Solana: The Payments Network of the Future?

Here’s why Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) could be a top cryptocurrency for long-term investors to consider on this recent dip of late.

Chris MacDonald

Chris MacDonald has had a love for finance his whole life, ultimately leading him to pursue an MBA in finance. He's worked as a financial analyst for a number of companies in the corporate finance and venture capital space during his 10-year investing career. He endeavors to follow in the footsteps of iconic investors like Warren Buffett in building a long-term defensive portfolio.

Published March 12, 2022 9:58 am EST

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is an immensely functional open source project that provides permissionless blockchain technology to offer decentralized finance solutions. This “Ethereum killer” introduced a new peer-to-peer decentralized payment platform named Solana Pay, intending to grow its ecosystem.

Accordingly, many crypto enthusiasts are now speculating whether Solana could be the payments network of the future. Let’s have a closer look.

crypto blockchain — Image source: Getty Images

A new way to pay

Solana Pay offers merchants a simple framework to directly carry out transactions with consumers with no middleman. The bonus? These transactions can take place for, in most cases, a fraction of a cent.

Solana Pay allows merchants to accept and transfer any amount of stablecoin currencies compatible with the blockchain anytime, anywhere.

Solana Pay sets itself apart from the competition with the fact that its decentralized payment structure is immensely fast. That’s because it leverages the Solana blockchain, which offers “near-instantaneous” settlement of 400 milliseconds, scalability of 65,000 TPS, and tremendously low fees of $0.00025 for every transaction. On the other hand, Bitcoin only manages to process 7 TPS, and it’s just 13 TPS for Ethereum.

Further, Solana Pay has one more competitive advantage – its ease of usage. It is as straightforward as enabling a barcode at the POS or on a merchant’s site. Hence, for instance, a merchant will be able to initiate a peer-to-peer connection to numerous cryptocurrency wallet customers by utilizing the Solana Pay SDK. These customers can pay in stablecoins or other cryptos compatible with the Solana blockchain.

Cash is king, and Solana knows that

Without a doubt, cash is king. And it is noteworthy that Solana Pay is more cash-like. Consider it to be a cash payment’s digital version. In terms of design, it isn’t really equivalent to a credit-card payment.

This is indeed attractive for merchants, as they will avoid the costs of chargebacks or costs of major credit card intermediaries. Also, it’s worth noting that the transactions of Solana Pay are not reversible in nature.

Having said this, there are many consumers and merchants who may seek protection. Smart contracts provide the potential to hold funds in escrow. This is specifically for big-ticket items like a cruise ticket.

Solana Pay features rich data specifications that are not available when a token is sent on the network. This includes a standardized amount, destination, currency, descriptive text fields, and transaction identifiers. This means that a merchant can confirm the completion of a transaction. However, the actual transaction details are not public on the chain. This includes information like what was bought or who paid.

Bottom line

Overall, the recent announcement of Solana Pay is something I think is worth getting excited about. For investors bullish on crypto being the future of finance, Solana appears to be a leader in this regard. Accordingly, those looking for a mega-cap token to invest in may want to consider Solana on this recent dip.