Looking to compete with Ethereum, Solana is a smart-contract blockchain platform designed to host decentralized, scalable applications. During the bull market in 2020 and 2021 the chain saw extensive and accelerated grow. It has been the focus of many venture capitalists and it has interested many as a gateway to gaming.

Take for instance, Fractals: a new gaming NFT (Non-fungible token) marketplace focused on the Solana blockchain. Rarity determines the value of fractals, which is based on six categories: Faction, Power, Purity, Velocity, Spin and Altitude. Another great example is the SolChicks project. Looking to lead the gaming fantasy NFT ecosystem on the Solana blockchain, it has built a gaming metaverse of its own around adorable digital collectibles.

Solana is much faster in terms of the number of transactions it can process and has significantly lower transaction fees. With its integrated Proof-of-History mechanism it enables the use of hashed timestamps to verify when transactions occur. However, in 2022 it took a big step backwards after witnessing the biggest drop the last few months.

What’s more, once the hype for Solana began to falter, other sidechains and Layer 2 stepped up and made it lose traction. It all escalated when their main investment coming from FTX’s founder & CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was no more. FTX went bankrupt and Solana’s most prominent backer stepped down. This led to the exit of numerous promising projects and investors who then looked for other chains elsewhere.

After experiencing what could be the very bottom, Solana is looking to slowly recover and get back on track to become a healthy ecosystem again. The big question is, is it worth it? Time will tell whether there are enough builders, willing to endure and make the distance.