Solana Network Extension and Solana’s modular blockchain approach

What is Solana Network Extension?

Solana Network Extension does not have many architectural differences compared to Ethereum Rollup. They are also separate blockchains, but inherit all or part of the consensus mechanism (Consensus) and data availability (Data Availability) from Solana.

Solana Network Extension processes transactions off-chain and updates the state root back to the Solana network. They use proof systems such as Fraud Proof or Validity Proof to verify the accuracy of computation and state transitions (State Validation).

During that process, transaction data must be available (Data Availability) on Solana or other storage solutions to ensure Solana validators can access and download all data related to the proposed block.

Read more: What is rollup? The trade-off between sovereignty and cultural association with the base layer

How are Network Extension and L2/Rollup different?

The difference between Solana Rollup and Ethereum Rollup is not in the technical aspects but in how they are used. Both have similar architecture, but the focus of the story is on different points.

• For Ethereum, Rollups focuses on scaling, Rollups are mainly used to expand the network. They help increase transactions per second (TPS), reduce transaction confirmation time (block time), and make transactions cheaper. This is Rollups’ main competitive advantage on Ethereum, expandability.
• As for Solana, Rollups on Solana focus on more specific functions, the Solana community calls them network extensions. They are not aimed at making transactions faster or cheaper, but rather provides features that Solana cannot providelike increasing security or adding privacy features for users.

Another reason Solana may avoid using the term “L2/Rollup” is because these terms are closely associated with Ethereum and its scaling story.

Basically, Ethereum and Solana are both offering similar technological solutions, but they choose different narratives. This is like fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) businesses competing with each other. Even though they sell the same type of product with not much difference, each side uses different branding strategies to attract customers. client.

Solana and the Modular path

The Network Extension step has been planned in advance. Starting in 2024, Solana is starting to move beyond the framework of a Monolithic Blockchain.

Since the beginning of the year, Solana has strived to modularize and simplify different components of the system. The goal is to make Solana more flexible and customizable, allowing developers to use only the parts that suit their specific needs.

The move towards modularity comes from solving past network congestion problems. When transaction volume spikes from activities like airdrops and memecoin transactions, the network becomes overloaded, leading to high latency, increased transaction failure rates, and escalating network fees as users prioritize paying fees. higher so that the transaction is processed first.

Solana quickly came up with temporary solutions to overcome the congestion problem, now they are focusing on creating a more flexible system.

Previously, the two main components of Solana were the validators responsible for validating transactions and the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), which runs programs and smart contracts, always closely linked together. .

In the near future, these two components will be separated, allowing developers to run SVMs independently of Validators, providing more flexibility in application development and deployment. This effort is being driven by Anza, a subsidiary of Solana Labs.

The new SVM system will be modularized into separate components, allowing developers to freely choose the necessary modules and combine them with available modules from other projects such as Agave or Firedancer.

This approach simplifies the creation of custom blockchain solutions without having to build everything from scratch, allowing developers to adopt a “plug & play” approach to creating application chains (Appchain/Rollapp) faster and easier.

Solana’s modularity opens up possibilities for building L2/L3s around Solana. Here are some upcoming Rollup projects in the Solana ecosystem:

• Grass: Grass is the DePIN project that aims to solve the AI ​​data problem by verifying and storing data directly on-chain. Due to the requirement to process up to 1M requests/s, Grass uses ZK proofs to collect data and settle on Solana. Grass’s goal is to become the foundation for many future AI applications.
• Zeta: One of the oldest Perp DEX on Solana is developing a custom Rollapp based on SVM to move the Matching Engine out of Solana. This greatly improves the trading experience, reduces waiting times and optimizes order execution speed.
• Sonic: Sonic is developing Hypergrid, an SVM Chain that helps games deploy private chains on Solana.

In addition, there are SVM-based Ethereum Rollups such as eclipse and NitroVM, which use SVM to execute DA and Settlement on other Layer 1s.

Solana is cautious about the growth of the Solana Rollup ecosystem

Solana founder’s point of view, scaling by increasing TPS or reducing transaction fees like Ethereum Rollups is not necessary with Solana. Because Solana’s mainnet is already very fast and capable of handling large transaction volumes, there is no need to rely on Rollups to improve this.

Through public conversations on social media, Solana has made their stance on Rollup’s development clear;

• Solana encourages the implementation of Rollapps to extend what can be done with Solana, such as Grass’s approach.
• They also implicitly call general-purpose Rollups “parasitic” because they take away more Mainnet activity than they add. This is not recommended for Solana Rollups.

In theory, Solana is a permissionless blockchain where any developer can build without inhibition. However, in reality Solana’s context and platform are different from Ethereum. The leadership class and influential people in the Solana ecosystem can create “invisible” pressures on developers to build in development directions that are not encouraged.

We can see this as an implicit message from Solana about what should and should not be developed on Solana Rollup. This also reflects a more cautious and pragmatic approach by Solana, as they observe the development of Ethereum and the Rollup ecosystem around it.