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Solana Protobuf Streams

You can find the schema here.

Remember that Solana blocks are produced with a target block time of 400ms, in practice resulting in high throughput of approximately 4,000 transactions per second while achieving a theoretical maximum of 65,000 transactions per second (TPS).

Structure of On-Chain Data​

The Solana Protobuf Streams provide three main message types for different use cases:

  • BlockMessage: Basic blocks, transactions, and rewards
  • TokenBlockMessage: Focused on token transfers and currency metadata
  • DexParsedBlockMessage: Specialized for DEX (Decentralized Exchange) activity

Block-Level Data​

Each block in the stream includes a BlockHeader with fields such as:

  • Slot: The slot number for this block
  • Hash: The unique identifier of the block
  • ParentSlot: The previous slot in the chain
  • Height: The block height
  • Timestamp: The Unix timestamp when this block was produced
  • ParentHash: The hash of the parent block

Transaction-Level Data​

Transactions across all stream types share common elements:

  • Signature: The transaction's unique signature
  • Status: The execution status (Success/Error)
  • Header: Transaction metadata including fees and signers
  • Index: Position within the block

Transactions contain various types of instructions, which are the core of Solana's execution model:

  • ProgramAccountIndex: The program being called
  • Data: Encoded instruction data
  • AccountIndexes: Accounts referenced by this instruction
  • BalanceUpdates: SOL balance changes from this instruction

Token Data​

The TokenBlockMessage stream provides detailed information about token transfers and balances:

  • Transfer: Records token movements with:

    • Amount: Number of tokens transferred
    • Sender: Source account
    • Receiver: Destination account
    • Authority: Account authorizing the transfer
    • Currency: Detailed token information

  • Currency: Rich metadata for each token, including:

    • Name, Symbol, Decimals
    • MintAddress: Token's mint account
    • MetadataAddress: Metadata program account
    • TokenCreators: Original creators of the token
    • NFT properties like SellerFeeBasisPoints and TokenStandard

The solana.tokens.proto topic uses this message type to share details of:

Account Addresses​

  • These are listed under the "Accounts" section of the transaction header.

Balance Updates​

  • These are listed under "BalanceUpdates", with each update linked to an account using the AccountIndex.

  • Each balance update has:

    • PreBalance: The balance of the account before the transaction.
    • PostBalance: The balance of the account after the transaction.
    • Currency Details: Information about the currency type (e.g., Solana (SOL), Wrapped Solana (WSOL)).

Balance Updates After Each Instruction​

  • These updates are shown under the "BalanceUpdates" section within each instruction of the transaction.
  • These updates reflect the immediate effect of an instruction on the balance of the involved wallets.
  • For example, if an instruction transfers a certain amount from one wallet to another, the balance update directly after this instruction will reflect the new balances for both wallets.

Balance Updates After the Entire Transaction​

  • These updates are shown under the "BalanceUpdates" section at the transaction level.
  • They show the final state of the balances after all instructions in that transaction have been executed.
  • This is essentially the final balance state of all wallets involved in that transaction.

DEX (Decentralized Exchange) Data​

The DexParsedBlockMessage stream is specialized for decentralized exchange activity:

  • DexInfo: Details about the exchange program

    • ProgramAddress: Address of the DEX program
    • ProtocolName: Name of the DEX
    • ProtocolFamily: Family of DEX protocols

  • DexTradeEvent: Records of trades executed on DEXs

    • Buy/Sell: Trade sides with amounts and accounts
    • Market: The trading pair information
    • Fee: Transaction fee
    • Royalty: Creator royalties paid

  • PoolLiquidityChangeEvent: Records changes to liquidity pools

    • BaseCurrency/QuoteCurrency: The pool's assets
    • ChangeAmount: Amount added or removed

Using This Stream in Python, JavaScript, and Go​

Python, JavaScript, and Go code samples can be used with these streams by changing the topic to one of:

The below is the topic -> message mapping :

  • solana.transactions.proto -> ParsedIdlBlockMessage
  • solana.tokens.proto -> TokenBlockMessage
  • solana.dextrades.proto -> DexParsedBlockMessage

The Python package bitquery-pb2-kafka-package includes all schema and is up to date so you don't have to manually install schema files.

Video Tutorial to Get Low Latency Solana Data via Kafka​

Video Tutorial to Get Real-time PumpSwap Trades via Bitquery Kafka Streams​