Solana Unveils Actions and Blinks
If I told you that you could interact directly with the Solana Blockchain through social networks, what would you think?
Those who saw this post by Raj in April may not have realized what it was about, but today, a few months later, I hope your answer would be that you see it possible because it is already here.
Solana Actions and Blinks are here, seeking to eliminate a major friction point for users.
Imagine for a moment being able to bring traffic from X (Twitter), Telegram, or Discord directly to your project. Imagine being an NFT artist, project founder, token creator, someone looking to raise funds, etc., and not needing people or potential customers to leave where they are or stop what they are doing in order to take the action you want them to take.
These new tools have been designed to facilitate interaction with the Solana blockchain through Blinks (Blockchain links) that can be interpreted by compatible wallets and promise to create delivered signable transactions to the user no matter where they are.
As you know, the launch has just literally happened, so I am pleased to announce that this is some of the first information available at the moment.
Want to give it a try?
Because it’s so new, we can only implement Actions and Blink in desktop mode at the moment.
Here’s what you need to do:
1. Ensure you have your preferred wallet’s browser extension installed (Solflare, Phantom, Backpack).
2. Download the “Dialect Blinks” browser extension and make sure to enable Blink after installation.
3. Send or post this link through X to witness the magic happen: https://app.sanctum.so/trade/SOL-JupSOL
How does it work?
My goal is to explain to you in simple terms how you can use these new tools, but I also leave you here with the official documentation in case you are more technical.
To use Blinks together with Actions, a simple configuration of less than 100 lines of code is required. You can create your link using a JSON that will be interpreted by the Actions SDK and will show the user the UI with the words and buttons you have configured.
- User receives a blink (via a post in X, a private message, etc.)
- The compatible wallet interprets this blink and displays the user interface based on the JSON.
- The user selects the button to press, which executes a URL defined in the JSON that executes a transaction.
- Immediately, the wallet opens a dialog box and the user confirms the transaction.
- The wallet makes a request to the configured endpoint.
- Solana handles and executes the transaction.
- All without leaving the social network you were browsing.
Security
As a picture is worth a thousand words, here is what a Blink looks like when its domain is not on the whitelist of the companies responsible for security verification.
If you want to submit your domain for inclusion on Dialect’s whitelist and avoid the warning message shown above, please register it here: http://dial.to/register
Disclaimer: Remember that we are in web3 and most of the security will always be the user’s responsibility. Do not interact with your main wallet on links whose origin you do not know, always have a disposable wallet for these purposes.
More information about Actions and Blinks
The Solana Foundation will have available not only the official documentation in more than 8 languages, but also workshops through its official YouTube channel and spaces on its Twitter account.
Learn more: https://solana.com/solutions/actions
Reference implementation: https://solana-actions.vercel.app/
Solana Actions SDK: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@solana/actions
