The Metaplex Foundation revealed on Monday that it is launching a new non-fungible token (NFT) standard for Solana that’s cheaper to make and easier for developers to work with – and that’s crucial: given recent congestionit also requires significantly fewer Solana network computers.
The Metaplex Core standard, which the Foundation shares exclusively with Declutteris billed as a next-generation NFT standard for the Solana network, reducing coin costs and network demand by more than 80% compared to the existing Token Metadata standard on Solana.
“Core is the result of our learnings since we introduced the first Solana NFT standard in early 2021,” said Stephen Hess, director of the Metaplex Foundation. Declutter. “It rethinks the concept of digital assets on Solana from the ground up, optimizing cost, extensibility and performance.”
Minting an NFT with the Core standard could cost as little as 0.0037 SOL (about $0.70), the Foundation said as an example, compared to 0.0220 SOL ($4.25) with the Token Metadata standard. While Solana’s Bubblegum standard for compressed NFTs (or cNFTs) remains cheaper, it also has certain drawbacks and is still only intended for large-scale mints.
Metaplex Core is focused entirely on NFTs, not fungible tokens, and as a result has been significantly streamlined for developer use. While the Token Metadata standard requires communicating with multiple Solana accounts, Core reduces that total to just one – something that Metaplex says can “improve network performance for Solana more broadly.”
But streamlined doesn’t mean limited, the Foundation suggests. That’s because Metaplex Core comes with substantial plugin support, allowing developers to add several additional features such as “built-in staking” and “asset-based points systems,” according to a release.
Further documentation shared with Declutter shows that Core could unlock advanced collection mechanisms on Solana, such as burn-to-mint functionality that covers many more assets – up to potentially 70 NFTs burned in a single transaction. That’s an increase from just 3-4 NFTs at a time using the Token Metadata standard.
The Foundation said that collection-level changes will also be easier with Core, and that the standard will also enable improved compatibility between NFT standards on other chains via potential plugins from cross-chain projects such as LayerZero or Wormhole.
Metaplex is deploying the Core standard on Devnet on Monday, along with releasing the open source code, with plans to have the standard ready on Solana Mainnet by NFT NYC in early April. Claynosaurz says it will use Core for its NFT NYC “Booster Packs,” as well as its Dactyl Raffle, while NFT marketplace Tensor has already committed to supporting the standard.
“We named the program Core because we see it as central to the next wave of innovation in digital assets, supporting thousands of artists, communities, Web3 games, real-world assets and decentralized applications,” Hess added to. “Now that Core has been activated on devnet, we are excited to partner with a battle-hardened builder community and the next generation of entrepreneurs who are proving what is only possible in real-time on Solana.”
In addition to the launch of the new standard, the Metaplex Foundation has committed to deposit 50% of the total costs of the Metaplex protocol into the Metaplex protocol. DAO treasury via the MPLX token. That means the community can vote on how the money is ultimately used for further adoption.
The MPLX token was launched on Solana in September 2022 and broadcast to creators who have used the protocol in the past, but the token itself has not had any significant use thus far. The Metaplex Foundation will use 50% of all previous protocol fees to purchase MPLX and give it to the DAO treasury, with 50% of future fees used for the same purpose.
The community of MPLX token holders can then collectively decide what to do with those funds, whether it be burning the money to reduce supply, developing staking rewards, or other possible steps forward.