Solana vs Elrond! Two popular cryptocurrency blockchains competing to become the primary Web3 blockchain commerce ecosystem of the future. This article will give a comparison overview of each, offer helpful data for potential investors, stakers, and validators, and propose high-level positives and criticisms of each project. Let’s go!
What are Elrond and Solana
Elrond and Solana are both decentralized, proof of stake (POS), layer one blockchain protocols. Both support DeFi, NFT marketplaces, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), gaming, metaverse and payment dApps. Both are competing to become the primary Web3 blockchain commerce ecosystem of the future with high scaling, fast transactions, and low fees.
- Elrond hopes to be “the Internet Scale Blockchain”. The technological centerpieces are a “secure proof of stake” consensus mechanism (SPOS) and scaling via adaptive state sharding. Elrond’s native token is EGLD. Elrond was created in 2017 by Beniamin and Lucian Mincu. The protocol was publicly launched in 2019. The Elrond Network is a private company that supports the network’s development and is staffed by the founders along with another 23 technology and business professionals.
- The Solana protocol is considered one of the most technically advanced in the industry due to its hybrid POS and proof of history (POH) consensus mechanism. Solana was created in 2017 by Anatoly Yakavenko. Its official Mainnet launch occurred in early 2020. Currently, the Solana Foundation supports the protocol’s open-sourced infrastructure and development. This foundation is composed of multiple Silicon Valley technology leaders and experts.
How do Elrond and Solana Work
Both Elrond and Solana utilize a mix of technologies to achieve relatively high scaling, fast transactions, and low fees. However, they each deploy different types of technologies to achieve their intended effects. Let’s look at the details.
Elrond
- Elrond utilizes adaptive state sharding for increased scaling and a SPOS consensus for speed and security. These two technologies work in tandem and have resulted in Elrond currently achieving a 15,000 transactions per second (TPS) capacity with an average cost of $.001 per transaction.
- Adaptive State Sharding: Allows Elrond to scale because the blockchain silos key processes (accounts, smart contracts, etc.) into separate “shards”. Separating the workload reduces latency, which allows the blockchain to take on more work.
- The SPOS consensus mechanism works like a traditional POS mechanism (e.g. they both select staked validators to propose new blocks to the blockchain), but with a few differences. First, the SPOS system assigns validators to work specific shards. Second, the system uses a special algorithm that randomly selects validators in each shard to propose that shard’s block. And third, SPOS then securely merges these separate shard blocks back together into one common blockchain ledger. Elrond currently hosts 3200 active validators.
Solana
- Solana utilizes a hybrid POS and POH consensus mechanism. Please see here for an in-depth analysis concerning consensus mechanisms, POS, and POH. This hybrid system seems to be producing its intended effect because Solana currently has a 50,000 TPS capacity with an average $.00025 transaction cost.
- Proof of Stake: …
David learned about bitcoin in 2015 and has closely followed the crypto industry since then. His professional interests center around bitcoin, layer-one blockchain protocols, decentralized finance, and clean energy. An attorney by trade, David has held licenses to practice law in the State of Hawaii and in US federal courts.
