Glossary

A comprehensive glossary of blockchain and Solana terminology.

A

Account

A data structure on Solana that holds state. Every account has an address (public key), owner (program), lamports balance, and data field. Accounts are the fundamental building blocks for storing all state on Solana.

Account Model

Solana's approach to storing state where all data lives in accounts owned by programs. Unlike Ethereum's contract storage, Solana separates code (programs) from data (accounts).

Anchor

A framework for developing Solana programs in Rust. Anchor provides abstractions like derive macros, IDL generation, and client libraries that simplify development.

ATA (Associated Token Account)

A deterministically derived token account for a specific wallet and mint combination. ATAs follow a standard derivation so any program can find a user's token account for any mint.

AMM (Automated Market Maker)

A decentralized exchange mechanism that uses mathematical formulas (like x*y=k) to price assets instead of order books. Liquidity providers deposit tokens into pools and earn fees from trades.

B

BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter)

The bytecode format used for Solana programs. Programs are compiled to BPF/SBF bytecode and executed by the Solana runtime's virtual machine.

Blockhash

A recent hash of a slot that transactions reference to indicate they are recent and should expire if not processed quickly. Blockhashes expire after ~2 minutes.

Bump Seed

A u8 value (0-255) used to derive a valid PDA that falls off the ed25519 curve. The canonical bump is typically the highest valid value found by decrementing from 255.

C

Clock Sysvar

A built-in Solana account that provides current slot, epoch, and Unix timestamp. Programs access this for time-based logic.

Commitment

The level of finality for a transaction or account query: processed (seen by node), confirmed (voted by supermajority), finalized (rooted, irreversible).

CPI (Cross-Program Invocation)

When one program calls another program's instruction. CPIs enable composability—programs can build on each other's functionality.

cNFT (Compressed NFT)

NFTs stored using state compression where metadata is kept in Merkle trees off-chain. Dramatically reduces minting costs while maintaining on-chain verification.

D

Durable Nonce

A mechanism for creating transactions with blockhashes that don't expire. Useful for offline signing and pre-signed transactions.

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)

Financial applications built on blockchain that operate without intermediaries. Includes DEXs, lending protocols, and yield aggregators.

E

Ed25519

The elliptic curve signature algorithm used by Solana. All keypairs are ed25519 key pairs.

Epoch

A period of ~2-3 days during which the validator schedule is fixed. Stake activations/deactivations take effect at epoch boundaries.

F

Fee Payer

The account that pays transaction fees in lamports. The fee payer must be a signer and must have sufficient lamports to cover the fee.

Finality

When a transaction cannot be reversed. Solana achieves finality in ~400ms for confirmed and ~12s for finalized commitment.

G

Geyser

A plugin interface for Solana validators that streams account updates and transactions to external consumers in real-time.

H

Hot Wallet

A wallet connected to the internet for active use. Contrast with cold wallets stored offline for security.

I

IDL (Interface Definition Language)

A JSON schema describing a Solana program's instructions, accounts, and types. Anchor generates IDLs automatically for client code generation.

Instruction

The smallest unit of execution on Solana. Instructions specify a program to invoke, accounts to use, and instruction data. Transactions contain one or more instructions.

L

Lamport

The smallest unit of SOL. 1 SOL = 1,000,000,000 (10^9) lamports. Named after Leslie Lamport.

Lookup Table (ALT)

Address Lookup Tables allow transactions to reference more accounts than the 35-account limit by storing addresses in a table that can be referenced by index.

LP Token

Liquidity Provider tokens received when depositing into an AMM pool. Represents proportional ownership of the pool's assets.

M

Merkle Tree

A tree data structure where each leaf contains data and each non-leaf node is a hash of its children. Used for state compression and efficient proofs.

Metaplex

A standard and suite of programs for NFTs on Solana. Provides metadata, collections, royalties, and minting infrastructure.

Mint

A token account that defines a token type. The mint stores supply, decimals, and authorities. Only the mint authority can create new tokens.

N

Native Program

Programs built into the Solana runtime (like System Program, Token Program). They have special privileges and are highly optimized.

NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

A unique token with supply of 1 and 0 decimals. Often associated with metadata describing digital or physical assets.

O

Oracle

A service that brings external data (prices, weather, etc.) onto the blockchain. Required because smart contracts cannot access external data directly.

P

PDA (Program Derived Address)

An address derived from seeds and a program ID that has no private key. Programs can sign for PDAs they own, enabling trustless escrow and authority patterns.

Priority Fee

Additional fee paid to increase transaction priority. Validators prioritize transactions with higher compute unit prices during congestion.

Program

Executable code deployed to Solana (equivalent to "smart contract" on other chains). Programs are stateless and operate on accounts passed to them.

R

Rent

Lamports required to keep an account alive. Accounts below minimum rent become eligible for deletion. Rent-exempt accounts have enough lamports to never need more.

RPC (Remote Procedure Call)

API for interacting with Solana nodes. RPC methods let you query accounts, send transactions, and subscribe to updates.

S

Seed

Bytes used to derive PDAs. Seeds typically include program-specific prefixes and account identifiers for deterministic address generation.

Serialization

Converting data structures to bytes for storage on-chain. Solana commonly uses Borsh (Binary Object Representation Serializer for Hashing).

Signer

An account whose private key has signed the transaction. Instructions can require certain accounts to be signers for authorization.

Slot

The time unit for block production (~400ms). A leader produces blocks during their assigned slots.

SPL (Solana Program Library)

Standard programs for common functionality: tokens, memos, name service, governance, etc. The Token Program is the most used SPL program.

Stake

SOL delegated to validators to participate in consensus. Stakers earn inflation rewards proportional to their stake.

State Compression

Technique using Merkle trees to store data off-chain while maintaining on-chain proofs. Dramatically reduces costs for NFTs and other data.

Sysvar

Special accounts providing cluster state to programs: clock, rent, slot hashes, etc. Programs read sysvars for environmental information.

T

Token Account

An account that holds a balance of a specific token mint. Each wallet needs a separate token account for each token type they hold.

Token Extensions (Token-2022)

Enhanced Token Program with features like transfer fees, confidential transfers, transfer hooks, and metadata pointers.

Transaction

A signed message containing one or more instructions. Transactions are atomic—all instructions succeed or all fail.

TVL (Total Value Locked)

The total value of assets deposited in a DeFi protocol. A common metric for measuring protocol adoption.

U

Upgradeable Program

A program that can be updated by its upgrade authority. Most programs are deployed as upgradeable during development.

V

Validator

A node that processes transactions and produces blocks. Validators stake SOL and earn rewards for honest participation.

Vault

An account (often a PDA) that holds assets in escrow. Common pattern for DeFi protocols to custody user deposits.

W

Wallet

Software or hardware that manages keypairs and signs transactions. Wallets don't actually "hold" tokens—they hold keys to accounts that do.

Wrapped SOL

SOL represented as an SPL token for use in token-based protocols. Wrapped by depositing SOL into a token account with the native mint.

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