💡What is ZK Compression and Photon?

ZK Compression

ZK Compression is a generalized compression framework that allows developers to store data on Solana at a fraction of the cost. After helping develop cNFT compression, Helius saw the need to build a generalized system. So along with the Light team, we built ZK Compression to allow developers to store arbitrary data in compressed accounts, akin to native Solana accounts.

Photon: the ZK Compression Indexer

Helius built Photon, the ZK Compression indexer. In ZK Compression, programs log compressed account data in Solana transactions and store the fingerprint of that data in validator memory. Photon indexes Solana transactions to parse and store compressed account data. It then exposes an API, similar to Solana's native API, to help users access compression data. Though developers can directly host Photon, we expose a Photon API to streamline developer experience.

Learn More

To learn more about ZK Compression and Photon please visit the official ZK Compression docs that we created along with the Light team.