Light Protocol

Light Protocol operates as a blockchain infrastructure provider on the Solana network, offering a protocol that significantly reduces on-chain storage costs for decentralized applications. The company was established in 2019 and has its headquarters in Portalegre, Portugal. The founding team consists of childhood friends Swen Schaeferjohann and a co-founder named Joe. Their journey into the blockchain space began around 2017, and after experiencing the 2018 bear market, they were motivated to explore the fundamental utility of blockchain technology.

Initially conceived as a privacy solution similar to Tornado Cash on Ethereum, Light Protocol has since pivoted to focus on scalability through data compression. The core of its offering is "ZK Compression," a technique that leverages zero-knowledge proofs to compress on-chain state. This process involves storing the main data on the less expensive Solana ledger space while keeping only small cryptographic fingerprints, or state roots, in the more costly account space. This method can reduce state costs by orders of magnitude, making it substantially cheaper for developers to build applications that need to manage large amounts of data, such as those in DeFi, gaming, and NFTs. For example, creating 100 token accounts can be up to 5000 times cheaper using the protocol.

The protocol is designed to be composable, allowing developers to mix and match compressed state with regular on-chain state, enabling atomic interactions between various programs and accounts. While developers do not need to be experts in zero-knowledge proofs to use the compression feature, the protocol also supports custom ZK computation for more advanced applications. The system operates by moving privacy-sensitive computations off-chain, generating ZK proofs of these computations, and then having them verified on-chain without revealing the underlying transaction details. To ensure the integrity of its systems, Light Protocol has undergone multiple security audits from firms like OtterSec, Neodyme, and Zellic.

Light Protocol has successfully raised a total of $4.2 million in funding over two seed rounds. The most recent seed round on October 17, 2022, raised $4.2 million and was led by Polychain, with participation from other institutional investors like Solana Ventures, dlab, and SOSV, as well as angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan.

Keywords: Light Protocol, Solana, ZK compression, zero-knowledge proofs, blockchain infrastructure, on-chain state, data compression, scalability solution, decentralized applications, DeFi, NFTs, blockchain development, state cost reduction, Swen Schaeferjohann, Polychain, Solana Ventures, dlab, SOSV, private transactions, ZK layer, cryptographic proofs, Web3 scaling