How to Utilize Solana and other Fast Blockchains Like a Pro

While Solana and its fast-moving peers fly through, processing thousands of trades per second for a penny, ushering in a world of well-designed applications on Web3 that could in fact change the way you deal with money and gaming each day.

A short explanation of Solana and other fast blockchains: Solana is a high-performance Layer-1 blockchain with blistering speeds and low fees. Other fast blockchains that have similar breakthroughs in scalability are Sui, Aptos, Near, and TON, which all have unique consensus mechanisms to deliver massive throughput and overcome older networks with their high throughput consensus methods. 

Mention why fee and speed matter: Speed and low fees are what allows for real-time DeFi trading, the immediate minting of NFTs, and gaming that does not lag, and billions have flocked to DeFi and millions to NFTs. Compare Ethereum’s typical fees of +$5 to Solana’s averages of <$.01 in fee-related costs to make crypto more accessible for everyday use.

Why Solana and Other Fast Blockchains Are Game-Changers

Solana's Innovations:

Let's learn about Proof of History (PoH) that is a time-stamping mechanism designed to pre-validate blocks for mass parallelism. This is what gains Solana its theoretical 65,000 TPS, its real-world average 1,000+ TPS, its sub-second finality (<400ms), and elite throughput that far exceeds the Ethereum averages of 15-30 TPS/15-30 transactions per second. Additionally, ultra-low fees (around $0.00025 per transaction) result from low architecture overhead, giving it mass micro-transactions.

Comparisons to Ethereum and L2: 

Show it crushes Ethereum's gas fee peaks up to $50 (and 190 TPS without rollups) in contrast to more expensive explorations. In actuality, it processes upwards of 91 million daily transactions in peak, compared to congestion in Ethereum.

Peers:

Mention Sui which has 850 TPS designed with an object-centric model for parallel transactions; or Aptos that builds high scalability into its system with its Move language; or Near which has 118 TPS with light on-boarding via sharding for easier access to dApps; or TON which has 175 TPS integrated with Telegram for more chances for mass adoption. Each of these have comparable speed to Solana. Sui and Aptos could be considered "Solana Killers" (lower latencies).

Larger Implications:

These chains are using their chains to drive innovation; for example, Solana processed $29 billion dollars in Dex volumetrics and for one day, outperformed Ethereum in 2025 volume; innovation like this can push theory into actual DeFi and game theory and real-world apps and potentially onboard billions.

Setting Up Your Wallet for Solana and Beyond

Choosing the Right Wallet: 

Phantom is user-friendly for Solana NFTs/DeFi; or try Backpack, the multi-chain wallet (Solana, Sui, Aptos) that has built-in trading. Both are non-custodial, secure wallets, and therefore free to set up in under 5 minutes. 

Step-by-Step New Wallet Creation:

Visit the official sites (phantom.app or backpack.app). Create a new wallet, and then generate the required seed phrase (12-24 words). Write the seed phrase down on paper (not on your computer, or as a screenshot). Next, turn on the biometrics or 2-factor authentications features. 

How to Fund Your Wallet and Set Up Multi-Chain:

You can buy SOL directly on an exchange like LBank, and then withdraw the SOL to your wallet address. To fund Sui or Aptos, you will need to bridge from Ethereum (ETH) through their portal. Pro tip: Start with a small amount before transferring larger values. For large amounts, consider using a hardware wallet (such as Ledger). 

 

Why Security is Important: You should keep your seed phrase written down in a fire proof safe. Do not tell or enter your seed phrase online. Did you know more than 20% of all crypto losses come from sharing the seed phrase?

Investigating the Ecosystems of Solana and Fast Blockchains

DeFi Titans:

In Solana, look out for Jupiter (DEX aggregator for best price swaps), Kamino (lending protocol with $4.8B TVL), Marginfi (perps trading), Drift (derivatives), Raydium (AMM), and Meteora (yield optimization); for instance, Kamino earns 11%+ APY on stablecoins. For Sui/Aptos, you could mention Navi Protocol or Thala and similar yields.

NFT Marketplaces:

Tensor and Magic Eden dominate on Solana with low-fee mints and viral collections; ways to flip NFTs during the hype cycle, such as the record volumes trading on Solana in 2025. Near’s Mintbase offers creator tools.

Staking: 

Marinade, Jito, BlazeStake, and Solayer for liquid staking SOL at 8-11% APY; Adding Jito’s MEV rewards, the returns could be significant. TON utilizes Telegram bots for staking to allow user accessibility.

Gaming and Apps:

Check out Star Atlas (space MMO), StepN (move-to-earn), Genopets (pet battling); these applications integrate enjoyment while also compensating you, such as StepN rewarding tokens for turning those steps into rewards. Aptos has games such as Tortuga for playing and earning.

 

Tech tip: Use dApp sites to connect only; wallet simulators are available that allow you to see interface tx. 

How to Bridge and Swap Tokens Easily

Bridging 101:

Wormhole or Portal can help you transfer assets cross-chain (for instance, you can bridge ETH to SOL in a few minutes!) and Parallel, powered by Mayan, allows you to do an instant swap while bridging- you can swap bridging assets for a fee under $1 while supporting 20+ chains (like Sui/Aptos) for swaps and bridging activities. 

Brief Step-by-Step Action Plan:

Connect your wallet with bridging platforms. You then pick the source and destination chain and approve the transaction (should take around 1 to 5 minutes). For TON or Near, it's best to use the native bridges like Rainbow for increased security. 

Token Swapping:

You can use Jupiter Aggregator on Solana to find the best swap routes across DEXs that include Raydium- for example, you can swap USDC to SOL and there won't be any or very small slippage. A good piece of advice is to set a price impact limit so you don't get front ran. 

Remember to be careful: 

Check the contracts, don't bridge something during gas peak times, if you're new you should only do bridge tests with previously defined small amounts in order to avoid losses from a potential exploit on a bridge.

Earning on Solana and Fast Blockchains

Staking for Passive Income. Stake SOL on Jito or Kamino to earn 8-11% APY, which includes MEV boosts. Liquid staking can allow you to still use your assets on DeFi (e.g. lending with mSOL to earn yield).You can also stake on Sui using Navi for similar rates.

 

Airdrop Hunting Strategies. Qualifying for airdrops typically requires some interaction with the protocol, which you can get through Kamino (Season 3 airdrops), Drift (perps trading points), Sanctum, DeBridge, fence, etc. (e.g. Kamino's Season 1 airdrop distributed 75M KMNO amounting to $98+ to every eligible user's wallet). You can use AirdropAlert and other similar tools.

 

Yield Farming + More.  Kamino/drift in addition to the airdrop yield farms for boosted APYs (i.e. up to 20% on perps, perps + airdrops = compounding yield farming). Real life post example: Solana's 2025 airdrop season post distribute tokens to testnet users providing abrupt reward based on basic engagement with the protocol. 

 

Multi-Chain.  Earn on TON with mini-apps on Telegram or Near yield farms to further diversify.

Risks and Challenges: Troubleshooting and Safety Tips

Common Scams Shared: Phishing 2.0 schemes via DMs or phony sites (20% of hacks will occur in 2025); we also hear of rug pulls on new projects, which can be spotted if the liquidity is unlocked or if the team is anonymous. 

 

Wallet and Tx Safety: You'll never want to sign a tx if you do not know and trust the person sending you the tx; For dApps that are known to be risky, use a burner wallet; Turn on 2FA or keep a backup PIN; Store all seed phrases for wallets off line (preferably a safe). 

 

Network Challenges: Solana's prior outages (before Firedancer),  while other chains were stable; the regulatory risk for DeFi - reduce risk through diversification and DYOR.

 

Proactive Measures: Verify URLs through official channels;Consider using an MPC wallet (multi-party compute) like Fystack to protect your memecoins; Avoid ads by bookmarking trusted sites instead of going into search engines. 

Wrap-up

Reiterating take-aways: Solana's TPS and low fees, staking and airdrops for Sui ecosystem, and TON have all streamlined different blockchain chains for doers, as these chains have made accessing Web3 efficient and lucrative, but there are risks that you'll need to address with awareness.

A subtle reminder: Fast blockchains (blockchain tech) should not be seen as just tech improvements they are the new infrastructure for a decentralized future, where anyone can trade, play, and earn globally without barriers in all situations.

A final thought: As upgrades, like Firedancer, are launching Solana to 100 times their previous speeds, think about how they can integrate crypto into their daily lives; they aren't waiting - they're integrating that future today.

 

This article is contributed by an external writer: Linda Titianitus.

 

Disclaimer: The content created by LBank Creators represents their personal perspectives. LBank does not endorse any content on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor can this article be considered as investment advice.