Solana Labs, the company behind the layer-1 blockchain Solana network, announced on Wednesday the launch of Solang, a compiler allowing developers to write smart contracts on the Solana network in the Solidity programming language.
Solana Labs Debuts Solang
Solana’s smart contracts are originally written in the Rust or C programming language. On the other hand, Ethereum smart contracts use Solidity programming language. With the introduction of Solang, developers familiar with Solidity and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) can deploy decentralized applications on the energy-efficient Solana network.
The Solang compiler will support Solana SPL tokens and compatibility with Ethereum Solidity 0.8. It will also enable access to native Solana built-in functionality, smart contracts, and the ability to call other Solana smart contracts.
The Solang Solidity compiler is not the first programming language featured on the Solana mainnet. Last year, Seahorse was launched, enabling the popular Python programming language to be integrated with the Solana network.
Will Solang Replace Neon EVM?
On July 17th, blockchain-focused company Neon Labs debuted the Neon EVM, an innovation that allows Ethereum developers to easily deploy their projects on the Solana blockchain. Solang doesn’t replace Neon EVM, rather it “helps bridge the gap between EVM developers and the Solana ecosystem.”
Solana’s Head of Strategy, Austin Federa, buttressed this point in a tweet using a “strained analogy”:
“Neon EVM lets you run Windows on Mac in a virtual machine, with all the Windows stuff and programs. Solang lets you run a program built for Windows on Mac.”
In his analogy, Federa likened Ethereum to Windows and Solana to Mac. This goes to say that Solang and Neon EVM will both work to onboard Ethereum developers and dApps into the Solana mainnet.
Meanwhile, Solana’s efforts to expand have rubbed off on the performance of its native cryptocurrency, SOL. A month ago, SOL traded at $16. However, the asset has rebounded, reaching a current trading price of over $26 as its ecosystem grows.
