If you\u2019ve been involved in the digital currency space for more than a few years, you\u2019ve seen your fair share of hype cycles. From IOTA to EOS, to XRP, to Solana, there\u2019s always a new killer blockchain that\u2019s going to change everything. Speculators flock to them, pumping token prices by thousands of percent, but inevitably, it all comes crashing down or fades into insignificance as technical limitations come up against reality.<\/p>\n
This year, Solana has been the main hype train in the digital currency space. Yet, less than 72 hours ago, the Solana blockchain came to a grinding halt, the developers hit the off button, and the entire ecosystem froze in space and time as Solana devs tried to figure out what had gone wrong.<\/p>\n
Like most events in this space, the large media outlets owned by the Digital Currency Group and others largely ignored it or downplayed its significance, and a stream of misinformation promoted by those who stand to gain from Solana\u2019s token price remaining high flooded social media channels.<\/p>\n
So, what really happened? Why did Solana implode? And what does it mean for its future?<\/p>\n
What happened to the Solana blockchain?<\/strong><\/p>\n According to an official Twitter statement from Solana Status, the network experienced an increase in transactions that peaked at 400k per second. These transactions allegedly flooded the transaction processing queue and caused the network to fork. In turn, the forking led to excessive memory consumption and knocked some nodes offline.<\/p>\n This is tech-speak for the blockchain crashed and burned because it couldn\u2019t handle the heat and is poorly designed. So, what did the Solana validator community do? They turned it off and on again, just like what happens when you call tech support because your Wi-Fi isn\u2019t working properly.<\/p>\n This raises serious questions about Solana\u2019s key claims, namely that it is fast, secure, and censorship-resistant, some of the favorite buzzwords in the digital currency industry. If validators can switch the network off, in what way is Solana censorship resistant? And how can it claim to be secure when a large number of transactions caused it to fail spectacularly?<\/p>\n Yet, it\u2019s not even clear if Solana really did experience such a large volume of transactions. Justin Bons, founder of Cyber Capital, called Solana out on social media and claimed the large transaction volume explanation was a lie. According to Bons, the on-chain evidence does not support these claims.<\/p>\n This is all very confusing, and it will probably take some time before it\u2019s clear what really happened to Solana, but there are some key lessons that we can take away from this situation right now.<\/p>\n Solana devs, we need to talk<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re a Solana developer or a potential Solana developer, I appeal to you to check out the BSV enterprise blockchain. It\u2019s the original Bitcoin protocol, and it can\u2019t be altered, played with, or changed. It scales infinitely and hasn\u2019t experienced any technical difficulties despite a massive increase in transactions (1M+ daily) recently. You can build on BSV without any fears of it failing, violating the law, or being switched off by centralized powers outside of your control. It\u2019s been running successfully since 2009 and will still be running in 2109.<\/p>\n BSV gets some bad press from vested interests that want to promote alternative blockchains like Ethereum, Cardano, and Solana. Yet, all three have repeatedly failed to live up to expectations, and you should be wondering by now if perhaps they aren\u2019t all they\u2019re cracked up to be. What harm can it do to look into BSV, assess its technical capabilities for yourself, and perhaps test it? There\u2019s no need to commit to anything yet, but if you\u2019re having doubts about Solana, you should look into BSV as one of your potential options.<\/p>\n Here are some facts to consider:<\/p>\n Solana will come and go<\/strong><\/p>\n Like Ethereum, EOS, and others, Solana will come and go. But when it\u2019s all said and done, BSV will be the last protocol standing. Don\u2019t take anybody\u2019s word for it; check it out for yourself, ask the growing number of developers in the BSV ecosystem, or just listen to the people who have already made the transition due to the technical limitations of other blockchains.<\/p>\n In Chinese, the word for crisis is composed of two characters; one is danger and the other is opportunity. Solana\u2019s epic failure could be the wake-up call many of you need to go in a new direction while there\u2019s still time. Everything is not as it seems in this industry, and the future is going to look very different than what you’re being told. There will be one global chain, one base layer protocol, and it won\u2019t be Solana.<\/p>\n Take the time to learn how Bitcoin works and what it\u2019s capable of by listening to its inventor. At this stage, what have you got to lose?<\/p>\n\n
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