Solana’s version of “Mini Program”: How to use Blinks on X platform

Original title: "Can the "hyped" Solana Blinks really lead to large-scale adoption of Web3?"

Original source: MetaHub Research

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 really become a catalyst for large-scale adoption of Web3? Let's find out.

First, let's 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 enter the website first, and then use buttons 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 an action provider:

· A URL scheme that identifies the Actions Provider

· GET requests and responses to and from the action URL, used to provide human-readable information to the client.

· POST requests and responses to and from the action URL, used to construct the transaction (and the message to be sent) to be signed and submitted to the blockchain.

Blinks working principle diagram

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 you receive a payment request or a smart contract signing request, you can complete it directly on Twitter without jumping to other platforms.

Sharing Blinks through the X platform can quickly spread information about blockchain activities or applications, which also makes Blinks a "dog" weapon. The most direct reason is that due to the characteristics of Blinks, it has also made it a rebate artifact. 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 a web page and may be disconnected from the user's on-chain behavior and time. Blinks reduces this disconnection and makes the rebate process smoother and more efficient.

Raydium and Jupiter support Blinks

Let’s take a look at Blinks’ current applications on the X platform

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Can Blinks really become the killer application that can cause mass adoption of Web3?

While enjoying the convenience, security issues are also worth paying attention to. In the Web3 environment, convenient payment may also mean that it is easier to encounter 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 appear, and specific security issues need to be further explored in practice.

From the current development, it is far from enough to support only the X platform, not to mention that the vast majority of X platform users are on mobile phones. If Blinks can really be embedded in social platforms such as Telegram and Discord with a large number of Web2 users 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" will be 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 active meme users is also X, so it is undoubtedly correct to choose X as the first stop, at least on the Solana network that focuses on the meme ecosystem. 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 sniping 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.

Through Solana Blinks, you can easily complete on-chain interactions such as sniping sniping, wallet signing, launching GameFi challenges, fundraising, etc. through QR codes and links on Twitter, without going through cumbersome and complicated links and wallet signing procedures.

Ton Chain's advantage 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", while Solana Blink 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 blow up this wave of market frenzy.

How to start using Blinks on the X platform?

Phantom, Backpack and Solflare native wallets currently support Blinks, and the Dialect Blinks plug-in can also be downloaded.

1. Turn on the switch to recognize Blinks in the plug-in

Here we use the Phantom wallet as an example

Settings - Experimental features - Solana Actions on X.com Enable

2. Publish your Blink

Go directly to the official website of the application that supports Blinks, copy the above URL, and publish it on the X platform

Here we use the Jupiter URL as an example. When you turn on the switch of 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 access Blinks?

1. Refer to the Solana Action document for code writing

2. Put the open source code into the Dialect Github for review

There are also some reference codes in the Github example

3. Test: Put your Blinks in the https://www.dial.to/ search bar, 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, it was 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!

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