Solana Programs: Pinocchio & Anchor Implementations

Learning Solana development by building the same programs twice. Once with Pinocchio and once with Anchor.

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What This Is

A collection of Solana programs implemented in both Pinocchio and Anchor to understand what frameworks abstract away. Ideally, to understand what Anchor is doing under the hood and how things actually work.

Goal: Deep understanding through dual implementation.

What You'll Find Here

• Working code - Both implementations fully functional and tested (when marked as done)
• Side-by-side comparisons - Same logic, different approaches
• Real performance data - Compute units, binary sizes, development time
• Honest reflections - What's hard, what's easy, what surprised me
• Testing examples - Using LiteSVM, Mollusk, and Surfpool for fast, isolated tests

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Programs Done So Far (Updated as I Go)

1. Vault Program

• Pinocchio (with LiteSVM tests)
• Anchor (in progress)

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Structure

solana-programs/
├── vault/
│   ├── pinocchio-vault/    
│   ├── anchor-vault/      
│   └── README.md         
├── escrow/
│   ├── pinocchio-escrow/
│   ├── anchor-escrow/
│   └── README.md
├── ...
└── README.md               # This file

Each program folder contains:

• Pinocchio implementation - Manual validation, zero-copy, no-std
• Anchor implementation - Macros, automatic validation, IDL
• Comparison README - Side-by-side analysis, learnings, benchmarks

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Why Both?

Aspect	Pinocchio	Anchor
Learning	How Solana actually works	How to ship fast
Control	Complete	Framework-guided
Development	Slower, explicit	Faster, implicit
Use Case	Core infrastructure, learning	Applications, production

Building both reveals the trade-offs and teaches the fundamental concepts that frameworks abstract away.

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

solana --version  
rustc --version  
anchor --version 

Run Any Program

Pinocchio:

cd <program>/pinocchio-<program>
cargo build-sbf
cargo test -- --show-output

Anchor:

cd <program>/anchor-<program>
anchor build
anchor test

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Key Learnings

What Pinocchio Teaches

• Manual account validation = security fundamentals
• Zero-copy patterns (&'a AccountInfo)
• Explicit CPI mechanics (invoke_signed)
• PDA derivation and signing
• Instruction data parsing (discriminators, serialization)

What Anchor Teaches

• Productivity vs control trade-offs
• When abstraction helps vs hurts
• Framework patterns and conventions
• Rapid iteration workflows

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Testing

All programs use modern, fast testing frameworks:

• LiteSVM: https://www.litesvm.com/docs/getting-started
• Mollusk: https://github.com/anza-xyz/mollusk
• Surfpool:https://surfpool.run/

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Roadmap

• Vault (deposit/withdraw SOL)
• Escrow (atomic token swaps)
• AMM (constant product)
• Voting DAO (proposal & voting)
• NFT Staking
• Prediction Market

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Context

Part of my learning journey (just weekend and fun stuff). Each program deepens understanding of:

• Account model & ownership
• Deeper understanding of Rust
• Key standard procedures for building performant programs
• Transaction processing
• Runtime mechanics
• Gaining vast knowledge and experience

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Contributing

This is a learning repository, so it'll be filled with lots of comments. Feedback, questions, and corrections are welcome!

• Suggest improvements or corrections
• Please help me test it and comment on improvements
• Ask questions about implementation choices