Here’s a quick explanation on what makes Solana so fast and cheap that anyone can understand:

1. Parallel Transaction Processing: Meaning, more than one transaction can be processed at the same time. The other way to do this is called a “single-threaded” model, which Ethereum uses. So Ethereum is essentially processing transactions sequentially, one after the other. In Solana, many transactions can be processed simultaneously.

2. Transaction Speed: Solana targets confirming transactions within 0.4 seconds. It does this by what is called “optimistic confirmation”. So rather than waiting for all the network validators to confirm the transaction (which in other networks can take many minutes), it considers 66% (two thirds) ‘good enough’.

3. Local fee markets: Why the word “local”? In Ethereum, a big NFT drop or other high-demand event can cause congestion and an increase in fees across the entire network for everyone. This can cause folks to not want to use the network for periods of time. In Solana, the congestion can be limited to the specific account (local!) which is experiencing the high demand or need.

It’s intellectually interesting to understand the various approaches these networks take, but also challenging to break it down to easily digestible concepts, hope this was helpful!

Here’s a quick explanation on what makes Solana so fast and cheap that anyone can understand:

1. Parallel Transaction Processing: Meaning, more than one transaction can be processed at the same time. The other way to do this is called a “single-threaded” model, which Ethereum uses. So Ethereum is essentially processing transactions sequentially, one after the other. In Solana, many transactions can be processed simultaneously.

2. Transaction Speed: Solana targets confirming transactions within 0.4 seconds. It does this by what is called “optimistic confirmation”. So rather than waiting for all the network validators to confirm the transaction (which in other networks can take many minutes), it considers 66% (two thirds) ‘good enough’.

3. Local fee markets: Why the word “local”? In Ethereum, a big NFT drop or other high-demand event can cause congestion and an increase in fees across the entire network for everyone. This can cause folks to not want to use the network for periods of time. In Solana, the congestion can be limited to the specific account (local!) which is experiencing the high demand or need.

It’s intellectually interesting to understand the various approaches these networks take, but also challenging to break it down to easily digestible concepts, hope this was helpful!