What Is Solana? The Chain That Feels Like a Zoo

Okay, this is lesson number 3, and I’m going to cover all the major coins and protocols.

So far, we’ve talked about Bitcoin and Ethereum, and today we’re going to cover Solana.

So, how did Solana start?

Well, Ethereum was getting expensive, slow, and a little clunky. Someone basically looked at it and thought, “Okay, what if I create something that’s faster and cheaper than Ethereum?”

And that’s how Solana came to life.

Solana is a special computer network (sometimes called a new kind of internet infrastructure) that lets people send money and build apps. These apps can run very quickly and cost almost nothing to use.

Solana uses something called Proof of History.

Ethereum used to use Proof of Work, but it switched to Proof of Stake because Proof of Work used too much energy.

I’ll try to explain the difference in a simple, non-technical way.

Ethereum works a little like a classroom vote. Everyone has to agree before something counts. That keeps it safe, but it can also make it slower.

Solana works more like a super-accurate clock. The moment something happens, it gets stamped with the exact time. Everyone can check the stamp later, so you don’t need the whole class to vote on every tiny action. That’s one of the main reasons Solana can be much faster and cheaper.

The tradeoff is that fewer people/validators help run Solana.

This matters because one of the core ideas of crypto is that NO small group should be in control. When fewer people/validators are running the network, problems can spread more easily. If some of those people/validators have issues or stop working the whole network can freeze.

Solana has already gone offline several times because of network issues.

Having fewer people involved also goes against one of crypto’s main promises: true decentralization. The more people/validators who help run a network, the harder it is for anyone to control it or shut it down.

But when Solana is working, it can handle a huge amount of activity at once.

Fast and cheap changes what is possible to build on top of a chain.

Thousands of transactions per second at almost no cost.

That’s why developers came. Not because of ideology, but because the numbers finally made sense for high-activity apps that couldn’t really be developed on Ethereum.

Solana also became the center of pure speculation and scams, especially during the memecoin explosion in 2024 and 2025. New tokens were launching every few minutes. Rugs, honeypots, wallet drains, it felt like a zoo or a nightmare for many.

I remember starting to hate Solana so much. It was because I was participating in all that ridiculous memecoin craziness and losing money.

So let me say this very clearly: NEVER GAMBLE. Learn from me.

That was a very expensive mistake for me. I lost more than $1 million of money I had worked for years to build. Puff…gone! Because I started gambling, thinking, “Oh, I didn’t win on this one, but I’ll win on the next one.” Reality was that there was no logic in memecoins. You could be the smartest person on Earth and still lose.

Luckily, I didn’t burn through my long-term portfolio because at some point I was thinking, “WTF am I doing?” But many people did, and some of them still haven’t recovered.

I was stuck in that crazy cycle for months. Eventually, I had to cut it off completely. I went kitesurfing in the Dominican Republic, got away from everything fora few months, and slowly recovered my mind and spirit.

So if you see people online making money easily, remember: it’s a fucking scam until proven otherwise. Nothing is easy, not even for me, someone who has been in crypto for more than a decade. I still fell into gambling and scams. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to you.

That’s why having systems in place is so important. SYSTEM IS EVERYTHING, AND ALWAYS STICK TO IT, as I did for many years. Well, with that few-month break that cost me a lot. Decide what you’re going to do before emotions take over, and then stick to your system.

I stopped trading on Solana completely. For a while, I straight-up hated it.

I still need to admit something: the network is maturing. There are real projects building on it. I hold SOL and DCA into it, so it does have a place in my portfolio, as those who read my stuff know.

I believe the network will grow in value over time.

If you do buy SOL, you are betting on the network itself. Keep the size reasonable.

For me, SOL is around 8 -10% of my portfolio at this moment. It takes third place because I think the chain will grow beyond the memecoin craze. I’m betting it will mature into something more serious.

Risks are real. Outages have happened. Regulation can hit. Concentration among validators is still a weakness.

The upside is also real if the ecosystem keeps maturing beyond memecoins.

Solana is not going to kill Ethereum. Ethereum is not going to kill Solana. That framing is already outdated from my perspective because what chains are working on is interoperability, meaning the chains will become more connected.

Liquidity will move more freely. Cross-chain apps will feel normal.

Solana’s role in that world is clear: high speed, low cost, high throughput.

If I have to choose and say why I invest in these three major protocols, I would say:

Bitcoin is money. Ethereum is a computer with the biggest ecosystem. Solana is speed.

You do not need to pick a single winner. You need to understand what each one does, what the risks are, and size your exposure accordingly.