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Plain meaning

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A decentralized, Solana-native storage network operated by GenesysGo that uses a proof-of-storage consensus among Shadow Operator nodes and the SHDW token for payment, offering mutable and immutable file storage with direct on-chain settlement. Unlike Arweave (permanent, one-time fee) or IPFS (requires pinning), Shadow Drive targets developers needing mutable off-chain storage for game assets, user-generated content, and dApp data with Solana-native tooling and SPL token payment.

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Technical context

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

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Shadow Drive (shadow-drive)
Category: Infrastructure
Definition: A decentralized, Solana-native storage network operated by GenesysGo that uses a proof-of-storage consensus among Shadow Operator nodes and the SHDW token for payment, offering mutable and immutable file storage with direct on-chain settlement. Unlike Arweave (permanent, one-time fee) or IPFS (requires pinning), Shadow Drive targets developers needing mutable off-chain storage for game assets, user-generated content, and dApp data with Solana-native tooling and SPL token payment.
Aliases: GenesysGo
Related: Arweave, IPFS

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Concept graph

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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.

Off-Chain Metadata (JSON)

Open term

Branch

IPFS

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.

Open term

Next concepts to explore

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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

IPFS

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.

Open term

Infrastructure

Shredstream Proxy

A low-latency relay layer that receives shred feeds from validator-adjacent infrastructure and forwards them into downstream search, trading, or analytics systems without requiring each consumer to maintain its own direct shred connection. Teams use shredstream proxy patterns to normalize transport, centralize access control, and fan out raw block data to internal services that care about block contents before standard RPC surfaces catch up.

Open term

Infrastructure

sendTransaction (RPC)

The Solana RPC method that submits a fully signed, serialized transaction to the cluster for processing. The transaction is passed as a base64-encoded string. By default, the RPC node performs preflight checks (simulation) before forwarding to the leader; this can be disabled with skipPreflight for lower latency at the risk of submitting invalid transactions. The method returns the transaction signature immediately without waiting for confirmation. Clients must separately poll or subscribe for confirmation status.

Open term

Related terms

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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

Infrastructureipfs

IPFS

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.

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