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The Solana blockchain network has introduced a new feature called ZK Compression, developed in collaboration with Light Protocol and Helius Labs. Launched on June 21, this solution aims to reduce on-chain storage costs by 99%.
ZK Compression leverages zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to compress on-chain data. This allows developers to store essential data on Solana’s cost-effective ledger space without compromising security or performance. The technology uses sparse state trees to store a hash of off-chain data on-chain for verification, ensuring data integrity while significantly cutting storage costs.
According to Light Protocol, ZK Compression can lower the cost of storing 100 compressed token accounts to approximately 0.0004 SOL, down from the usual 0.2 SOL—a 5000x reduction. For large-scale operations, such as airdrops to a million users, costs could decrease from $260,000 to just $50.
“We compress onchain 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,”
Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz highlighted the significant cost reduction and scalability gains brought by ZK Compression. Similarly, Austin Federa, Solana’s Head of Strategy, noted that the innovation addresses the high costs of on-chain account storage. He explained that ZK Compression offers similar cost-saving benefits for tokens and accounts as cNFTs did for NFTs, enabling the development of products that attract more users to the blockchain.
Several members of the Ethereum community have expressed criticism of the new primitive. ZKsync founder Alex Gluchowski commented that the monolithic Solana thesis is gone at once, while Ethereum investor Ryan Berckmans criticized the announcement for not labeling the new approach as a Layer 2 network, calling it unethical.
Other crypto community members, such as Adam Cochran, claimed that the Solana compression tool is essentially an L2, but its developers are presenting it differently. Cochran remarked that 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 L2 networks, ZK Compression doesn’t require a security council multisig, chain ID switching, a governance token, or an external sequencer. Yakovenko noted, “Solana validators still get all the transaction fees. It’s like an L2 without all the things that people complain about L2s.”
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