Solana (SOL)

The bet here is on throughput. Validators do not negotiate the order of operations; they lean on a verifiable sequence of hashes that fixes what came before what, with ordinary proof of stake layered on top. Transactions execute in parallel provided they declare in advance which parts of the state they touch: the chain is not split into shards, and the state stays single.

The price of that choice is what a validator's hardware must be: the network is deliberately sized for powerful machines rather than a hobbyist's computer. Programs are written in Rust and there is no EVM compatibility, so the chain carries its own ecosystem of wallets and tooling. Fees are small and largely insensitive to overall load, but priority in the queue for a busy contract is paid for separately.

Cheap, fast transactions made it the main venue for trading applications, high-volume token launches and consumer-scale payments.

The counterweight to that speed is a history of outages: in its early years the chain stopped producing blocks for hours at a time, and restarting it required validators to act in concert.