Solana Changelog May 31 - Interfaces, Solang, and Solana ChatGPT

In this week's Solana Changelog, Jacob and Jonas dive into the latest developments in the Solana ecosystem. From exciting announcements about developer tickets for Breakpoint to groundbreaking proposals for interfaces, this episode covers a wide range of topics that are shaping the future of Solana. Let's explore the key highlights and their implications for developers and the wider blockchain community.

Developer Tickets for Breakpoint

Breakpoint, Solana's annual conference, is set to take place in Amsterdam this year, and the organizers have introduced an exciting opportunity for developers. Jacob announces that developer tickets are now available at a significant discount compared to regular tickets. Currently priced at just $10, these tickets offer incredible value for developers looking to attend this premier Solana event.

But who qualifies for these coveted developer tickets? Jacob explains, "If you have open source contributions, basically at all, if you are a developer with a GitHub with open source contributions, you can get a developer ticket. If you have any Solana contributions, you will automatically also get a developer ticket." This inclusive approach ensures that developers from various backgrounds, whether they're working directly on Solana or in other areas of web3, can benefit from this opportunity.

The availability of these discounted tickets underscores Solana's commitment to fostering a vibrant developer community. By making the conference more accessible, Solana is encouraging greater participation and collaboration among developers, which could lead to innovative projects and advancements in the ecosystem.

Metaplex's Move Towards Immutability

In a significant development for the Solana ecosystem, Metaplex, a key player in the NFT space on Solana, has announced plans to make their program immutable. This transition is set to occur over an 18-month period, reflecting a thoughtful and measured approach to such a fundamental change.

Jacob highlights the importance of this move, stating, "It's good that they're changing to be immutable in the long term. So we're definitely happy about that." The shift towards immutability is a crucial step in enhancing the security and reliability of the Metaplex protocol, which is widely used for NFT projects on Solana.

Alongside this announcement, Metaplex has also introduced some new fees. While the details of these fees weren't elaborated upon in the podcast, they likely reflect a strategy to ensure the long-term sustainability of the protocol. Jacob encourages listeners to "join the discussion on Twitter as well as their MPL on GitHub" to share thoughts on these changes, emphasizing the open and collaborative nature of the Solana community.

This move by Metaplex is likely to have far-reaching implications for NFT projects on Solana. Immutability can provide greater assurance to users and developers alike, potentially attracting more projects to the platform. However, it also means that any future changes or upgrades will need to be carefully considered and implemented, as they cannot be easily reversed once the program becomes immutable.

The Introduction of Interfaces

One of the most exciting developments discussed in this episode is the proposal for interfaces on Solana. This concept, which has been the subject of much discussion in the community, could significantly enhance the flexibility and interoperability of Solana programs.

Jacob provides a concise explanation of what interfaces are and why they're important: "Let's say that you have a token and the token has a transfer function and that transfer function has an amount per parameter in a destination. That's just an example. Today on Solana, if you had a token and say the token program with that transfer instruction with those parameters, you could only transfer tokens or create tokens with that singular token program."

He then contrasts this with the potential offered by interfaces: "What you could do instead is interfaces is that you define what that function is that everybody will implement, so that transfer that amount to who and then every token programs that exist can implement that transfer function and adhere to whatever the interfaces for token programs in general."

This approach offers several benefits:

1. Increased Innovation: By allowing multiple implementations of standard functions, interfaces could foster a more competitive and innovative landscape within the Solana ecosystem.

2. Reduced Risk: In the event of an issue with a particular token program, the impact would be limited, reducing the potential "blast radius" of vulnerabilities.

3. Standardization: Interfaces would allow for a defined set of functions and parameters that all compliant programs could implement, similar to Ethereum's ERC standards.

4. Improved Interoperability: Developers could interact with any type of token on Solana by expecting these standardized functions and parameters, regardless of the specific implementation.

Jonas expresses enthusiasm for this development, noting, "I can't wait for me as a developer to just put in a program ID and then I call another program because you can use it at some point for all kinds of programs, right? Not only tokens."

Jacob agrees, adding that interfaces could be applied beyond just tokens, mentioning possibilities like "NFT program for interfaces for sign-in tokens, all sorts of things. So it opens up a lot more innovation in the space on Solana."

The introduction of interfaces on Solana represents a significant step forward in the platform's evolution. By enabling greater standardization and interoperability while still allowing for innovation and competition, interfaces could help Solana attract more developers and projects, potentially accelerating the growth of its ecosystem.

Zero-Knowledge Developments

The changelog highlights an exciting new development in Solana's journey towards enhanced privacy and scalability: the introduction of zero-knowledge (ZK) key generation. Jonas points out a new commit that introduces "a new keygen which generates zero knowledge keys now. So it's like the EAGAMAL curve."

This addition is significant because it differs from the standard wallet keys used in Solana, which are based on the ED25519 curve. The introduction of ZK keys opens up new possibilities for privacy-preserving applications on the Solana blockchain.

Jonas also mentions that the Unity SDK is exploring zero-knowledge implementations, potentially using the LIGHT protocol on Solana. This indicates a growing interest in ZK technology across different parts of the Solana ecosystem.

Jacob emphasizes the importance of these developments, stating, "It enables privacy on the base layer and it's not a requirement on the L1 or the protocol to implement it, but other people because of the way that people can build on Solana, other people can implement them and add privacy to Solana."

He contrasts this with other blockchain platforms like Ethereum, where implementing privacy features often requires additional layers. On Solana, however, these privacy-enhancing features can be built directly into applications, enhancing composability and reducing complexity.

The implications of these ZK developments are far-reaching. Beyond just enabling private transactions, Jonas points out that this technology could enable the creation of games like battleship or poker on the blockchain, where keeping certain information private is crucial to gameplay.

This move towards zero-knowledge technology demonstrates Solana's commitment to providing developers with powerful tools to build sophisticated, privacy-preserving applications. It also positions Solana as a forward-thinking platform ready to meet the growing demand for privacy in blockchain applications.

Minor Changes and Updates

While the major developments often steal the spotlight, it's the small, incremental changes that often keep a blockchain ecosystem running smoothly. This week's changelog includes a minor but potentially important update to the GetTransaction RPC call.

Jacob explains, "The GetTransactionRPC call is now not returning the address lookup tables anymore if it is set to null, which is intended behavior." While this change might seem insignificant, it's crucial for developers to be aware of such updates to ensure their applications continue to function correctly.

This change underscores the importance of staying up-to-date with even minor updates in the rapidly evolving blockchain space. It also highlights Solana's commitment to continual improvement and optimization of its protocol.

Solang Compiler Update

Another significant update discussed in the changelog is the release of version 0.3.0 of the Solang compiler. Solang is a crucial tool in the Solana ecosystem as it allows developers to write smart contracts in Solidity, the language primarily associated with Ethereum, and deploy them on Solana.

Jonas explains, "Solang is a way that you can write Solidity on Solana. It's basically a compiles and a solidity to my understanding is that it compiles Solidity to rust or and it can also do this with anchor because I saw that it was also implemented in anchor the other day."

This update to Solang represents a significant step forward in Solana's efforts to attract developers from other blockchain ecosystems, particularly Ethereum. By providing a familiar development environment, Solana is lowering the barrier to entry for developers who are already proficient in Solidity.

Jacob adds, "Solang over the past few months has been really starting to mature. So definitely check it out. Try building Solidity Contract using Solang on Solana and let us know how it goes." He also mentions that the Solana Foundation's DevRel team is working on comprehensive documentation and examples to make it easier for developers to get started with Solang.

This update to Solang, coupled with the forthcoming documentation, could significantly enhance Solana's appeal to a broader range of blockchain developers. It demonstrates Solana's commitment to providing a diverse and flexible development environment, catering to developers with different backgrounds and preferences.

Form Function Goes Open Source

In an exciting development for the NFT space on Solana, Form Function, a popular NFT marketplace, has announced that they are going completely open source. This move represents a significant contribution to the Solana ecosystem and could accelerate innovation in the NFT space.

Jonas highlights the comprehensive nature of Form Function's open-source release: "Form functions for the people who don't know it's an NFT marketplace and now they are going completely open source and they even wrote like a bunch of documentation for anyone who wants to like work with the code."

The documentation provided by Form Function covers a wide range of topics, including:

1. How participation NFTs work
2. Campaign functionality
3. Designing Form Function's UX
4. Building your own NFT marketplace

This wealth of information not only allows developers to understand and potentially fork Form Function's code, but also provides valuable insights into best practices for building and managing an NFT marketplace on Solana.

Jacob emphasizes the value of this documentation: "If anybody's interested in like how they built form function, does all these resources that they wrote up really helps you understand from both how do I manage infrastructure for my applications on Solana as well as like the different barriers that they've ran into and how they solve them."

Form Function's decision to go open source and provide such comprehensive documentation is a significant boon to the Solana ecosystem. It lowers the barrier to entry for developers looking to build NFT marketplaces, potentially leading to a more diverse and innovative NFT ecosystem on Solana. Moreover, it sets a positive example of transparency and knowledge-sharing within the community.

Solana ChatGPT Plugin

In an exciting development at the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence, a new ChatGPT plugin for Solana has been introduced. This plugin, developed by Noah from Solana Labs, enables users to interact with the Solana blockchain through natural language queries in ChatGPT.

Jacob explains the functionality of the plugin: "What kind of allows you to do is interact with chat GBT and look up things and understand what things on the Solana blockchain. So you can say what is this NFT at this address and it will give you the picture of the NFT. It'll give you some information about the NFT and more."

But the potential of this plugin goes beyond just querying blockchain data. Jacob hints at future developments: "There's also things that you can do and I think that are being built is that like you can possibly even interact and send transactions with this plugin."

This integration of Solana with ChatGPT represents a significant step towards making blockchain technology more accessible to a wider audience. By allowing users to interact with the blockchain using natural language, it lowers the technical barrier to entry and could potentially attract more users to the Solana ecosystem.

Moreover, this plugin opens up new possibilities for developers. As Jacob notes, "If you build on top of it, you can enable other integrations with chat GBT or OpenAI to interact with the Solana blockchain." This could lead to innovative applications that combine the power of blockchain with the capabilities of large language models.

The Solana ChatGPT plugin is a prime example of how Solana is staying at the forefront of technological innovation, integrating cutting-edge AI capabilities with its blockchain platform. This development could pave the way for more intuitive and user-friendly blockchain interactions in the future.

Successful Release of Solana 1.14.17

One of the most significant updates discussed in the changelog is the successful release of Solana version 1.14.17. What makes this release particularly noteworthy is not just the new features it brings, but how smoothly the upgrade process went.

Jacob emphasizes this point: "What's great and what makes a good release is it was a non-event. No one noticed that the release is going on. It got pushed out and now the cluster is running on 1.14.17." This seamless upgrade is a testament to the rigorous testing and preparation that went into this release.

The smooth rollout of 1.14.17 is particularly important given Solana's history of network outages and performance issues. A trouble-free upgrade demonstrates the growing stability and reliability of the Solana network, which is crucial for building trust among developers and users.

While the specific features included in 1.14.17 weren't discussed in detail during the podcast, Jacob mentions that interested parties can find more information in a blog post on solana.com. This update likely includes various performance improvements and bug fixes that contribute to the overall health of the Solana ecosystem.

The successful release of 1.14.17 is a positive sign for the Solana ecosystem. It shows that the network is maturing and that the development team is capable of implementing significant upgrades without disrupting the network's operation. This kind of stability is crucial for Solana's long-term success and adoption.

Anchor Updates and Troubleshooting

While the release of Solana 1.14.17 went smoothly, Jonas points out that some Anchor developers might encounter issues due to changes in the metadata program. Specifically, he mentions that "metadata V2 was removed from the metadata program."

To help developers navigate these changes, Jonas provides some practical advice:

1. Check the release notes for detailed information about the changes.
2. Consider pointing directly to the master version of Anchor, as fixes have already been implemented there.
3. Be prepared to make some adjustments, such as fixing the winner version or hard-coding the token metadata version.

Jonas reassures developers that these issues are temporary: "All of this should be fixed soon. LEPs actually skip the version 15 and we will directly go to 16 and it should be tagged I think today, right?"

Jacob confirms this, adding, "Once 16 is tagged, all these issues that Jonas is talking about will go away. They'll tag when at 16 and then that will come up with some fixes that will create a new tagged version for you likely 0.28 for anchor fixing all these issues and you don't have to worry about them anymore."

This situation highlights the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest developments in the Solana ecosystem. It also demonstrates the responsiveness of the Solana development team in quickly addressing issues that arise from updates.

Jonas also recommends Solana Stack Exchange as a valuable resource for developers encountering issues: "All the problems I mentioned right before, you can also find solutions on Solana Stack Exchange. I think all of them have been asked there. So just go there, search for your problem and then you should be helped probably."

Jacob echoes this sentiment, encouraging developers to not only seek help on Stack Exchange but also to contribute by asking questions and sharing solutions: "That helps anybody looking at these issues in the future, find the solution as well as allows a group or community to help solve it together."

This emphasis on community problem-solving and knowledge sharing is a key strength of the Solana ecosystem. It ensures that developers have access to a wealth of resources and support as they build on the platform.

Conclusion

This episode of the Solana Changelog provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in the Solana ecosystem. From the introduction of interfaces to the release of Solana 1.14.17, these updates demonstrate Solana's commitment to innovation, stability, and developer support.

The proposed interfaces could significantly enhance the flexibility and interoperability of Solana programs, potentially attracting more developers and projects to the platform. The successful release of 1.14.17 showcases the growing stability of the Solana network, while the new Solana ChatGPT plugin represents an exciting intersection of blockchain and AI technologies.

The open-sourcing of Form Function and the updates to the Solang compiler further underscore Solana's commitment to fostering a vibrant and diverse developer ecosystem. These developments, along with the ongoing support for zero-knowledge technologies, position Solana as a forward-thinking and developer-friendly blockchain platform.

As the Solana ecosystem continues to evolve, staying informed about these changes and actively participating in the community will be crucial for developers and users alike. With its rapid pace of innovation and strong focus on developer experience, Solana is well-positioned to play a significant role in the future of blockchain technology.

Facts + Figures

• Developer tickets for Breakpoint, Solana's annual conference in Amsterdam, are available for $10.
• Developers with open source contributions or any Solana contributions automatically qualify for developer tickets.
• Metaplex announced plans to make their program immutable over an 18-month period.
• New interfaces are being proposed for Solana, similar to Ethereum's ERC standards.
• A new keygen for generating zero-knowledge keys has been introduced to Solana.
• The Unity SDK is exploring zero-knowledge implementations using the LIGHT protocol on Solana.
• The GetTransactionRPC call no longer returns address lookup tables if set to null.
• Solang Solidity Compiler version 0.3.0 has been released, allowing developers to write Solidity contracts for Solana.
• Form Function, an NFT marketplace on Solana, has gone completely open source.
• A new ChatGPT plugin for Solana has been developed, allowing users to interact with the Solana blockchain through natural language queries.
• Solana version 1.14.17 was successfully released without any noticeable disruptions.
• Anchor developers may encounter issues due to the removal of metadata V2 from the metadata program.
• Solana developers are encouraged to use Solana Stack Exchange for troubleshooting and knowledge sharing.

Questions Answered

What are the benefits of interfaces on Solana?

Interfaces on Solana allow for standardization of functions across different programs, similar to Ethereum's ERC standards. They enable greater innovation by allowing multiple implementations of standard functions, reduce risk by limiting the impact of potential vulnerabilities, and improve interoperability by providing a consistent set of functions and parameters for developers to work with.

How does the new Solana ChatGPT plugin work?

The Solana ChatGPT plugin allows users to interact with the Solana blockchain using natural language queries. Users can ask about specific NFTs or blockchain data, and the plugin will return relevant information. Future developments may include the ability to send transactions through the plugin, further integrating ChatGPT with Solana's functionality.

What is Solang and why is it important for Solana?

Solang is a compiler that allows developers to write smart contracts in Solidity and deploy them on Solana. It's important because it lowers the barrier to entry for Ethereum developers who want to build on Solana, as they can use their existing Solidity skills. The recent release of Solang version 0.3.0 represents a significant maturation of this tool.

How does Form Function's open-source move benefit the Solana ecosystem?

Form Function's decision to go open source provides developers with access to the codebase and comprehensive documentation of a successful NFT marketplace on Solana. This move lowers the barrier to entry for creating NFT marketplaces, potentially leading to more innovation in the space. It also provides valuable insights into best practices for building and managing blockchain applications on Solana.

What are zero-knowledge keys and why are they being introduced to Solana?

Zero-knowledge keys are cryptographic keys that enable privacy-preserving computations and transactions. Their introduction to Solana allows for the development of applications that require privacy, such as certain types of games or confidential transactions. This addition enhances Solana's capabilities and makes it more versatile for a wider range of use cases.

How can developers get discounted tickets to Breakpoint?

Developers can get discounted tickets to Breakpoint, Solana's annual conference, if they have open source contributions on GitHub or any contributions to Solana. These developer tickets are currently priced at $10, significantly less than regular tickets, making the conference more accessible to the developer community.

What changes were made in the Solana 1.14.17 release?

While specific details weren't provided in the podcast, the Solana 1.14.17 release was notable for its smooth rollout. The upgrade was described as a "non-event," with no noticeable disruptions to the network. This successful release demonstrates the growing stability and reliability of the Solana network.

How can Solana developers troubleshoot issues related to recent updates?

Solana developers are encouraged to check release notes for detailed information about recent changes. For Anchor-related issues, developers can consider pointing directly to the master version where fixes have already been implemented. Additionally, the Solana Stack Exchange is recommended as a valuable resource for finding solutions to common problems and sharing knowledge within the community.