New Features Actions and Blinks for Soalna A Quick Overview

The Coin World reports:
Author: 0xjs@
If you’ve been paying attention to Solana, there’s been a lot of buzz about the new features Actions and Blinks in your Crypto Twitter feed in the past 24 hours.
Direct swaps on Twitter, changing the way users interact with the Solana ecosystem, connecting Solana to the entire internet, surpassing Farcaster Frames, and more, it’s all praise for Actions and Blinks.
Is it really true? What are Actions and Blinks? What will they bring to Solana? This article briefly explains.
What are Actions and Blinks?
Actions and Blinks are ambitious new protocols for Solana, designed to share Solana anytime, anywhere, in collaboration with Dialect and Solana.
Actions is a protocol for creating and transmitting Solana transactions via URLs, making Solana shareable anywhere. Blinks, short for Blockchain Links, detect Action URLs and expand them into a complete experience for the client, like interactive link previews. In short, Actions is the API, and Blinks create their interface.
According to the description on the Solana official website, traditional on-chain transactions are locked in applications or complex interfaces, greatly increasing the difficulty for people to use encrypted products. With Solana Actions, any transaction can be transformed into Blinks that can be shared anywhere on the internet without the need for a third-party application. Now, it is possible to request payment via SMS, vote on governance in chat rooms, purchase NFTs on social media, and much more. It’s time to connect Solana to the entire internet.
How do they work
Actions is an API that simplifies on-chain interactions into a set of simple HTTPS requests, making it easy for developers to seamlessly integrate on-chain activities into Web2 applications. This allows Solana transactions to be sent in various ways, such as widgets, buttons on websites, or QR codes similar to Solana Pay.
The Actions API mainly involves sending HTTP requests to the Action URL terminal and processing responses related to the Action. GET requests return metadata about which Actions can be executed via the URL and an optional list of related Actions, while POST requests return signed transactions that will be executed on-chain or off-chain services.
The process is as follows:
The user presses a button or link, or scans a QR code, prompting the Action client to send a GET request to the Action provider.
The provider responds with metadata and available Actions, and the client displays the UI containing these Actions.
The user interacts with the Action, and the client sends a POST request to the provider with your selected public key.
The provider responds with a custom transaction, and the client displays it in the UI.
The user approves the transaction and signs it, and the client sends the transaction to the blockchain.
In short, Actions allow developers to easily integrate Solana blockchain transactions into the user flow of their applications without redirecting them from the app they are using, such as Twitter, Discord, or even Medium.
Blinks extend their functionality by transforming Solana Actions into shareable, metadata-rich links. These links allow clients, such as wallet extensions and bots, to provide additional UI options for direct interaction with Solana Actions. Currently, Dialect is the most popular provider of Actions that allows UI client-side rendering.
Blinks can be linked to Actions in three ways:
Share the explicit Action URL, such as `solana-action:https://actions.alice.com/donate`. Here, only supported clients (such as Dialect) can render Blinks, and there is no fallback.
Share links to websites that are linked to the Action API through an actions.json file on the website’s root directory.
Embed the Action URL into the URL of a Blink provider (such as Dialect): https://blink.to/?action=
Integration and new use cases for Actions and Blinks
How to enable Solana Action functionality:
1. Open the Solana browser wallet extension.
2. Settings.
3. Click “Experimental Features.”
4. Launch Solanaactions on http://x.com
Once the wallet supports Action functionality, a direct use case is to swap directly from a tweet, as shown in the image below:
Many applications have already integrated the new features of Solana, and now users can directly trade on Twitter or other websites without being redirected:
Trade with Jupiter & Meteora, buy tokens with Phantom, batch purchase with Tensor floor price, purchase LST with Sanctum, subscribe to premium content with Access Protocol, donate to creators with Sphere and Cubik, vote with Realms and Helium, mint NFTs with Truffle.
Of course, the prerequisite is that you have installed the plugin wallet and enabled Action functionality.
Will Actions and Blinks really bring mass adoption?
How to achieve mass adoption of blockchain?
The answer is simple: it must reach users in their already used and favorite applications and websites.
Actions and Blinks can solve part of the problem. The Solana Foundation stated that Solana Blinks turn any Action into a shareable link, allowing any website that displays URLs to become a place where Solana transactions can take place. Therefore, Blinks turn websites or social media platforms into interfaces for on-chain transactions without having to take users elsewhere, making Dapps more accessible and user-friendly.
Cryptocurrency user Mike commented that Solana has just launched a game-changing product: Blinks. These blockchain links allow you to trigger Solana actions anywhere you can share a link online. Yes… even on X! Imagine initiating transactions through buttons in apps, QR codes, or shareable links. Web3 becomes more accessible.
However, there are also some drawbacks.
First,
in order to use the interactive interface displayed by Blinks, users need to install the Dialect plugin or enable the Solana wallet browser extension
. There have been many Web3 products integrated into Twitter through plugins before, but after the initial buzz, they returned to silence. Because
installing the plugin itself is a significant friction
.
Second,
the new features of Solana are likely to be widely adopted by scammers
. On Twitter, where phishing is rampant, the Actions and Blinks features are likely to greatly increase the efficiency of scams and reduce the cost of scams. Previously, scammers needed to carefully craft phishing websites to deceive users, but now they can easily carry out large-scale phishing scams with just a simple UI and metadata. Therefore, Blinks urgently need to strengthen their risk control and anti-fraud capabilities.
User ypppy commented, “Great integration,
I hope it won’t become a paradise for scammers
.”
Also, for security reasons, Actions currently operate on a registration permit system.
Actions need to be registered first at the official registration site (https://dial.to/register). The image below shows all actions that have been licensed for registration.
Actions and Blinks
Vs. Farcaster Frames
After the release of the new features of Solana, many people naturally associate them with Farcaster’s Frames feature.
Jordan, an advisor at Solana Labs, believes that Blinks have incorporated some of the best ideas from Farcaster Frames, and Actions have incorporated some of the best ideas from Solana Pay transaction requests and Dialect smart messages, combining them to create something cool and unique.
Cryptocurrency KOL Ignas stated: Solana’s Actions and Blinks are similar to Frames on Farcaster, but
Blinks can be used on most platforms where most cryptocurrency users are
. (This round) Solana scores 10 points.
Cryptocurrency developer Aaron Elijah Mars commented, Will Farcaster Frames die? Farcaster Frames is an extension of Open Graph that can generate cool thumbnails on Twitter. It is an open standard, which means anyone can integrate it into their applications. Farcaster Frames can run anywhere and can integrate Blinks. On the other hand, Blinks require permission… Blinks focus on on-chain interactions, have very few custom features, and no interactivity, while Frames are very suitable for interactive content but lack proper on-chain integration. Their value propositions are completely different, and I think they can definitely coexist.
Some useful links
Solana official website interpretation: https://solana.com/solutions/actions
Solana documentation: https://solana.com/docs/advanced/actions
GitHub repository: https://github.com/solana-developers/solana-actions
Dialect Blinks extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/dialect-blinks/mhklkgpihchphohoiopkidjnbhdoilof
Currently registered actions: https://actions-registry.dialect.to/all
Action registration site: https://dial.to/register
Actions converted into Blinks URL: https://dial.to/