How Smart Contracts Work on Solana: Full Breakdown and Usage Tips

MetaLamp editorial team

06 February 2025

Read for 7 minutes

Solana is one of the most advanced and rapidly growing blockchains. It stands out due to its high throughput, minimal fees, and smart contract support. These advantages make it an ideal platform for dApp development.
This article explains how Solana smart contracts work and provides a comprehensive guide.

What is Solana?

Solana is a decentralized blockchain ecosystem designed to solve network congestion issues. Its main advantage is high transaction processing speed (TPS) and fast confirmations. The blockchain integrates advanced technologies from Intel, Netscape, Google, and Qualcomm, ensuring high performance and stability.

The core of the platform is its unique Proof of History (PoH) consensus mechanism. This technique creates historical records that timestamp events with cryptographic accuracy. Each transaction receives a hash, which can be quickly verified.

Solana operates with around 200 physical nodes powered by GPUs, allowing the network to process 50,000+ transactions per second. This makes it one of the most efficient permissionless blockchains in the world. Additionally, network nodes synchronize cryptographic clocks, further improving efficiency.

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Why Learn the Solana Platform?

Solana offers various tools for dApp development with a key advantage—a high level of security. Programming in Rust, the most commonly used language for smart contracts, requires deep technical knowledge, which enhances protection against potential attacks.

Developers can use Rust, C, or C++. Programs written in these languages are accessible to all network users via SDKs or CLI tools. This allows applications to be deployed on the blockchain and used for crypto wallets or decentralized exchanges.

The architecture of Solana smart contracts is significantly different from traditional Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based blockchains. In EVM systems, the code, arguments, and state are all contained within a single contract. In contrast, Solana separates data storage from computational logic, optimizing performance and efficiency.

A smart contract’s logic is a program stored on the blockchain that executes operations. State is managed through external accounts that store data about the program’s interactions with users. Unlike Ethereum, where accounts primarily reference user wallets, Solana accounts store actual information.

System Security

Security is a top priority on the platform. In 2024, an open-source tool called X-ray was introduced. It is a static analyzer for Solana smart contracts. The tool allows analyzing the source code of contracts without executing them to identify potential vulnerabilities and security issues. X-ray uses the LLVM technology stack and provides developers with accurate and in-depth reports on their code status. X-ray can detect buffer overflows, arithmetic overflows, and memory management errors. Developers can add custom security rules to tailor X-ray to their project requirements.

The open-source release of X-ray is a step toward strengthening the security of the entire platform. With it, developers gained the ability to audit their smart contracts in the early development stages, quickly identify and fix vulnerabilities, and, finally, collaborate on improving the tool.

Building Programs with Rust: Full Guide

1. Project Initialization and Dependency Setup

To get started, install the necessary tools — Rust, Solana CLI, and Anchor Framework. These tools will help add new features to the project and test its functionality. Anchor provides a convenient way to build and deploy smart contracts, while the CLI helps manage addresses and interact with the network.

Install Rust using the command:

 curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Устанавливаем Solana CLI:

 sh -c "$(curl -sSfL https://release.solana.com/stable/install)"

Устанавливаем Anchor Framework:

  cargo install --git https://github.com/coral-xyz/anchor avm --locked --force
avm install latest
avm use latest

 

2. Project Creation and Configuration

After initializing the project, it is important to audit the file structure and settings. This ensures that credentials, such as keys and wallets, are correctly integrated into the project.

For further work, configuration parameters — network address and Program ID — must be added.

Create and configure a new project using Anchor:

 anchor init my_solana_project

Configuring the local network:

 solana-test-validator

Generating a new Keypair (wallet):

solana-keygen new

If needed, use the following code example to generate wallets using web3.js:

  const { Keypair } = require("@solana/web3.js");
const wallet = Keypair.generate();
console.log("Public Key:", wallet.publicKey.toString());
 

3. Using the System Program for Transfers

The platform provides built-in system programs for basic operations like transferring funds.Here is a Rust code example for transferring SOL:

 use solana_program::{
    instruction::{AccountMeta, Instruction},
    pubkey::Pubkey,
    system_instruction,
};
use solana_sdk::signature::Keypair;

fn transfer_sol(from_keypair: &Keypair, to_pubkey: &Pubkey, lamports: u64) -> Instruction {
    system_instruction::transfer(&from_keypair.pubkey(), to_pubkey, lamports)
}
 

4. Running a Local Network for Testing

A local network is used to test smart contracts in a secure environment. This allows developers to verify contract functionality before deploying to the mainnet.
Programs must be validated for errors and compliance with security requirements.

Run the local network with the following command:

solana-test-validator

This command starts the local network on port 8899.

5. Deploying the Compiled Smart Contract

To deploy, follow these steps:

Compile the smart contract:

 anchor build

Deploy it by running:

 anchor deploy

6. Testing the Smart Contract via Browser

To verify the smart contract’s functionality, you can use Solana Explorer:

Open Solana Explorer.
Set Custom RPC URL to http://localhost:8899 to work with the local network.
Enter the Program ID of your smart contract to view its status and logs.

7. Integration with Solana web3.js

To interact via a client-side application, use the web3.js library.

Install the library:

 npm install @solana/web3.js

Establish a connection to the network:

  const { Connection, clusterApiUrl } = require("@solana/web3.js");
const connection = new Connection(clusterApiUrl("devnet"), "confirmed");
 

8. Creating and Sending a Transaction

After setting up the connection and generating wallets, you can send a transaction:

 const { SystemProgram, Transaction } = require("@solana/web3.js");

const transaction = new Transaction().add(
  SystemProgram.transfer({
    fromPubkey: sender.publicKey,
    toPubkey: receiver.publicKey,
    lamports: 1000000, // 0.001 SOL
  })
);

const signature = await connection.sendTransaction(transaction, [sender]);
console.log("Transaction signature", signature);

 

9. Checking the Balance After a Transaction

After completing a transaction, check the wallet balances:

 const balance = await connection.getBalance(wallet.publicKey);
console.log("Wallet balance:", balance / 1e9, "SOL");

Next Steps

Once you've mastered the basics from this guide, you can deepen your knowledge and move on to more advanced projects. Here are a few areas to explore as a developer:

Developing programs with more complex logic and multi-account interactions. For example, create tokens, NFTs, or manage decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
Optimizing code to improve execution speed and reduce gas costs.
Cross-chain interactions and integrating Solana with Ethereum via bridges or multichain applications.
Smart contract testing methods, including fuzzing and vulnerability analysis, which are crucial for protecting users from attacks.

One of the most valuable and promising directions is building intuitive interfaces for decentralized applications using modern frameworks like React or Vue.js, combined with Solana web3.js.

dApps continue to grow in popularity due to their transparency, security, and autonomy. The DeFi sector accounts for about a third of the dApp market, while the gaming industry also holds a significant share.

It is expected that dApps will increasingly integrate AI to enhance user experience and provide more intelligent services. Additionally, as privacy awareness grows, dApps will implement stronger data protection mechanisms. These trends create unique opportunities for growth.

Application Development on the Solana Blockchain

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We create scalable decentralized applications and smart contracts on Solana — one of the fastest blockchains for high-performance DeFi, NFT and Meme projects.

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Useful Resources for Learning Solana

Solana Docs — The main developer guide, including code examples, architecture overview, and API documentation.

Anchor Docs — Documentation for Anchor, a powerful framework for building programs.

Solana Discord — A place to connect with other developers.

Solana Development — Free educational materials for beginner developers.

Figment Learn — Interactive blockchain tutorials.

Solana Foundation — Educational videos and event announcements.

Master the fundamentals, and you'll be able to create scalable solutions that meet modern demands. Solana continues to expand, making your expertise in this field increasingly valuable. Keep moving forward, experiment, and contribute to the future of decentralized technologies!