Bankless Is Lighter Ethereum's L2 Perp DEX? | Founder Vlad Novakovski
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Oct 16, 2025 
Vladimir Novakovski, Founder and CEO of Lighter, discusses his cutting-edge ZK Layer-2 perpetual DEX on Ethereum. He reveals how Lighter's escape hatch protects users during mishaps, and shares insights from a recent $19B liquidation wave. The conversation dives into the importance of verifiable order matching and liquidation fairness for traders. Vlad also highlights Lighter's unique architecture, future plans for spot trading, and the balance between security and performance in the DeFi landscape.
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L2 Grants Security Without Reinventing It
- Building an L2 inherits Ethereum's security and verifiability while keeping high performance.
- Turning that L2 into an L1 would discard the hard work of maintaining those guarantees.
Escape Hatch Plus ZK Proofs Protect Funds
- Lighter uses an escape hatch so users can withdraw to Ethereum if the L2 misbehaves or is hacked.
- Verifiable ZK proofs on L1 ensure assets only move if proofs validate, protecting users programmatically.
Verifiable Matching Is A Trader-First Guarantee
- Matching and liquidation processes must be verifiable to prevent unfair fills and wealth transfers.
- ZK circuits enforce time-price-priority and fair liquidations so traders can trust execution.