2026-11-06 –, Workshop 1
In this hands-on workshop, participants will work through real Ethereum DeFi cases, from MEV exploitation and resolution attempts to DPRK-linked protocol abuse and potential responses, to explore how community norms and visions, including “Defipunk” as a normative aspiration, might become embedded in practice. They will leave with a broader understanding of the trade-offs and live debates shaping DeFi while contributing their insights to an Oxford doctoral research project (subject to consent).
Defipunk is articulated as a vision for permissionless, open-source, censorship-resistant finance that minimises trusted intermediaries and maximises user control. What happens when that vision confronts the realities of everyday Ethereum DeFi? This workshop uses cases such as MEV extraction and resolution attempts, DPRK-linked protocol abuse and community responses, governance failures, and censorship pressures to explore how protocol design interacts with Ethereum’s social layer. Participants will work through these cases through structured deliberation, live polling, and facilitated discussion, comparing competing responses and their trade-offs, while engaging with academic and policy debates about how DeFi can or should respond when its technical properties, community norms, user interests, and external pressures come into conflict. The workshop asks what forms of social coordination are compatible with a genuinely permissionless financial system.
Ekin Genc is a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, focusing on DeFi and the law. He's the former editor-in-chief of DL News, the independent media arm of DefiLlama.