RIADeFi
Refusal file · other

Why Ketju rejected Lighter Bridge (zkLighter)

Memo v1Published by Ketju Research

A registry memo, published verbatim and versioned. Superseded versions are recorded, never edited away. A rejection is a judgment for Ketju's client base and thesis, not a universal safety claim. Not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice.

The memo

REJECTED ON OPERATIONAL CONCENTRATION AND RECENT LIVENESS FAILURES, NOT ON THE ARCHITECTURE. Lighter (zkLighter) is a custom application-specific ZK rollup for perpetual futures, using genuine SNARK validity proofs to verify every state transition — a stronger cryptographic guarantee against invalid state than Hyperliquid Bridge's custom validator consensus, already rejected in this registry. But sequencing and batch commitment are controlled by only three externally-owned accounts, not even a multisig, and a separate emergency multisig can collapse the standard 21-day upgrade timelock to zero — the same "no meaningful delay once an emergency path is invoked" pattern already priced into Base's cap, but here paired with genuinely thin operational protection rather than a disclosed council. Multiple proof-submission and state-update outages in July and August 2026, including one a week before this review, compound a live reliability concern on top of the governance gap. The proof system is a real strength that should make this a faster reopen than Hyperliquid or Unit once operational maturity catches up.

What would reopen the file

  • Sequencer or batch-commitment control moves from three externally-owned accounts to a disclosed multisig of at least 4-of-7 with named or institutionally-accountable operators
  • The emergency multisig's ability to zero out the 21-day upgrade timelock is removed or itself gated behind a minimum delay
  • Ninety consecutive days with no proof-submission or state-update outage exceeding one hour
  • A proposed-size withdrawal is demonstrated to clear under normal operation within a documented maximum time

Facts on file

Verdict
Rejected
Exposure
other
Chains examined
Ethereum
Memo version
v1
Reviewed
Next review

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