Light Protocol and Helius Labs have unveiled a mechanism to make storage on Solana 5000 times cheaper than before
Developers will be able to use it to scale applications
24.06.2024 - 15:30
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Last updated on Aug 6, 2024
What’s new? Light Protocol and Helius Labs have launched a new way to scale applications on the Solana blockchain called ZK Compression. It will allow developers to reduce the cost of storing credentials by 5000x.
What else is known? ZK Compression utilizes State Compression technology, which was introduced by Solana developers last April. It allows compressing data of any type for its further storage on the blockchain. The first application of this technology was the creation of compressed NFTs.
Thus, issuing and storing 100 million compressed NFTs costs 50 native tokens SOL compared to 1,2 million SOL for classic NFTs.
ZK Compression, based on State Compression, allows data to be stored in the blockchain (ledger space) instead of in accounts (account space), which is much cheaper. The protocol also utilizes zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology to ensure the integrity of compressed data.
Helius Labs founder Mert Mumtaz cited airdrop as an example of a scenario using the new mechanism. Currently, it would cost $260 000 to conduct a token distribution for 1 million users to developers of an application. In turn, ZK Compression will reduce the cost to just $50.
“For non-technical folks developers can now build and scale literally anything they want directly on Solana without needing to leave it,” Mumtaz explained.
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In May, Solana set a record for throughput among both Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2) networks. According to analysts at aggregator CoinGecko, the network recorded a speed of 1054 transactions per second (TPS) on April 6.
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