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LZ4 is the Usain Bolt of compression algorithms. It decompresses at speeds exceeding 4 GB/s on modern hardware — roughly 10x faster than gzip. The tradeoff: files are about 10-20% larger than gzip output. For applications where decompression speed matters more than file size (databases, real-time logging, filesystems), LZ4 is the clear winner.
The algorithm is used inside systems you interact with daily. ZFS and Btrfs filesystems use LZ4 for transparent compression. Linux kernel supports LZ4 for initramfs and kernel compression. Facebook, Apple, and dozens of databases use LZ4 for internal data compression where speed is critical.
For compressing/decompressing files: `lz4 file` compresses, `lz4 -d file.lz4` decompresses. The CLI tool is available via package managers on all platforms. 7-Zip also handles LZ4 files on Windows.