What is Solana (SOL)?
SOL is the native asset of the Solana blockchain, which launched as a mainnet in March 2020. It is the currency used to pay for activity on the network and to participate in its consensus process.
What roles does SOL play on the network?
Every action on Solana, from sending a transfer to running a smart contract, involves a small fee paid in SOL. Holders can also delegate their SOL to validators, which helps process transactions and secure the chain. In return, delegators can receive a share of the rewards distributed by the protocol.
How does Solana's timekeeping approach support faster blocks?
Rather than having nodes repeatedly agree on the order of events, Solana uses a verifiable history mechanism. Validators build on a chain of sequential calculations that acts like a shared timeline. Because the sequence is already embedded in the data, the network spends less time coordinating and can produce blocks at a higher pace. This design works together with a proof-of-stake layer to keep the system secure.
What can developers build with Solana?
Solana supports smart contracts, often called programs, for areas such as decentralized finance, gaming, and custom token issuance. Its program library offers ready-made components for creating tokens or handling swaps. The separation of code from account data allows a single program to interact with many accounts in parallel. The smallest denomination of SOL is known as a lamport.
