaders at Solana focusing on Data Science and Token Economics. After graduation, he was also involved with Omaha Health as a senior leader in cancer research.

The Solana (SOL) token

SOL token is the cryptocurrency of the Solana blockchain. It is used for the following purposes:

1. Solana staking: Solana makes it possible to get inflation rewards for users who stake SOL for supporting the network. Solana is a Proof-of-Stake consensus network with delegations. This means that SOL holders can delegate part of their assets in SOL to a validator who is responsible for processing transactions and running the network. 
2. Transaction costs: users can use the SOL cryptocurrency to execute smart contracts and transactions, including using decentralized applications. A concrete example is the popular Metaplex platform for the creation of NFTs. Here, SOL is used for minting NFTs and trading NFTs on the Solana network.
3. Governance: the SOL token can be used for voting within the Solana community and organization on certain proposals.
4. Scarcity: SOL has a deflationary monetary policy where the SOL amount is reduced (burnt) to make the long-term strike more interesting. Scarcity increases over time.

Where to buy Solana (SOL)

You can buy SOL on various exchanges. But I recommend that you do this on a major crypto exchange such as Binance or Coinbase. These exchanges have high liquidity, so you can always buy SOL.

It is also possible to buy SOL from decentralized exchanges (DEXs), although it is a lot more difficult to make a purchase here. That is why I recommend that you choose Binance.

Solana(SOL) current state of the market

Currently, SOL is worth $112.85 on CoinMarketCap as of the time of writing. The daily trading volume is $2,691,480,411 and is ranked #8 on CMC.

Factors Affecting Solana(SOL) Price

Even though the price of the Solana coin has increased enormously, the price fluctuates quite a lot. This is the standard within the crypto world, and there are several explanations for this:

• Bitcoin Rate and the Solana Crypto Rate

Almost all crypto prices depend on the price of Bitcoin. The moment Bitcoin rises or falls, many prices follow the example of Bitcoin.

It is therefore advisable to keep a close eye on price movements and news about Bitcoin, so that you may be able to get into the SOL coin or sell your SOL coin. 

• Developments of the project

If the project can actually be a foundation for the new internet, as well as become a complete, better option for Ethereum, then the Solana crypto price is likely to rise a lot more. 

So keep a close eye on the developments and news around Solana so that you know what will happen in the coming months or years.

Is Solana (SOL) a good investment?

SOL is a promising coin for both short term and long term investment based on the following developments:

• Solana already has interesting technology collaborations with FTX, Arweave, Pocket Network, Fortmatic, dFuse, LoanSnap, Akash, Chainlink, Hummingbot, Civic. These technological collaborations will benefit Solona’s adoption and network effect.

• Solana (SOL) is also backed by leading venture capitalists such as Multicoin Capital, Foundation Capital, Distributed Global, CMCC, Blocktower Capital, NGC Capital, and Rockaway Ventures.

• Solana network currently has a much faster network than Ethereum and can also scale up or down very easily, while the costs remain relatively low.

• The Solana network is a good candidate to support the new ‘Internet of Things’ or Web3.0. This is the decentralized network that eliminates the need for certain intermediaries, such as Facebook and Google.

Solana (SOL) Price Prediction

Predictions from some major crypto analysts shows that it’s a coin worth investing into:

• WalletInvestor predicts that SOL will rise to $207.3 over the next 1 year and hit $678 in 5 years.
• DigitalCoin predicts the price of SOL to average $131.5 by the end of the year and $193 in 2025.
• PricePrediction predicts $126 by the end of the year and $359 in the next 3 years.

Conclusion

Even though Solana(SOL) is a new, promising project, just like any crypto project, it can fail too! Hence, take your time to research the Solana project in more detail and only invest with capital that you can afford to lose.