Metaplex Offers Compression Standard for NFT Creators

• The Bubblegum protocol allows for minting batches of NFT with a single Solana blockchain record.
• Solana remains one of the busiest blockchains for NFT mints.
• Creators can also build programmable NFT with built-in resale royalties.

Solana is one of the most active NFT markets, supporting new trends in minting low-cost or free collections. To boost the success of creators, the Metaplex project has added a new toolset for minting with compression technology. 

Over 2 million compressed NFTs have been minted in just a few weeks.

Enabled by @metaplex's new NFT compression standard (Bubblebum), Compressed NFTs offer greater scale to NFT minting and open up a new array of use cases for Solana NFTs. pic.twitter.com/hOhB7AZ4LA

— Mason Nystrom (@masonnystrom) April 26, 2023

The Bubblegum standard allows NFT minting of a whole collection to be verified as a whole on the blockchain. Currently, each NFT stores its metadata on the blockchain, though some of the information is also stored as an image off-chain. 

No Gas Wars for Minting NFT

Solana generally has lower gas fees, but the new Bubblegum standard means the NFT can be minted offline, while retaining a secure record on the blockchain. Each NFT in the collection is part of a Merkle tree, meaning no tampering is possible without being discovered through the blockchain record.

The Metaplex technology is mostly targeted toward creators, but could also help Web3 developers that want to launch a collection. Solana collections also rely on blockchain-based tools for enforcing royalties. 

7/@metaplex collaborated with Solana Labs to develop compression for NFTs.@crossmint and programmable NFTs with royalty enforcement became a reality and catalysts for NFT growth in Q1.@RenderToken cited NFT compression as a reason to consider migrating to Solana.

— James Trautman (@JamesTrautman_) April 26, 2023

Solana allows for programmable NFT, which enforce royalties on each resale. For now, royalties to creators have a mix of approaches, mostly depending on the policy of marketplaces.

Solana remains a preferred network for Web3 projects, despite temporary problems with consensus and several network outages per year. Solana’s community remains large enough, and the NFT collections issued so far retain demand and trading levels. Solana NFT are also creating a community centered around NFT marketing and the most successful tools to launch a collection. 

https://twitter.com/scarlett\_spade/status/1650625802017427457

Solana SDK are available through hubs like Third Web and Alchemy, as well as RPC tools from Quicknode. 

Solana is already hosting Tap Fantasy, a highly active game migrating from Web2 to Web3. The network continues to attract multiple NFT mints, aiming to boost creators. Solana has also recovered from the financial shocks of the failure of FTX, and its Web3 features remain independent of the SOL token financials.