Introduction

What is Solana network?

Solana is a highly functional open-source project that implements a new, permissionless, and high-speed layer-1 blockchain. It combines Proof of History and Proof of Stake algorithms and has the ability to process over 700,000 transactions per second without any scaling solutions.

Solana (SOL) has become popular in the NFT and DeFi spaces as Ethereum users seek out new platforms with faster and cheaper transactions.

Founded in 2017, Solana is an open-source project currently run by Solana Foundation based in Geneva, while the blockchain was built by San Francisco-based Solana Labs.

Solana is much faster in terms of the number of transactions it can process and has significantly lower transaction fees compared to rival blockchains like Ethereum.

What is DeFi?

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is built on secure distributed ledgers similar to the ones used in cryptocurrencies. The system removes the control banks and institutions have on money, financial products, and services. People lend and borrow funds from others, speculate on price movements, trade cryptocurrencies, insure against risks, and earn interest.

What is DEX?

A decentralized exchange (or DEX) is a peer-to-peer marketplace where transactions occur directly between crypto traders.

What is StepN?

StepN is a fitness app similar to other activity-tracking apps like Strava that keep a record of the distance you’ve covered during a given exercise session. StepN is a move-to-earn app operating on the Solana blockchain. Users accrue points based on the distance they run, which is tracked through GPS, and then receive rewards in crypto tokens for their progress. The rewards are credited to the user's wallet as Green Satoshi Tokens (GST).

Appendix

Query 1-Daily Transaction on Solana (Easy)

WITH A AS ( SELECT left(BLOCK_TIMESTAMP,10) as day, COUNT(signers) as transactions FROM solana.core.fact_transactions WHERE 1=1 AND day >= '2022-01-01' AND day < CURRENT_DATE AND succeeded = 'TRUE' GROUP BY 1 ) SELECT day, transactions, ROUND((transactions - LAG(transactions) OVER(ORDER BY day ASC)) / LAG(transactions) OVER(ORDER BY day ASC) * 100,2) AS growth_rate FROM A

Query 2 - Average Solana (SOL) Fee Per Transaction (Easy)

SELECT left(BLOCK_TIMESTAMP,10) as block_date, avg(fee)/power(10, 9) AS SOL_trans_fee FROM solana.core.fact_transactions WHERE block_timestamp >= (CURRENT_DATE - 180) -- here number of days are 180 (approx 6 months) AND block_timestamp < CURRENT_DATE GROUP BY 1

Query 3 - Solana Monthly Active Users (MAU)-Fee Payers (Medium)

SELECT date_trunc('month',block_timestamp) as month,

COUNT(DISTINCT signers) as active_users,

COUNT(signers) as transactions

FROM solana.core.fact_transactions

WHERE 1=1 AND

block_timestamp >= '2022-01-01' AND

block_timestamp < CURRENT_DATE

AND succeeded = 'TRUE' GROUP BY 1

Query 4 - Monthly Transactions on Solana (Medium)

WITH A AS ( SELECT date_trunc('month',block_timestamp) as month, COUNT(signers) as transactions FROM solana.core.fact_transactions WHERE 1=1 AND block_timestamp >= '2022-01-01' AND block_timestamp < CURRENT_DATE AND succeeded = 'TRUE' GROUP BY 1 )

SELECT month, transactions, ROUND((transactions - LAG(transactions) OVER(ORDER BY month ASC)) / LAG(transactions) OVER(ORDER BY month ASC) * 100,2) AS growth_rate

FROM A

Query 5 - Solana Daily Success & Failed Transactions Rate, last 90 Days (Medium)

SELECT left(BLOCK_TIMESTAMP,10) as block_date, case when succeeded = 'TRUE' then 'success' else 'failed' end as status, COUNT(TX_ID) AS transactions, COUNT(case when succeeded = 'TRUE' then 1 else null end)/count(TX_ID) as success_rate FROM solana.core.fact_transactions WHERE 1=1 AND succeeded in (false, true) AND block_timestamp >= CURRENT_DATE - 90 AND block_timestamp < CURRENT_DATE GROUP BY 1, 2

Query 6 - Additional Query - Monthly Transaction Fee on Solana (Medium)

SELECT date_trunc('month',block_timestamp) as month,

sum(Fee) as Monthly_Fees

FROM solana.core.fact_transactions

WHERE 1=1 AND

block_timestamp >= '2022-01-01' AND

block_timestamp < CURRENT_DATE

AND succeeded = 'TRUE' GROUP BY 1

Query 7 - DAU Daily Active Users - STEPN vs non-STEPN users on Solana (Hard)

SELECT left(BLOCK_TIMESTAMP,10) as block_date, case when account_keys[0]:pubkey='STEPNq2UGeGSzCyGVr2nMQAzf8xuejwqebd84wcksCK'then 'STEPN' -- Address deposit SOL from Wallet to Spending when account_keys[0]:pubkey='HLS5Y68QSQgJP7wUbbbbCjEnMknVZrHXYDwwVaDcsdK7'then 'STEPN' -- GST Address of STEPN when account_keys[0]:pubkey='7i5KKsX2weiTkry7jA4ZwSuXGhs5eJBEjY8vVxR4pfRx'then 'STEPN' -- GMT when account_keys[0]:pubkey='AFbX8oGjGpmVFywbVouvhQSRmiW2aR1mohfahi4Y2AdB'then 'STEPN' -- GST else 'NON_STEPN' end as user_type, COUNT(DISTINCT signers) as active_users, COUNT(signers) as transactions FROM solana.core.fact_transactions WHERE 1=1 AND block_timestamp >= '2022-01-01' AND block_timestamp < CURRENT_DATE AND succeeded = 'TRUE' GROUP BY 1,2

Interpretation

Here we can see the trend of the daily transactions from January-July 2022 on Solana Network.

1. in January 2022, we could see that Solana's daily transactions were close to 50M.
2. Over time, we saw a decrease in the usage of the Solana network for the first time since Solana came up in the market with an average number of daily transactions decreasing by 17.6% which resulted in revenue decreased by 44.4% due to degraded network performance.
3. On July 30, we saw that the daily transaction got decreased to almost 11M which is an almost 80% decline in six months period.

Interpretation

Here, we can see that the average fee per transaction was highest in the month of May 2022 in the past six-month period.

Further, we saw that the transaction fee almost got tripled from April to May 2022. Based on our research, it was primarily the crypto market crash and rising inflation that forces Solana to increase the fee per transaction to cover up the losses.

Interpretation - Monthly Active Users/Monthly Transaction Fee/Monthly Transactions

1. Per the analysis of the graph of the monthly active users, we could see clearly see that users declined from Jan - Mar 2022 and then we could see the increasing trend from April-May 2022 and again decline from Jun - July 2022. Based on our research, we identified that the greatest contributing factor to seeing such a trend is the crypto market crash. (Link: )
2. In spite of the number of monthly active users getting declined on Solana, the monthly transaction and monthly transaction fees saw an increasing trend from the period April-July 2022. Based on our research, active wallets on the Solana network increased by 58% this year, outpacing some other blockchains despite a market-wide price decline. Daily active wallets have similarly climbed this year, with over 32 million active users in June and 37 million in May. This rose from an average of 20 million active users in the first four months of 2022. (Link: )

Interpretation

Here, we are analyzing what percentage of transactions are successful and failed each day by analyzing the transaction data for the last 90 days.

1. Per our analysis around the end of April and the start of May 2022, we could see that number of successes and failed transactions were nearly equal % (~~50%).
2. In 90 days period, on May 12, 2022, the number of successful transactions dropped to 47%, and failed transactions increased to 56%.
3. Further, in the last 90-day period we could see that number of failed transactions reduced significantly and the number of successful transactions increased.

Link:

Some Interesting Facts About Solana

1. Solana Is One Of The Most Competitive Ethereum Competitors. Solana is the cryptocurrency of a smart contract that has emerged as one of the best Ethereum competitors.

2. Solana's efficiency is one of the big attractions that make it so popular. Solana has a capacity to process 50,000 transactions per second (TPS), it processes much more than Ethereum which ranges anywhere from 15-45 TPS.

3. With billions of users on board, Solana has achieved economies of scale and kept the application fees extremely low.

4. Solana has achieved high levels of scalability by leveraging the Proof of History and several other breakthrough innovations.

5. SOL Has Gained By Over 62,000% since launch. Solana went from a dollar in January 2021 to an all-time high of $260 in late 2021.

   Solana is now trading at $137.77 and ranks the 6th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. It is also easily accessible on almost all top cryptocurrency exchanges.

6. Solana Is Designed To Allow For Hardware Optimization. The software that powers Solana allows hardware to operate at full capacity. This means scaling in tandem with bandwidth, GPUs, and SSDs. So far, no other major blockchain can do this, making Solana one of the most advanced in the market.

Latest News on Solana

1. Crypto project Solana is opening a store in NYC. Take a look inside -
2. Solana Spaces store to bring 100K people to Solana per month, says CEO -
3. Solana Appreciated After Latest Development, What Are The Next Trading Levels? -
4. Solana-based stablecoin NIRV drops 85% following $3.5M exploit -

Interpretation

This graph shows the daily active users on Solana who use the STEPN application and who do not use the STEPN application.

1. Upon looking at the graph, we could clearly see that number of StepN users are far less than the non StepN user.
2. For the time period January to March 2022, the number of active STEPN users was under the range of 1000. However, from April onwards we see an increasing trend of STEPN users but still, they are far below the number of active non-STEPN users.

STEPN was able to accumulate $122.5 million in profits through transaction fees in Q2 2022.

Link:

Results & Conclusion

1. One of the main reasons for the decline in the number of daily transactions on the Solana network is high inflation and regulatory bodies passing more stricter rules over the usage of cryptocurrency within and across borders.
2. As the market subsides, we can see that the transaction is slowly nearing the original value that was primarily before the crypto crash.
3. Looking at the number of monthly transactions and the fees associated with them goes hand in hand. They are both directly proportional to each other
4. The number of transactions is significantly higher for the non-STEPN user than for the STEPN user.