Proof of History (PoH)
Plain English
Imagine a newspaper that prints timestamps on every article showing exactly when it was written. Solana does something similar - it creates a historical record that proves events happened in a specific order and time, making the network much faster because validators don’t need to talk to each other as much to agree on timing.
Technical
A cryptographic clock that provides verifiable passage of time between events. PoH uses a Verifiable Delay Function (VDF) implemented via sequential SHA-256 hashing to create a historical record proving that an event occurred at a specific moment. This enables high throughput by allowing validators to process transactions without waiting for network-wide consensus on time.