Permissionless finance, but with KYC: what are we even doing?

Duration: NaN:NaN:NaN

Speaker: Alex

Type: Lightning Talk

Expertise: No prior knowledge

Event: Devcon

Date: Nov 2026

The protocol layer of DeFi is still permissionless. The access layer quietly is not. KYC moved from CEXs into front-ends, APIs grew geofences and datacenter-IP walls, interfaces delist tokens, wallet screening silently drops users. Each wall arrived as a reasonable compliance step; together they re-permission the system we built to be open. I run permissionless interfaces to major DeFi and perp protocols and hit these walls in production, so this is a field report: a 5-minute taxonomy of access-layer blockers (front-end KYC, geoblocking, IP allowlists, screening), why censorship resistance dies at the access layer first, and a builder checklist: the walkaway test, fallback front-ends, permissionless execution paths, verifiable interface delivery. Walk away knowing which walls your protocol already has, and which exit paths never come back once they are gone.