Infrastructure & Development Platforms
As blockchain technology continues to evolve, Solana's high-performance network has become a powerhouse for infrastructure and development projects. With its lightning-fast transactions and low fees, Solana provides the perfect foundation for builders creating the future of Web3. From development toolkits and node infrastructure to cross-chain bridges and data indexing solutions, the ecosystem offers essential building blocks for both novice developers and established teams.
In this curated collection, we'll explore the most impactful infrastructure and development tools in the Solana ecosystem. These applications are fundamental to creating robust decentralized applications (dApps), managing blockchain data, and scaling projects efficiently. Whether you're a developer looking to streamline your workflow or a project manager seeking reliable infrastructure solutions, these top picks represent the backbone of Solana's development landscape.
The Top Infrastructure & Development Projects On Solana
As voted on by Solana Compass users. Vote for your favourite projects to give them more exposure!
LayerZero stands out as a premier cross-chain platform on Solana, facilitating seamless asset transfers and communication across over 50 different blockchain networks. Through its innovative Ultra Light Node architecture and Decentralized Validator Networks (DVNs), the protocol has successfully processed more than $50 billion in cross-chain transactions while maintaining robust security standards. The platform's configurable security model allows developers to fine-tune their risk parameters based on specific use cases.LayerZero's integration with Solana provides developers with comprehensive tools for building sophisticated cross-chain applications, including support for Omnichain Fungible Tokens (OFTs), native gas handling, and horizontal composability features. The protocol's well-documented SDK and development framework make it straightforward for teams to implement cross-chain functionality, while partnerships with major Solana projects like Jupiter and Jito demonstrate its reliability in production environments. The upcoming ZRO token will further enhance the ecosystem by providing governance rights and incentivizing network participants.
Light Protocol represents a significant advancement in Solana's scaling capabilities, offering a Layer 2-like scaling solution through its innovative ZK compression technology. By enabling up to 99% reduction in on-chain storage costs, the protocol effectively addresses one of the key scaling challenges faced by data-intensive applications on Solana, without sacrificing the security and composability benefits of the base layer.The protocol's scaling solution is particularly valuable for applications handling large amounts of data, such as NFT projects, gaming applications, and DeFi protocols. Through its sophisticated compression algorithms and zero-knowledge proof systems, Light Protocol enables these applications to scale efficiently while maintaining full compatibility with Solana's programming model. The protocol's approach to scaling through data compression, backed by zero-knowledge proofs, offers a unique solution that maintains the performance advantages of Solana while significantly reducing the resource requirements for large-scale applications.
Picasso stands out as a leading cross-chain infrastructure solution on Solana, implementing the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol to enable secure and efficient asset transfers between different blockchain networks. The protocol's sophisticated architecture utilizes light clients and relay nodes to verify and transmit messages between chains, allowing users to seamlessly bridge assets without relying on centralized intermediaries.Through its robust bridging infrastructure, Picasso currently supports connections with major networks including Ethereum and the Cosmos ecosystem, with plans to expand to additional chains. The protocol generates revenue through bridging fees, with 20% distributed to PICA token stakers, creating a sustainable economic model while maintaining high security standards through features like multi-party computation for transaction validation and automated security monitoring.
Solayer is a cutting-edge Layer 2 scaling solution for Solana that leverages restaking to extend the blockchain's security to additional execution layers. Through its innovative protocol, Solayer enables applications to tap into Solana's validator set without compromising on decentralization or security, while allowing token holders to earn additional yields through restaking their SOL and liquid staking tokens.The platform provides crucial infrastructure components including a shared validator network, decentralized sequencer, and permissioned public mempools. These features allow developers to build high-performance applications that benefit from Solana's security guarantees while maintaining their own execution environment. By solving the scalability trilemma through its restaking mechanism, Solayer represents a significant advancement in Solana's Layer 2 ecosystem.
gmAI offers a robust suite of developer tools and SDKs specifically designed for building AI-powered applications on Solana. Their comprehensive toolkit includes RESTful APIs, extensive documentation, and flexible SDK implementations that allow developers to seamlessly integrate AI capabilities into their dApps, regardless of their AI expertise level. The platform's architecture supports both direct API integration for simple implementations and more complex SDK solutions for customized AI functionality.The developer ecosystem is enhanced by gmAI's feature store, which provides access to validated blockchain data and pre-trained models specifically tuned for crypto applications. Their tools support everything from basic AI integration to sophisticated model training and deployment, complete with real-time data processing capabilities and extensive documentation. The platform's commitment to developer success is evident in their continuous expansion of tool offerings and regular updates to support emerging use cases in the Solana ecosystem.
Sollong stands out in the distributed computing space by offering a blockchain-based platform that efficiently coordinates computational resources across a decentralized network. The platform's architecture enables the clustering of computational power from multiple hardware sources, both online and offline, creating a robust infrastructure capable of handling complex processing tasks while maintaining decentralization and security through the Solana blockchain.The platform's innovative approach to distributed computing includes intelligent task orchestration, where AI workloads are matched with appropriate resources based on availability, performance requirements, and cost considerations. Providers can contribute various resources including computation, storage, and specialized hardware, earning SOLG tokens for their contributions. The mobile app interface makes it simple for users to access this distributed computing power, while the platform's architecture ensures efficient execution through techniques like parallel processing and hardware acceleration.
Allium provides a robust suite of developer tools and SDKs that simplify the process of building blockchain applications on Solana and other networks. Their Developer API platform offers comprehensive documentation, dedicated engineering support, and powerful features for accessing both historical and real-time blockchain data, making it an essential toolkit for developers building sophisticated blockchain applications.Through their standardized schemas and simplified data models, Allium abstracts away the complexity of raw blockchain data, allowing developers to focus on building their applications rather than managing data pipelines. The platform's support for custom data uploads, integration with popular data warehouses, and low-latency APIs make it an invaluable development resource. Their real-time data streaming capabilities and cross-chain support enable developers to build complex applications that can interact with multiple blockchain networks seamlessly.
PIP excels in facilitating cross-chain asset transfers, supporting transactions across multiple blockchain networks including Solana, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Base, Optimism, and Avalanche C-Chain. The platform's unified interface allows users to seamlessly send and receive cryptocurrencies across these networks without navigating complex bridge protocols or multiple wallet interfaces.The platform's cross-chain capabilities are enhanced by its social integration features, making inter-blockchain transfers as simple as using a PIP tag. Through its comprehensive infrastructure, users can manage multiple blockchain assets in one place, create cross-chain invoices, and execute payments across different networks. The platform's security measures, including transaction simulation and scam detection, ensure safe cross-chain operations while maintaining user-friendly functionality.
Arcium Network stands out as a pioneering distributed computing platform on Solana, offering a decentralized confidential computing network powered by advanced Multi-Party Computation (MPC). Through its innovative Arx Node system, the platform creates a global supercomputer where computational tasks are executed across multiple nodes in parallel, enabling high-performance processing while maintaining data privacy and security.The platform's architecture enables developers and enterprises to leverage distributed computing power through isolated Multi-Party eXecution Environments (MXEs), making it ideal for computationally intensive tasks like AI model training and complex data analysis. With the integration of Inpher's technology stack, Arcium has enhanced its capabilities to support advanced use cases including federated learning and encrypted AI inference, all while maintaining strict data confidentiality through its sophisticated cryptographic protocols.
Ironforge provides a comprehensive suite of developer tools that streamline the process of building and maintaining Solana applications. Their platform includes sophisticated RPC routing capabilities, detailed analytics and monitoring tools, and enterprise-grade security features that help developers focus on building their core products rather than managing infrastructure. The advanced routing system supports both sequential and parallel request handling, allowing developers to optimize for specific use cases while maintaining high reliability.The developer toolkit includes powerful analytics features for debugging and optimization, with detailed transaction tracing and performance monitoring capabilities. Teams can track key metrics across their applications, set up custom alerts, and quickly identify issues through comprehensive logging and monitoring tools. The platform's security features, including sophisticated access controls and threat mitigation, have been audited by Halborn, ensuring developers can build with confidence. The integration process is straightforward, with detailed documentation and best practices guides making it easy for teams to implement specific features based on their project requirements.
Triton One stands out as a premier RPC node provider in the Solana ecosystem, offering enterprise-grade infrastructure that processes hundreds of millions of daily requests while maintaining 99% uptime. Their Project Yellowstone revolutionizes RPC capabilities through innovative components like Dragon's Mouth for GRPC streaming and Old Faithful for historical data access, enabling developers and applications to interact with the Solana blockchain efficiently and reliably.Their infrastructure includes globally distributed nodes, custom-built optimization layers, and sophisticated failover systems with features like geo-DNS routing and auto-failover capabilities. For enterprise clients, Triton provides dedicated nodes with customizable configurations, advanced bot filtering, and specialized indexing solutions through their Steamboat GPA acceleration component, which has achieved up to 400ms improvement in query response times.
As a critical piece of Solana's blockchain infrastructure, Metaplex provides the core building blocks that developers need to create and deploy NFT applications at scale. Their suite of smart contracts and developer tools, including the Token Metadata program and Candy Machine, offers a robust foundation for building everything from simple NFT drops to complex marketplaces and gaming applications.Metaplex's infrastructure is designed for maximum flexibility and scalability, leveraging Solana's high-performance capabilities to handle thousands of transactions per second. Their commitment to open-source development and continuous innovation, exemplified by projects like their NFT compression standard, makes them an essential infrastructure provider for the Solana ecosystem. The protocol's modular architecture allows developers to easily integrate NFT functionality into their applications while maintaining compatibility with the broader Solana NFT ecosystem.
As a developer tool platform, The Grid provides essential infrastructure for building applications on Solana through its comprehensive GraphQL API and data schema standardization. Their API offers developers access to verified project metadata, relationship mappings, and ecosystem data that can be seamlessly integrated into dApps and platforms, eliminating the need to maintain separate databases of project information.The Grid's developer-friendly approach includes extensive documentation, reference implementations, and SDK support that makes it easy to query and display ecosystem data. Their standardized schema (TGS) provides a consistent format for handling Web3 project data, while their version control and webhook systems ensure applications always have access to the latest validated information. The platform's focus on data quality through AI enrichment and human verification makes it particularly valuable for developers building professional-grade applications.
As a developer tool and SDK platform on Solana, Switchboard provides a comprehensive suite of tools that enable developers to easily integrate oracle services and custom data feeds into their applications. The platform offers a user-friendly CLI, extensive documentation, and example code that significantly reduces the complexity of building data-driven dApps.Switchboard's developer ecosystem includes robust SDK support, allowing developers to create and manage oracle queues, establish custom data feeds, and integrate real-world data into their smart contracts with minimal friction. The platform's modular design and flexible architecture make it particularly valuable for developers building complex applications that require reliable off-chain data, while its TEE integration provides additional security guarantees that are crucial for production deployments.
The JamboPhone represents a revolutionary approach to mobile dApp accessibility, offering a fully-featured Android smartphone priced at just $99 that comes pre-configured with essential blockchain applications and wallets. The device features carefully balanced specifications to provide optimal performance for blockchain applications while maintaining affordability, making it one of the most powerful Web3-capable mobile devices available in its price range.The platform's modified Android operating system maintains familiarity while seamlessly integrating blockchain functionality, eliminating the typical complications of setting up crypto wallets and finding reliable dApps. Through partnerships with major protocols like Solana and Tether, the JamboPhone provides users immediate access to high-speed, low-cost blockchain transactions and stable digital currencies. The pre-installed application suite has been specifically optimized for emerging market use cases, with support for local languages and consideration for varying internet connectivity quality.
As a developer tool for Solana, SimpleHash provides crucial infrastructure through their comprehensive API platform that helps teams build and scale applications efficiently. Their SDK and development tools offer seamless integration options for token and NFT data access, with features including REST APIs, webhooks, and Kafka streaming services that dramatically reduce development time and complexity.The platform's developer-centric approach is evident in their extensive documentation, sample code, and support for multiple programming languages. Solana developers particularly benefit from SimpleHash's specialized handling of chain-specific features like compressed NFTs and various token standards, while the platform's sophisticated media handling and spam detection capabilities provide essential building blocks for creating robust applications. The service has proven its value by helping partners save over $750,000 annually in infrastructure costs while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability.
SQD Network provides essential developer tools and infrastructure for building on Solana through their comprehensive SDK and API suite. Their platform offers developers unified access to blockchain data across multiple networks, with specialized features for efficient data querying and processing that eliminate common development bottlenecks.The SDK includes extensive documentation and support for popular programming languages, making it straightforward to integrate blockchain data access into applications. What makes SQD Network particularly valuable for developers is their elimination of egress fees through an innovative tokenomics model, along with their focus on AI-ready infrastructure that enables the development of next-generation autonomous applications. Their worker network architecture ensures reliable data availability and processing, while their GraphQL API allows developers to retrieve exactly the data they need without unnecessary overhead.
Blocksmith Labs offers an extensive suite of developer tools and SDKs that empower creators to build sophisticated NFT projects on Solana. Their technology stack includes Shift for programmatic art generation, Mercury for whitelist management, and Bifrost for customizable minting mechanisms - providing developers with everything needed to launch and scale NFT collections. The platform's APIs and documentation make it simple to integrate these capabilities into new or existing projects.The developer ecosystem is enhanced by Blocksmith's focus on security and best practices, with all smart contracts undergoing rigorous audits. Their tools abstract away much of the complexity around NFT deployment while still providing the flexibility advanced developers need. The platform's analytics dashboards and community management features help developers track project performance and engage with holders effectively. Regular updates and new feature releases ensure developers always have access to the latest NFT infrastructure capabilities.
Heavy Duty Camp provides essential developer tools and educational resources specifically tailored for Spanish-speaking developers in the Solana ecosystem. Their comprehensive development platform includes coding environments, project templates, and specialized tools that help developers build and deploy Solana applications more effectively.The platform offers a complete suite of development resources, including code samples, project scaffolding tools, and debugging utilities, all explained and documented in Spanish. Their integrated development environment combines with their educational resources to create a comprehensive toolkit for Solana developers, while their hands-on approach ensures developers gain practical experience with essential development tools and SDKs commonly used in the Solana ecosystem.
As an infrastructure solution, Digimon Engine provides developers with a robust framework for building sophisticated blockchain applications on Solana. The platform offers comprehensive development tools including extensive APIs, documentation, and sample projects that simplify the integration of complex features like AI agent management, physics simulation, and state persistence.The framework's technical architecture is designed for scalability and performance, supporting thousands of concurrent interactions while maintaining efficiency. With its open-source approach and active development community, Digimon Engine delivers essential infrastructure for creating next-generation applications on Solana, complete with advanced features like cross-application agent persistence and real-time multiplayer capabilities.
Framework Ventures has established itself as a cornerstone investor in blockchain infrastructure and development, with their $400M FVIII fund specifically targeting fundamental infrastructure projects that power the next generation of decentralized applications. Their investment thesis strongly emphasizes scalability solutions, development tools, and core protocol improvements that enhance the overall blockchain ecosystem. The firm's technical team provides crucial guidance on architecture decisions and implementation strategies.Through their infrastructure investments, Framework helps portfolio companies optimize their technical foundations while building sustainable development practices. Their expertise spans across multiple blockchain platforms, with particular attention to scalability, interoperability, and developer tooling. The firm's commitment to infrastructure development has resulted in significant improvements to blockchain technology stacks and development frameworks, making them a key player in advancing the technical capabilities of the crypto ecosystem.
Figment provides enterprise-level RPC node infrastructure and validator services for Solana, maintaining some of the highest performance metrics in the ecosystem with 98% proposer effectiveness and 99% voting effectiveness rates. Their distributed infrastructure architecture ensures consistent uptime while maintaining rigorous security standards, supported by both SOC 2 Type 2 attestation and ISO 27001:2013 certification.The platform offers comprehensive API access for institutional clients, enabling programmatic integration with existing systems and custom reporting capabilities. Their infrastructure includes advanced monitoring systems, automated failover mechanisms, and geographic distribution of nodes to ensure optimal performance and reliability. With over 500 institutional clients relying on their infrastructure, Figment has established itself as a crucial provider of enterprise-grade Solana network access and validator services.
Tapestry delivers crucial infrastructure for Solana developers by providing a complete social layer that can be easily integrated into any application. The protocol's architecture handles complex social graph management, profile systems, and messaging capabilities while maintaining true decentralization through on-chain data storage and leveraging Solana's validator network for infrastructure maintenance.The platform offers developers a comprehensive suite of tools including RESTful APIs, extensive documentation, and SDK support for major programming languages. With features like sub-second transaction finality, consistent global state management, and support for over 100,000 on-chain profiles, Tapestry significantly reduces the technical complexity of implementing social features. The protocol's focus on security, including regular smart contract audits and robust privacy controls, combined with its scalable architecture makes it a foundational piece of Solana's development infrastructure.
Block Logic delivers enterprise-grade RPC node infrastructure and validator services that form a crucial backbone of the Solana ecosystem. Their distributed architecture spans multiple data centers, providing highly available and performant infrastructure that processes millions in staked SOL while maintaining exceptional uptime and security standards. The team's implementation of hardware security modules, multi-factor authentication, and continuous monitoring ensures reliable network participation and asset protection.Their infrastructure contributions extend beyond basic validation services through the development of open-source tools and monitoring solutions that benefit the entire ecosystem. Through their Validators.app platform, they provide comprehensive analytics and monitoring capabilities that help maintain network health and optimize performance. Block Logic's technical expertise in distributed systems and blockchain infrastructure has enabled them to develop robust tools and services that improve the overall reliability and efficiency of Solana's infrastructure.
TipLink stands out as an innovative mobile-first wallet solution on Solana, revolutionizing the way users can access and manage digital assets through simple link sharing. The platform's integration with Google authentication creates an exceptionally smooth onboarding experience, eliminating traditional barriers like seed phrase management that often deter new users from entering the crypto space.The TipLink Wallet Adapter enables seamless integration into other mobile dApps, while features like email-based asset recovery and secure escrow systems ensure a safe experience for users. The platform's focus on simplicity without compromising security, combined with its enterprise-grade capabilities through TipLink Pro, makes it a comprehensive solution for both individual users and businesses looking to implement mobile-friendly wallet solutions on Solana.
The infrastructure and development tools highlighted above represent just a fraction of the innovative solutions available in the Solana ecosystem. As the blockchain continues to grow and evolve, these fundamental building blocks become increasingly crucial for developers and projects looking to create scalable, efficient applications.
Whether you're building the next big DeFi protocol, launching an NFT marketplace, or developing Web3 tools, Solana's robust infrastructure ecosystem provides the foundation needed for success. By leveraging these powerful development resources, you can focus on what matters most – creating value for your users while benefiting from Solana's speed, cost-effectiveness, and reliability.
Remember to stay updated with the latest tools and infrastructure solutions, as the ecosystem is constantly expanding with new innovations and improvements to help developers build the future of blockchain technology.