Lighter CEO on 'Democratizing Finance' with a zero-fee, ZK perp DEX

In episode 8 of The Big Brain Podcast, Lighter founder Vladimir Novakovski explains why he built a zero-fee, ZK-powered perp DEX as an Ethereum L2, how it stacks up against CEXs and rival perp chains, and what they learned from recent market stress ahead of their token launch.

OUTLINE
00:00 – Introduction
04:50 – What Lighter is
06:15 – Why Ethereum L2 and ZK
11:03 – Zero-fee retail model
18:11 – Robinhood relationship & RH Chain
20:30 – L1 vs L2 value capture
27:08 – TGE timing and token value
30:29 – DYDX, Hyperliquid and CEX vs DeFi
35:52 – 10/10 crash and LLP risk
39:50 – Infra upgrades and closing

Vladimir Novakovski –
Lighter –

Larry –
Namik –