Helius Launches Solana NFT Compression, Allowing Developers to Mint Large Numbers of NFTs at Low Cost

Solana infrastructure startup Helius has launched Solana NFT Compression, enabling developers to mint large numbers of NFTs at low cost via the Digital Asset Standard (DAS). This is achieved by maintaining the NFT status outside the chain with index companies such as Helius instead of accounts, and a verification mechanism to ensure that the interaction with the program outside the chain is legal and safe. Compression removes the need for full on-chain storage and preserves the decentralization, security, and programmability of Solana. Compressed NFTs are stored in Merkle trees on the Solana ledger and off-chain indexers. This compressed NFT is not a native Solana token, there is no token account, minting account or metadata, each Merkle tree has an account, can hold millions of NFTs, requires an API call to read any information about the compressed NFT , all NFT modifications must be made through the Bubblegum program, and compressed NFTs can be converted into regular NFTs, but not vice versa. Foresight News previously reported that on October 20, 2022, Helius announced the completion of a $3.1 million seed round of financing, led by Reciprocal Ventures and Chapter One, Solana Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, Big Brain Ventures, Propel VC and other institutions, as well as the co-founder of Magic Eden Angel investors including Zhuoxun Yin and Squads co-founder Stepan Simkin participated in the round.