Solana Basics: SOL, Rent & Account Model

SOL is the native cryptocurrency of the Solana blockchain. It's the only payment method for all operations in the network: sending tokens, creating accounts, and interacting with smart contracts. Without a SOL balance, your wallet becomes "frozen" - you won't be able to execute a single transaction, even if you hold other assets.

Technical Functions of SOL

In Solana architecture, the cryptocurrency serves two critical roles:

Transaction Fees - every operation in the blockchain requires validator computational resources. The average fee is $0.0002-0.005, which is thousands of times cheaper than Ethereum. The fee consists of a Base Fee (fixed payment for signatures, usually 5000 lamports) and an optional Priority Fee (extra payment for priority processing during network congestion).

Rent - a deposit for storing account data in validators' RAM. To create a token account or store an NFT, the network locks a small amount of SOL as collateral. This deposit can be returned when the account is closed.

Key Difference: SOL vs Wrapped SOL

Many users confuse native SOL with its tokenized version - wSOL (Wrapped SOL). These are fundamentally different assets:

• Native SOL is stored directly on your System Account and is used to pay gas fees
• wSOL is an SPL-token (Solana token standard) needed for working with DeFi protocols and decentralized exchanges

Important: You can only pay network fees with native SOL. If you only have wSOL, you'll first need to "unwrap" it back through your wallet.

Divisibility and Units of Measurement

SOL is divisible into one billion parts. The minimum unit is called a lamport (named after Leslie Lamport, a pioneer of distributed systems):

1 SOL = 1,000,000,000 lamports

When you see numbers like "5000 lamports" in technical logs, that's 0.000005 SOL - a typical fee for a simple transaction.

Common Questions About SOL

Can I pay fees with other tokens (USDT, USDC)?
No. The Solana protocol technically does not support paying gas with alternative tokens. This is an architectural limitation designed to simplify validator operations.

Where do the fees go?
50% of each transaction fee is burned forever (deflationary mechanism), and the remaining 50% goes to the validator who included your transaction in a block.

How much SOL should I keep on my balance?
A minimum of 0.01-0.02 SOL for comfortable operations. If you actively trade or interact with DeFi, it's recommended to keep 0.1-0.5 SOL as a reserve.

Solana is a global decentralized database that processes transactions at speeds up to 65,000 per second. For comparison: Ethereum processes ~15-30 transactions per second, Bitcoin - about 7.

Proof of History: Time Synchronization

Solana's main innovation is the Proof of History (PoH) algorithm. This is not a consensus mechanism (like Proof of Work), but a method for synchronizing time between validators without constant communication.

Technically, PoH is a cryptographic function that creates "timestamps" for events. Validators can independently verify the order in which transactions occurred without querying each other. This radically reduces latency.

Sealevel: Parallel Smart Contract Execution

Most blockchains execute transactions sequentially (one after another). Solana uses the Sealevel engine, which allows processing thousands of smart contracts simultaneously.

How is this possible? The secret lies in the account architecture. In Solana, each unit of data (token, NFT, DeFi position) is stored in a separate memory cell. If two transactions don't affect the same accounts, they execute in parallel.

Why Are Fees Low But Rent Is Required?

Solana's high throughput requires validators to run powerful hardware:

• Minimum 12-core CPU (16 cores recommended)
• 256 GB RAM
• High-speed NVMe drive (minimum 2 TB)

To keep the network cheap and fast, the Rent mechanism was introduced - a deposit for data storage. This protects the blockchain from "bloating" with free junk. Users pay a small deposit for each account but can return it upon deletion.

Transaction Confirmation Speed

The average block time in Solana is 400 milliseconds. In practice, this means:

• Token transfers are confirmed in 1-2 seconds
• DEX swaps happen instantly
• NFT minting takes seconds, not minutes

For comparison: in Ethereum, blocks are created every 12 seconds; in Bitcoin - once every 10 minutes.

Why Do Transactions Sometimes Fail?

Even in Solana, failures are possible. Main reasons:

Network Congestion - during high demand (for example, a popular NFT mint), the network can receive millions of requests simultaneously. If your Priority Fee is too low, the transaction may not make it into a block and "expire" after 60-90 seconds.

Account State Change - while you were forming the transaction, the account balance changed (for example, someone sent you more tokens). Outdated data leads to a "blockhash not found" error.

Important: If a transaction fails, funds are not lost. They remain in your balance, and you can retry.

A transaction in Solana is a signed package of instructions that changes the blockchain state. One transaction can contain multiple actions: transfer token A, close account B, create a new entry C.

Transaction Atomicity

All instructions within a transaction execute on an "all or nothing" principle. If even one instruction is unfeasible (for example, insufficient balance), the entire transaction is rolled back. You cannot accidentally send tokens without closing an account.

Fee Structure

Fees in Solana are deterministic and transparent:

Base Fee - a fixed payment for each signature in the transaction. Usually 5000 lamports (0.000005 SOL) per signature. If the transaction requires multiple signatures (for example, multisig), the fee multiplies.

Priority Fee - an optional extra payment you can add so validators process your transaction faster. During normal times, you don't need to pay it. During congestion, Priority Fee can reach 0.001-0.01 SOL.

Common Fee Mistakes

Using the "Max" button when withdrawing SOL - many wallets allow sending the "maximum amount" but forget to reserve gas for the transaction itself. As a result, the operation fails. Always leave at least 0.001 SOL in your balance.

Forgetting about rent - if you withdraw the last SOL from your wallet but have empty token accounts open, your balance may drop below the rent-exempt minimum. The wallet becomes non-functional until you add funds.

In Solana, a wallet doesn't store tokens "inside itself" like in Ethereum. This is a fundamentally different architecture.

Account System

System Account (main wallet) - stores only native SOL. This is your primary address, usually starting with letters/numbers (for example, 7Np41oeYq...).

Token Account - a separate memory cell for each token type. To receive USDT, the network creates an Associated Token Account (ATA) for you - an entry like: "Owner: your address, Token: USDT, Balance: 100".

Why Is This Complexity Needed?

Separate storage allows the blockchain to process operations in parallel. If you're buying token A and someone else is selling token B, these transactions don't conflict and execute simultaneously. This is the foundation of Solana's speed.

The Problem: Empty Accounts Don't Delete Automatically

When you sell or transfer all tokens, the account balance becomes 0, but the cell itself remains in the blockchain. The protocol doesn't know your plans - maybe in a minute you'll buy this token again.

An empty account continues to hold your deposit (rent) until you manually close it. Active users often accumulate dozens or hundreds of such "forgotten" accounts.

How Many Accounts Can One User Have?

Technically - unlimited. Each new token = a new account. If you trade memecoins or participate in airdrops, you can accumulate 100-500 accounts in a few months.

Rent in Solana is not a tax or service fee. It's a deposit that is locked in the blockchain to cover the costs of storing your account data.

How the Rent-Exempt Mechanism Works

The Solana network requires any account to be rent-exempt (exempt from deductions). For this, the account balance must contain an amount sufficient to pay for storage 2 years in advance.

For a standard SPL-token (165 bytes of data), this is approximately 0.00204 SOL. For Token-2022 with extensions - about 0.002-0.0025 SOL depending on size.

Rent Can Be Returned

Key point: this is not a non-refundable payment. While the account exists - the funds are locked. When you delete the account - the deposit is automatically transferred back to your main balance.

This is precisely why active users can reclaim 2-10 SOL by simply closing hundreds of old empty accounts.

Why Was This Mechanism Introduced?

Without rent, anyone could create millions of free accounts and "litter" the blockchain. Validators would have to store terabytes of junk. The deposit incentivizes users to clean up after themselves and protects the network from DDoS attacks.

If you open your wallet and see dozens of unknown tokens with suspicious names - these are spam tokens (scam tokens). Scammers send them to thousands of addresses without your consent.

How Spam Distribution Works

In Solana, the fee for sending tokens is negligible (~$0.0001). Attackers create millions of cheap tokens and use scripts for mass distribution to active addresses. Often, the token metadata (name, description, image) contains a link to a phishing site.

What Makes Spam Tokens Dangerous?

The mere fact of receiving a token is safe. Danger arises only if you:

• Click on a link from the token description
• Try to sell the token on a DEX (fraudulent contract may request dangerous permissions)
• Connect your wallet to an unknown site to "check airdrop participation"

How to Turn Spam Into Profit

Interesting fact: you can earn from spammers. When a scammer sends you a token, they create a token account on your wallet and often pay for its rent themselves.

You, as the account owner, have the right to close it and take the deposit. By burning spam tokens, you clear your wallet of junk and reclaim locked SOL.

Which Tokens Cannot Be Burned?

Frozen tokens - if the token creator activated "Freeze Authority", the protocol prohibits any operations with the balance. Such tokens will remain in your wallet forever, but they pose no danger.