Fireside Chat I Tarun Chitra, Robert Leshner and Kartik Talwar | Pragma New York 2023

Mon, Oct 2, 2023, 12:00 AM

Join Tarun Chitra (Founder of Gauntlet) and Robert Leshner (Founder of Compound and Superstate) in a high-level fireside chat at Pragma New York 2023, hosted by Kartik Talwar. This conversation explores the evolving landscape of DeFi, game theory, mechanism design, on-chain asset tokenization, multi-chain interoperability, MEV, ZK proofs, smart wallets, MPC, and what it will take to make DeFi truly Wall Street-grade. Tarun and Robert share candid insights on where DeFi is succeeding, where it’s still falling short, and the infrastructure shifts required to unlock the next wave of innovation. Whether you’re a founder, developer, investor, or just curious about the future of finance and decentralized systems, this talk will inspire you to think deeper about composability, fragmentation, UX, and the technical challenges ahead. 00:00 Intro: Tarun Chitra & Robert Leshner 00:45 Why Robert left Compound to build Superstate 01:48 The $900T opportunity: Bringing assets on-chain 03:27 What Gauntlet does and why mechanism design matters 05:02 Simulation examples: Average vs worst-case risk 07:07 Cross-chain MEV and L2 mempool complexity 08:16 DeFi's future: Not products, but info flow 10:35 The ZK boom and fragmented asset domains 11:37 Redefining composability across chains 13:12 Fragmentation and synchronous liquidity 14:13 Synthetic assets, bridges, and trust 15:14 Telegram bots, MPC, and asset abstraction 16:21 Revisiting Compound Chain and bridge risk 19:30 Appchains vs major L2s: UX and asset flow 20:34 UX upgrades: Rules-based vs transaction-based 22:35 Custody and rethinking protocol architecture 24:07 Moving beyond depositing funds into contracts 25:17 ZK use cases beyond rollups 26:49 What it takes to make DeFi Wall Street-grade 28:19 Final advice for DeFi founders _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇺🇸 *Pragma New York* The fifth edition of Pragma took place in New York in September 2023 with a curated series of high-quality talks that sparked thought and discussion. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. Watch the full Pragma New York 2023 playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh6xsRbmx2niHEDyOyt1mddu&si=6Ic960b2hQyz9RGw ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Ever since we first introduced our new event series, Pragma, in Tokyo in the spring of 2023, we have been fostering a curated, global community of individuals who deeply care about web3. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow Kartik Talwar* X: https://x.com/therealkartik Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/kartik ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _