Lighter vs Uniswap

Lighter is a fully-verifiable decentralized exchange built as a zero-knowledge rollup on Ethereum, delivering high-frequency trading performance with onchain security and composability. Its custom ZK circuits prove every operation — including order matching and liquidations — with millisecond latency and the ability to process tens of thousands of orders per second. The optimized matching engine enables zero fees for retail traders and highly competitive pricing for high-frequency strategies, while deposits, withdrawals and proofs are verified publicly on Ethereum. Lighter's mainnet is live, offering low-cost, low-latency perpetual trading backed by transparent, cryptographically-secured settlement.

Uniswap V4 rebuilds the protocol as a ‘Singleton’ contract and introduces programmable ‘hooks’ that let pools execute arbitrary logic before and after swaps. The redesign cuts gas costs by 15‑25 % and should open the door for new order types like TWAMMs and on‑chain limit orders. V4 is expected to go live shortly after Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, when core devs will freeze the code under a Business Source Licence.