Light Protocol and Helius Labs Launch ZK Compression, Expanding Solana Without Layer-2

On June 22, Light Protocol announced the launch of "ZK Compression" in collaboration with Helius Labs. This technology compresses and stores data directly on Solana's blockchain ledger, bypassing traditional account storage methods.

Light Protocol and Helius Labs Launch ZK Compression, Expanding Solana Without Layer-2

As announced on the X platform on June 22, Light Protocol and Helius Labs introduced the "ZK Compression" technology to scale more efficiently on Solana's Layer-1 without the need for Layer-2 solutions.

ZK Compression optimizes data storage by compressing "transaction state," significantly reducing costs and improving efficiency while maintaining data integrity and security.

When a transaction state is compressed, instead of storing the entire compressed data on costly accounts, only the "hash" value of the compressed data is stored on Solana's ledger. When verifying compressed data, the system uses the stored hash value to ensure data integrity. If the data off-chain matches the hash, the data is confirmed to be accurate and unaltered.

To illustrate, imagine a collection of thousands of photos, each several megabytes in size. Storing all these photos on a cloud storage service without compression would incur high costs. However, compressing these photos into a ZIP file significantly reduces the overall size, thereby lowering costs when uploading to cloud storage.

When revisiting the collection, simply unzip the file and compare the photos to the originals. If they match, you can be sure the data has not been altered. Similarly, ZK Compression uses hash values to ensure the accuracy and integrity of compressed data on Solana's ledger.

Some benefits of ZK Compression include:

• Cost reduction in data storage through state compression.
• Maintained security and enhanced performance on Solana.
• Flexibility for Solana projects to operate with both compressed and uncompressed states without altering the current structure.

ZK Compression resembles a Layer-2 solution embedded within Solana as it addresses similar issues to Layer-2 solutions without the need for a new layer on Solana.

Light Protocol states that ZK Compression will enable developers to store 100 compressed token contracts for approximately 0.000004 SOL, a reduction of up to 5000 times compared to the usual cost of about 0.2 SOL. Additionally, a compressed PDA account could be cheaper by up to 160 times. Helius Labs founder Mert Mumtaz also mentioned that an airdrop for 1,000,000 current users would cost over $260,000 to verify status, but with ZK Compression, this cost reduces to just $50.

Solana's Strategy Director, Austin Federa, praised the introduction of ZK Compression on Layer-1, stating:

"ZK Compression on Solana addresses a major pain point for organizations and dApps: the cost of on-chain account storage."

High data storage costs on the blockchain are a significant barrier for enterprises looking to leverage blockchain technology for large-scale applications. Therefore, ZK Compression will cut these costs, making it feasible to onboard millions of users onto the blockchain.

However, the Ethereum community has criticized this new technology. ZKsync founder Alex Gluchowski expressed concerns that if the ZK Compression application on Solana does not operate uniformly, it may no longer function as a coherent solution.

Ethereum investor Ryan Berckmans also criticized Solana, emphasizing:

"Solana is being misleading when it claims this technology will revolutionize scaling Layer-1 without needing Layer-2. The new product is essentially a Layer-2."

Responding to these criticisms, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko affirmed that it is a Layer-2 but does not face the issues typical of other Layer-2 solutions. Users do not need to switch chain IDs, do not require new governance tokens, and Solana validators still receive all transaction fees.

ZK Compression represents a significant advancement in scaling optimization and cost reduction on Solana. This technology efficiently stores data by compressing transaction states, thereby significantly reducing costs and optimizing blockchain operation performance. ZK Compression is poised to be a breakthrough and effective solution, delivering substantial benefits to applications running on the Solana platform, making their development and expansion easier.