Solana’s launch of Blinks has sparked heated discussions. With just a link, Blinks can immediately trigger a transaction preview in the wallet. So can Blinks become a catalyst for the large-scale adoption of Web3? Let’s find out.
Let’s first take a look at what Blinks is.
Blinks, or Blockchain Links, is a technology that converts on-chain operations into front-end pages and is one of the applications of Solana Actions.
Traditional interactions require users to first enter the website and then use a button to call the Web3 wallet for interaction. Blinks can skip the step of entering the web page and allow users to perform on-chain operations directly through a link.
How Blinks works
An action consists of a URL scheme, a GET route, and a POST route to the action provider:
The URL scheme used to identify the Actions Provider
GET requests and responses to and from the action URL are used to provide human-readable information to the client.
POST requests and responses to and from the action URL are used to construct the transaction (and the message to be sent) to be signed and submitted to the blockchain.
Illustration of how Blinks works
What can Blinks be used for?
Currently, Blinks is in the social experiment stage and only supports X platform (Twitter) plug-ins, but I believe there will be more applications in the near future. Users can receive and process blockchain transaction requests in real time on the X platform. For example, if a payment request or smart contract signing request is received, it can be completed directly on Twitter without jumping to other platforms.
Sharing Blinks through the X platform can quickly spread information about blockchain activities or applications, which makes Blinks a powerful tool for "dogs". The most direct reason is that due to the characteristics of Blinks, it has also become a rebate tool. Raydium, one of the largest DEX platforms on the Solana network, has begun to support 1% rebates for all currencies through Blinks. Traditional rebate links usually require users to enter the web page, and may be separated from the user's on-chain behavior and time, while Blinks reduces this separation and makes the rebate process smoother and more efficient.
Raydium and Jupiter support Blinks
Let's take a look at the current applications of Blinks on the X platform
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Can Blinks really become a killer application that can lead to large-scale adoption of Web3?
While enjoying the convenience, security issues are also worth paying attention to. In the Web3 environment, convenient payment may also mean being more vulnerable to scams. The official obviously took this into consideration, so projects using Blinks need to pass the Dialect registry audit to ensure that the project is open source. On the one hand, more open source projects will promote the prosperity of the Solana ecosystem, on the other hand, it is inevitable that some new scams will emerge, and specific security issues need to be further explored in practice.
From the current development, it is far from enough to only support the X platform, not to mention that most of the X platform users are on mobile phones. If Blinks can really be embedded in social platforms with a large number of Web2 users such as Telegram and Discord and connect applications and wallets (refer to TON, which is more widely used than TON), it will be a killer application and become a bridge between Web2 and Web3. As the official document says, "This allows the ability to interact on the chain to be realized on any Web interface that can display a URL" is the ultimate goal.
However, Blinks provides a more convenient payment method, which is an innovative payment method and is undoubtedly worth trying. Currently, the main platform for meme users is also X, so it is undoubtedly correct to choose X as the first stop, at least on the Solana network with a heavy meme ecosystem, it can indeed stir up a thousand waves. Blinks connecting to the X platform is only the first step. What is more exciting is the future development. The ultimate goal is that all platforms that can display links and QR codes support Solana network payments, so Blinks has huge potential.
Imagine that you can invite your friends to play dog hunting on WeChat through QR codes and links, or pay your family to buy milk tea. What will happen if all the things that WeChat mini app can do happen in Web3? That is the revolution brought by Solana Blinks.
With Solana Blinks, you can easily complete on-chain interactions such as sniping local dogs and wallet signatures through QR codes and links on Twitter. You can also initiate GameFi challenges and raise funds, etc., without going through cumbersome and complicated links and wallet signature procedures.
The advantage of Ton Chain is that it can smoothly bring Web2 users into the complex network of Web3 through the mini app in the communication software, but the carrier is limited to "Telegram". Solana Blink, on the other hand, is applicable to "any communication software". The bridge between Web2 and Web3 can be opened through QR codes and links. As a stimulus point for the bull market, Solana Blinks can completely stir up this wave of market frenzy.
How to get started with Blinks on the X platform?
Phantom, Backpack and Solflare native wallets currently support Blinks, and you can also download the Dialect Blinks plugin.
1. Turn on the switch to recognize Blinks in the plugin
Here we use Phantom wallet as an example
Settings - Experimental Features - Solana Actions on X.com Enabled
2. Release your Blink
Go directly to the official website of the application that supports Blinks, copy the URL above, and publish it on the X platform
Here we use Jupiter's website as an example. When you turn on the wallet plug-in and refresh the page, you can see the payment interface.
https://x.com/MetaHub_DAO/status/1807821940541083659
What are the steps for developers to connect to Blinks?
1. Refer to the Solana Action documentation for code writing
2. Put the open source code into Dialect Github for review
There are also some reference codes in the Github example
3. Test: Put your Blinks in the search bar of https://www.dial.to/ and the application interface will appear.
Here we put Blink published on the X platform on Dial.to and found more supporting channels. For example, Google via TipLink, through experiments, found that it is a custodial wallet created through a Google account. One Google account corresponds to one wallet address, which is user-friendly for Web2 users and is one step closer to connecting wallets and applications in the future.
You can even create a donation link directly through TipLink
4. After confirming your Blinks, you need to register Blink.
After completing these steps, your Blinks application can be successfully connected to the X platform to provide users with a convenient payment experience. Let us also look forward to more applications of Blinks!
