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Solana History

Discover the origins of Solana, meet its founders, and explore key milestones in the blockchain's journey from inception to today.

The Founders

Solana was founded by a team of brilliant engineers and entrepreneurs who wanted to solve blockchain's scalability problems:

Anatoly Yakovenko
Co-Founder & CEO

Former Qualcomm engineer who invented Proof of History, the breakthrough technology that makes Solana so fast. He published the original Solana whitepaper in 2017.

Background:

  • Former Principal Engineer at Qualcomm
  • Worked on distributed systems and compression
  • Invented Proof of History consensus mechanism
Raj Gokal
Co-Founder & COO

Serial entrepreneur and former General Partner at Saber Capital. He co-founded Solana Labs with Anatoly and has been instrumental in building the Solana ecosystem.

Background:

  • Former General Partner at Saber Capital
  • Serial entrepreneur and startup advisor
  • Expert in business development and partnerships
Greg Fitzgerald
Co-Founder & Principal Engineer

Former Qualcomm colleague of Anatoly who helped build the first Solana prototype. He's been crucial in developing Solana's core technology and architecture.

Background:

  • Former Senior Staff Engineer at Qualcomm
  • Expert in systems programming and optimization
  • Key architect of Solana's runtime
Stephen Akridge
Co-Founder & Principal Engineer

Another former Qualcomm engineer who joined the founding team. He's been instrumental in optimizing Solana's performance and building its validator infrastructure.

Background:

  • Former Senior Staff Engineer at Qualcomm
  • Expert in GPU programming and parallel computing
  • Key contributor to Solana's validator software

Key Milestones

Important dates and achievements in Solana's history:

Mainnet Launch
March 16, 2020

Solana's mainnet beta went live, marking the beginning of the high-performance blockchain era.

Days since launch:

1,958 days

Genesis Block
Block #0

The very first block on Solana's blockchain, marking the beginning of the network's history.

First Epoch
Epoch #0

Solana organizes time into epochs (approximately 2-3 days each). The first epoch began with the genesis block.

What's an epoch?

A period of time used for staking rewards and validator rotation, typically lasting 2-3 days.

Network Information

Current network details and useful tools:

Minimum Rent
Account rent requirements

In Solana, accounts need to maintain a minimum balance (rent) to stay active. This prevents spam and keeps the network efficient.

Why rent exists:

  • Prevents blockchain bloat
  • Ensures accounts stay active
  • Maintains network performance
Check Current Minimum Rent
Network Age
Time since mainnet launch

Solana has been running continuously since its mainnet launch, processing millions of transactions with high speed and low costs.

5

Years

133

Days

The Vision

From the beginning, Solana's founders had a clear vision: create a blockchain that could scale to billions of users without sacrificing decentralization or security. Their breakthrough was Proof of History, which allows the network to agree on time without waiting for consensus.

What makes Solana special:

  • 1

    Proof of History

    A cryptographic clock that helps validators agree on time

  • 2

    Parallel Processing

    Multiple transactions can be processed at the same time

  • 3

    Low Costs

    Transactions cost fractions of a penny

  • 4

    High Speed

    Thousands of transactions per second with sub-second finality

Explore Solana's Journey

From a whitepaper to a thriving ecosystem - discover how Solana became one of the world's fastest blockchains!