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 Guest links: Vladimir Novakovski - https://x.com/vnovakovski Lighter - https://x.com/Lighter_xyz Show links: Larry - https://x.com/lawmaster Namik - https://x.com/NamikMuduroglu