Solana infrastructure company Helius acquires LightProtocol to advance online privacy infrastructure

Solana infrastructure company Helius announced the acquisition of LightProtocol, whose team will refocus on developing Solana privacy solutions. Founded in 2021, LightProtocol initially focused on Solana privacy tools based on zero-knowledge proofs, and later shifted to co-developing ZKCompression with Helius. The solution will be launched in 2024 and aims to reduce data storage costs on the Solana chain through zero-knowledge proof and support large-scale consumer and enterprise-level applications. The acquisition will push Light back to its original mission, combining its cryptographic capabilities with Helius's infrastructure and distribution advantages to develop the ZK privacy protocol for Solana, covering scenarios such as private payments and private DeFi. Helius plans to open up its privacy infrastructure to developers in the coming months. The transaction took place against the backdrop of accelerating consolidation in the crypto industry and tightening the financing environment. It also echoed the trend of rising demand for privacy on the chain. Helius founder Mert Mumtaz said that privacy will become an important foundation for blockchain to scale like HTTPS is to the Internet.