Solana Introduces Blinks Feature Seamlessly Embedding Social Media into OnChain Operations

How to describe Solana?
Rebirth from the ruins of FTX, gathering place for golden dogs, cheap and easy to use… These tags close to assets, obviously cannot fully describe the ambition of Solana.
It does chain and mobile, and now even wants to enter social media.
Yesterday, Solana announced another new product (or technology stack) — Solana Blink, which converts any on-chain operation into a shareable link and can be embedded in any social media and website.
From the name, Blink is actually an abbreviation for Blockchain Links, which means the aforementioned shareable links; but the abbreviation Blink (meaning blink) is a pun:
On-chain operations, just a blink away.
Just a link to embed on-chain activities in social media, doesn’t it sound a bit like Farcaster?
Like, but not exactly the same.
Brief introduction of Actions and Blinks
Actions used to be called Solana Pay transactions. The more extensive term “Actions” expands the initial use case of payments to cover other operations such as minting, swapping, voting, and more.
Blinks (blockchain links) transform Actions into shareable, metadata-rich links, and the client (user interface part of the application) can display more features for user interaction.
Actions and Blinks can be distributed in various formats: links, QR codes, push notifications, messaging apps, etc.
This integration is jointly developed by Dialect Labs, a company focused on messaging, notifications, and in-app operations products.
Actual operation display of Actions and Blinks
The best way to experience new features is to view real-time examples! If you are interested in viewing these examples, install the Phantom or Backpack extensions on your desktop.
Phantom (crypto wallet) shared a real-time example, using blink to allow users to purchase Bonk using SOL.
Jupiter also shared a real-time example, using blink to allow users to purchase Jupiter tokens using SOL.
These initial examples are not only cool – they have a wide and exciting impact on the future development.
Making onchain easier: pros and cons of blinks
The benefits of Actions and Blinks are obvious. They make on-chain transactions easier, expand channels of awareness and acquisition, and they are flexible enough to be used in various applications and platforms, such as X, Discord, etc.
Fewer clicks = more convenience = higher possibility of action or participation
In the future, the following situations may arise:
Projects can launch their minting activities on mature markets such as Opensea or Magic Eden, as well as platforms such as Discord, Telegram, and X, or only on the latter.
Projects and their respective community members can create new interactive modes around participation, gamification, and recommendations.
New users entering the crypto and Web3 space will experience on-chain operations for the first time through simple and friendly tutorial modules on trusted applications, rather than crypto wallet extensions.
On the other hand, this new feature also raises some concerns, especially in platforms like X, where the biggest issue is that Blinks may make scams more rampant. Imagine a world where celebrities can launch their memecoins with a few clicks and then promote them through Blinks (PS: The trend of celebrity coins has not stopped: Jason Derulo, Travis Barker, and 50 Cent have recently launched their own tokens, sigh).
As expected and fortunately, Solana has already realized the potential risks and abuses, so they have implemented some protective measures during the initial launch:
At launch, extension partners (Phantom, Backpack, Dialect) will only “unfold” registered Action URLs on X. Developers must register their Actions with Dialect, and Blinks will present additional user interface features to enhance security.
Users must choose a wallet that supports Actions and Blinks, as this is an experimental feature.
If users try to connect to a domain that is not whitelisted, they will be prompted to confirm trust in the site before continuing the operation.
Powerful capabilities come with great responsibility, and fortunately, Solana understands the attractiveness of Actions and Blinks for mainstream adoption, while also realizing their potential for abuse, so they have taken a slow approach to their rollout.
Onchain activity = one link
From public content, the biggest difference between Solana’s Blink and Farcaster’s Warpcast application lies in universal adaptation.
What does universal adaptation mean?
In simple terms, Solana itself does not create a dAPP, but only provides the ability to universalize on-chain behavior links. You can place it on any popular, mainstream, and commonly used social media through Blink; I don’t care about traffic, I just use existing huge traffic.
Compared to that, Twitter is more mainstream, and crypto Twitter posts themselves have their own audience and circles, so choosing to focus here is also a competitive advantage.
Of course, who can be better is probably not answerable, each has its own strengths and audience; but one thing is not wrong:
Everyone thinks the same, and at the end of the circle, social support is indispensable.
In the current poor state of the crypto experience, expanding new colonies to attract more users is a necessary step.
Smart you, who’s spaceship will you board?