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An EVM Developer's Guide to Solana Proving

Ethereum (EVM) Proof System​

In Ethereum, you have:

  • State Root: Merkle root of the entire state trie at a given block
  • Receipt Root: Merkle root of all transaction receipts in a block
  • Merkle Proofs: You can prove inclusion of any state or event by providing a merkle path

This allows for stateless verification - you can prove something happened without having the full state.

Solana (SVM) Proof System​

Solana deliberately avoids merkleization for performance reasons, but provides proofs through different mechanisms:

1. Account State Proofs​

Instead of a global state root, Solana uses:

  • Account Hash: Each account has a hash based on its data, lamports, owner, etc.
  • Bank Hash: A hash of all account states at a given slot
  • Accounts Delta Hash: Hash of state changes within a slot

2. Transaction Confirmation Proofs​

For proving transactions occurred:

  • Transaction Signatures: Cryptographic proof the transaction was included
  • Slot Confirmation: Validators attest to the slot's validity
  • Vote Records: Validator consensus proofs stored on-chain

3. Program Log Verification​

For events/logs (equivalent to Ethereum events):

  • Program Logs: Stored in transaction metadata
  • Return Data: Programs can return data that gets included in transaction results
  • Account State Changes: Before/after snapshots of affected accounts
info

Polymer prioritizes event proofs for EVM chains, given their developer experience and proving costs. For consistency, we follow a similar approach with Solana by using Program Log verification with Confirmation proofs. (See Trust Considerations next)

How EVM Log Proof Work​


Block Header
├── Receipt Root (merkle root of all transaction receipts)
│
Transaction Receipts Trie
├── Receipt 0
│   ├── status, gasUsed, logsBloom
│   └── logs: [
│       {
│         address: "0x123...",
│         topics: ["0xEventHash", "0xIndexedParam1", ...],
│         data: "0x..."
│       }
│   ]

How SVM Log Proofs Work​

Slot N (confirmed slot 2/3+ stake-weighted validators)
├── Block Hash = hash(previous_hash, entries[], accounts_delta_hash)
    └── Transaction[i] = {signatures[], message, meta}
        └── TransactionMeta = {
            err: Option<Error>,
            logs: Vec<String>,           // ← Program-emitted logs
            return_data: Option<Data>,   // ← Structured program output
            pre_balances: Vec<u64>,
            post_balances: Vec<u64>,
            pre_token_balances: Vec<TokenBalance>,
            post_token_balances: Vec<TokenBalance>
        }
            └── Log[j] = "Program {program_id} invoke [depth]" |
                        "Program log: {custom_message}" |
                        "Program {program_id} success/failed"