I've been wondering lately where Solana really came from and who is behind this project. It turns out that the entire story can be traced back to one person — Anatoly Yakovenko.

Yakovenko had quite solid experience before getting into cryptocurrencies. He worked at Qualcomm, where he was involved in software engineering and quickly rose through the ranks. In 2015, he became a senior engineering manager. He then changed direction and moved to Dropbox, working as a software engineer. But that wasn’t his last stop.

In 2017, Yakovenko decided to start working on something completely new. He teamed up with Greg Fitzgerald, who also previously worked at Qualcomm. Together, they founded Solana Labs. They also brought in a few other people from Qualcomm who believed in the project’s vision. In 2020, the Solana protocol and the SOL token were officially launched.

So what sets Solana apart from other blockchains? Mainly the innovation introduced by Yakovenko — Proof of History, or PoH. This solution allows for much greater network scalability. As a result, Solana achieves incredibly fast transaction processing times.

Solana’s hybrid protocol is something that truly stands out in the market. Transaction validation and smart contract execution happen at unprecedented speeds. This has attracted the attention not only of regular users but also of institutions and corporations.

Yakovenko and Fitzgerald made sure that Solana is accessible to everyone — both small users and large players. They promised that fees would not increase as the network grows. The protocol was designed with low transaction costs in mind, while maintaining speed and scalability.

In February 2021, Solana ranked 42nd on CoinMarketCap. Yakovenko and Fitzgerald’s professional experience undoubtedly played a key role in building something truly innovative.