> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.zkcompression.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Overview of core concepts

> Learn about Light Token and ZK Compression Core.

## What is Light Token?

Light token is a high-performance token standard that is functionally equivalent to SPL, but stores mint and token accounts more efficiently. This reduces account creation cost while being more CU efficient than SPL on hot paths.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Learn about the Light Token Standard" icon="graduation-cap" href="/learn/light-token-standard" horizontal />

  <Card title="FAQ" icon="circle-question" href="/faq" horizontal />
</CardGroup>

## What is ZK Compression?

ZK Compression is a Solana account primitive that lets you create tokens and PDAs without rent-exemption cost with L1 performance and security.
The Light Token Program uses ZK Compression under the hood.

Storage cost of Solana accounts are reduced by combining generalized state compression and <Tooltip tip="A cryptographic proof to verify the validity of a statement without revealing the underlying data. ZK Compression uses a Groth16 SNARK zk proof with a constant 128 bytes size">zero-knowledge proofs</Tooltip>.

<Steps>
  <Step title="State Compression">
    State compression stores account data on the Solana ledger instead of in millions of on-chain accounts. Only a small fingerprint of all accounts is stored on-chain for cryptographic integrity. Using Light Protocol, programs can use the account data inside Solana's virtual machine as if it were stored on-chain.
  </Step>

  <Step title="ZK">
    The protocol uses 128 byte zero-knowledge proofs (validity proofs) to verify the integrity of
    the compressed accounts. By default, this is all done under the hood. You can fetch validity
    proofs from RPC providers that support ZK Compression.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Card title="Learn about ZK Compression Core" icon="graduation-cap" color="#0066ff" href="/learn/core-concepts" horizontal />