Why We Choose Solana as our Layer 1
Ray Buckton
February 25, ‘25
Earlier this year, Wingbits became the first flight-tracking network to reward contributors. We needed a transparent, automated way to pay our contributors that could support a global community. A token is the best way to make this happen.
When it came time to decide which blockchain to launch our token, we took a deliberate approach. Blockchain is a core component of our decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN), and choosing the right Layer 1 chain is critical to ensuring scalability, sustainability, and a thriving ecosystem for our community.
After evaluating all chains, their Layer 2s, and communities, we decided to launch on Solana, a network with a strong track record of reliability and scalability.
Though we initially collaborated with the Peaq network and explored the option to launch on their DePIN-focused chain, the decision ultimately came down to timing and fit for our current goals.
Why Solana?
Solana has established itself as a leading blockchain infrastructure, demonstrating remarkable resilience through multiple market cycles. Despite facing industry-wide challenges, Solana has maintained its position as one of the industry's most active and efficient networks.
The network's core strengths include its consistently high performance, near-instant transaction finality, and low transaction fees, which remain at a fraction of a cent even during peak usage. This reliability has fostered a thriving developer ecosystem, ranking second in active developer activity across all L1 blockchains, surpassed only by Ethereum.
With over 6 million active wallets (as of November 2024) and over 65 billion processed transactions, Solana has proven its ability to handle massive throughput while maintaining 99%+ uptime since inception.
Today, Solana is among the most widely used Layer 1 blockchains, processing millions of transactions daily while maintaining its core value proposition of high throughput and accessibility. Its proven track record continued technical evolution, and vibrant ecosystem have made it the preferred choice for decentralized applications requiring industrial-grade reliability and scalability.
Built for Scalability
Solana is designed to handle high transaction throughput with low fees, making it ideal for a DePIN project like Wingbits that requires efficient and cost-effective operations at scale. With a theoretical capability of handling 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) and a real-world sustained TPS in the range of 2,000–3,000, Solana is far ahead of most Layer 1 competitors, including Ethereum (~30 TPS).
Solana’s transaction fees average $0.00025, making it one of the most cost-effective blockchains for operations, an essential factor for Wingbits’ high-frequency data-driven model.
A Mature Ecosystem for DePIN
With a thriving ecosystem of thousands of dApps, use cases, and projects, Solana provides the network effects and visibility Wingbits needs to grow. It also boasts a well-established ecosystem of developers, advanced tooling, and integrations.
This chain provides everything we need to hit the ground running.
Its developers and the broader community of DePIN projects, such as Helium, have supported us with knowledge and resources. Its compatibility with existing tools and wallets makes onboarding and scaling faster and more efficient.
Community-First Infrastructure
At Wingbits, our community is at the heart of everything we do. Solana’s robust user base and focus on empowering on-chain real-world applications and use cases align with our mission to build a sustainable business that bridges the worlds of Web3 and aviation.
With Solana, we can demonstrate that DePIN can drive both innovation and growth while serving the best interests of our community.
Why not Peaq?
We are genuinely impressed by the innovation and team behind Peaq, are excited about what they are building, and remain supportive of their vision.
They are creating robust infrastructure to support machine-to-machine (M2M) economies and DePIN applications.
However, Peaq’s mainnet is still in its early stages. Wingbits is ready to scale today, meaning we need a proven network with a track record of handling large-scale deployments and thriving ecosystems.
Launching on an emerging network would require additional time to monitor performance, stability, and community adoption—a luxury we simply don’t have. Our focus is on scaling quickly and ensuring a smooth experience for our contributors and customers, which made Solana the more practical choice at this stage.
The Path Ahead
Choosing Solana is about building a foundation for the long term. We’ve already made notable strides, with 130,000 unique flights tracked daily and a sustained growth rate six times faster than incumbent competitors. We believe that Solana’s maturity, stability, and scalability will support Wingbits’ growth while ensuring that our contributors, customers, and community have a reliable platform with which to interact.
While Peaq remains a promising player in the DePIN space, Solana's timing and ecosystem readiness made it the right choice for Wingbits. We’ll continue to collaborate with and root for Peaq as they scale their network, but for now, our focus is on leveraging Solana’s strengths to deliver on our mission.
Together with our community, we’re excited to take off on Solana and continue building the industry's most innovative flight-tracking network.
Marketing
Ray Buckton is a Web3 native and seasoned content creator with deep expertise in copywriting, research, and reporting. With clients including Superstate, VanEck, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, and more, Ray brings a unique balance of institutional professionalism and Web3-native accessibility.
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