With its industry-leading transaction throughput and super-low latency, Solana has cornered the blockchain industry in terms of sheer performance, and is now emerging as a key stakeholder in advancing blockchain interoperability.
The driving force behind Solana’s ascent to the top of the blockchain world is the Solana Virtual Machine, or SVM, which expands its capabilities to any kind of decentralized application. SVM makes use of the “proof-of-history” consensus algorithm, timestamping transactions prior to them being executed to create a verifiable timeline – this is what enables it to achieve parallel transaction processing, enabling it to process and verify multiple transactions and do it faster than other blockchains and without consuming vast amounts of energy.
Solana’s parallel transaction processing is what sets it apart from other networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which can only process transactions sequentially, one at a time.
The SVM also relies on a second consensus mechanism - the traditional proof-of-stake algorithm used by Ethereum and other chains, only it merges this with Tower Byzantine Fault Tolerance to create what’s known as the Tower BFT Consensus. This ensures its validators can achieve consensus in a matter of seconds to achieve rapid transaction finality.
The Solana SVM’s unique architecture also takes advantage of the Rust programming language, which provides concurrency features for writing more efficient smart contracts. Together, these components make Solana the ideal platform for dApps that need to process large transaction volumes, and it paves the way for Solana to become a key facilitator of network interoperability.
Extending SVM To Other Blockchains
For the blockchain industry to expand and grow, it needs to find a reliable way for different blockchains to interact in a way that’s fast, secure and simple for users. Solana SVM promises to play a key role in facilitating this interoperability, taking advantage of its rapid speeds and low transaction costs. It can be a platform that integrates all other networks, paving the way for developers to build next-generation dApps that can function on multiple blockchain platforms at once.
Blockchain integration is not an easy feat, because each blockchain network operates its own, independent consensus algorithm. To get around this, developers need to make use of a cross-chain bridge or interoperability protocol. They must also find a solution that secures cross-chain transactions adequately, which can be achieved through the use of decentralized oracles and atomic swaps.
Solana’s SVM can help to overcome all of these challenges, and its unique capabilities could see it emerge as a nexus for all other blockchains, creating a dApp ecosystem that’s more connected and efficient.
How Can SVM Help Other Blockchains?
The SVM can utilize its lower costs and rapid transaction speeds in various segments of the blockchain industry. For instance in DeFi, it can help networks such as Ethereum reduce their gas costs and ease congestion to create more user-friendly dApp experience.s
By using SVM, developers can reduce the cost, and expedite the process of minting and transferring digital assets across chains, facilitating more vibrant NFT and trading markets where tokens can flow across multiple networks.
The SVM also helps to reduce transaction delays and simplifies the process of tracking individual transactions. It can help to process enormous volumes of transactions at extremely low costs. In other words, it brings many benefits to blockchain interoperability that other networks cannot hope to match.
Who Is Making This Happen?
Zeus Network is at the forefront of the push to make SVM the de facto blockchain interoperability protocol, and is doing important work that will expand its connectivity to numerous other networks. It’s building a cross-chain infrastructure stack that utilizes Solana’s high-performance network to connect to other chains.
Key to Zeus Network is the Zeus Programmable Library, which is a pluggable and programmable network of nodes that make it simple for developers to build and integrate new dApps with the Solana SVM. This layer is designed to be highly scalable and has the capacity to run numerous dApps simultaneously without any impact on their performance. This is essential for the growth of Web3, which many people see as a future, alternative internet infrastructure that will support newer, decentralized applications in every niche, from finance to gaming and supply chain management.
The really clever aspect of Zeus Layer is its extreme versatility, which is what allows developers to create bespoke protocols geared towards very specific use cases and applications. It also provides security features designed to safeguard transactions, such as its programmable signatures and proofs-of-fraud. Each bridge transaction is signed on the Zeus Layer, before being broadcast to the target blockchain. Validators who find evidence of fraud can submit proof to the network in order to eliminate any malicious nodes trying to game the system.
Zeus Layer’s goal is to simplify SVM deployment across numerous blockchains, so developers outside of the Solana ecosystem can tap into its highly performant and scalable infrastructure.
While Zeus Network hopes to attract and cater to third-party developers, it is also working on its own dApp, called APOLLO, as a showcase of SVM’s ability to support blockchain interoperability. With APOLLO, it’s providing a way for dApps to bring Bitcoin liquidity onto Solana itself, meaning Solana-based DeFi and GameFi dApps, for example, will be able to leverage native Bitcoin assets.
The Interoperability King?
For blockchain to truly prosper, there’s an urgent need for its disparate decentralized networks to cooperate seamlessly with one another, and that’s why the SVM, with its vastly superior transaction processing speeds and low costs, is so crucial to the future of Web3. By using the SVM, developers can achieve blockchain interoperability without taking a performance hit or increasing costs for their users.
As the role of the SVM in blockchain interoperability grows, it’s likely that future updates and projects will help to further this area of innovation, positioning Solana itself as one of the most important blockchains of all, acting as the kingmaker that links all other chains.
