New ZK Compression Feature on Solana Blockchain Reduces Storage Costs by 99%

The Solana blockchain has introduced ZK Compression, a new feature developed with Light Protocol and Helius Labs, aimed at reducing on-chain storage costs by 99%. Launched on June 21, ZK Compression utilizes zero-knowledge proofs to compress on-chain data, enabling developers to store data more cost-effectively without compromising security.

By using sparse state trees, which store a hash of off-chain data on-chain, the solution ensures data integrity while significantly lowering storage costs. For example, storing 100 compressed token accounts now costs about 0.0004 SOL, down from 0.2 SOL, representing a 5000x reduction. This reduction means large-scale operations, like airdrops to a million users, could see costs drop from $260,000 to just $50.

Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz highlighted the substantial cost savings and scalability improvements, while Solana’s Head of Strategy, Austin Federa, noted the innovation’s potential to attract more users to the blockchain by lowering costs for tokens and accounts.

However, the introduction of ZK Compression has met with criticism from the Ethereum community. Critics argue that the new feature essentially functions as a Layer 2 (L2) solution, despite not being labeled as such. Ethereum investor Ryan Berckmans and others have called this labeling “unethical,” while Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko defended ZK Compression, acknowledging its L2-like characteristics but emphasizing its unique aspects that differentiate it from traditional L2 networks.