Solana 101

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to explain what Solana is and how it works at a basic level: the network’s purpose, how it differs from other blockchains (speed, low fees), and how to actually use it (the SOL token, compatible wallets). This course assumes you’ve completed Courses 1-2 and are ready to focus on one specific network — the one SOLMEME itself runs on.

Lesson 1. What Solana Is

Solana is a public, high-performance blockchain created by Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal; mainnet launched in March 2020. It’s designed for very fast, very cheap transactions, built to support active applications — from payments and trading to gaming.

Compared to the two best-known blockchains:

Bitcoin was built mainly as a decentralized digital store of value (“digital gold”) — simple and secure, but with slow, often expensive transactions.
Ethereum added the ability to run smart contracts and applications (see Course 1), but fees can rise sharply when the network is busy.
Solana combines speed and scalability with low fees, making it well-suited to applications that need frequent, cheap interactions — trading, gaming, micropayments.

Key facts: Solana launched in March 2020. Its native token is SOL. The network is specifically designed for speed and low transaction cost.

Lesson 2. How Solana Achieves High Speed: Proof of History, and Now Alpenglow

Every blockchain needs a way for all the computers on the network to agree on the order of transactions. Most blockchains slow down right here — participants have to keep checking with each other before anything is finalized.

Solana solves this with Proof of History (PoH) — it works like a built-in clock for the network: each tick of this clock proves that a given event happened at a specific time, in a specific order. Because participants are already synchronized to this clock, transactions confirm almost instantly.

To secure the network, Solana also uses Proof of Stake (PoS): SOL holders can “stake” (lock up) some of their tokens with a validator, who processes transactions and helps keep the network safe. In return, stakers earn rewards in SOL. Your tokens stay under your control while staked, but are temporarily delegated to your chosen validator.

2026 update: in 2025, the Solana community voted (with roughly 98% validator support) to move to a new consensus mechanism called Alpenglow, replacing Proof of History and the previous voting mechanism (Tower BFT) with two new components — Votor (voting and finalization) and Rotor (block propagation). Alpenglow finalizes transactions in under 150 milliseconds — roughly 100x faster than the previous mechanism. Live validator testing started in May 2026, with full mainnet activation targeted for late 2026.

Key facts: PoH = the network’s built-in “clock.” PoS = staking SOL to help secure the network. Alpenglow is the new consensus mechanism, in testing since May 2026, targeting full rollout by late 2026.

Lesson 3. Speed and Fees on Solana — the Actual Numbers

Solana handles thousands of transactions per second, and a typical transaction costs less than a cent and confirms in under a second.

More precisely: the base transaction fee on Solana is 5,000 lamports (0.000005 SOL — a lamport is the smallest unit of SOL, roughly like a cent). Half of that fee is burned (permanently removed from circulation), and the other half goes to the validator that processed the transaction. During busy periods, you can optionally pay a “priority fee” to get processed faster — but even with it, total cost usually stays under a cent.

Key facts: Base fee is 5,000 lamports (0.000005 SOL); half is burned, half goes to the validator; typical total transaction cost is a fraction of a cent.

Lesson 4. The Ecosystem: What’s Actually Happening on Solana

Solana is home to active development in:

DeFi apps — decentralized exchanges and lending platforms (well-known Solana DEXs include Jupiter and Raydium).
NFT marketplaces — with notable collections like Mad Lads.
Memecoins — Solana has become one of the most popular platforms for launching this type of token (covered in detail in Course 4, Memecoins 101).

Important: these project names are factual examples for education, not recommendations to use or invest in them.

Lesson 5. Using Solana: SOL and Wallets

SOL is the network’s native coin, used to pay transaction fees and for staking. Solana-compatible non-custodial wallets include Phantom and Solflare (available as browser extensions or mobile apps) — the same wallets you’d use to hold and interact with SOLMEME (see Use the Vault).

Roughly how a transaction works:

You initiate an action (like sending SOL) in your wallet.
The transaction is sent to network validators, who check it’s valid.
Validators reach consensus — usually in under a second (or faster still, once Alpenglow is fully live).
The transaction is confirmed and permanently recorded on the blockchain.
The recipient sees the result immediately.

Key facts: Solana transactions finalize very quickly. Fees are paid in SOL. Popular non-custodial wallets include Phantom and Solflare.

Lesson 6. Risks and History — Honestly

Solana has had several network outages (periods when the network temporarily stopped processing transactions) due to congestion — this is part of the history of most relatively young, high-performance networks. There was also a major security incident in August 2022 that affected part of the ecosystem’s wallets. Fixing stability issues like these was one of the motivations behind the Alpenglow upgrade covered in Lesson 2.

It’s also worth knowing about broader risk categories that apply to any digital asset, including SOL: market volatility (prices can move sharply), technology risk (bugs, validator downtime), staking risk (for example, penalties for misbehaving validators — called “slashing” on Solana, though in practice it’s rare and not automatic), and evolving regulation in different countries.

All of this is factual history and risk categories, not investment advice.

Key facts: Solana has had network outages and at least one major security incident (August 2022). Alpenglow was partly developed to address stability issues. Like any digital asset, SOL carries market, technology, and regulatory risk.

Key Takeaways

Solana is a high-performance blockchain, launched in March 2020.
It used Proof of History together with Proof of Stake; since 2025-2026 it’s transitioning to a new consensus mechanism, Alpenglow (sub-150ms finalization).
Base transaction fee is 5,000 lamports (0.000005 SOL); half is burned.
Popular areas: DEXs (Jupiter, Raydium), NFT collections, memecoins.
SOL is the native token for fees and staking; popular wallets are Phantom and Solflare.
Risks: network outages, a 2022 security incident, market volatility, regulatory uncertainty.

Try It Yourself

These optional exercises turn what you’ve read into something you’ve actually done — pick whichever help most.

Look up a real transaction on Solscan and break down its details (timing, fee, confirmations).
Install Phantom, get some test SOL on Devnet, and send a test transaction.
Compare Solana’s current fee to another network’s fee at the same moment.

Validator · Native token · Lamport · Staking · Consensus (PoH/PoS/Alpenglow) · Network outage · RPC — see Learning → Topics for the standalone Solana explainer.

Where to Go From Here

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to describe Solana’s origin and how it works (including the shift to Alpenglow), explain its fee structure, and name the network’s specific risks. Continue to Course 4: Memecoins 101, or see Use the Vault for how this connects to SOLMEME specifically.