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.

IDnative-program

Plain meaning

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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.

Mental model

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Technical context

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Accounts, instructions, PDAs, transactions, and execution flow.

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Native Program (native-program)
Category: Programming Model
Definition: 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.
Related: System Program, Solana Program Library (SPL), Runtime
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Concept graph

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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.

Branch

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.

Branch

Runtime

The component of the SVM responsible for loading programs, enforcing account access rules (ownership, writability, signer checks), managing compute budgets, and executing transactions. The runtime ensures programs can only modify accounts they own, charges rent, and enforces the 10MB per-transaction account data limit.

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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.

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.

Core Protocol

Runtime

The component of the SVM responsible for loading programs, enforcing account access rules (ownership, writability, signer checks), managing compute budgets, and executing transactions. The runtime ensures programs can only modify accounts they own, charges rent, and enforces the 10MB per-transaction account data limit.

Programming Model

Nonce Account

A special account managed by the System Program that stores a durable nonce value, enabling transactions with extended or indefinite lifetimes. Normally, transactions reference a recent blockhash and expire after ~60-90 seconds. Nonce accounts replace the blockhash with a stored nonce that remains valid until explicitly advanced, enabling offline signing workflows, scheduled transactions, and custodial operations where signing and submission happen at different times.

Commonly confused with

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Programming Modelprogram

Program

Executable code deployed on-chain, equivalent to a smart contract on other blockchains. Programs are stateless—they store no data themselves but read/write data in separate accounts they own. Programs are compiled to SBF bytecode and loaded via the BPF Loader. Every program has a unique Program ID (its account's public key).

AliasSmart Contract
Programming Modelcompute-budget-program

Compute Budget Program

A native Solana program (address: ComputeBudget111111111111111111111111111111) that allows transactions to configure their compute resource limits. It provides two key instructions: SetComputeUnitLimit (set the max CU a transaction can consume, up to 1.4M) and SetComputeUnitPrice (set the micro-lamport price per CU for priority fees). These instructions must appear before any program instructions in the transaction.

Programming Modelfind-program-address

find_program_address

A function that derives a PDA by iterating bump seeds from 255 down to 0 until finding a pubkey not on the Ed25519 curve. It returns (pubkey, bump). In Anchor, the #[account(seeds=[...], bump)] constraint calls this automatically. The corresponding create_program_address skips iteration and takes an explicit bump.

Related terms

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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.

Token Ecosystemspl

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.

Core Protocolruntime

Runtime

The component of the SVM responsible for loading programs, enforcing account access rules (ownership, writability, signer checks), managing compute budgets, and executing transactions. The runtime ensures programs can only modify accounts they own, charges rent, and enforces the 10MB per-transaction account data limit.

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Programming Model

Account

The fundamental data storage unit on Solana. Every piece of state is stored in an account identified by a 32-byte public key. Accounts hold a lamport balance, an owner program, a data byte array (up to 10MB), and an executable flag. Only the owning program can modify an account's data, but anyone can credit lamports to it.

Programming Model

Program

Executable code deployed on-chain, equivalent to a smart contract on other blockchains. Programs are stateless—they store no data themselves but read/write data in separate accounts they own. Programs are compiled to SBF bytecode and loaded via the BPF Loader. Every program has a unique Program ID (its account's public key).

Programming Model

Instruction

A single operation within a transaction that invokes a program. An instruction specifies: (1) the program ID to call, (2) an array of account metas (pubkey, is_signer, is_writable), and (3) an opaque data byte array. Programs decode the instruction data to determine which operation to perform.

Programming Model

Transaction

An atomic unit of execution containing one or more instructions, a recent blockhash, and one or more signatures. All instructions in a transaction execute sequentially and atomically—if any instruction fails, the entire transaction reverts. Transactions have a 1,232-byte size limit (matching IPv6 MTU) and a default 200,000 CU budget.