Brewer's CAP theorem: a distributed system can provide at most two of three guarantees — Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance. Solana prioritizes availability and partition tolerance, choosing to continue producing blocks during network partitions and using commitment levels (processed, confirmed, finalized) to offer tunable consistency.
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Brewer's CAP theorem: a distributed system can provide at most two of three guarantees — Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance. Solana prioritizes availability and partition tolerance, choosing to continue producing blocks during network partitions and using commitment levels (processed, confirmed, finalized) to offer tunable consistency.
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CAP Theorem (cap-theorem) Category: Programming Fundamentals Definition: Brewer's CAP theorem: a distributed system can provide at most two of three guarantees — Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance. Solana prioritizes availability and partition tolerance, choosing to continue producing blocks during network partitions and using commitment levels (processed, confirmed, finalized) to offer tunable consistency. Aliases: CAP Theorem, Brewer's Theorem Related: Commitment Levels, Consensus Mechanism, Finality
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The three transaction confirmation tiers exposed by Solana RPC: 'processed' (transaction executed by leader, not yet voted on), 'confirmed' (optimistic confirmation—66.7%+ stake voted, ~400ms), and 'finalized' (rooted—31+ confirmations, ~12-13s). Applications choose the level based on their security vs. latency requirements.
The protocol by which nodes in a distributed network agree on the current state of the ledger. Common mechanisms include Proof of Work (Bitcoin), Proof of Stake (Ethereum, Solana), and BFT variants. Consensus ensures all honest nodes converge on the same transaction history despite potential network delays or malicious actors.
The guarantee that a transaction cannot be reversed. Solana offers two levels: optimistic confirmation (~400ms, 66.7%+ stake voted) and full finality (~12-13 seconds, 31+ confirmations rooted). Once a slot is rooted, its transactions are irreversible under the assumption that no more than 1/3 of stake is malicious.
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The three transaction confirmation tiers exposed by Solana RPC: 'processed' (transaction executed by leader, not yet voted on), 'confirmed' (optimistic confirmation—66.7%+ stake voted, ~400ms), and 'finalized' (rooted—31+ confirmations, ~12-13s). Applications choose the level based on their security vs. latency requirements.
The protocol by which nodes in a distributed network agree on the current state of the ledger. Common mechanisms include Proof of Work (Bitcoin), Proof of Stake (Ethereum, Solana), and BFT variants. Consensus ensures all honest nodes converge on the same transaction history despite potential network delays or malicious actors.
The guarantee that a transaction cannot be reversed. Solana offers two levels: optimistic confirmation (~400ms, 66.7%+ stake voted) and full finality (~12-13 seconds, 31+ confirmations rooted). Once a slot is rooted, its transactions are irreversible under the assumption that no more than 1/3 of stake is malicious.
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A systems programming language emphasizing memory safety, zero-cost abstractions, and concurrency without a garbage collector. Rust uses an ownership model with borrow checking at compile time to prevent data races and null pointer bugs. It is the primary language for Solana program development (via Anchor or native solana-program crate) and the Agave validator client.
A statically typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript. TypeScript adds type annotations, interfaces, generics, and enums to catch errors at compile time. It is the standard language for Solana client-side development—wallet adapters, dApp frontends, test suites, and SDK interactions (web3.js, Anchor client) are typically written in TypeScript.
The ubiquitous scripting language for web development, running in browsers and Node.js. JavaScript is dynamically typed and event-driven. Most Solana dApp frontends and scripts use JavaScript/TypeScript with libraries like @solana/web3.js. Node.js enables server-side JS for backend services, indexers, and bot development.
A JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 engine that enables server-side JavaScript execution. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model. In the Solana ecosystem, Node.js is used for: running Anchor tests (Mocha/Jest), backend services, transaction bots, indexers, and CLI tools. npm/yarn/pnpm manage JavaScript package dependencies.