State Compression: Revolutionizing the Solana Ecosystem
State Compression in Action
State compression is already being used by teams across the Solana ecosystem to power large, user-friendly experiences.
- Dialect, a blockchain-based messaging service, uses state compression for compressed NFTs to cover the minting cost of NFT stickers to thousands of users. Learn more.
- Crossmint, an NFT and API tooling company, is using state compression to create integrations that power deeper customer loyalty for companies around the world. Learn more.
And that’s just the beginning — projects like user-owned wireless network Helium and on-chain publisher Wordcel are using state compression to bring their scalable, user-first experiences to Solana.
Compressed NFTs: The First Use Case
Although state compression can be used to store any sort of data on-chain, the first use of this innovative technology is compressed NFTs. Compressed NFTs are just like regular NFTs, only drastically cheaper — minting 100 million compressed NFTs costs about ◎50 to store on-chain, compared to ◎1.2mm for their uncompressed counterpart.
In fact, because every incremental compressed NFT is solely a modification of an existing tree, the cost of an NFT on Solana is now as little as the cost of a single transaction (â—Ž0.000005)! Learn more about how compressed NFTs work here.
How State Compression Works
A true cross-ecosystem effort — built by developers at Solana Labs and Metaplex, powered by RPC providers and indexers Helius, Triton, and SimpleHash, and with support from Phantom, Solflare, the Solana Foundation, and more — state compression is a novel technology primitive that takes advantage of Merkle trees.
This compression-friendly data structure allows developers to store a small bit of data on-chain and updates directly in the Solana ledger, cutting the data storage cost down dramatically while still using the security and decentralization of Solana’s base layer.
State Compression’s Impact on the Solana Ecosystem
State compression makes elegant use of a well-known data structure and brings it to bear at the speed of Solana, once again proving Solana is the best place to build scalable, user-first web3 products.
We can’t wait to see what you make.
Conclusion
State compression is a game-changing technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way we store data on-chain. Its impact on the Solana ecosystem is already being felt, with projects like Dialect, Crossmint, Helium, and Wordcel leading the charge.
We’re excited to see where state compression will take us next and how it will continue to enable the creation of scalable, user-first experiences on Solana.
FAQs
| What is state compression? | State compression is a technology primitive that takes advantage of Merkle trees to store small bits of data on-chain and updates directly in the Solana ledger, cutting data storage costs down dramatically. |
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| What is the first use case of state compression? | Compressed NFTs are the first use case of state compression. They are similar to regular NFTs, but drastically cheaper to mint and store on-chain. |
| Who is building and supporting state compression? | A true cross-ecosystem effort, with developers at Solana Labs and Metaplex building the technology, and support from Phantom, Solflare, the Solana Foundation, and more. |
| How does state compression work with Merkle trees? | Merkle trees allow developers to store a small bit of data on-chain and update it directly in the Solana ledger, while still using the security and decentralization of Solana’s base layer. |
