Both good and bad things have been said about the Solana network. This year, the asset has experienced everything from a class action lawsuit to the establishment of its first physical location. It seems to be in the spotlight once more right now for a significant reason. Raj Gokal, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Solana Labs asserts that he believes that the Ethereum merger would be successful.
Gokal said,
“It’s one step for Ethereum in a long road map toward having the type of scalability that Solana has today.”
The company wants to “see Ethereum thrive,” according to Gokal, who is also a co-founder of the SOL blockchain, in part because it might boost confidence in the entire sector. He continued by saying that the SOL team wants to see the Merge succeed since it is positive for observers of the cryptocurrency sector to see significant updates, launches, and success.
The Merge will replace Ethereum’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus process with a quicker and more energy-efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) model. It is anticipated to take place in the next days.
Currently, Solana uses both a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol and a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus. Users can create and invest in crypto-native apps using the blockchain-based smart contract platform via the Solana blockchain. According to Gokal, that “energy efficient” approach was used right away.
According to Gokal, based on non-fungible token (NFT) volumes, consumers are more concerned about scalability, throughput, and cost, even though Ethereum’s Merge isn’t anticipated to increase any of those factors. He added,
“From our perspective, these NFT volumes just go to show users really do care about that cost and performance. Because “Ethereum is probably the largest by mindshare for NFT projects as an ecosystem, its shift away from proof-of-work towards a less-environmentally harmful protocol is a really good thing.”
T’is the year of Solana’s Saga
Solana Mobile, a division of Solana Labs, announced in June of this year that it was developing the “Saga,” a Web 3 mobile phone.
Gokal claims that the Android-based phone’s development kits had “nearly sold out” before its anticipated introduction for $1,000 per unit.
Gokal responded that he was “surprised to see that there hasn’t really been much focus on the crypto-conscious customer” when asked how the phone will compare to Apple’s iPhone 14. He went on to say,
“Given the last year of explosive growth in usage, and the fact that crypto is arguably going more mainstream, we expected Apple would be launching crypto-native features in iPhone 13 and that Google [and] Samsung would be doing the same on their own phones.”
According to Gokal, the industry is still “open and hungry for this type of product,” and that sub-segment of consumers who buy consumer electronics may be a substantial source of volume for cryptocurrencies if the “right 50,000 or 100,000” get in.