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Core Protocol

Core BPF Programs

An initiative to migrate Solana's native programs (System Program, Stake Program, Vote Program, and others currently compiled into the validator binary) to BPF/SBF bytecode deployed on-chain. This migration enables these core programs to be upgraded via feature gates and governance without requiring validator software releases, improving protocol agility. The programs maintain the same addresses and interfaces while gaining the upgradeability of standard on-chain programs.

IDcore-bpf-programs
Plain meaning

Plain meaning

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An initiative to migrate Solana's native programs (System Program, Stake Program, Vote Program, and others currently compiled into the validator binary) to BPF/SBF bytecode deployed on-chain. This migration enables these core programs to be upgraded via feature gates and governance without requiring validator software releases, improving protocol agility. The programs maintain the same addresses and interfaces while gaining the upgradeability of standard on-chain programs.

Mental model

Mental model

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Think of it as part of the chain machinery that keeps ordering, execution, or consensus moving.

Technical context

Technical context

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Consensus, leader rotation, slots, epochs, and the runtime.

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Why builders care

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Core BPF Programs (core-bpf-programs)
Category: Core Protocol
Definition: An initiative to migrate Solana's native programs (System Program, Stake Program, Vote Program, and others currently compiled into the validator binary) to BPF/SBF bytecode deployed on-chain. This migration enables these core programs to be upgraded via feature gates and governance without requiring validator software releases, improving protocol agility. The programs maintain the same addresses and interfaces while gaining the upgradeability of standard on-chain programs.
Related: Native Program, System Program, Feature Gate, SBF (Solana Bytecode Format)
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Branch

Native Program

A program compiled directly into the validator binary rather than deployed as SBF bytecode. Native programs include the System Program, Vote Program, Stake Program, BPF Loader, and others. They have hardcoded addresses and cannot be upgraded through the normal program upgrade mechanism—they change only with validator software updates.

Solana Program Library (SPL)Runtime
Open term
Branch

System Program

The built-in native program (address: 11111111111111111111111111111111) responsible for creating new accounts, transferring SOL between accounts, allocating account data space, and assigning account ownership to programs. It is the only program that can create new accounts and is invoked in nearly every transaction.

ProgramCreate Account
Open term
Branch

Feature Gate

The mechanism for activating protocol changes on Solana's mainnet cluster. Each feature is identified by a unique pubkey and activated when validators representing a supermajority of stake signal support by creating a feature account. Feature gates control runtime behavior changes, new syscalls, parameter adjustments, and program upgrades. This system allows gradual, stake-weighted rollout of protocol changes without hard forks.

ValidatorSIMD (Solana Improvement Document)
Open term
Branch

SBF (Solana Bytecode Format)

Solana Bytecode Format—Solana's customized evolution of BPF. SBF adds Solana-specific syscalls, modifies calling conventions, disables certain eBPF instructions, and adds features like position-independent code. Programs are compiled with `cargo build-sbf` and deployed as SBF ELF binaries. SBF replaced BPF as the canonical bytecode format.

BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter)Solana Virtual Machine (SVM)
Open term
Next concepts to explore

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Programming Model

Native Program

A program compiled directly into the validator binary rather than deployed as SBF bytecode. Native programs include the System Program, Vote Program, Stake Program, BPF Loader, and others. They have hardcoded addresses and cannot be upgraded through the normal program upgrade mechanism—they change only with validator software updates.

Open term
Programming Model

System Program

The built-in native program (address: 11111111111111111111111111111111) responsible for creating new accounts, transferring SOL between accounts, allocating account data space, and assigning account ownership to programs. It is the only program that can create new accounts and is invoked in nearly every transaction.

Open term
Core Protocol

Feature Gate

The mechanism for activating protocol changes on Solana's mainnet cluster. Each feature is identified by a unique pubkey and activated when validators representing a supermajority of stake signal support by creating a feature account. Feature gates control runtime behavior changes, new syscalls, parameter adjustments, and program upgrades. This system allows gradual, stake-weighted rollout of protocol changes without hard forks.

Open term
Core Protocol

SBF (Solana Bytecode Format)

Solana Bytecode Format—Solana's customized evolution of BPF. SBF adds Solana-specific syscalls, modifies calling conventions, disables certain eBPF instructions, and adds features like position-independent code. Programs are compiled with `cargo build-sbf` and deployed as SBF ELF binaries. SBF replaced BPF as the canonical bytecode format.

Open term
Commonly confused with

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Core Protocolbpf

BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter)

Berkeley Packet Filter—the original bytecode format used for Solana programs, inherited from Linux's eBPF. Programs written in Rust or C are compiled to BPF bytecode and executed in a sandboxed VM. BPF has been superseded by SBF on Solana but the tooling names (BPF Loader, cargo build-bpf) persist for historical reasons.

AliasBPFAliaseBPF
Open term
Related terms

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Programming Modelnative-program

Native Program

A program compiled directly into the validator binary rather than deployed as SBF bytecode. Native programs include the System Program, Vote Program, Stake Program, BPF Loader, and others. They have hardcoded addresses and cannot be upgraded through the normal program upgrade mechanism—they change only with validator software updates.

Open term
Programming Modelsystem-program

System Program

The built-in native program (address: 11111111111111111111111111111111) responsible for creating new accounts, transferring SOL between accounts, allocating account data space, and assigning account ownership to programs. It is the only program that can create new accounts and is invoked in nearly every transaction.

Open term
Core Protocolfeature-gate

Feature Gate

The mechanism for activating protocol changes on Solana's mainnet cluster. Each feature is identified by a unique pubkey and activated when validators representing a supermajority of stake signal support by creating a feature account. Feature gates control runtime behavior changes, new syscalls, parameter adjustments, and program upgrades. This system allows gradual, stake-weighted rollout of protocol changes without hard forks.

Open term
Core Protocolsbf

SBF (Solana Bytecode Format)

Solana Bytecode Format—Solana's customized evolution of BPF. SBF adds Solana-specific syscalls, modifies calling conventions, disables certain eBPF instructions, and adds features like position-independent code. Programs are compiled with `cargo build-sbf` and deployed as SBF ELF binaries. SBF replaced BPF as the canonical bytecode format.

Open term
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Core Protocol

Proof of History (PoH)

A clock mechanism that cryptographically proves the passage of time between events. PoH uses a sequential SHA-256 hash chain where each output becomes the next input, creating a verifiable ordering of events without requiring consensus. The leader produces ~400,000 hashes per slot (~400ms), and any validator can verify the sequence in parallel, enabling Solana's high throughput by removing the need for validators to agree on time.

Open term
Core Protocol

Tower BFT

Solana's custom BFT consensus algorithm built on top of Proof of History. Tower BFT uses PoH as a clock to reduce communication overhead in traditional PBFT from O(n²) to O(n). Validators vote on forks with exponentially increasing lockout periods—each consecutive vote doubles the lockout, making rollbacks progressively more expensive. A fork is finalized when it reaches supermajority (66.7%+ of stake).

Open term
Core Protocol

Slot

A time window during which a designated leader validator can produce a block. Each slot lasts approximately 400 milliseconds. Slots are numbered sequentially from genesis and grouped into epochs of 432,000 slots (~2-3 days). Not every slot produces a block—a skipped slot means the leader was offline or too slow.

Open term
Core Protocol

Block

A set of entries produced by a leader during a single slot. A block contains transactions bundled into entries, each with a PoH hash proving ordering. Blocks are broken into shreds for network propagation via Turbine. Maximum block size is limited by compute units (48M CU cap per block) rather than byte size.

Open term