Technology · Ebook

Solana: A High-Performance Blockchain, From Architecture to Programs

by Shriira Press

A comprehensive, self-contained, and balanced guide to Solana — the Layer 1 blockchain designed for speed: tens of thousands of transactions per second, sub-second block times, and fees of fractions of a cent. Where the Blockchain book explains the general concepts (hashing, consensus, smart contracts), this book goes deep on how Solana achieves its performance and what it trades away to get it. You'll learn Solana's signature innovations — Proof of History (a cryptographic clock), Sealevel (parallel transaction execution), Tower BFT consensus, and the rest of the performance stack — its distinctive account model, how programs (smart contracts) work, how to develop on it with Rust and Anchor, the SPL token ecosystem, and — crucially — an honest account of its real weaknesses: network outages, validator centralization, and the security pitfalls unique to its model.

Contents

1. 1Preface
2. 2Chapter 1 — What Is Solana?
3. 3Chapter 2 — The Solana Account Model
4. 4Chapter 3 — Proof of History: Solana's Clock
5. 5Chapter 4 — Consensus: Tower BFT and Proof of Stake
6. 6Chapter 5 — Sealevel and Parallel Execution
7. 7Chapter 6 — The Performance Stack: Gulf Stream, Turbine, Pipelining
8. 8Chapter 7 — Programs: Solana's Smart Contracts
9. 9Chapter 8 — Transactions and Instructions
10. 10Chapter 9 — Developing on Solana: Rust, Anchor, and the CLI
11. 11Chapter 10 — Tokens and the SPL: SPL Tokens, NFTs, and DeFi
12. 12Chapter 11 — Performance, Outages, and the Decentralization Debate
13. 13Chapter 12 — Security and Risks on Solana
14. 14Chapter 13 — Solana in Practice and the Profession
15. 15Appendix A — Glossary and Quick Reference
16. 16Appendix B — Further Reading and Resources