Glossary OS

Plain meaning

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A peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol that addresses content by cryptographic hash (CID) rather than location, so the same content always resolves to the same CID regardless of which node serves it. In Solana NFT contexts, IPFS is used as an alternative to Arweave for storing off-chain metadata and media, commonly accessed via pinning services like Pinata or NFT.Storage; however, content availability depends on active pinning, making it less permanent than Arweave's endowment model without a dedicated pinning arrangement.

Mental model

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Technical context

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RPCs, validators, snapshots, indexing, and network plumbing.

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IPFS (ipfs)
Category: Infrastructure
Definition: A peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol that addresses content by cryptographic hash (CID) rather than location, so the same content always resolves to the same CID regardless of which node serves it. In Solana NFT contexts, IPFS is used as an alternative to Arweave for storing off-chain metadata and media, commonly accessed via pinning services like Pinata or NFT.Storage; however, content availability depends on active pinning, making it less permanent than Arweave's endowment model without a dedicated pinning arrangement.
Related: Off-Chain Metadata (JSON), Arweave

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Concept graph

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Branch

Off-Chain Metadata (JSON)

The JSON file referenced by an NFT's metadata URI that contains the full description, image URL, attributes, and properties. Typically stored on Arweave (permanent, ~$0.01), IPFS/Filecoin, or Shadow Drive. The JSON schema follows the Metaplex standard: name, description, image, animation_url, attributes[], properties{files[], category}.

Token Metadata Standard

Open term

Branch

Arweave

A decentralized permanent storage protocol that uses a blockchain-like structure called the blockweave and a one-time upfront payment model (no recurring fees) to store data indefinitely, backed by an endowment mechanism. In the Solana ecosystem, Arweave is the dominant off-chain storage layer for NFT metadata JSON and media files, and is used by Metaplex's Bundlr/Irys integration to upload assets cheaply in bulk before minting, with URIs of the form ar://<txid> or https://arweave.net/<txid> stored in on-chain metadata accounts.

Open term

Next concepts to explore

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Token Ecosystem

Off-Chain Metadata (JSON)

The JSON file referenced by an NFT's metadata URI that contains the full description, image URL, attributes, and properties. Typically stored on Arweave (permanent, ~$0.01), IPFS/Filecoin, or Shadow Drive. The JSON schema follows the Metaplex standard: name, description, image, animation_url, attributes[], properties{files[], category}.

Open term

Infrastructure

Arweave

A decentralized permanent storage protocol that uses a blockchain-like structure called the blockweave and a one-time upfront payment model (no recurring fees) to store data indefinitely, backed by an endowment mechanism. In the Solana ecosystem, Arweave is the dominant off-chain storage layer for NFT metadata JSON and media files, and is used by Metaplex's Bundlr/Irys integration to upload assets cheaply in bulk before minting, with URIs of the form ar://<txid> or https://arweave.net/<txid> stored in on-chain metadata accounts.

Open term

Infrastructure

LaserStream

A Helius proprietary ultra-low-latency streaming product built on Geyser plugin infrastructure that delivers real-time transaction and account update notifications directly from validator nodes to subscribers, targeting sub-10ms delivery latency from transaction processing to client receipt. LaserStream is positioned for latency-critical applications such as liquidation bots, arbitrage systems, and real-time portfolio trackers that need faster and more reliable data delivery than standard WebSocket subscriptions.

Open term

Infrastructure

Indexer

A specialized off-chain service that continuously ingests on-chain data (typically via a Geyser plugin or RPC polling) and stores it in a queryable database optimized for complex lookups, aggregations, and historical queries that the RPC node's account-state store cannot efficiently serve. Indexers power DAS APIs, portfolio trackers, analytics dashboards, and DEX order-history features by transforming Solana's append-only ledger into relational or document-oriented schemas with fast secondary indexes.

Open term

Commonly confused with

Terms nearby in vocabulary, acronym, or conceptual neighborhood.

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Infrastructureindexer

Indexer

A specialized off-chain service that continuously ingests on-chain data (typically via a Geyser plugin or RPC polling) and stores it in a queryable database optimized for complex lookups, aggregations, and historical queries that the RPC node's account-state store cannot efficiently serve. Indexers power DAS APIs, portfolio trackers, analytics dashboards, and DEX order-history features by transforming Solana's append-only ledger into relational or document-oriented schemas with fast secondary indexes.

Open term

Related terms

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Glossary entries become useful when they are connected. These links are the shortest path to adjacent ideas.

Token Ecosystemoff-chain-metadata

Off-Chain Metadata (JSON)

The JSON file referenced by an NFT's metadata URI that contains the full description, image URL, attributes, and properties. Typically stored on Arweave (permanent, ~$0.01), IPFS/Filecoin, or Shadow Drive. The JSON schema follows the Metaplex standard: name, description, image, animation_url, attributes[], properties{files[], category}.

Open term

Infrastructurearweave

Arweave

A decentralized permanent storage protocol that uses a blockchain-like structure called the blockweave and a one-time upfront payment model (no recurring fees) to store data indefinitely, backed by an endowment mechanism. In the Solana ecosystem, Arweave is the dominant off-chain storage layer for NFT metadata JSON and media files, and is used by Metaplex's Bundlr/Irys integration to upload assets cheaply in bulk before minting, with URIs of the form ar://<txid> or https://arweave.net/<txid> stored in on-chain metadata accounts.

Open term

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Infrastructure

RPC (Remote Procedure Call)

The JSON-RPC 2.0 protocol interface through which clients communicate with Solana nodes to query chain state, submit transactions, and subscribe to events. Solana exposes a rich set of HTTP and WebSocket endpoints (e.g., getAccountInfo, sendTransaction) that abstract direct peer-to-peer network participation, making RPC the primary integration point for wallets, dApps, and indexers.

Open term

Infrastructure

RPC Node

A Solana full node that stores ledger state and serves JSON-RPC and WebSocket requests from clients without participating in consensus or voting. RPC nodes must replay every transaction to maintain an accurate account state database, and high-throughput deployments typically run dedicated RPC nodes with large SSDs, high RAM (256 GB+), and high-bandwidth network connections to handle concurrent client load without impacting validator performance.

Open term

Infrastructure

RPC Methods

The enumerated JSON-RPC endpoints exposed by Solana nodes, covering account queries (getAccountInfo, getMultipleAccounts, getProgramAccounts), block and transaction retrieval (getBlock, getTransaction), cluster metadata (getEpochInfo, getSlot, getVersion), and transaction submission (sendTransaction, simulateTransaction). Methods accept a Commitment parameter (processed, confirmed, finalized) to control the recency-vs-safety tradeoff of returned data.

Open term

Infrastructure

getAccountInfo

An RPC method that returns the complete on-chain state of a single account identified by its base-58 public key, including its lamport balance, owner program, executable flag, rent epoch, and raw data payload encoded as base64 or base58. It is the most fundamental read primitive in Solana development and is called at the specified commitment level, with the data field being null if the account does not exist.

Open term