The Light Token Program (Beta)

Light token 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.

1. Light-mints and token accounts are equivalent to SPL mints and tokens.
2. The key difference is light-mint and token accounts do not require you to pay rent-exemption upon creation.
3. Light token accounts are interoperable with SPL and Token 2022 mints.

Creation Cost

	SPL	Light
Mint Account	~1,500,000 lamports	15,000 lamports
Token Account	~2,000,000 lamports	~11,000 lamports

CU Performance

	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

Mint Accounts

Uniquely represent a token and store its global metadata. Light-mints are compressed accounts and rent-free.

Token Accounts

Each light-token account can hold units of one light, SPL, or Token 2022 mint. Custom rent config reduces account creation cost.

If you simply want to distribute tokens, please refer to this page.

Quickstart

1. Installation

   npm

   Install packages in your working directory:

   npm install @lightprotocol/stateless.js@alpha \
               @lightprotocol/compressed-token@alpha
   

   Install the CLI globally:

   npm install -g @lightprotocol/zk-compression-cli@alpha
   

   yarn

   Install packages in your working directory:

   yarn add @lightprotocol/stateless.js@alpha \
            @lightprotocol/compressed-token@alpha
   

   Install the CLI globally:

   yarn global add @lightprotocol/zk-compression-cli@alpha
   

   pnpm

   Install packages in your working directory:

   pnpm add @lightprotocol/stateless.js@alpha \
            @lightprotocol/compressed-token@alpha
   

   Install the CLI globally:

   pnpm add -g @lightprotocol/zk-compression-cli@alpha
   
2. Get Started

   Mint tokens in under 3 minutes.

Integration Toolkits

for Stablecoin Payments	Process payments and transfers using light-token
for Wallets	Allow your users to store and swap tokens more efficiently
for Streaming Mints	Stream light-mint accounts
for Indexing Tokens	Index light-token accounts

Cookbook

		TypeScript Client	Rust Client	Program Guide
Create Mint	Create light-mints with token metadata	x	x	x
Create ATA	Create associated light-token accounts	x	x	x
Create Token Account	Create light-token accounts		x	x
Mint To	Mint tokens to light-token accounts	x	x	x
Close Token Account	Close and reclaim rent		x	x
Transfer	Transfer between light-token and SPL accounts	x	x	x
Wrap & Unwrap	Convert between SPL/T22 and light-token	x

Next Steps

Explore Frequently Answered Questions