Ownership

Who Owns Solana?

There is no single owner of Solana. Anatoly Yakovenko is its principal co-founder, Solana Labs is the original development company, the Solana Foundation is the non-profit stewarding the ecosystem — and the blockchain itself is decentralized, run by independent validators.

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There is no single owner

Nobody owns the Solana blockchain outright. Solana is a decentralized network operated by independent validators. Solana Labs and the Solana Foundation have significant influence over its development, but they don't legally own the entire blockchain the way a company owns a product. Changes to the protocol ultimately depend on network participants and validators adopting software updates.

Founders and organisations

Anatoly Yakovenko conceived the Solana protocol and published the 2017 Proof of History paper. Raj Gokal co-founded the project and focused on business and operations. Greg Fitzgerald was a co-founder and early engineer who helped build the original Solana software. Solana Labs was the original company that developed and launched the protocol, and the Solana Foundation, a Swiss non-profit, supports the ecosystem through grants and decentralisation.

How the initial SOL was distributed

At the initial creation of SOL, SEC-filed documents describing the initial 500 million SOL distribution list: investors 189 million SOL (37.8%), the Solana Foundation 52 million SOL (10.4%), Solana Labs 64 million SOL (12.8%) and a community allocation of 195 million SOL (39.0%). In 2020, Solana Labs transferred the protocol's intellectual property to the Solana Foundation, along with 167 million SOL at the time, while retaining some SOL for operations.

Owning the network vs owning SOL

There is a distinction between owning the network and owning SOL tokens. Validators process transactions and vote on blocks, weighted by the SOL staked with them. Software upgrades are adopted by validators choosing to run them. See Solana company.

Step-by-step

Step 1. Know the founders
Yakovenko, Gokal and Fitzgerald.
Step 2. Know the organisations
Labs built it; the Foundation stewards it.
Step 3. Understand validators
They run the chain and adopt upgrades.
Step 4. Understand staking
Stake weights validator votes.

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Frequently asked questions

Who founded Solana?

Anatoly Yakovenko, who conceived the protocol and published the 2017 Proof of History paper, with co-founders Raj Gokal and Greg Fitzgerald. Solana Labs was the original development company.

Does anyone control Solana?

No single party; validators collectively run it.

Who holds the most SOL?

Holdings are spread across individuals, funds, exchanges and organisations.

Can Solana be shut down?

It would require most validators to stop; no single owner can switch it off.

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