Solana Foundation Introduces 'Blinks' to Simplify Blockchain Transactions
The Solana Foundation has unveiled a feature designed to seamlessly connect its blockchain to any website via a shareable link. Announced on June 25, this innovative solution, known as Solana Actions and blockchain links or "blinks," enables any web page capable of displaying a URL to facilitate Solana transactions.
This new functionality allows users to perform Solana transactions directly from a shared link. This capability opens up a wide range of applications, including crowdfunding, online purchases, and on-chain voting. Chris Osborn, founder of Dialect, highlighted the potential of this feature: "From your X feed, you can buy an NFT, tip a creator, receive money, vote, stake, swap, and so much more." Dialect is responsible for the developer tools that power Solana Actions, such as forkable, self-hosted interstitial signing sites and software development kits.
Blinks can be shared across various platforms, including websites, social media, and even physical QR codes. Jon Wong, head of ecosystem engineering at the Solana Foundation, explained that Solana Actions and blinks enable any website or application to become a distribution point for on-chain interactions.
To ensure user safety, the Solana Foundation has implemented a security roadmap for this new feature, allowing users to enable wallet support for Actions and blinks. A spokesperson noted, "Actions and blinks are similar to 'connecting' your wallet to DApps [decentralized applications] - trust the sites you know and use, just as you trust the DApps you know and use."
When a wallet initially attempts to pull a transaction from an unfamiliar API, users will encounter a standard "connect to site" prompt. "If the site domain has been connected to the wallet in the past, the site domain is more likely to be trustworthy. As with DApps, Action transactions are always simulated prior to execution," the team elaborated. To further enhance security, the launch will initially run with whitelisted domains from Solana's partners, including Jupiter, Helium, Truffle, Phantom, and Backpack.