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

In a significant breakthrough for blockchain technology, Head of Strategy at Solana, Austin Federa, weighed in on a new feature called ZK Compression. This innovative development promises to drastically reduce the cost of on-chain account storage. Hence, it addresses one of the key challenges faced by institutions and mass-consumer applications.

Solana Dev Spotlights Cost Advantages Of ZK Compression

“Compression on Solana solves one of the key pain points faced by institutions and mass-consumer applications: the cost of on-chain account storage,” stated Federa. The high cost of storing data on the blockchain has been a major barrier for businesses looking to leverage blockchain technology for large-scale applications. Thus, with ZK Compression, these costs are slashed, making it feasible to onboard millions of users onto the blockchain.

Moreover, Federa highlighted the staggering cost savings with generalized compression. For instance, creating a 100-byte PDA account typically costs about 0.0016 SOL. With ZK Compression, this cost plummets to approximately 0.00001 SOL, making it 160 times cheaper. Similarly, the cost of creating 100 token accounts drops from around 0.2 SOL to just 0.00004 SOL, a reduction of 5000x.

Furthermore, these cost reductions are not merely theoretical. Federa emphasized the practical implications for businesses. The Solana exec explained, “If you’re a business who wants to bring 450 million users on chain with tokens, that could cost tens of millions of dollars to reserve that account space. Thanks to generalized compression, that cost is now just ~$25k.” This dramatic decrease in costs opens up new possibilities for large-scale blockchain adoption.

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Other Features Of ZK Compression

ZK Compression is not just about cost savings. It also maintains the high security and performance standards of the Solana blockchain. Moreover, the compressed data is stored securely on a cheaper ledger space, while execution and data availability remain on Solana’s L1. This ensures that users benefit from the same level of security and performance as before.

Through ZK Compression on Solana, developers and users can significantly reduce on-chain storage costs by compressing their reserves. In addition, this approach maintains the security, performance, and composability of the Solana Layer 1 blockchain. This flexibility allows developers to choose between regular and compressed on-chain states.

Hence, it enables seamless interaction with multiple programs, accounts, and compressed accounts. The development of ZK Compression is a testament to the collaborative spirit within the Solana ecosystem. Federa pointed out that the project brought together Light Protocol and Helius Labs, two entities with different initial focuses.

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.”

Light Protocol, in their announcement on X, highlighted the transformative potential of this new technology. They noted, “Today, we launch the next generation of Light. Together with Helius Labs. At its core, a new primitive: Tokens and accounts: orders of magnitude cheaper, while enabling native ZK compute on Solana. We call it: ZK Compression.”

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