Solana Exec Explains How ZK Compression Cuts On-chain Storage Cost By Over 99%

As a crypto investor with experience in the blockchain industry, I’m excited about the recent development of ZK Compression on Solana. The potential cost savings for businesses and institutions are significant, making large-scale adoption of blockchain technology more feasible.


In a groundbreaking advancement for blockchain technology, Austin Federa, Solana’s Head of Strategy, discussed an exciting new feature called ZK Compression. This game-changing innovation aims to substantially decrease the expense associated with storing accounts on-chain. Consequently, it effectively tackles one of the major hurdles confronted by institutions and widespread applications.

Solana Dev Spotlights Cost Advantages Of ZK Compression

“Federa noted that Solana’s compression feature addresses a significant challenge for businesses and heavy users of the blockchain: the expense of keeping data on-chain in accounts. The prohibitive cost of storage has often hindered large-scale adoption of blockchain technology. However, by implementing ZK Compression, this expense is significantly reduced, paving the way for millions of new users to join the blockchain.”

Federa emphasized the substantial cost savings achieved through generalized compression. For example, producing a PDA account with a size of 100 bytes usually costs around 0.0016 SOL. By applying ZK Compression, this cost is reduced to roughly 0.00001 SOL, which equates to a 160-fold decrease in price. Likewise, creating 100 token accounts originally entailed approximately 0.2 SOL, but with compression, the cost drops down to only 0.00004 SOL, representing a reduction of more than 5,000 times.

In addition, the cost savings mentioned are not just hypothetical. Federa highlighted the real-world benefits for businesses. The Solana executive elaborated, “For a business aiming to onboard 450 million users with tokens, the expense could amount to tens of millions of dollars for reserving that account space. However, due to generalized compression, this cost has been significantly reduced to approximately $25,000.” This substantial reduction in costs broadens the scope for extensive blockchain implementation.

Other Features Of ZK Compression

ZK Compression in the Solana blockchain goes beyond cost reduction. It preserves the top-notch security and performance characteristics of the network. Simultaneously, the condensed data is safeguarded on less expensive storage, while computation and data accessibility continue to reside on Solana’s L1. Consequently, users enjoy the same level of security and performance as previously.

Developers and users on Solana can substantially cut down on-chain storage expenses by employing ZK Compression. This technique preserves the safety, efficiency, and compatibility of the Solana Layer 1 blockchain. As a result, developers have the freedom to select between standard and compressed on-chain states.

As a crypto investor in Solana, I’m excited about the advancement of ZK Compression. This technology makes it effortless for me to engage with numerous dApps, wallets, and even compressed accounts. The collaboration between Light Protocol and Helius Labs, two entities initially focused on different areas, is a powerful demonstration of the innovative spirit within the Solana ecosystem. Together, they have created something truly game-changing.

He wrote, “The launch of generalized Compression on Solana is a case study in supporting world-class founders, no matter what they are building at the time. Light Protocol began as a privacy layer on Solana, Helius Labs an rpc provider. I think two years ago it would have been pretty hard to predict they’d collaborate to build something like this.”

In their recent announcement on X, Light Protocol emphasized the groundbreaking capabilities of this emerging technology. They expressed, “Today marks the beginning of the next evolution of Light in collaboration with Helius Labs. At the heart of this advancement is a revolutionary new foundation: Tokens and accounts that offer significant cost savings, all while incorporating zero-knowledge (ZK) computational functionality on Solana. We’ve coined it: ZK Compression.”

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2024-06-22 16:02