The Battle Against L2s: Solana Introduces ZK Compression

• Solana has always opted for building a user-friendly blockchain, and this means being heavy on scalability and speed.

• In the quest for scalability, Solana finally chooses a ZK, but without layers.

• Conversely to Solana's idea, the Ethereum community claims the new feature, ZK compression, is a layer 2 chain that was renamed.

ZK Compression- What It Is

Think of it like this: compress literally means to press something till it takes less space, that's what ZK compression does; the ‘ZK’ attached simply means that the privacy of the data compressed is also not being compromised.

Simply put, ZK compression is a way of storing only compressed data’s “fingerprint” (hash) on-chain to reduce storage costs while still maintaining privacy.

ZK compression - What It Is Not

ZK Compression is not a layer 2 chain on Solana; it's an upgrade to improve Solana's data storage and drastically reduce costs for developers.

How ZK Compression Will Improve Solana

Here's what ZK Compression means to the Solana ecosystem:

1. Scalability: More applications and transactions will be seen on Solana since data size has been compressed.

   
   

2. All-in-one environment: Developers now have the opportunity to build in one place rather than bridging from one layer to another. This makes it easier and more straightforward to deploy and manage applications.

   
   

3. Reduced cost: This is one of the most important benefits of ZK compression.

• The cost of airdropping tokens to a million wallets on Solana would cost over $260,000; with ZK compression, it drops to $50 which is 5200 times cheaper.

• On Solana, data and code are stored separately, unlike Ethereum. Creating multiple NFTs involves creating multiple accounts, which can be costly due to storage requirements on validator nodes. Compression allows you to combine many accounts into one, reducing costs significantly by storing the data more efficiently on the ledger and using cryptographic links for integrity.

Ethereum Vs Solana Community on ZK Compression

You know how CT- (Crypto Twitter) usually brings up Ethereum Vs Solana disses to your timeline, like :

“Gas fees? Solana would never!”

You might have noticed even more debates, especially from the ETH community, about what ZK compression is, defining it to be another L2 but with a different name.

That's the beauty of a decentralized world- diverse opinions.

No doubt, such ‘banters’ are not new; they are conversations that open our eyes to the many sides of the string. Previously, there were criticisms from the Ethereum community aimed at Bitcoin when Ethereum was starting out. Now, it's mostly Solana vs. Ethereum. How the tables turn!

In Web3, open discourse is allowed

The Solana Community Took a Cue

“That's a common symptom of ETH Maximysis patients-they can't function well without another layer. Layer 1, 2, 3, 4 .”

This is a line from a recent diss video by the Solana community targeting Ethereum. The brilliance in the scripting and casting was evident, featuring a doctor treating an ETH Maximysis patient. Some of the symptoms highlighted were:

• Inability to understand more than 10 alphabets (transactions) per second.
• Allergic reaction to good UI (any wallet that isn't Metamask).
• Constant gas fees in transactions, leaving the user rekt.
• Dependency on multiple layers to survive.

To Wrap Up

Both chains offer institutionalized and personal needs. It doesn't matter if you're suffering from Eth Maximysis, Sol Maximysis, or even both. What matters is that you use the chain that meets your needs per time!