Solana’s main network opened in March 2020 as a beta. Its low fees and quick confirmations attracted developers in a year when the whole market was changing.
What you will learn
Explain what mainnet beta means and when Solana launched.
Describe what SOL is used for.
Say why low fees helped early growth.
The lessons
Lesson 1: Mainnet beta
On 16 March 2020 Solana’s main network went live as a beta release. A mainnet is the real network, where coins have real value. Beta means the team told people openly that it was still being tested and could change.
A non-profit, the Solana Foundation, was set up in Switzerland to support the ecosystem. Like the Ethereum Foundation, it supports the community without owning the network.
Calling a network a beta is honest and common, but it also means early users take on more risk. In its first years Solana was still working out problems that older chains had already faced.
Remember: Beta means unfinished. Early users carry extra risk.
Lesson 2: SOL and fees
The network’s coin is SOL. It pays the fees for using the network, and people who hold SOL can stake it, which means lending its weight to validators, the computers that confirm transactions, and earning a reward.
Solana’s fees are very small, usually a fraction of a US cent per transaction at normal times. That matters if you want to do many small things, like trading or playing a game, where a fee of a few dollars would make it pointless.
Low fees come with a trade-off. If a transaction costs almost nothing, there is less to stop someone from flooding the network with junk, which becomes important in the next module.
Remember: Cheap fees open the door to lots of small actions, and to lots of spam.
Lesson 3: The first apps
Developers began to build on Solana in 2020. The best known early project was Serum, a trading exchange that ran on the blockchain itself and was backed by people connected to the company FTX, a link that would matter later.
Because trades were fast and cheap, Solana began to look like a place for decentralised finance, or DeFi, a theme you met in the Ethereum story. Wallets, token swaps and games followed.
It was still a small ecosystem by the end of 2020, and the price of SOL was far below where it would reach a year later.
Remember: Early growth was about developers and traders. The mass audience came later.
Key dates
When
What happened
Why it matters
16 March 2020
Solana mainnet beta launches
The real network is live, though still labelled a beta
2020
The Solana Foundation is established
A non-profit to support the community
August 2020
The Serum exchange goes live on Solana
One of the first big apps, later tied to FTX
Key terms: mainnet, beta, SOL, staking, validator, fee. Open the glossary
Module quiz
4 questions. Tap an answer to see if you are right and why.
1. When did Solana’s mainnet beta launch?
The real network went live as a beta on 16 March 2020.
2. What does ‘beta’ tell you?
Early users take on extra risk.
3. What is SOL used for?
It pays network fees and is staked to help secure the network.
4. Why are very low fees a double-edged sword?
Cheap transactions are good for users and for attackers or bots.
Do it yourself
Open Markets on this site and look up SOL. Write down today’s price, then look at a Solana block explorer, such as Solscan, and note one recent transaction and its fee. Compare the fee to the size of the payment.
Not financial advice. This lesson is history and education only. Prices are rounded and shown only to explain how big the swings were.