Solana launches new ZK Compression technology to slash onchain storage expenses by 99
The Solana blockchain network has introduced a new feature called ZK Compression, which is a result of a collaboration between Light Protocol and Helius Labs. The solution, launched on June 21, aims to reduce on-chain storage costs by 99%.
ZK Compression utilizes zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to compress on-chain data. This means that developers can now store important data on Solana’s more cost-effective ledger space without compromising security or performance.
By using sparse state trees, a hash of off-chain data is stored on-chain for verification, ensuring data integrity and significantly reducing storage costs.
According to Light Protocol, ZK Compression can reduce the cost of storing 100 compressed token accounts to about 0.0004 SOL, compared to the usual 0.2 SOL, resulting in a 5000x reduction. For large-scale operations like airdrops to a million users, costs could decrease from $260,000 to just $50.
Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of Helius, emphasized the substantial cost reduction and scalability benefits brought by ZK Compression. He stated, “[In summary,] we compress on-chain state to get 10,000x scale improvements and get 1 step closer to building The Financial Computer—an unstoppable, global, atomic state machine syncing at the speed of light.”
Similarly, Austin Federa, Solana’s Head of Strategy, highlighted that this innovation addresses the high costs associated with on-chain account storage. He explained that ZK Compression offers similar cost-saving advantages for tokens and accounts as cNFTs did for NFTs, enabling the development of products that can attract more users to the blockchain.
However, there has been criticism from members of the Ethereum community regarding this new feature. ZKsync founder Alex Gluchowski commented on X, saying, “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.”
Ethereum investor Ryan Berckmans criticized the announcement for not labeling the new approach as a Layer 2 network, calling it “unethical BS” in an X post. He stated, “Their new product is actually an L2. L2s are a winning model.”
Similarly, other members of the crypto community, like Adam Cochran, have claimed that the Solana compression tool is essentially a Layer 2 solution, but its developers are presenting it differently. Cochran remarked, “One day the Solana crowd will realize what they’ve built is a good L2 feature/validity based rollup and not a monolith chain.”
In response, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko defended ZK Compression, acknowledging its L2-like features but emphasizing its unique aspects. Unlike traditional Layer 2 networks, ZK Compression does not require a security council multisig, chain ID switching, a governance token, or an external sequencer. Anatoly remarked, “Solana validators still get all the transaction fees. It’s like an L2 without all the things that people complain about L2s.”
