Kunnen Solana en Cardano Visa, Mastercard en PayPal vervangen?
Datum: 24.04.2024
Solana and Cardano are emerging as potential leading payment systems, and they may soon claim a significant share of markets traditionally dominated by Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal. Let’s take a closer look…

Transactiekosten en snelheid

Earlier this year, Visa and Mastercard increased their transaction fees slightly. PayPal remains one of the more affordable options with fees around 1.85%. Although these fees may seem modest, they can add up quickly, especially for businesses with high transaction volumes. This is particularly impactful for businesses operating on thin margins, like restaurants, which have felt the pinch from these increased fees.

Solana Pay charges a tiny fraction of a cent per transaction, a minimal cost that has negligible effects on business profits. ADA transaction fees are also low, though they can rise up to 2 cents depending on market conditions.

Additionally, transactions on both Solana and Cardano occur within seconds. In contrast, Visa and Mastercard transactions often take longer due to the need for bank confirmations, making Solana and Cardano more efficient options.

PayPal’s Position

PayPal, a major payment service, is facing significant challenges. A controversial update to its acceptable use policy drew backlash, stating that PayPal could withhold up to $2,500 from users who posted unpopular opinions online. On October 10, Google searches for “how to cancel PayPal” spiked, according to Market Watch. While PayPal later removed this update, the damage to its reputation was already done.

Notable figures like Elon Musk and David Marcus, a former PayPal president, criticized the platform. The backlash caused a drop in PayPal’s stock price. However, PayPal remains a reliable service for deposits on crypto exchanges, supporting over 12 different platforms.

Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) are expected to gain traction in the payments market, as their decentralized nature ensures that users are never locked out of their funds. Unlike centralized systems like PayPal, these cryptocurrencies are immune to regulatory control and censorship. Crypto wallets are also pseudonymous, ensuring privacy during transactions.

It’s a good practice for users to store their coins in private wallets, instead of keeping all funds on exchanges, as breaches can occur—though such incidents are rare.

Solana vs Cardano Comparison

Both Solana and Cardano were created in response to the scalability issues of the Ethereum network, and they remain strong competitors in the cryptocurrency space. Even after Ethereum’s Merge, Solana and Cardano remain excellent options for everyday financial transactions due to their low fees and fast processing times.

Solana can process 50,000 transactions per second, with fees as low as a fraction of a penny, practically negligible. This scalability is made possible by the use of proof-of-stake and proof-of-history mechanisms. Proof-of-history allows transactions to be processed faster by eliminating the need for timestamps on blocks. Solana Pay facilitates fast transactions between merchants and customers, with a simple QR code for payments.

While Solana has seen great success, it hasn’t been without issues. The network has experienced outages, and in August 2022, hackers stole $8 million from around 8,000 SOL wallets. While the exact cause of the breach remains unknown, it appears that the leak was from a third-party service, rather than the network itself. Despite these setbacks, Solana’s potential remains strong, and its developers are focused on enhancing security.

Cardano, now the eighth most popular cryptocurrency, processes 250 transactions per second, and its fee structure is slightly higher—around one to two cents per transaction. However, Cardano has not experienced the same security breaches as Solana, making it an attractive option for users seeking stability.

Learn more about these cryptocurrencies on their dedicated pages at CryptoChipy.