Despite Ethereum’s leading position among prominent blockchains, some of its competitors strive to provide flexible, scalable alternatives. Time-consuming transactions, costly fees, and network congestion are now challenges of Ether blockchain. Solana and NEAR plan to address Ethereum’s weaknesses, providing solutions – swift and affordable networks. Though there are many similarities between the two most prominent Ethereum competitors, several key technical differences set the two ventures apart.
So, which is the better major crypto-project? Let’s compare Solana and NEAR Protocol’s positions in the crypto market and the challenges these crypto projects face.
Solana Blockchain
Solana is a public ledger network with smart contract-focused functionality established in 2017 by Solana Labs. It shows a pretty high transaction throughput. Until February 2022, Solana was the world’s swiftest public chain network.
Solana uses a hybrid PoS and PoH-based consensus mechanism. The native token SOL is vital in securing the network via PoS. Moreover, the PoH mechanism is the initial “clock-before consensus” algorithm, as it lets Solana achieve consensus.
Solana was designed to address the “blockchain trilemma” of scaling a public ledger network not compromising safety. Nothing is stopping Solana – it continues to manage long-term implications and implements a transaction fee mechanism.
The Architecture of Solana
The Solana network features several top-notch components that let it scale without implementing layer-2 networks. Let’s say “Sealevel” is the globe’s first parallel venture runtime, processing thousands of digital contracts simultaneously. This is a noteworthy improvement on WebAssembly-based runtimes.
Solana validators work in “clusters” for particular tasks. Solana validation benefits from the same transaction fee mechanism — sharded blockchains. It uses
- “Clock before consensus” proof-of-history mechanism;
- Horizontally-scaled “Cloudbreak” database;
- “Gulf Stream” transaction forwarding protocol;
- Block propagation protocol “Turbine.”
Solana’s blockchain continues to compete with Ethereum via Solana’s DeFi ecosystem, with Solanart recording billions in daily NFT-trade volume.
NEAR Protocol
That is a major project and smart contract-enabled digital ledger. Inspired by other popular crypto projects, it serves as a community-operated special cloud infrastructure for hosting dApps. The native token NEAR plays an essential role in network security. It uses a procedure called “sharding” to scale public blockchains.
- NEAR Protocol deploys human-readable addresses.
- Ether “Rainbow Bridge” lets participants transfer coins between the two networks seamlessly.
- Specialists may benefit from the solution Aurora layer-2, which uses EVM to create contracts with higher transaction throughput.
Experts predict that if NEAR’s circulating supply vests, there will be no sell pressure left from NEAR Protocol’s early investors. If you are confused, the NEAR smart contract audit will help you delve deeper into the subject.
Nightshade Sharding
This is the so-called sharding technology that grounds the NEAR blockchain. Unsharded blockchains necessitate each network node to preserve a full copy of the ledger. Hence, the NEAR chain processes data efficiently with lower costs. Furthermore, the novel sharding mechanism entails splitting ledger infrastructure into several segments to decrease the computational burden on nodes.
NEAR uses an election-based mechanism known as “thresholded proof-of-stake” for validator nomination, which works like an auction. The TPoS generates a threshold for validation. Any validator staked above the threshold can partake in network validation and receive the relevant rewards.
The SOL Token vs. NEAR Token
The SOL and the NEAR tokens are vital in securing their networks via PoS consensus. Also, both coins grant holders governance rights, letting them vote on proposals to make alterations to the network. Nevertheless, the NEAR token has a supplemental use case as payment for data storage. Further, developers on NEAR receive 30% of all network fees as an additional incentive to build dApps.
Both tokens have undergone sustained periods within the best 100 cryptocurrencies. However, the SOL coin has outperformed the NEAR token, a top-ten-ranked asset by market cap. As per CoinGecko, the SOL token ranks ninth, with a $9.5 billion market capitalization. Alternatively, the NEAR coin ranks 29th, with a market cap of $2.4 billion.
Solana vs. NEAR Protocol
Solana’s Mainnet was launched in February 2020, while NEAR Protocol’s Mainnet network was released in April of the same year. Shortly, Solana made headlines as the swiftest blockchain on the market, with an estimated speed of 65,000 transactions per second. NEAR Protocol claims to perform about 200,000 TPS, making it the promptest process among blockchains.
As per DeFi Llama, Solana, in total value locked (TVL), harbors $2.88 billion currently. NEAR only has $322 million in TVL. Besides, Solana has around 1,470 nodes now, whereas NEAR has only 720. Solana’s average transaction fee is between $0.00001 and $0.00025. NEAR prices are comparatively low. Solana’s circulating supply is 300 million out of a total supply of 500 million – less than NEAR.
Building dApps on Solana and NEAR means a low-cost, high-speed alternative to Ethereum. When building Solana, developers can select between the C, C++, and Rust programming languages. On NEAR, developers pick Rust or AssemblyScript.
Technical Complications
Although Solana is slightly better than NEAR in terms of token performance, Solana users have recently undergone disruptions to the network. Leaving these Solana’s outages unaddressed would cause trouble for it.
Yet, NEAR is still in the early stages of building the sharding infrastructure. As such, NEAR might face similar issues as technological improvements are implemented.
Wallet Compatibility
The widely-known Phantom Wallet is the predominant one used within the Solana ecosystem. It is a non-custodial Web3 wallet that provides participants access to user private keys. NEAR Wallet is considered a proprietary e-wallet for the NEAR network. Users can interact via EVM-compatible Aurora.
The SOL and NEAR coins are available on several EVM-compatible blockchain-based networks. Here, users can achieve price exposure to each token, but, cannot participate in staking without a native wallet like Phantom.
Solana vs. NEAR Protocol: Investment Advice
Both blockchains are very scalable with a low carbon footprint. Moreover, each network contains an Ethereum bridge and is EVM-compatible. Thus, Ethereum specialists can deploy Solidity smart contracts on both ledgers; yet, the Solana blockchain is a more established network with comparatively more users and decentralized applications.
Robust tokenomics is where Solana shines. So even with its massive market cap, SOL will probably see more gains in percentage terms than its rival when the next bull market comes around. Moreover, as novel as NEAR Protocol’s transaction fee mechanism, Solana has roughly double the competitor’s number of active nodes, seeming more resistant to attacks. Overall, both blockchains boast extra-low fees and instant transaction speeds and both intend to solve the blockchain trilemma.
FAQ
Solana is a leading crypto-technology described as efficient. Its tokens SOL are used to pay the transaction fees.
Solana outperforms Near and Fantom as it has over 80% stake. Fantom has 45%, and NEAR has a 44% stake. Plus, Solana wins with 2,000 validators, contrasted to competitors with 106 and 70, respectively.
Solana has an intuitive interface and implements Layer-1 blockchains to create and manage new DApps.
It is extremely stable and allows cheap transactions, offering a long-term investment in cryptocurrency.