Light Protocol and Helius Labs introduce 'ZK Compression' to further scale Solana apps

Solana-based developers Light Protocol and Helius Labs have launched a new way for applications on Solana to scale using a technology dubbed "ZK Compression," the two firms announced. 

ZK Compression works through a process known as state compression, allowing developers to store certain types of data using Solana's cheaper ledger space rather than its more expensive account space. A "hash" or fingerprint of off-chain data is stored on-chain for verification using "sparse state trees," according to ZK Compression's documentation. 

Light Protocol claims that ZK Compression will allow developers to store 100 compressed token accounts for around 4 hundred-thousandths of one sol, rather than a typical cost of around .2 sol, a 5000x reduction in price. A compressed PDA account can be up to 160x cheaper, according to the documentation. The protocol employs small zero-knowledge proofs (validity proofs) to ensure the integrity of the compressed state. "Take an airdrop to 1,000,000 users / this today would cost over $260,000 for state alone / now, it's $50 — 5,200x cheaper," wrote Helius Labs founder Mert Mumtaz on X. 

Some members in the Ethereum community were critical of the new primitive, including ZKsync founder Alex Gluchowski, who wrote on X: “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 critiqued the announcement for not characterizing the new approach as a Layer 2 network, calling it "unethical BS" in an X post. "Their new product is actually an L2. L2s are a winning model," Berckman wrote. 

In response, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko replied, "Sure. It’s an L2 that doesn’t need a security council multisig, users don’t need to switch chain ids, doesn’t need a governance token, doesn’t need an external sequencer, solana validators still get all the transaction fees. It’s like an L2 without all the things that people complain about L2s."