You’ve probably heard Solana can do 65,000+ transactions per second. But here’s the real mind-bender: it’s not magic—it’s architecture.
While Ethereum’s EVM processes transactions like a single-lane highway (one after another), Solana’s Virtual Machine (SVM) is more like a multi-lane expressway. And the secret sauce? A parallel execution engine called SeaLevel that’s genuinely reshaping what’s possible on-chain.
The Core Difference: Sequential vs. Parallel
Ethereum VM: Transaction A finishes → Transaction B starts → Transaction C waits.
Solana VM: If Transactions A, B, and C touch different accounts? They execute simultaneously.
This single design choice cascades into everything:
DeFi trades: 2,000-10,000 TPS vs. Ethereum’s 12-25 TPS
NFT mints: 5,000+ parallel operations vs. Ethereum’s network choking at 60 TPS during hype
Fee model: $0.00025 per transaction (Solana) vs. $0.50-$15 (Ethereum during congestion)
Finality: 400-600ms settlement vs. Ethereum’s 12+ seconds
Under the Hood: How SVM Actually Works
Solana programs are written in Rust—not Solidity. Here’s why that matters:
Rust → sBPF compilation: Your code compiles to Solana’s optimized bytecode (secure eBPF)
Explicit account passing: Every contract call lists exactly which data it reads/modifies
Parallel scheduler: The network analyzes account access patterns and batches non-overlapping instructions
Result: Microsecond-level execution with zero race conditions
This explicit account model is the opposite of Ethereum’s storage model—and it’s the reason Solana scales. You can’t accidentally create hidden dependencies.
SVM vs. EVM: The Real Comparison
Factor
SVM
EVM
Language
Rust (tight, safe)
Solidity (more dev resources)
Execution
Parallel (thousands simultaneous)
Sequential (one-by-one)
Throughput
Up to 65,000 TPS
15-30 TPS
Fee volatility
Stable, predictable
Auction-based (spikes during demand)
Learning curve
Steeper (Rust + account model)
Easier (Solidity familiar)
Maturity
Rapidly growing
Battle-tested
The trade-off: Solana is faster, cheaper, and built for real-time apps. Ethereum has more historical case studies and a larger dev community.
Why This Matters for Builders
Imagine you’re building:
A gaming platform: Solana’s millisecond settlement is a game-changer (pun intended)
A DEX: You can handle 10x the trading volume on Solana’s infrastructure
An NFT platform: Batch minting becomes viable without $50+ gas fees
The SVM also unlocked a new pattern: SVM rollups and appchains. Projects like Eclipse (Ethereum L2), Nitro, and Cascade now use Solana’s execution engine on other blockchains, proving the architecture is the real innovation—not just Solana itself.
Getting Started: The Practical Path
Install Rust: curl --proto ‘=https’ --tlsv1.2 -sSf | sh
Pro tip: The Anchor framework abstracts boilerplate—start here, not raw Rust syscalls.
Common mistakes:
Forgetting to pass all required accounts (the VM will reject it)
Not benchmarking on testnet before mainnet (Solana devnet is fast but doesn’t reflect real congestion)
The Security Question
SVM’s Rust foundation gives it inherent memory safety—no buffer overflows, no undefined behavior. But it’s not risk-free:
Improper account validation = exploitable logic
Privileged syscalls need careful handling
Smart contract audits are still essential
EVM has more historical security battle scars and a larger audit ecosystem, but SVM’s design prevents entire classes of bugs (reentrancy, for instance, is nearly impossible).
Where This Is Headed
The SVM ecosystem is fragmenting in interesting ways:
Eclipse and Nitro: Using SVM for Ethereum L2s
Cascade: Modular SVM templates for custom chains
New languages: Experimental support beyond Rust is coming
The bigger play? Solana proved parallel execution actually works at scale. Other chains are now copying the pattern. But for now, SVM has a 2-3 year head start in tooling, talent, and real production load.
The Bottom Line
Solana VM isn’t just faster—it fundamentally rethinks how blockchains execute code. If you’re building anything requiring real-time settlement, high throughput, or sub-penny fees, SVM deserves serious evaluation.
The learning curve is real (Rust), but the upside is tangible: 100x the throughput of Ethereum, at 1% of the cost.
Trang này có thể chứa nội dung của bên thứ ba, được cung cấp chỉ nhằm mục đích thông tin (không phải là tuyên bố/bảo đảm) và không được coi là sự chứng thực cho quan điểm của Gate hoặc là lời khuyên về tài chính hoặc chuyên môn. Xem Tuyên bố từ chối trách nhiệm để biết chi tiết.
Cuộc cách mạng song song của Solana: Vì sao các nhà phát triển đang từ bỏ các máy ảo truyền thống
You’ve probably heard Solana can do 65,000+ transactions per second. But here’s the real mind-bender: it’s not magic—it’s architecture.
While Ethereum’s EVM processes transactions like a single-lane highway (one after another), Solana’s Virtual Machine (SVM) is more like a multi-lane expressway. And the secret sauce? A parallel execution engine called SeaLevel that’s genuinely reshaping what’s possible on-chain.
The Core Difference: Sequential vs. Parallel
Ethereum VM: Transaction A finishes → Transaction B starts → Transaction C waits.
Solana VM: If Transactions A, B, and C touch different accounts? They execute simultaneously.
This single design choice cascades into everything:
Under the Hood: How SVM Actually Works
Solana programs are written in Rust—not Solidity. Here’s why that matters:
This explicit account model is the opposite of Ethereum’s storage model—and it’s the reason Solana scales. You can’t accidentally create hidden dependencies.
SVM vs. EVM: The Real Comparison
The trade-off: Solana is faster, cheaper, and built for real-time apps. Ethereum has more historical case studies and a larger dev community.
Why This Matters for Builders
Imagine you’re building:
The SVM also unlocked a new pattern: SVM rollups and appchains. Projects like Eclipse (Ethereum L2), Nitro, and Cascade now use Solana’s execution engine on other blockchains, proving the architecture is the real innovation—not just Solana itself.
Getting Started: The Practical Path
Pro tip: The Anchor framework abstracts boilerplate—start here, not raw Rust syscalls.
Common mistakes:
The Security Question
SVM’s Rust foundation gives it inherent memory safety—no buffer overflows, no undefined behavior. But it’s not risk-free:
EVM has more historical security battle scars and a larger audit ecosystem, but SVM’s design prevents entire classes of bugs (reentrancy, for instance, is nearly impossible).
Where This Is Headed
The SVM ecosystem is fragmenting in interesting ways:
The bigger play? Solana proved parallel execution actually works at scale. Other chains are now copying the pattern. But for now, SVM has a 2-3 year head start in tooling, talent, and real production load.
The Bottom Line
Solana VM isn’t just faster—it fundamentally rethinks how blockchains execute code. If you’re building anything requiring real-time settlement, high throughput, or sub-penny fees, SVM deserves serious evaluation.
The learning curve is real (Rust), but the upside is tangible: 100x the throughput of Ethereum, at 1% of the cost.