Light Token Standard (Beta)

Core Concepts of light-mints, light-tokens, and compressed token accounts.

The Light Token Program is a high performance token program that reduces the cost of account creations by 200x, while being more CU efficient than SPL on hot paths.

	Account Type	Key Features
Mint Accounts	Compressed account	Rent-free mint accounts (similar to SPL mints) Custom Token Metadata extension
Token Accounts	Solana account	Stores token balances of mints (SPL, Token-2022, or Light) Sponsored rent exemption via custom rent-config

Mint Accounts

• Light-mints are compressed accounts and cannot be decompressed. * SPL mints can not be compressed to light-mints.

Light-mints uniquely represent a token on Solana and store its global metadata, similar to SPL mint accounts with few core differences:

1. Light-mint accounts are rent-free.
2. Tokens created from light-mints are light-tokens.
3. Token metadata (name, symbol, URI) is stored as an extension in the struct.

Creation Cost	SPL	Light
Mint Account	~1,500,000 lamports	15,000 lamports

Diagram

Source Code

pub struct CompressedMint {
    // SPL mint layout
    pub base: BaseMint,
    // light-mint state used by the Compressed Token Program
    pub metadata: CompressedMintMetadata
    // Field for Token Metadata extension
    pub extensions: Option<Vec<ExtensionStruct>>,
}

Find the source code of light-mints here.

The metadata field is used by the Compressed Token Program to store the internal state of a light-mint.

The BaseMint field replicates the field layout and serialization format of SPL Mint accounts. The struct is serialized with Borsh to match the on-chain format of SPL tokens and mints.

Here is how light-mints and SPL mints compare:

Basemint vs SPL mint

Field	Light-Mint	SPL Mint
mint_authority	✓	✓
supply	✓	✓
decimals	✓	✓
is_initialized	✓	✓
freeze_authority	✓	✓
Light-Mint Data	✓	-
Extensions	✓	via Token-2022

BaseMint Struct

pub struct BaseMint {
    /// Optional authority used to mint new tokens. The mint authority may only
    /// be provided during mint creation. If no mint authority is present
    /// then the mint has a fixed supply and no further tokens may be
    /// minted.
    pub mint_authority: Option<Pubkey>,
    /// Total supply of tokens.
    pub supply: u64,
    /// Number of base 10 digits to the right of the decimal place.
    pub decimals: u8,
    /// Is initialized - for SPL compatibility
    pub is_initialized: bool,
    /// Optional authority to freeze token accounts.
    pub freeze_authority: Option<Pubkey>,
}

Token Account

Light token accounts are Solana accounts, not compressed accounts.

A light-token account holds token balances like SPL Token accounts:

• A wallet needs a light-token account for each light-mint, SPL mint, or Token 2022 mint it wants to hold, with the wallet address set as the light-token account owner.
• Each wallet can own multiple light-token accounts for the same light-mint.
• A light-token account can only have one owner and hold units of one light-mint.

Creation Cost	SPL	Light
Token Account	~2,000,000 lamports	~11,000 lamports

Additionally Light Token is more performant then SPL on hot paths:

	light-token CU	SPL-token CU
ATA Creation	4,348	14,194
Transfer (base path)	312	4,645
Transfer (rent-free hot path)	1,885	4,645

Diagram

Source Code

/// Ctoken account structure (with extensions).
pub struct CToken {
    pub mint: Pubkey,
    pub owner: Pubkey,
    pub amount: u64,
    pub delegate: Option<Pubkey>, // instruction not implemented yet
    pub state: u8,
    pub is_native: Option<u64>,
    pub delegated_amount: u64, // instruction not implemented yet
    pub close_authority: Option<Pubkey>,
    pub extensions: Option<Vec<ExtensionStruct>>, // Optional extensions e.g. compressible
}

Find the source code of light-tokens here.

Light token accounts replicate the field layout and serialization format of SPL Token accounts. The struct is serialized with Borsh to match the on-chain format of SPL tokens.

Here is how light-tokens and SPL tokens compare:

Field	Light Token	SPL Token Account
mint	✓	✓
owner	✓	✓
amount	✓	✓
delegate	unimplemented	✓
state	✓	✓
is_native	✓	✓
delegated_amount	unimplemented	✓
close_authority	✓	✓
extensions	✓	via Token-2022

Rent Config for Light Tokens

1. The rent-exemption for light-token account creation is sponsored by Light Protocol.
2. Transaction payer’s pay rent per rent-epoch (388 lamports for 1.5h)
   to keep accounts “active”.
3. “Inactive” accounts, where rent is below one epoch, are compressed
   and the rent-exemption can be claimed by the rent sponsor.
4. Transfers to inactive accounts “load” it with the same state (decompress).

This way rent is automatically paid when accounts are used:

Event	Total Cost	Payer	Time of Rent funded
Account Creation	~17,000 lamports	Transaction payer	Funds 24h rent
Automatic Top ups (when rent < 3h)	776 lamports	Transaction payer	Funds 3h rent
Load Account (when inactive)	~17,000 lamports	Transaction payer	Funds 24h rent

We recommend to use default values, but you can customize prepaid rent and top ups:

Associated Light Token Account

Associated light-token accounts (light-ATAs) follow the same pattern as associated token accounts (ATA):

• Each wallet needs its own light-token account to hold tokens from the same light-mint.
• The address for light-ATAs is deterministically derived with the owner’s address, light token program ID, and mint address.

let seeds = [
    owner.as_ref(),          // Wallet address (32 bytes)
    program_id.as_ref(),     // Compressed Token Program ID (32 bytes)
    mint.as_ref(),           // light-mint address (32 bytes)
    bump.as_ref(),           // Bump seed (1 byte)
];

Find the source code to associated light-token accounts here.

Compressed Token Account

Under the hood, compressed token accounts store token balance, owner, and other information of inactive light-tokens.

1. Light token accounts are automatically compressed/decompressed when active/inactive.
2. Any light-token or SPL token can be compressed/decompressed at will.

You can still use compressed tokens for token distribution. Learn more about this here.

Diagram

Source Code

pub struct TokenData {
    pub mint: Pubkey,
    pub owner: Pubkey,
    pub amount: u64,
    pub delegate: Option<Pubkey>,
    pub state: u8,
    /// Placeholder for TokenExtension tlv data (unimplemented)
    pub tlv: Option<Vec<u8>>,
}

Next Steps

Create Light Token Accounts