Glossary OS

Plain meaning

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Data inscribed directly into on-chain Solana account data, inspired by Bitcoin Ordinals. Solana inscriptions store images, text, or other content as raw bytes in account data rather than pointing to off-chain storage. While more expensive than off-chain metadata (requiring rent for storage), inscriptions are fully on-chain and immutable once the account's update authority is revoked. They emerged as an experimental standard in late 2023.

Mental model

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Technical context

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SPL assets, token standards, metadata, and NFT primitives.

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Inscription (Solana) (inscription-solana)
Category: Token Ecosystem
Definition: Data inscribed directly into on-chain Solana account data, inspired by Bitcoin Ordinals. Solana inscriptions store images, text, or other content as raw bytes in account data rather than pointing to off-chain storage. While more expensive than off-chain metadata (requiring rent for storage), inscriptions are fully on-chain and immutable once the account's update authority is revoked. They emerged as an experimental standard in late 2023.
Related: NFT (Non-Fungible Token), Account Data, Rent Exemption

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Concept graph

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Branch

NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

A non-fungible token on Solana—an SPL token with 0 decimals, supply of 1, and revoked mint authority. The NFT's metadata (image, attributes) is stored off-chain (Arweave/IPFS) linked via the Metaplex metadata account's URI field. NFTs can be standard, compressed (cNFT), programmable (pNFT), or Core assets, each with different trade-offs.

Mint Metaplex Token Metadata

Open term

Branch

Account Data

The byte array stored in an account that holds program-specific state. Data is typically serialized using Borsh and must be explicitly allocated at account creation. The maximum data size is 10MB. Programs are responsible for defining and managing their own data layout, including discriminators for type identification.

Account Serialization / Deserialization

Open term

Branch

Rent Exemption

The state where an account holds enough lamports to cover two years of rent, making it effectively permanent. The minimum balance is approximately 0.00089088 SOL per byte of data. Since Solana requires all new accounts to be rent-exempt, this is the minimum funding required when creating accounts.

Rent

Open term

Next concepts to explore

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Token Ecosystem

NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

A non-fungible token on Solana—an SPL token with 0 decimals, supply of 1, and revoked mint authority. The NFT's metadata (image, attributes) is stored off-chain (Arweave/IPFS) linked via the Metaplex metadata account's URI field. NFTs can be standard, compressed (cNFT), programmable (pNFT), or Core assets, each with different trade-offs.

Open term

Programming Model

Account Data

The byte array stored in an account that holds program-specific state. Data is typically serialized using Borsh and must be explicitly allocated at account creation. The maximum data size is 10MB. Programs are responsible for defining and managing their own data layout, including discriminators for type identification.

Open term

Programming Model

Rent Exemption

The state where an account holds enough lamports to cover two years of rent, making it effectively permanent. The minimum balance is approximately 0.00089088 SOL per byte of data. Since Solana requires all new accounts to be rent-exempt, this is the minimum funding required when creating accounts.

Open term

Token Ecosystem

Interest-Bearing Token

A Token-2022 extension that applies a continuously compounding interest rate to the display amount of a token without changing the actual on-chain balance. The UI amount is calculated as: amount × e^(rate × elapsed_time). Useful for rebasing tokens and lending receipt tokens.

Open term

Related terms

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Token Ecosystemnft

NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

A non-fungible token on Solana—an SPL token with 0 decimals, supply of 1, and revoked mint authority. The NFT's metadata (image, attributes) is stored off-chain (Arweave/IPFS) linked via the Metaplex metadata account's URI field. NFTs can be standard, compressed (cNFT), programmable (pNFT), or Core assets, each with different trade-offs.

Open term

Programming Modelaccount-data

Account Data

The byte array stored in an account that holds program-specific state. Data is typically serialized using Borsh and must be explicitly allocated at account creation. The maximum data size is 10MB. Programs are responsible for defining and managing their own data layout, including discriminators for type identification.

Open term

Programming Modelrent-exemption

Rent Exemption

The state where an account holds enough lamports to cover two years of rent, making it effectively permanent. The minimum balance is approximately 0.00089088 SOL per byte of data. Since Solana requires all new accounts to be rent-exempt, this is the minimum funding required when creating accounts.

Open term

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Token Ecosystem

SPL Token Program

The original Solana Program Library token program (TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA) that implements fungible and non-fungible token operations. It manages mints (token definitions) and token accounts (balances). Core instructions include InitializeMint, MintTo, Transfer, Burn, Approve (delegation), and Revoke. All SPL tokens on mainnet before Token-2022 use this program.

Open term

Token Ecosystem

Solana Program Library (SPL)

Solana Program Library—a collection of on-chain programs and client libraries maintained by Solana Labs. Key SPL programs include Token, Token-2022, Associated Token Account, Memo, Name Service, Stake Pool, and Account Compression. SPL programs are deployed to well-known addresses and serve as the standard building blocks for Solana applications.

Open term

Token Ecosystem

Token-2022 (Token Extensions)

The next-generation token program (TokenzQdBNbLqP5VEhdkAS6EPFLC1PHnBqCXEpPxuEb) that extends SPL Token with configurable extensions. Extensions include transfer fees, confidential transfers, transfer hooks, permanent delegate, non-transferable tokens, interest-bearing tokens, metadata, and more. Token-2022 is backwards-compatible with SPL Token for basic operations.

Open term

Token Ecosystem

Mint

An on-chain account defining a token type. A mint specifies: supply (total minted), decimals (0 for NFTs, 6 for USDC, 9 for most tokens), mint authority (who can mint), and optional freeze authority. Each unique token (USDC, JitoSOL, etc.) has exactly one mint account. Mint address serves as the token's unique identifier.

Open term