Overview

Closing accounts offloads the validators, which makes the network run smoothly. Users are rewarded in SOL for closing unused accounts.

Closing accounts is a standard functionality of the Solana network, therefore we can leverage the power of the standard programs, more specifically the SPL (Solana Program Library).

The SPL program is a collection of instructions used for creating and managing tokens, both fungibles and NFTs. One of those instructions is the closeAccount.

Closing Solana Accounts

Closing accounts enables you to reclaim the SOL that was used to open the account but requires deleting of all information in the account.

The process of closing an account is straightforward: generate the instructions using the SPL program; create and sign the transaction using the instructions created;

The process is different when the account holds any data. In that case, we need to generate also a burn instruction to empty the account before closing it.

Rewards

Since the conception of Solana, the devs had in mind this account system. The main reason for the system be called RENT and not TAX is that you just have to pay while you are using it. This incentivizes users to close their accounts, signaling to the network that those accounts are not used anymore and can be freed.

The price of renting an account is relative to the data stored on the account, but for fungible tokens, the usual price is 0.00203928.

This value doesn't seem much. And in fact is very small. But the fact of it being so low and we barely can feel its impact makes so we never take it into account. But when you look at the number of tokens in your wallet and make the counts you see that you have a saving that you didn't know.

It's not hard to hit the hundreds of tokens in your wallet on Solana. The lower gas fee, the speed, and the developer experience facilitate that. Just for comparison, 250 tokens cost ~0.5 SOL in rent.