Bitquery CoreCast: Solana gRPC Streams

What is Bitquery gRPC for Solana and how is it different from RPC?

Bitquery gRPC for Solana is CoreCast (Smart gRPC Streams): a managed feed of indexed, decoded Solana activity delivered as Protobuf over gRPC to corecast.bitquery.io. You subscribe by topic (for example dex_trades, transfers, transactions) with server-side filters (addresses, mints, programs, thresholds), so you receive structured events not raw ledger blobs.

Solana RPC (JSON-RPC from a validator or provider) is the chain’s low-level API: getTransaction, getAccountInfo, getBlock, simulation, and base64 logs. You typically poll or subscribe per method, decode instructions and layouts yourself, and stitch together DEX or token context. CoreCast is optimized for low-latency, filtered market data; RPC is for generic chain access and tooling that already expects JSON-RPC. For GraphQL + WebSocket on the same indexed data, see real-time subscriptions and the streaming overview.

What are Smart gRPC Streams?

Bitquery Smart gRPC Streams provide low-latency, context-aware, topic-wise event delivery from the Solana blockchain. Unlike raw gRPC streams, Smart Streams enrich and filter events so your application receives only the data it needs (trades,balances, token context, program metadata). The data is sent in the protobuf format, the schema is publicly available as packages for easy parsing.

Why gRPC

• Low latency: stream RPCs for near real-time delivery.
• Strong typing: Protobuf contracts for stable schemas and efficient encoding.

Topics

Bitquery exposes multiple topics so you subscribe only to what you need:

• transactions: Finalized transactions with instructions, logs, and status.
• transfers: All token transfers with token context.
• dex_trades: DEX trade/swaps across supported protocols.
• dex_orders: Order lifecycle updates where applicable.
• dex_pools: Pool creation/updates and liquidity changes.
• balances: Balance updates for tracked accounts and mints.

Each topic supports context-aware filters and consistent identifiers for easy correlation across streams.

Context-aware filtering

Filters are required to use Smart gRPC Streams. You must specify at least one filter per subscription; empty filter sets are rejected. Select exactly what to stream by combining filters. Common options include:

• addresses: senders, receivers, owners, program_ids
• tokens: Mint addresses (e.g., WSOL, USDC) and token standards
• value thresholds: Minimal amounts in native or token units
• markets/pools: By protocol, pool, or market identifiers (for DEX topics)

Filters are applied server-side to reduce bandwidth and speed up downstream processing.

How does CoreCast differ from Yellowstone gRPC?

Triton, Helius (LaserStream) and QuickNode all serve Yellowstone gRPC, the open protocol of the Solana Geyser plugin. Yellowstone streams raw updates: accounts, slots, transactions, blocks and entries. Instruction and account data arrive as bytes, and your client decodes them for each program, as Triton's parsing guide describes. Bitquery CoreCast decodes on the server and sends one topic per kind of event.

	Bitquery CoreCast	Yellowstone gRPC
One message is	A decoded event: a DEX trade with both sides and the pool, a transfer, a balance change, or a transaction with IDL-parsed instructions	A raw account, slot, transaction, block or entry update
DEX trades	The dex_trades topic covers Pump.fun, Raydium, Orca, Jupiter and more	Your client decodes each DEX program's instructions
Transaction filter	program (an outer or inner instruction calls it) and signer	account_include, account_exclude and account_required (any account the transaction uses), plus vote, failed and signature
No filter set	The stream is rejected	Every transaction is sent
Account state, slots, entries	Not streamed; the balances topic carries balance changes	Streamed
Start point	The moment you connect; there is no start-slot or replay option	Depends on the provider; Helius LaserStream, for example, offers replay

Pick CoreCast when your bot needs trades, transfers or balances and you do not want to keep a parser for every DEX program. Pick a Yellowstone provider when you need raw account state, slot or entry updates, or replay from an earlier slot.

Quick Start Examples

• JS Example
• Python Example
• Go Sample

Quickstart (YAML config example)

Use a minimal configuration to subscribe to Solana transfers for specific addresses and tokens. Note: at least one filter is mandatory.

server:
  address: "corecast.bitquery.io"
  authorization: "<your_api_token>"
  insecure: false

stream:
  type: "transfers" # one of: transactions, transfers, dex_trades, dex_orders, dex_pools, balances

filters:
  signers:
    - "7epLWkFd7xo18k4a4ySmN2UiiAFELDTV2ZNYAedCNh" # example address

Get your API token: Generate one at https://account.bitquery.io/user/api_v2/access_tokens

Schema for the Data

• If you are a first time Bitquery user, schema is available in the files below

  • Solana
  • corecast

• If you are a Kafka user, the schema is the same as the Kafka schema, you only need the corecast schema

The schema need not be downloaded, we have it as packages for install in NPM and PYPI.

• Python pip install bitquery-corecast-proto
• Node npm install bitquery-corecast-proto

Is Solana gRPC (CoreCast) streaming included in the free trial?

CoreCast uses the same V2 API tokens as the GraphQL IDE (create a token; see authentication). Whether Solana gRPC streaming is enabled for your workspace, and how it relates to the 7-day free trial or points, depends on your plan and account entitlements; it is not guaranteed to be unlimited or identical to self-serve GraphQL limits. Check pricing and Points; if you need access or a trial, use Account → Billing or contact sales@bitquery.io.

Does Bitquery support gRPC for chains other than Solana?

At present, Bitquery provides gRPC streaming exclusively for Solana. However, the platform is architected to support gRPC on other blockchains as well. If you require gRPC streaming for a blockchain outside of Solana, please reach out to the Bitquery sales team at sales@bitquery.io to explore custom solutions.