Solana is designed for universal, mainstream use since it is energy efficient, lightning quick, and extremely cheap. That is, they are solely concerned with scalability and efficiency.
Solana's bold design seeks to overcome the blockchain trilemma, a concept introduced by Ethereum developer Vitalik Buterin, in a sequence - specific manner. This trilemma explains three primary issues that blockchain developers confront when constructing them: decentralization, security, and scalability.
Anatoly Yakovenko, a former Qualcomm executive, founded Solana in 2017.
SOL is Solana's native and utility cryptocurrency that provides a means of transferring value as well as blockchain security through staking.
Solana utilizes an innovative hybrid consensus architecture that combines a novel proof-of-history (PoH) method with a lightning-fast synchronization engine based on proof-of-stake (PoS)
Here is a great resource for learning more about the Solana blockchain APIs.