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Core Protocol

Secp256r1 Precompile (P256)

A native Solana program for verifying ECDSA signatures on the secp256r1 (P-256/prime256v1) elliptic curve, enabling WebAuthn and passkey-based authentication directly on-chain. P-256 is the curve used by Apple Face ID/Touch ID, Android biometrics, and FIDO2 security keys. This precompile allows Solana dApps to authenticate users via device biometrics without managing traditional private keys, significantly improving wallet UX.

IDsecp256r1-precompile
Plain meaning

Plain meaning

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A native Solana program for verifying ECDSA signatures on the secp256r1 (P-256/prime256v1) elliptic curve, enabling WebAuthn and passkey-based authentication directly on-chain. P-256 is the curve used by Apple Face ID/Touch ID, Android biometrics, and FIDO2 security keys. This precompile allows Solana dApps to authenticate users via device biometrics without managing traditional private keys, significantly improving wallet UX.

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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Secp256r1 Precompile (P256) (secp256r1-precompile)
Category: Core Protocol
Definition: A native Solana program for verifying ECDSA signatures on the secp256r1 (P-256/prime256v1) elliptic curve, enabling WebAuthn and passkey-based authentication directly on-chain. P-256 is the curve used by Apple Face ID/Touch ID, Android biometrics, and FIDO2 security keys. This precompile allows Solana dApps to authenticate users via device biometrics without managing traditional private keys, significantly improving wallet UX.
Related: Secp256k1 Precompile, Ed25519 Precompile, Signature
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Concept graph

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Branch

Secp256k1 Precompile

A native Solana program (address: KeccakSecp256k11111111111111111111111111111) that verifies secp256k1 ECDSA signatures on-chain, enabling Ethereum-compatible signature verification within Solana programs. This precompile allows Solana dApps to verify signatures produced by Ethereum wallets (MetaMask, etc.), facilitating cross-chain identity verification, bridging, and interoperability without requiring users to create Solana-native keypairs.

Ed25519
Open term
Branch

Ed25519 Precompile

A native Solana program (address: Ed25519SigVerify111111111111111111111111111) that enables batch verification of Ed25519 signatures within on-chain program logic. Unlike the runtime's built-in transaction signature verification, this precompile allows programs to verify arbitrary Ed25519 signatures over arbitrary data, useful for off-chain message verification, oracle attestations, and multi-party protocols. Multiple signatures can be verified in a single instruction.

Open term
Branch

Signature

A 64-byte Ed25519 digital signature over a transaction's message. Each signer in a transaction produces one signature. The first signature (from the fee payer) also serves as the unique transaction ID. Signature verification is parallelized in the TPU's sigverify stage using GPU acceleration.

TransactionKeypair
Open term
Next concepts to explore

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Core Protocol

Secp256k1 Precompile

A native Solana program (address: KeccakSecp256k11111111111111111111111111111) that verifies secp256k1 ECDSA signatures on-chain, enabling Ethereum-compatible signature verification within Solana programs. This precompile allows Solana dApps to verify signatures produced by Ethereum wallets (MetaMask, etc.), facilitating cross-chain identity verification, bridging, and interoperability without requiring users to create Solana-native keypairs.

Open term
Core Protocol

Ed25519 Precompile

A native Solana program (address: Ed25519SigVerify111111111111111111111111111) that enables batch verification of Ed25519 signatures within on-chain program logic. Unlike the runtime's built-in transaction signature verification, this precompile allows programs to verify arbitrary Ed25519 signatures over arbitrary data, useful for off-chain message verification, oracle attestations, and multi-party protocols. Multiple signatures can be verified in a single instruction.

Open term
Programming Model

Signature

A 64-byte Ed25519 digital signature over a transaction's message. Each signer in a transaction produces one signature. The first signature (from the fee payer) also serves as the unique transaction ID. Signature verification is parallelized in the TPU's sigverify stage using GPU acceleration.

Open term
Core Protocol

SHA-256 Hash Chain

The core mechanism of Proof of History. A SHA-256 hash is computed sequentially—each hash takes the previous hash as input—creating an ordered, unforgeable timestamp sequence. The PoH generator runs approximately 400,000 hashes per slot. Data (transactions) can be inserted into the chain by mixing their hash with the current state.

Open term
Commonly confused with

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Core Protocoled25519-precompile

Ed25519 Precompile

A native Solana program (address: Ed25519SigVerify111111111111111111111111111) that enables batch verification of Ed25519 signatures within on-chain program logic. Unlike the runtime's built-in transaction signature verification, this precompile allows programs to verify arbitrary Ed25519 signatures over arbitrary data, useful for off-chain message verification, oracle attestations, and multi-party protocols. Multiple signatures can be verified in a single instruction.

Open term
Core Protocolsecp256k1-precompile

Secp256k1 Precompile

A native Solana program (address: KeccakSecp256k11111111111111111111111111111) that verifies secp256k1 ECDSA signatures on-chain, enabling Ethereum-compatible signature verification within Solana programs. This precompile allows Solana dApps to verify signatures produced by Ethereum wallets (MetaMask, etc.), facilitating cross-chain identity verification, bridging, and interoperability without requiring users to create Solana-native keypairs.

Open term
Related terms

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Core Protocolsecp256k1-precompile

Secp256k1 Precompile

A native Solana program (address: KeccakSecp256k11111111111111111111111111111) that verifies secp256k1 ECDSA signatures on-chain, enabling Ethereum-compatible signature verification within Solana programs. This precompile allows Solana dApps to verify signatures produced by Ethereum wallets (MetaMask, etc.), facilitating cross-chain identity verification, bridging, and interoperability without requiring users to create Solana-native keypairs.

Open term
Core Protocoled25519-precompile

Ed25519 Precompile

A native Solana program (address: Ed25519SigVerify111111111111111111111111111) that enables batch verification of Ed25519 signatures within on-chain program logic. Unlike the runtime's built-in transaction signature verification, this precompile allows programs to verify arbitrary Ed25519 signatures over arbitrary data, useful for off-chain message verification, oracle attestations, and multi-party protocols. Multiple signatures can be verified in a single instruction.

Open term
Programming Modelsignature

Signature

A 64-byte Ed25519 digital signature over a transaction's message. Each signer in a transaction produces one signature. The first signature (from the fee payer) also serves as the unique transaction ID. Signature verification is parallelized in the TPU's sigverify stage using GPU acceleration.

Open term
More in category

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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