You love NFTs, right? 🥰 They let you own and trade digital items like art, music, games, or collectibles. But you also know that NFTs can be expensive and slow to mint and transfer. 😢 That's because they store a lot of data on the blockchain, which is a secure and transparent ledger that everyone can see and verify. But what if there was a way to make NFTs cheaper and faster without sacrificing quality or security? 🤔

--- Enter compression NFTs! 🚀 Compression NFTs are a new technology that uses state compression and Merkle trees to store NFTs on Solana, a fast and scalable blockchain platform. State compression is a technique that reduces the amount of data that has to be stored on the blockchain by using Merkle trees, which are like fingerprints of data. Merkle trees organize data into a tree-like structure, where each node has a hash of its children nodes. The root node has a hash of the entire tree. Compression NFTs store their data in a Merkle tree, where each leaf represents an NFT. The root node of the Merkle tree is stored on the blockchain, while the rest of the tree is stored off the blockchain in the Solana ledger. The Solana ledger is not part of the blockchain itself, but it is subject to consensus and can be verified by anyone. This way, compression NFTs can store a lot of data in a small space and reduce the cost of minting and transferring NFTs. Compression NFTs have the same structure as regular NFTs, and they can be easily converted back and forth without losing quality or functionality. They are also compatible with existing smart contracts and applications that use NFTs. Compression NFTs enable new use cases for NFTs that require large amounts of digital assets, such as social media, gaming, ticketing, metaverses, enterprise use cases, and more. In summary, compression NFTs are a way of storing digital assets on Solana in a more efficient and cost-effective way by using state compression and Merkle trees. They are identical to regular NFTs but take up less space and cost less to mint and transfer. They open up new possibilities for NFTs in web3. 😍 Some examples of compression NFT projects are: - **Metaplex**1️⃣, a protocol for creating and managing NFT storefronts on Solana. Metaplex uses compression for NFTs to lower the cost of minting and storing digital assets for artists, founders, and builders. - **Dialect**2️⃣, a blockchain-based messaging service that uses compression for NFTs to cover the minting cost of NFT stickers for thousands of users. - **Crossmint**2️⃣, an NFT and API tooling company that uses compression for NFTs to create integrations that power deeper customer loyalty for companies around the world. - **Helium**4️⃣, a decentralized wireless network that uses compression for NFTs to mint each hotspot as an NFT on Solana. These are just some of the projects that are using compression for NFTs to create innovative and scalable web3 experiences on Solana. There are many more to come! 🙌 - 1️⃣ [Expanding Digital Assets with Compression for NFTs.](https://www.metaplex.com/posts/expanding-digital-assets-with-compression-for-nfts). - 2️⃣ [State compression brings down cost of minting 1 million NFTs on Solana ....](https://solana.com/news/state-compression-compressed-nfts-solana). - 3️⃣ [Helium upgrades to Solana, establishes a new foundation for its future.](https://solana.com/news/helium-upgrades-to-solana). - 4️⃣ [solana-developers/compressed-nfts - Github.](https://github.com/solana-developers/compressed-nfts).

SOLANA: COMPRESSED NFTs