Solana Documentation

Solana is a blockchain built for mass adoption. It's a high performance network that is utilized for a range of use cases, including finance, NFTs, payments, and gaming. Solana operates as a single global state machine, and is open, interoperable and decentralized.

Getting started #

Dive right into Solana to start building or setup your tooling.

Start learning #

Build a strong understanding of the core concepts that make Solana different from other blockchains.

  • Transactions - Collection of instructions for the blockchain to execute
  • Accounts - Data and state storage mechanism for Solana
  • Programs - The executable code used to perform actions on the blockchain
  • Cross-Program Invocation - Core of the "composability" of Solana, this is how programs can "call" each other.

Understanding the architecture #

Get to know the underlying architecture of how the proof-of-stake blockchain works.

  • Validators - the individual nodes that are the backbone of the network
  • Clusters - a collection of validators that work together for consensus

Running a validator #

Explore what it takes to operate a Solana validator and help secure the network.

  • System requirements - Recommended hardware requirements and expected SOL needed to operate a validator
  • Quick start guide - Setup a validator and get connected to a cluster for the first time