🚨 Lighter AMA Recap 🚨 I listened closely to @vnovakovski during the latest community AMA for @Lighter_xyz. Here’s a full breakdown of the most important takeaways: from the community airdrop to the TGE timeline, the fee model, scalability, and why this is incredibly bullish for Lighter’s future. Summary: Still 3–5 weeks left to farm points before Season 1 ends, and 0 fees for retail traders, permanently. 1⃣ Community Airdrop - The community bucket is completely separate from investors and team allocations. - Investors are not touching what’s reserved for users. - Expect the community airdrop to be large. Season 1 points wrap with the end of private beta, and Season 2 (public launch) will come with clearer guidelines. - Weekly announcements already show who’s earning, but the real details will come after launch. 2⃣ TGE Timeline - Rumors said Q4 2025, and that’s still the target. - The roadmap is on track: audits, API polish, and bug fixes are the last steps before mainnet. - On track is the key word: the team expects TGE once spot trading and other critical infrastructure are ready. 3⃣ Fee Model (How Lighter makes money) - Retail traders (you and me): Zero maker, zero taker, permanently. Free to trade just like Robinhood. So, definitely, no fees for retail traders even in public. That means no trading fees at all for everyday users. Just like Robinhood made stock trading free. ⚠️ This isn’t a temporary promotion. it’s a core principle of the platform. The business model is designed so that retail always trades free. - Market makers & HFTs: A “premium tier” with small fees (e.g. ~0.02 bps for makers, slightly higher for takers). - The logic: if a market maker is making $100k/day, paying fees and keeping $80k/day is still highly profitable. - This is how Lighter captures revenue without hurting the trading experience for the community. 4⃣ Farming Timeline - Farming via points continues until the end of private beta (roughly 3–5 weeks left). - After that, Season 1 ends, Season 2 begins with refined rules. - If you’re farming now, you’re still early. 5⃣ Roadmap Highlights -Real World Assets (RWAs) & Pre-launch markets: rolling out in the coming weeks. - Spot Trading: harder build, since it needs ZK circuit integration and shared collateral/sequencer with perps. Expected in months, not weeks. - Lending: will follow spot, enabling ERC-20s bridged to L2 to be used as collateral. - Options (including zero-day options): later in the pipeline, but targeted within the next year. - Goal: By mid-2026, Lighter could support the full DeFi stack on its L2. 6⃣ Scalability & Performance - Lighter already processes hundreds of millions of transactions per day through its ZK infra. - Performance is tracked via P50/P95/P99 dashboards, with dedicated engineers optimizing latency. - Bugs and bottlenecks are being fixed before public mainnet. - Scalability is not a roadblock. The hardest part (high-throughput perps engine) is already built. 7⃣ Mobile & UX - Native iOS/Android apps are on the roadmap. - Currently you can connect via QR, but feedback says UX is clunky. - A Robinhood-like mobile experience is a priority once beta wraps. 8⃣ ZK Circuits & Transparency - Circuits will be open-sourced after audits are complete. - Transparency and verifiability are core to Lighter’s design. 9⃣ Regulatory Outlook - Expansion to the US is on the radar, especially with positive signals expected as the new CFTC chair steps in this fall. - September/October could bring regulatory clarity that benefits DeFi as a whole. 🔟 Why This Is Bullish - Huge community allocation → strong alignment with users. - Zero fees for retail → best UX in the industry. - Scalable ZK infra → already handling massive throughput. - Composability with Ethereum → no need to reinvent Aave, Curve, etc., just plug into $100B+ DeFi liquidity. - Clear revenue model → sustainable, unlike yield-subsidized DeFi. - Roadmap → from RWAs to spot, lending, and options, building the full DeFi stack. 👉 The takeaway: - We’re still in private beta farming season (a few weeks left). - The TGE is on track for Q4. - The community airdrop will be big. - And Lighter is positioning itself not just as another DEX, but as the Ethereum-native ZK trading layer that can scale to the entire DeFi stack. Bullish. 🚀 If you need an invite code for Lighter, drop a comment below and I’ll share one. Thanks @manud_p @satoshiheist @hansolar21 for the space!