Light Protocol and Helius Labs
Compression to Further Scale Solana Apps
Solana based developers Light Protocol and Helius Labs have launched a new way for applications on Solana to scale using a technology dubbed “ZK Compression,” the two firms announced.
ZK Compression works through a process known as state compression, allowing developers to store certain types of data using Solana’s cheaper ledger space rather than its more expensive account space. A “hash” or fingerprint of off-chain data is stored on-chain for verification using “sparse state trees,” according to ZK Compression’s documentation.
Light Protocol claims that ZK Compression will allow developers to store 100 compressed token accounts for around 4 hundred-thousandths of one sol, rather than a typical cost of around .2 sol, a 5000x reduction in price. A compressed PDA account can be up to 160x cheaper, according to the documentation. The protocol employs small zero-knowledge proofs (validity proofs) to ensure the integrity of the compressed state. “Take an airdrop to 1,000,000 users / this today would cost over $260,000 for state alone / now, it’s $50 — 5,200x cheaper,” wrote Helius Labs founder Mert Mumtaz on X.
Some members in the Ethereum community were critical of the new primitive, including ZKsync founder Alex Gluchowski, who wrote on X: “The whole monolithic Solana thesis is gone at once. Impressive. Meanwhile, ZKsync has been quietly building asynchronously composable ZK future for Ethereum. Big reveal this week.”
