In a brand new report, American hedge fund Pantera Capital referred to as Solana the “Mac OS” of blockchains, equating its growth technique and potential influence to that of Apple’s well-known working system. Authored by Franklin Bee, Cosmo Jiang, and Eric Wallach, the report takes an in-depth have a look at the structural dynamics and strategic positioning of blockchains within the expertise trade.
The report begins by answering a standard query about the way forward for blockchain expertise: “What number of blockchains ought to there be?” As a substitute of specializing in amount, the Pantera group affords a distinct perspective: “What’s the smallest variety of blockchains wanted to realize the expertise’s full potential?” This strategy goals to grasp the important traits that may permit sure blockchains to dominate the market.
The analogy with historic expertise oligopolies is powerful. “Traditionally, developer-focused applied sciences have coalesced round a small variety of dominant gamers — normally oligopolies of two or three, every with their very own strategy that fits completely different developer preferences.” He attracts on examples from the evolution of working programs, gaming consoles and cellular platforms to foretell an analogous trajectory for blockchains.
Why Solana stands out
In accordance with the Pantera Capital group, Solano is turning into a formidable opponent within the blockchain house, much like Apple throughout the rise of private computing. “This shift is paying homage to Microsoft’s dominance of the early desktop market till Apple broke by with its vertically built-in strategy,” the report notes, suggesting that Solana’s built-in and monolithic structure might give it an analogous aggressive benefit.
The report particulars among the advantages of the SOL structure. First, Solana’s cohesive blockchain design avoids the complexities of mixing a number of chains, simplifying growth and consumer interplay.
By controlling its complete stack, the mission can rapidly iterate and implement upgrades, which is a vital issue within the fast-paced blockchain atmosphere. Third, much less dependence on exterior elements and a simplified structure cut back potential factors of failure, rising the general stability and safety of the platform.
The authors additionally spotlight particular purposes that reveal Solana’s capabilities and its influence on each builders and finish customers. DRiP, a free collectibles distribution platform, reveals how Solana’s excessive throughput and low transaction prices facilitate large, cost-effective NFT distributions.
Equally, Hivemapper leverages Solana’s effectivity to course of giant quantities of geographic knowledge collected from drones and DVRs, offering real-time, decentralized maps that may problem established companies like Google Maps.
The report additionally highlights blockchain progress metrics: “Solana’s distinctive lively addresses have skyrocketed […] demonstrating a staggering improve in consumer exercise of the platform”, additional supported by knowledge illustrating the expansion of transaction charges and decentralized alternate volumes, indicating a strong and rising demand for SOL choices.
Concluding its evaluation, the Pantera group expresses sturdy confidence in Solana’s future trajectory. “As extra builders acknowledge the advantages of constructing on Solana, we are able to count on to see a rise in modern initiatives utilizing its high-performance blockchain,” they predict. This mindset is supported by a robust developer ecosystem and lively neighborhood, that are seen as essential to the power to remain forward of the competitors and obtain sustainable progress and relevance.
At press time, SOL was buying and selling at $123.90.
Featured picture from Bitget, chart from TradingView.com