All About Solana: When Was the SOL Blockchian First Created? AllinCrypto April 2, 2025
Within the past few years, SOL’s (Solana) popularity in the crypto world has gained mainstream attention from the launch of celebrity meme coins to its low fees and speedy transactions.
Solana has often been compared to Ethereum as a competitor but as a faster and updated Proof of Stake (PoS) Protocol. Let’s dive into the history of Solana when and where it started and its evolving role in web3.
The Founders of Solana
Anatoly Yakovenko, the founder of Solana was introduced to Bitcoin during the 2008 financial crisis exploring the possibilities of GPU-accelerated mining. The experience did not meet his expectations and he did not take crypto seriously again until 2017.
Yakovenko and Solana co-founder Stephen Akridge, a GPU lead at Qualcomm, had a project building systems for deep learning and used crypto to mine in the background to save on capital costs. The project inspired Anatoly to understand why Bitcoin had high costs and inefficiencies.
Up late one night Anatoly had an epiphany about encoding time as a data structure and how it related to Bitcoin and Ethereum’s issues which inspired him to build a blockchain that resolved the issues hindering the current blockchains.
The Creation of Solana
Yakovenko’s eureka moment led to the creation of Solana in 2018 which worked to resolve the restrictions of current blockchains, specifically high fees and slow transaction speeds.
The experience and knowledge he gained from developing operating systems and wireless technology allowed him to find similarities between the technologies by implementing a term he was not even aware of at the time: verifiable delay function.
This system allowed for a permissionless, high-performing network that could compete with Ethereum and allowed for Proof-of-History (PoH) paired with Proof-of-Stake (PoS) for greater scalability.
Timeline of SOL Milestones:
- 2017: Anthony Yakovenko publishes the Whitepaper: Solana: A New Architecture for a high-performance Blockchain
- 2018: Solana Labs was created and started running on cloud-based networks.
- 2020: Launch of beta mainnet and Solana native token SOL becomes tradable
- 2022-23: Solana continues to grow and partners with VISA, Google Cloud, AWS and Shopify
- 2024: Major upgrades to improve performance, situating Solana as a top blockchain
- 2025: SOL reached an all-time of $295.40 displaying its potential in the crypto ecosystem
Solana Controversies in 2025
Solana does not go without its controversy – the “America is Back” ad Solana released was criticized for being divisive and cringe.
The Crypto Twitter community was overwhelmingly offended with critics claiming it went against the industry being built upon inclusivity. Others appreciated the humor in its defiance of progressive norms. Anatoly tweeted that he agreed the ad was bad and the ad was taken down.
Then there was the controversial Libra meme coin rug pull launched by Argentina’s President, Javier Milei. The coin that Milei promoted wiped out $4.4 billion in market cap and tanked the overall meme coin market.
The token was promoted to “boost the Argentine economy by funding small projects” Once the coin was rugged Milei distanced himself from the project.
Pump and dumps done by political figures risk regulatory backlash and lack of public trust and take away from legitimate blockchain projects like Solana.
Solana’s Role Today and into the Future
Despite Solana’s controversies, its popularity is not losing momentum. From major brand partnerships to Solana powering applications.
Solana DeFi, gaming, payments, and a thriving community act as evidence that Solana adoption is not slowing down anytime soon. Known for its efficiencies and speed it is a top choice for developers.
In just a few years Solana went from concept to launch and has made a significant impact on the blockchain industry from tackling scalability and speed. Solana is positioned as a key player in decentralized finance and the Web3 landscape.
The post All About Solana: When Was the SOL Blockchian First Created? first appeared on AllinCrypto.
