Most blockchains employ a road development initiative, in which they lay out proposals for improvement. Ethereum, for example, is popular for its lengthy road development, which will tackle pressing problems like transaction speed, affordability, and extra security in the next several years.

While Ethereum established itself as a prominent competitor on the market, other projects became established opponents. Solana, for example, is known as an “Ethereum killer” as it offers similar features, including smart contracts and a vast ecosystem, at faster speeds and cheaper prices. Therefore, its popularity has increased considerably since 2017 when it was deployed on the market, and according to the latest Solana price USD, Solana will continue to innovate in the industry.

This is possible through roadmap development, through which contributors will help build a better Solana for the future of Web3. Here’s what it’s about.

Solana values its relationship with institutional players

Institutional adoption in the crypto industry is necessary to gain more attention for the sector and normalize it. Considering the importance of this feature, Solana plans to develop it by:

• Institutional outreach programs through which the Solana Foundation can promote knowledge around the platform to institutions;
• Creating the Solana Policy Institute, powered by some of the most critical figures in crypto, that will collaborate to push for adoption;
• Strategic hires will attract talented individuals so that the project will strengthen its position in the market;

Solana will upgrade its network capabilities

Solana has one of the fastest and most efficient networks, along with Ethereum. However, troubles with outages in the past require development, for which Solana established several key updates for the future:

• Firedancer is a new validator client that will be a game-changer for the ledger’s performance and reliability;
• The Doubling Block Space upgrade will increase block space, leading to superior scalability and throughput;
• A possible new consensus algorithm is on the way, and it will lay the groundwork for numerous future proposers;

Solana also works on side projects

Solana’s ecosystem is one of the most complex and diverse, so besides the necessary updates, developers will handle a couple of complementary improvements. One of them is Helix: RPS 2.0, which is supposed to solve Solana’s most significant issue ― its read layer that currently hinders performance.

The network also works on confidential transfers that institutional investors might be most comfortable with, as it adds another layer of security to current technologies. Considering some investors value privacy over anything else, this update could attract many more investors in the future.

Upcoming events are important for the Solana community

As part of a vast and engaging community, Solana Labs schedules meetings and events where developers and users from around the world can participate. Accelerate, for example, is a one-week event in the US and is considered one of the most significant gatherings for Solana users.

There’s also the Breakpoint conference, which will take place this December in Abu Dhabi. Students, developers, and creators can participate with special-price tickets. Anyone can get involved in the event, from sponsors to speakers and the press.

Can Solana overcome its challenges?

Solana’s ascent is one of the steadiest and most significant among its competitors. However, it still struggles with several aspects of decentralization, such as balancing it with security. The crypto industry faces the blockchain trilemma, which is the difficulty for a network to achieve security, scalability, and decentralization simultaneously.

Due to its token distribution, Solana is susceptible to centralization issues, as a significant number of tokens belong to the Solana Foundation. At the same time, the large staking pools concentrate the power of voting and the decision-making process.

Moreover, Solana is hit by regulatory compliance challenges, as governments and appointed bodies are still skeptical about creating a thorough framework for cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and other related assets. This can be due to a lack of knowledge and awareness on the subject or the volatility of decentralized assets.

What are other Solana competitors?

For those who are looking for a Solana alternative, there are numerous networks whose features are similar to the ledger, and can even provide cheaper transactions in a more approachable ecosystem. Considering most decentralized networks have a rough user interface, some of these networks look closer to what regular people are used to:

• Celo democratizes financial tools for smartphone users. It also offers a specific payment framework for mobile platforms;
• The Stellar blockchain works to blend humans with economic potential. The decentralized ecosystem pushes for borderless developing opportunities;
• The BNB Smart Chain is powered by Binance, and it bridges the development of dApps and smart contracts;

More and more blockchain projects are being developed with innovative ideas and strategies to raise awareness of the importance of decentralization in a centralized world. Some of these innovations include the use of artificial intelligence.

Solana and AI technology

Solana has recently approached the use of AI since it can reduce friction in scaling the ecosystem. This means it could reach higher levels of low costs and high speeds, all with minimal energy impact. Solana works with Agents as smart contracts with AI that can facilitate the economy of the ecosystem by supporting the open and decentralized AI stack.

Anyone can build AI agents on Solana, as the network has provided an Agent Kit that includes protocols and actions compatible with product suites like LangChain or Eliza. Regardless, Solana is prepared for different levels of developer knowledge to work on smart contract projects, which is why it also includes the Rig framework, which works on the Rust programming language. In addition, it included advanced tools like GOAT, an on-chain Agent toolkit, and Zerepy, a framework based on Python.

Final take on Solana development

Solana is one of the greatest blockchains in the industry, shaping the sector with innovative features and affordable products and services. Although it’s the leading Ethereum killer, Solana must also evolve to solve its issue regarding outages and regulatory uncertainty, which is why it has developed its own roadmap development process. Some of the updates included will tackle decentralization, safety, and the introduction of additional tooling.