1/
After 9+ months of building behind the scenes, today we launch the next generation of Light Protocol.
Light v3 is the first ever zkLayer enabling private program execution directly on
@solana
.
We call them:
PSP — Private Solana Programs
👇🏽
1/ Wtf is ZK-Solano?
Lower fees = better user experience.
Until now, all private
@solana
transactions with Light were ~$0.40.
So we did a little something...
From today on, spending your private balance costs only $0.009
1/
Introducing: Solana’s ZK Anchor
It’s an extension of
@anchorlang
, supercharged for ZK.
This is a major building block of our road to Mainnet.
TLDR:
- DSL w/ macros for zk-circuit generation
- CLI to build and test PSPs
- RPC node to interact w/ Light
👇
1/ A Big Deal For ZK on Solana, Part III.
Light v3’s private transactions cost exactly the same as regular Solana transactions!
That’s ZERO on-chain storage cost for you.
~$0.0001.
How? Private state compression. 👇🏽
2/ TL;DR
Devs can now build anything on Solana — e.g.:
- fast, private payments
- encrypted order books
- public on-chain games with private state
& SPEED. Full zkSNARK verification in one atomic transaction (=400ms) & direct settlement on Solana.
No need for rollups.
1/
PSPs are a new primitive on Solana that allows Programs to have both public and private state.
This explodes the design space for apps that are only possible on Solana.
Here’s the 1st PSP reference implementation:
A private timelock escrow & payment streaming program
1/ A Big Deal For ZK on Solana, Part IV.
We want Solana to be the absolute best place for ZK.
So we did a little more optimizing for Light v3
The result:
Solana v1.17 will have ~2000x cheaper Poseidon hashes.
How?
The Poseidon syscall
Here’s why this is big👇
Hello
#Solana
community 👋🏽
Time to introduce ourselves.
We're Light Protocol, a privacy layer for Solana.
TLDR: Privacy is coming to Solana, get a spot on the waitlist!
👇🏽1/4
3/
But how?
Light v3 allows devs to move private program logic to the client.
Solana then verifies zkSNARKs that prove the correctness of state transitions computed by the client without revealing the transition itself.
Learn more 👉
Our Testnet is live, with rollout to Solana Mainnet over the coming months.
You can start building PSPs today! 👉
And check out our Github 👉 .
(Everything is open-source, all the way) 🫡
We’re super proud of our users.🌞
2k+ users have shielded ~$1.5MM with Light v1 so far.
All organic growth, barely any marketing whatsoever.
It’s just folks preserving their privacy on Solana today - to swap, pay others, and collect NFTs. :)
Love to see it.
Light Protocol Mainnet launch: April 15th!🌞
We've been heads down working day and night and now we're extremely happy to bring Light to Solana Mainnet.
Important details about the upcoming launch and the vision for Light Protocol:
👇🏾👇🏾
3/ Our vision is simple:
Make Solana the best chain for ZK.
One BIG part is developer experience.
Eventually, any Solana developer should be able to write programs with public and private state fast and safely.
And that’s precisely what ZK Anchor is for.
1/ Light Speed.
Ok, we know Light enables Private Solana Programs on Solana L1.
But why is Light v3 so much faster than what has existed so far??
Let’s take a look:
Light Speed Part I: The Syscall 🧵
We're live on Mainnet-Beta!
Light Protocol is the privacy operating system for Solana.
Go to , claim your own shielded address and shield your first private SOL! 🌞
All you need to know👇
4/ It’s an early alpha & in active development
Ofc -- lots of glass-chewing at this stage.
But you can be early & start experimenting w/ PSPs on Solana Testnet 👉
/opos
2/ Yep. Changes are live on Mainnet!
Effective immediately, also for our partners and devs building with the Light Privacy SDK.
- Cheaper unshielding✅
- Cheaper shielding coming up with a bigger v2 release soon 🤝
5/
Solana is becoming a ZK juggernaut.
Now we have
> atomic zk-SNARK verification (instant settlement, full composability)
> private state compression (zero state cost)
> and: atomic Merkle tree updates
All of this inside one single Solana transaction.
1/ On the hot topic: Privacy x Compliance
Our thesis is still the same as when we started in late '21:
Light Protocol == pragmatic privacy for mainstream adoption
- resilient privacy based on well-tested math (ZK-SNARKs)
- programmable tools for AML and sanctions compliance
We will soon launch Light v3 which enables ultra-efficient privacy and general-purpose ZK on Solana:
- full on-chain ZK-SNARK verification in 0.5s and <$0.001 fees
- developers will also benefit from strong, thoughtfully-designed compliance controls
5/ Compression 🤝 ZK on Solana.
BTW,
Light v3 is 100% open-source! Go check it out and build with it now:
Wanna learn more about v3 as we approach Mainnet launch? Read on:
Proof generation & verification time:
⬇️down 85% compared to the current version on Solana Devnet
Instructions needed for on-chain computation:
⬇️down 50%
...Looking good!🌞
Safe to say we'll get much faster and cheaper withdrawals from our v1 privacy pools!
It's live! We're excited to announce our first product integration with BarrelDAO &
@DegenApeAcademy
's e-commerce brand
They built private Solana checkout with Light Protocol's privacy SDK.
🔐🛒Yesterday we deployed
@LightProtocol
Private Checkout as a new payment option!
Privacy protocols add an extra layer of identity shielding to on-chain purchase transactions
Check out this video our youngest dev
@0xdyan
made to explain how to use it:
Super proud to have awesome builders build on Light's ZK Layer 🌞
@fadedotwtf
just launched privacy-preserving minting on Solana - with
@NomadsNFT_
as the first collection to pioneer this space!
Check this out 👉🏾
2/ The key component: the DSL
Each Private Solana Program has
- a zk-circuit (private program logic)
- anchor program (public program logic + verifies ZKP)
The DSL & CLI auto-expand the circuit code at compilation and create the corresponding IDL + Anchor program for you 🤝
Breakpoint, 1st Nov, 3PM
“How to build Private Solana Programs”
@ananas_light
will show you how to build a true private swap PSP with encrypted trade execution
This is concentrated alpha for what 2024 will have in store for Solana Mainnet.
Don't miss it!
In Light of the Visa news:
Here’s a fully encrypted private USDC payment settling atomically in 1
@solana
transaction.
Built as a Private Solana Program on Light v3.
(Sound on 🔊)
4/ Ok so, TL;DR:
Light v3’s private transactions completely inherit Solana’s speed + cost!
- super cheap
- and it's super fast too (400ms verification time)
Wanna build something on Solana that needs ZK privacy? You can build it now. :)
Light’s infrastructure aims to be Solana’s ZK Privacy Layer, with teams integrating across the ecosystem:
- User-friendly Privacy Protection in Wallets
- Private NFT Minting
- Alpha-preserving Trading Protocols
Want to explore privacy for your use case, too? Text us! DMs open🫡
True open-source >>
We'll merge your community contributions. Even if it's just a readme fix :)
Light v3 is 100% open-source w/ GPL-3.0 license 🌞
Plug -- build Private Solana Programs:
Just Keep Shipping. ✔️
You can now view your full zk transaction history and create mathematically verifiable source of funds proofs for your zk transactions.
Live now on
So where will ZK-Solano lead us?
*Default Privacy* on Solana.
ZK-Solano pushes the definition of what's possible on L1s.
It's gonna be big.
You really don't wanna miss it 🌞
- We launched our PoC on Solana Devnet on 10/16/21.
- We're working day and night to turn it into a nice V1.
Here's a thread about *2* major improvements over the PoC.
1⃣: Switching to snarkjs for proof generation
👇🏾👇🏾
... We’ll shed more light onto our upcoming products soon.
Until then,
📌 text us directly about your privacy use case:
📌 use V1:
📌 read more about the fundraise:
Let’s build ZK-Solano together🌞
We deployed a long requested feature to the Light UI today:
Light now shows you estimated privacy scores and timing recommendations.
Protect your on-chain privacy on Solana more easily!
Try it 👉🏾
Today is a special day! 🌞
100 people are minting the *1st* privacy-enabled mint on Solana with
@NomadsNFT_
- with private mint wallets claimed through
@fadedotwtf
.
It has been great bringing this to life together!
This is just the beginning of the ZK x NFT meta🫡
2/
Light’s UTXO model is great for privacy, but it also means:
linearly growing state forever.
v1 used to emit new state (tx outputs) as on-chain PDA’s.
This was expensive ($0.10 storage per private tx)
v3 emits state as compressed accounts. $0.0001 per tx.
1000x cheaper!
2/
Privacy and compliance can go hand in hand.
Builders can help strike a balance with thoughtfully designed tools
and we believe ZK is an excellent choice. For example for non-inclusion proofs:
3/ Compression:
Instead of storing state in a PDA, it’s emitted as an event.
Event = CPI with call data to the ‘noop’ program
The trick: call data is preserved on the ledger.
Its hash gets inserted into a Merkle tree. The tree root lives on-chain.
= trustless + verifiable. 🤝
Light Protocol is open-source:
This marks another big step towards getting the program audit-ready and then ready for Mainnet. The more 👀 on the code the better.
#solana
developers: check it out. We appreciate your comments & feedback🌞
2/
Awesome devs are already building with the widget!
For example
@DegenApeAcademy
x
@barrelDAO
,
@theanonclub
, and more🤝
Join them and build
- private payments
- private NFT sweeping
- private margin accounts
- ...
📢 Privacy is Here!
The first version of 'The Dark Bank' is now open. If you have generated your Shielded Private Address with our Frens at
@LightProtocol
you can now Deposit & Withdraw your Solana privately! 🤫
Otherwise, click 'Open Account' to get started! 🫡
1/X
1. It’s Only-Possible-On-Solana-Summer
2. Private Solana Programs are OPOS
So we're sponsoring a ZK Privacy Track in the OPOS hackathon.
Build PSPs!
Need ideas or more info? Check this out:
Excited to see what y’all ship 🫡
The moment has arrived.
The Only Possible on Solana (OPOS) Hackathon is now live.
TL;DR — pick from over 25 tracks from Solana's finest teams, build cool things, get paid, make a name for yourself, and drive change.
Build the future of crypto and Solana.
👇
6/
You can find the syscall here:
And here’s a write-up of some of the other key optimizations that Light v3 makes for ZK on Solana:
Want to build PSPs? Check this out:
/opos
1/ A Big Deal For ZK on Solana, Part III.
Light v3’s private transactions cost exactly the same as regular Solana transactions!
That’s ZERO on-chain storage cost for you.
~$0.0001.
How? Private state compression. 👇🏽
We hope you had a good start into 2022!
Quick update:
- v1 Devnet launch happening soon.
- we've chosen 10 *v1 battle-testers* from the community.
- more🔥news on it's way. Stay tuned for the Devnet launch!
We're sponsoring Solana Sandstorm's DeFi Grand Prize alongside
@SolanaFndn
!🌞
This price will go to the best open-source project taking advantage of Solana's unique performance & awesomeness.
If you're a builder definitely check this out.
Looking forward to your submissions🤝
We're glad to have
@LightProtocol
as a Grand Prize sponsor for Sandstorm!
Light builds ZK, Privacy and Compliance infrastructure for Solana, and is live on Mainnet!
Light is sponsoring a DeFi Grand Prize alongside
@SolanaFndn
.
2/
You can build PSPs with Light v3.
And since Light executes directly on Solana,
PSPs inherit Solana's low cost + speed.
While we’re building towards Mainnet, you can already run this demo yourself & build custom PSPs using our CLI!
(Links in next tweet)
Hope it inspires 🌞
3/
Users must feel comfortable using privacy.
Hence Light already implements a few AML practices on Mainnet:
- transaction caps (currently 50 SOL per shield)
- relayer-based address checks for direct connections to illicit/hacked funds
& more tools in the works! 🌞
2/ To understand “why Poseidon?" we must first know Merkle trees
Merkle tree = efficient data structure
piece of data = leaf
If you hash pairs of child nodes all the way down to the individual leaves, you get the tree root.
Root hash = unique fingerprint of all the data!
If you want to build a smooth user experience in crypto you gotta be fast and cheap.
We're making some big improvements to the client for v1 rn.
Here are some first performance estimates 👇🏾
@pumatheuma
@solana
@SuccinctLabs
yes any groth16 proof verifiable in <200cu!
limiting factor is amount of data you need to send on-chain, ~1kb limit rn. gets bigger with more public inputs
(could split sending to chain up and then still atomically verify in 1 tx)
We're moving launch 👉 next week!
During rigorous testing on Mainnet over the last week, we noticed that we'll have to adapt our system more to current Solana network conditions.
What's most important to us is that we provide y'all with a solid user experience.
1/2
Some quick updates from the team:
- audit for Light Protocol has started
- no more need for auto-approval (live on Devnet)
- lots of work happening behind the scenes; news dropping soon 🌞
1/3
4/
Privacy is an ecosystem effort!
Let's continue to build towards a privacy-preserving web3 with strong (zk) compliance capabilities.
Let's connect & discuss -- DMs are open! 🌞
3/
Bonus: integrate with Light in person 🌞
We'll host a workshop at the Paris
@hackerhouses
!
Next Tuesday, July 19 at 11am!
Join us for live integration, dev support,
and great discussions about ZK and Privacy on Solana.
Details:
Can’t wait to show you the next iteration of Light and what it means for ZK on Solana (It’s huge🤫).
Until then
- use Light v1 here:
- learn about Light here (tips, tricks, safe usage):
Have a nice rest of the week. :)
Zero-Knowledge Proof verification works on-chain.
Relayers yet to come - Until then, all transactions will be signed by the users wallets.
Check it out & hit us up with feedback or bugs! 🌞
4/
While Poseidon hashes are fast inside zk-circuits, they’re slow on-chain.
Again, we need speed.
We want our on-chain Merkle tree updates to be cheap and therefore fast.
So we built a Syscall for it
Result: ~2000x cheaper on-chain Poseidon hashes in Solana 1.17 🤝
Light Cash v1 is coming to Solana Devnet in early January!
So we're assembling battle-testers. Join the Light Discord for more details:
Things are getting🔥.
Snarkjs and circom are among the most popular ZK toolings in the space.
But their support for the newer bls12-381 elliptic curve is still limited.
Since our PoC used the bls12-381 curve we had to switch for v1.
The PROs outweigh the CONs - and it's working well so far!🌞
3. There's more:
Light Protocol is infrastructure play; we turn cutting-edge zk tech into easy-to-use APIs.
Solana devs will be able to protect their users' data in minutes, without sacrificing compliance.
SDK closed alpha starts early May.
DM if you want to get in!
3/ OK, Merkle trees are great for verifying data
The issue: most hash functions rely on binary operations. This makes them super slow if used in ZKPs.
BUT we want speed.
We want fast proving times for PSPs.
And that’s where Poseidon hashes come in.
Light Protocol will enable users to send
#SOL
and SPL tokens privately and developers to integrate private transactions at scale.
Our first product will be Light Cash - a token mixer for SOL.
3/4
1) Talked to 70+ community members one-on-one. We were super stoked to hear all your backgrounds and use cases for privacy on Solana. This helps us build a product you'll love to use.
S/o to
@SolanaSunny
who independently created this video about Light Protocol.
It was uploaded back in Feb (just discovered)
But the core concept + vision are still the same.
Looking for a really easy-to-understand explainer video?
Look no further👇
- Some of the top zk & privacy researchers in the space have audited our program. S/o
@hashcloak
- Find their report on our Github:
- The program is anchor-verified🤝
- Join us on Discord for fast support!
Your feedback matters — let us know! :)
2/3
4) ZK/privacy
@LightProtocol
has enabled ZKs and privacy directly on the L1 layer
this is pretty big because most other alternatives right now require an L2 (or even L3)
this field has tremendous upside
Btw, this is a good first live example proving that compliance tooling can go hand-in-hand with ZK and privacy on
@solana
.
More good things to come on this front.🌞
Grateful for the community!
Our first *v1-battle-testing event* has come to an end.
Received lots of valuable feedback from a dozen+ folks.
Will help us roll out some exciting improvements in the coming releases.🌞
1) "(Almost) Never Roll Your Own Crypto"
For us, being able to use well-tested crypto feels like warm sunshine on bare feet. 🌞
It's a rare occurrence in ZK land.
2) Composability ftw!
Our core competency is to bring private liquidity to Solana.
So that's what we can focus on.
V2 is already in the works... We have exciting plans for Light Protocol, and we’ll share more about that soon.
Lastly, thank you to everybody who's been a valuable source of ideas and feedback so far!
We could not be more grateful to have you be a part of the community. ❤️🌞
We have a closed discord group and are onboarding the first people on our waitlist.
👉🏽 So, if you're a developer building on Solana or want to send SOL privately, sign up for the waitlist here:
More news very soon!
#Ignition
Lp:
We are proud of our friends at
@MaiusPay
for winning the
@Solana
Vietnam Web3 Coding Camp!
They are using the Light SDK to bake easy-to-use privacy into subscription payments. 🤝
If you use crypto, the whole world can see your transaction history, forever.
It's like publishing your bank statements on the internet. That sucks and severely limits mass-adoption of crypto.
Light Protocol is built to fix that.
2/4
It's been awesome working with the team over at
@barrelDAO
and help them trail-blaze a new paradigm for Solana transactions: default privacy.
This is just the beginning.
Building an app or wallet on Solana?
Reach out and let's integrate privacy for mainstream adoption.🌞
...We refactored the Light client to only require a single signature for all of the many transactions that we execute under the hood. 🤝
In the coming days, we'll be pushing big improvements to harden the client before our Mainnet release - Stay tuned.