Light Protocol Development Guide

Build scalable, cost-efficient applications on Solana with Light Protocol - the infrastructure platform enabling rent-free tokens and accounts with L1 performance and security.

Overview

Light Protocol provides two complementary technologies:

• ZK Compression: Create rent-free compressed tokens and PDAs using zero-knowledge proofs. Uses Merkle trees and validity proofs to store state efficiently.
• Light Token Program: A high-performance token standard that reduces mint and token account costs by 200x compared to SPL tokens.

Key Benefits

Program IDs

Quick Start

Installation

# Install TypeScript SDKs
npm install @lightprotocol/stateless.js @lightprotocol/compressed-token

# Install CLI for local development
npm install -g @lightprotocol/zk-compression-cli

RPC Setup

Light Protocol requires a ZK Compression-enabled RPC. Use Helius:

import { Rpc, createRpc } from "@lightprotocol/stateless.js";

// Mainnet
const rpc = createRpc(
  "https://mainnet.helius-rpc.com?api-key=<YOUR_API_KEY>",
  "https://mainnet.helius-rpc.com?api-key=<YOUR_API_KEY>"
);

// Devnet
const devnetRpc = createRpc(
  "https://devnet.helius-rpc.com?api-key=<YOUR_API_KEY>",
  "https://devnet.helius-rpc.com?api-key=<YOUR_API_KEY>"
);

Basic Setup

import { Rpc, createRpc } from "@lightprotocol/stateless.js";
import {
  createMint,
  mintTo,
  transfer,
} from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token";
import { Keypair, PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";

// Initialize RPC connection
const rpc = createRpc(process.env.RPC_ENDPOINT!, process.env.RPC_ENDPOINT!);

// Load wallet
const payer = Keypair.fromSecretKey(
  Uint8Array.from(JSON.parse(process.env.PRIVATE_KEY!))
);

console.log("Connected to Light Protocol");
console.log("Wallet:", payer.publicKey.toBase58());

ZK Compression

ZK Compression enables rent-free compressed tokens using zero-knowledge proofs. Compressed accounts are stored in Merkle trees and verified using validity proofs.

Create Compressed Token Mint

import { createMint } from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token";
import { Keypair } from "@solana/web3.js";

const payer = Keypair.generate();
const mintAuthority = payer;

// Create mint with token pool for compression
const { mint, transactionSignature } = await createMint(
  rpc,
  payer,           // Fee payer
  mintAuthority.publicKey,  // Mint authority
  9,               // Decimals
);

console.log("Mint created:", mint.toBase58());
console.log("Transaction:", transactionSignature);

Mint Compressed Tokens

import { mintTo } from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token";

const recipient = new PublicKey("...");
const amount = 1_000_000_000; // 1 token with 9 decimals

const transactionSignature = await mintTo(
  rpc,
  payer,           // Fee payer
  mint,            // Mint with token pool
  recipient,       // Recipient address
  mintAuthority,   // Mint authority (signer)
  amount,          // Amount to mint
);

console.log("Minted:", transactionSignature);

Mint to Multiple Recipients

const recipients = [
  new PublicKey("recipient1..."),
  new PublicKey("recipient2..."),
  new PublicKey("recipient3..."),
];

const amounts = [
  1_000_000_000,
  2_000_000_000,
  3_000_000_000,
];

const transactionSignature = await mintTo(
  rpc,
  payer,
  mint,
  recipients,      // Array of recipients
  mintAuthority,
  amounts,         // Array of amounts (must match recipients length)
);

Transfer Compressed Tokens

import { transfer } from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token";

const recipient = new PublicKey("...");
const amount = 500_000_000; // 0.5 tokens

const transactionSignature = await transfer(
  rpc,
  payer,           // Fee payer
  mint,            // Mint with token pool
  amount,          // Amount to transfer
  sender,          // Token owner (signer)
  recipient,       // Destination address
);

console.log("Transferred:", transactionSignature);

Note: Compressed token transfers use a consume-and-create model. Input accounts are consumed and new output accounts are created with updated balances.

Compress SPL Tokens

Convert existing SPL tokens to compressed format:

import { compress, compressSplTokenAccount } from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token";

// Compress specific amount to a recipient
const transactionSignature = await compress(
  rpc,
  payer,
  mint,
  amount,
  owner,           // SPL token owner
  recipient,       // Compressed token recipient
  tokenAccount,    // Source SPL token account
);

// Compress entire SPL token account (reclaim rent)
const tx = await compressSplTokenAccount(
  rpc,
  payer,
  mint,
  owner,
  tokenAccount,
  // Optional: amount to keep in SPL format
);

Decompress to SPL Tokens

Convert compressed tokens back to SPL format:

import { decompress } from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token";

const transactionSignature = await decompress(
  rpc,
  payer,
  mint,
  amount,
  owner,           // Compressed token owner (signer)
  recipient,       // SPL token recipient
);

Query Compressed Accounts

// Get all compressed token accounts for an owner
const tokenAccounts = await rpc.getCompressedTokenAccountsByOwner(
  owner.publicKey,
  { mint }
);

console.log("Token accounts:", tokenAccounts.items.length);

// Calculate total balance
const totalBalance = tokenAccounts.items.reduce(
  (sum, account) => sum + BigInt(account.parsed.amount),
  BigInt(0)
);
console.log("Total balance:", totalBalance.toString());

// Get compressed account balance
const balance = await rpc.getCompressedTokenAccountBalance(accountHash);

// Get validity proof for transaction
const proof = await rpc.getValidityProof(compressedAccountHashes);

Create Token Pool for Existing Mint

Add compression support to an existing SPL mint:

import { createTokenPool } from "@lightprotocol/compressed-token";

// Add token pool to existing SPL mint
// Note: Does NOT require mint authority
const transactionSignature = await createTokenPool(
  rpc,
  payer,           // Fee payer
  existingMint,    // Existing SPL mint
);

Light Token Program

The Light Token Program is a separate high-performance token standard that reduces costs without ZK proofs. It's optimized for hot paths and provides wrap/unwrap interoperability with SPL tokens.

Key Differences from ZK Compression

Create Light Token Mint

import { createLightMint } from "@lightprotocol/light-token";

const { mint, transactionSignature } = await createLightMint(
  rpc,
  payer,
  mintAuthority.publicKey,
  9,  // decimals
);

console.log("Light mint created:", mint.toBase58());

Mint to Light-A