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SocialFi Exploration: Solana Actions & Blinks VS Ethereum Farcaster & Lens

YBB Capital

24-07-06 20:00

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Original title: "SocialFi Exploration: Solana Actions & Blinks vs. Ethereum Farcaster & Lens"

Original author: Ac-Core, YBB Capital

TLDR

● Recently, Solana and Dialect jointly launched a new Solana concept "Actions and Blinks" to achieve one-click Swap, voting, donation, Mint and other functions in the form of browser plug-ins.

● Actions enables various operations and transactions to be executed efficiently, while Blinks ensures the consensus and consistency of the network through time synchronization and sequential records. These two concepts work together to enable Solana to achieve high-performance and low-latency blockchain experience.

● The development of Blinks requires the support of Web2 applications, and the first thing to be brought about is the trust, compatibility and cooperation issues between Web2 and Web3.

● Actions&Blinks Compared with Farcaster&Lens Protocol, the former relies on Web2 applications for more traffic, while the latter relies more on the chain for more security.

I. How Actions and Blinks work

Image source: Solana docs (Solana Action execution process life cycle)

1.1 Actions (Solana Actions)

Official definition: Solana Actions are compliant APIs that return transactions on the Solana blockchain, which can be previewed, signed, and sent in a variety of contexts, including QR codes, buttons + widgets (user interface elements), and websites on the Internet.

Actions can be simply understood as transactions to be signed. In the Solana network, Actions can be understood as an abstract description of the transaction processing mechanism, covering a variety of tasks such as transaction processing, contract execution, and data operations. In terms of applications, users can send transactions through Actions, including token transfers, purchases of digital assets, etc. Similarly, developers also use Actions to call and execute smart contracts to implement complex on-chain logic.

● Solana uses the form of "Transaction" to handle these tasks. Each transaction consists of a series of instructions that are executed between specific accounts. By parallel processing and leveraging the Gulf Stream protocol, Solana forwards transactions to validators in advance, thereby reducing the delay in transaction confirmation. Through a fine-grained locking mechanism, Solana is able to process a large number of non-conflicting transactions at the same time, greatly improving the throughput of the system.

● Solana uses Runtime to execute transactions and smart contract instructions to ensure the correctness of the input, output, and state of transactions during execution. After the initial execution, the transaction will wait for block confirmation. Once the block is agreed by the majority of validators, the transaction is considered to be finally confirmed. The Solana network is capable of processing thousands of transactions per second, with transaction confirmation times as low as less than 400 milliseconds. Thanks to the Pipeline and Gulf Stream mechanisms, the network's throughput and performance are further improved.

● Actions do not only refer to certain tasks or operations, they can be transactions, contract execution, data processing, etc. These operations are similar to transactions or contract calls in other blockchains, but in Solana, Actions have their own unique advantages: first, efficient processing. Solana has designed an efficient way to process these Actions, enabling them to be executed quickly in a large-scale network. Second, low latency. Thanks to Solana's high-performance architecture, the processing latency of Actions is very low, allowing Solana to support high-frequency transactions and applications. Finally, flexibility. Actions can be used to perform a variety of complex operations, including smart contract calls, data storage and reading, etc. (see extended links for more information).

1.2 Blinks (Blockchain links)

Official definition: Blinks converts any Solana Action into a shareable, metadata-rich link. Blinks enables clients that support Actions (browser extension wallets, robots) to display more features to users. On the website, Blinks can immediately trigger a transaction preview in the wallet without jumping to the decentralized application; in Discord, the robot can expand Blink into a set of interactive buttons. This allows any web interface that can display a URL to interact on the chain.

In layman's terms, Solana Blinks converts Solana Actions into shareable links (equivalent to http). By enabling the relevant functions in supporting wallets such as Phantom, Backpack, and Solflare wallet, websites and social media can be transformed into places for on-chain transactions, allowing any website with a URL to directly initiate Solana transactions.

In summary, although Solana Action and Blink are permissionless protocols/specifications, compared with the solver solution process of intent narrative, they still require client applications and wallets to ultimately help users sign transactions.

The direct purpose of Actions&Blinks is to directly "http link" the on-chain operations of Solana to Web2 application products such as Twitter.

Image source: @eli5_defi

2. Decentralized social protocols based on Ethereum

2.1 Farcaster protocol

Farcaster is a decentralized social graph protocol based on Ethereum and Optimism, which enables applications to connect with each other and users through decentralized technologies such as blockchain, P2P networks and distributed ledgers. It allows users to seamlessly migrate and share content between different platforms without relying on a single centralized entity. Its open graph protocol (when users post relevant links in social network posts, the protocol automatically extracts the content in the link and injects interactive features) allows the link content posted by users to be automatically extracted and converted into interactive applications.

Decentralized network: Farcaster relies on a decentralized network to avoid the single point of failure problem of centralized servers in traditional social networks. It uses distributed ledger technology to ensure the security and transparency of data.

Public key encryption: Each user has a pair of public and private keys on Farcaster. The public key is used to identify the user, and the private key is used to sign the user's operations. This ensures the privacy and security of user data.

Data portability: The user's data is stored in a decentralized storage system instead of a single server. In this way, users have full control over their data and can migrate between different applications.

Verifiable identity: Through public key encryption technology, Farcaster ensures that the identity of each user is verifiable. Users can prove their control over an account by signing.

Decentralized identifier (DID): Farcaster uses decentralized identifiers (DID) to identify users and content. DID is an identifier based on public key encryption, which is highly secure and tamper-proof.

Data consistency: To ensure the consistency of data in the network, Farcaster uses a consensus mechanism similar to blockchain ("posts" are nodes). This mechanism ensures the consensus of all nodes on user data and operations, thereby ensuring the integrity and consistency of the data.

Decentralized applications: Farcaster provides a development platform that allows developers to build and deploy decentralized applications (DApps). These applications can be seamlessly integrated with the Farcaster network to provide users with a variety of functions and services.

Security and privacy: Farcaster emphasizes the privacy and security of user data. All data transmission and storage are encrypted, and users can choose to make their content public or private.

In Farcaster's new Frames feature (different Frames are integrated with Farcaster and run independently), "cast" (analogous to "posts", including text, pictures, videos, links, etc.) can be turned into an interactive application. These contents are stored in a decentralized network, ensuring their persistence and immutability. When a post is published, each cast has a unique identifier, making it traceable, and the user's identity is confirmed through a decentralized authentication system. As a decentralized social protocol, the Farcaster protocol allows clients to directly and seamlessly access Frames.

2.2 The main principles include the following three aspects:

Image source: Architecture l Farcaster

The Farcaster protocol is divided into three main layers: Identity Layer, Data Layer - Hubs, and Application Layer. Each layer has specific functions and roles.

Identity Layer

● Function: Responsible for managing and verifying user identities; providing decentralized identity authentication to ensure the uniqueness and security of user identities; specifically composed of four registries: ldRegistry, Fname, Key Registry, Storage Registry (see reference link 1 for details).

● Technical principle: Using decentralized identifiers (DIDs), based on public key cryptography; each user has a unique DID to identify and verify the user's identity; through public and private key pairs, ensure that only the user can control and manage his or her own identity information. The identity layer ensures that users can seamlessly migrate and verify their identities between different applications and services.

Data Layer - Hubs

● Function: Responsible for storing and managing user-generated data, providing a decentralized data storage system to ensure data security, integrity and accessibility.

● Technical principle: Hubs are decentralized data storage nodes distributed throughout the network; each Hub is an independent storage unit responsible for storing and managing a portion of data. Data is distributed between Hubs and encryption technology is used to protect data security. The data layer ensures high availability and scalability of data, and users can access and migrate their data at any time.

Application Layer

● Function: Provide a platform for developing and deploying decentralized applications (DApps), supporting various application scenarios, including social networks, content publishing, messaging, etc.

● Technical principle: Developers can use the API and tools provided by Farcaster to build and deploy decentralized applications; the application layer is seamlessly integrated with the identity layer and the data layer to ensure the identity authentication and data management of users when using applications; decentralized applications run on decentralized networks and do not rely on centralized servers, which improves the reliability and security of applications.

2.3 Summary of the above:

The direct purpose of Solana's Actions&Blinks is to open up the traffic channel of Web2 applications. The potential impact is intuitive: From the user's perspective: while simplifying transactions, it increases the risk of fund theft. From Solana's own perspective: It greatly enhances the traffic effect of breaking the circle, but there are still risks in the compatibility and support of applications under the Web2 censorship system. Perhaps in the future, with the support of Solana's huge system, such as Layer2, SVM, mobile operating system, etc., there will be further development.

Compared with Solana’s strategy, Ethereum’s Farcaster protocol weakens the traffic introduced by Web2, enhances the overall anti-censorship and security, and is closer to the native concept of Web3 under the Fracster+EVM model.

2.4 Lens Protocol

Image source: LensFrens

Lens Protocol is also a decentralized social graph protocol that aims to provide users with full control over their social data and content. Through Lens Protocol, users can create, own and manage their own social graphs, and these graphs can be seamlessly migrated between different applications and platforms. The protocol uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to represent users' social graphs and content, ensuring the uniqueness and security of the data. Lens Protocol and Farcaster, both based on Ethereum, also have some similarities and differences:

Similarities:

● User control: Users have full control over their data and content in both.

● Authentication: Decentralized identity identification (DID) and encryption technology are used to ensure the security and uniqueness of user identities.

Differences:

● Technical architecture:

○ Farcaster: Built on Ethereum (L1), it is divided into the Identity Layer to manage user identities, the Data Layer (Data Layer - Hubs) decentralized storage nodes to manage data, and the Application Layer to provide a DApps development platform, and use offline Hubs for data dissemination.

○ Lens Protocol: Based on Polygon (L2), it uses NFT to represent the user's social graph and content. All activities are stored in the user's wallet to emphasize the ownership and portability of data.

● Verification and data management:

○ Farcaster: Uses distributed storage nodes (Hubs) for data management to ensure data security and high availability. And the handle needs to be updated every year, and the delta graph is used to achieve consensus

○ Lens Protocol: Personal data NFT ensures the uniqueness and security of the data, and no update is required

● Application Ecosystem:

○ Farcaster: Provides a comprehensive DApps development platform that is seamlessly integrated with its identity layer and data layer.

○ Lens Protocol: The focus is on the portability of user social graphs and content, supporting seamless switching between different platforms and applications.

Through the above comparison, we can see that Farcaster and Lens Protocol have similarities in user control and authentication, but have significant differences in data storage and ecosystem. Farcaster focuses more on hierarchical structure and decentralized storage, while Lens Protocol emphasizes the use of NFT to achieve data portability and ownership.

Third, which of the three can be the first to achieve large-scale application landing?

Through the above analysis, the three have their own advantages and challenges to face. Solana relies on its high performance and can turn any website or application into a gateway for cryptocurrency transactions. It is the first to occupy the social media platform and quickly earn the advantage of heat and traffic by relying on the advantage of Blinks to generate links. However, relying on Web2 is also accompanied by the problem of exchanging traffic for security.

Lens Protocol was born in 2022 and has the longest qualification. Relying on the modular design and storage on the entire chain to provide good scalability and transparency, it has taken a wave of market opportunities, but it may also face challenges in cost and scalability and the forgetting of market FOMO sentiment.

The advantage of Farcaster is that its underlying design is the most consistent with Web3 logic compared to the previous two, and it has the highest degree of decentralization, but the challenges it brings are the difficulty of technical iteration and user management issues.