Looking Beyond Solana Two Noteworthy Competitors in the SOL Ecosystem to Watch in 2024
Solana (SOL) has emerged as one of the standout cryptocurrencies this cycle, capturing the interest of both retail and institutional investors due to its impressive network scalability and transaction efficiency. In light of this, Finbold has identified two promising competitors to Solana that are worth considering for the second half of 2024.
Solana experienced a staggering 19,873% surge in 2021, followed by another robust recovery from the 2022 lows. During the previous bull market, Solana’s price skyrocketed from $1 to $260 within a year. Subsequently, it climbed from $8 to $204 over 18 months and is currently trading at $140 per token.
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Positioning itself as a formidable rival to Ethereum (ETH), the leader in Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi), Solana offers significantly higher throughput, faster confirmation times, and lower transaction fees.
### Promising Solana Competitors for H2 2024
Two noteworthy competitors have been quietly developing high-throughput networks to meet similar demands as Solana. From a technological standpoint, these cryptocurrencies excel in scalability, efficiency, decentralization, and security.
#### MultiversX (EGLD) and Radix (XRD): Betting on a Sharded Future
The two notable Solana competitors are MultiversX (EGLD) and Radix (XRD), both focusing on scaling through sharding. Sharding, a proven method for managing high data loads, is now being applied to blockchain technology, creating decentralized and distributed ledgers.
In 2018, Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin, highlighted sharding and proof of stake as key efficiency drivers for future blockchains. He stated, “Blockchains of the future with proof of stake and sharding will be thousands of times more efficient, making the efficiency sacrifices of on-chain operations more acceptable.”
Dan Hughes, the creator of Radix, also emphasized the importance of sharding in a comprehensive essay titled “Why Sharding?”. Drawing from 12 years of blockchain experimentation, Hughes identified sharding as a crucial element for scalable blockchain architectures.
[Dan Hughes | Radix on Twitter](https://t.co/ylgoWeXb0f) — June 24, 2024
Both MultiversX and Radix have adopted an asset-oriented model for their tokens, which is inherently more secure than the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) model. This approach treats tokens as native assets, avoiding the need for special authorizations that often lead to security breaches.
#### MultiversX (EGLD) Scalability and Price Analysis
MultiversX’s production network is the first and only mainnet with full implementation of all three types of sharding: network sharding, state sharding, and transaction sharding. This adaptive sharding model scales the network by adding more shards as demand increases, with each shard capable of handling up to 10,000 TPS. Currently, the network operates with three shards.
As of now, eGold (EGLD) is trading at $28.53, reflecting a 58% decline year-to-date, indicating an oversold cryptocurrency. Its market cap stands at $775 million, significantly lower than Solana’s $65 billion.
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#### Radix (XRD) Scalability and Price Analysis
Radix has yet to implement sharding in its mainnet but is currently testing it with promising results. The project aims to achieve atomic composability for all transactions, ensuring a seamless user experience across different shards. Recent tests by Dan Hughes indicate that Radix’s network can handle over 200,000 swaps per second, with each swap confirmed in an average of 3.75 seconds using 32 shards.
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Currently, XRD is priced at $0.29, below its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) price. It has declined 28% year-to-date, with a market cap of $300 million, much lower than Solana’s.
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Despite their promising technologies, both EGLD and XRD carry significant risks for investors. Due diligence is crucial, as these low-cap cryptocurrencies can still underperform.
**Disclaimer:**
The content on this site is not investment advice. Investing is speculative, and your capital is at risk.
