There are various metrics that seek to track the growth of a blockchain. The most common one is the number of active users. While it is simple and easy to understand, tracking active users has some limitations. Some users may be high-frequency trading bots. Furthermore, tracking users does not provide information on the creation of new smart contracts on a blockchain.

On Solana, smart contracts are called ‘Programs’. In this dashboard, I show the daily number of unique programs that Solana users interact with. I also provide some information on the most popular programs on Solana. The purpose is to track the expansion of use cases on Solana.

So far this year, there was a constant rise in the daily number of unique programs used on Solana. Users are interacting with an expanding variety of smart contracts.

On the right are the five most frequently used programs on Solana so far this year.

1. Pyth Oracle : a pricing Oracle dedicated to aggregating off-chain financial data onto the blockchain.
2. Serum DEX: an on-chain orderbook, allowing applications such as trading interfaces to 'plug into' Serum's composable ecosystem. Various DEX's and protocols use Serum to coordinate order books and share liquidity.
3. Mango Markets: a popular Dex offering leverage and loans. Uses Serum in the backend.
4. Switchboard Oracle: community-curated data feeds.
5. The fifth most frequently used program does have a label. Its contract address is SW1TCH7qEPTdLsDHRgPuMQjbQxKdH2aBStViMFnt64f . This program may be called SWITCHBOARD_V2_MAINNET. Its function is unknown to me.

Shown on the left is the daily usage of programs over time.

Included are the four most frequently used programs so far this year.

The period of observation is from June 1st to July 4, 2022.

In recent weeks, Pyth and Serum have both seen an increase in daily users. Usage of Mango Markets and the Switchboard Oracles has remained stable.

Takeaways

So far this year, the number of unique programs used on Solana has steadily increased. This demonstrates that Solana users are interacting with an increasing number of smart contracts. As of this writing, one thousand distinct programs are used on the Solana every day. The blockchain's use cases are becoming more diverse.

Decentralized exchanges, oracles, and data feeds are the most commonly used programs on Solana.

While the pricing of cryptocurrencies are depressed, developments and usage on Solana remain vibrant.