Infinite Jungle

On Ep. 92 of Infinite Jungle, Christine interviews Łukasz Rozmej and Marek Moraczyński from the Nethermind client team. Nethermind is the 2nd most popular Ethereum execution layer client used by close to 40% of all Ethereum node operators. Christine asks Łukasz and Marek about their thoughts on Ethereum upgrades Pectra and Fusaka, as well as their views on Ethereum client diversity. This is the final episode of Infinite Jungle Season 2 and the last episode hosted by Christine. Christine shares a word of thanks to her listeners and everyone who supported the show for the past 2 seasons. Guest: Name: Łukasz Rozmej Title: Team Lead at Nethermind X: https://x.com/urozmej Name: Marek Moraczyński Title: Team Lead at Nethermind X: https://x.com/M25Marek Show note links: Nethermind Fusaka scope team view (https://x.com/M25Marek/status/1896911082628727213) Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists, FOCIL (https://ethresear.ch/t/fork-choice-enforced-inclusion-lists-focil-a-simple-committee-based-inclusion-list-proposal/19870) Nethermind Surge rollup (https://www.surge.wtf/) Timestamps: (00:01:05) Comparing Pectra to prior upgrades (00:03:10) Pectra mainnet timeline expectations (00:05:12) Nethermind’s view on Fusaka scope (00:18:08) Nethermind’s competitive edge (00:24:44) Nethermind’s preparations for history expiry (00:29:03) Marek and Lukasz’s future as core devs (00:35:03) A word of thanks This episode was recorded on Friday, March 21, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep.91 of Infinite Jungle, Christine shares her main takeaways from ACDE #208 where developers set an ambitious date for Pectra activation on Ethereum mainnet. They also reconfirmed the inclusion of EOF in the Fusaka upgrade and agreed to pursue the largest version of EOF in Fusaka with the addition of a few new EIPs. Finally, Christine announces her departure from Galaxy and the Infinite Jungle podcast. Due to her departure, Infinite Jungle Season 2 will be ending early. The final episode will air on Wednesday, April 2. Show note links:  ACDE #208 call notes (https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/ethereum-all-core-developers-execution-call-208/) Concerns about April 30 (https://x.com/philngo_/status/1905630338413396184) Infinite Jungle guest episode with Danno Ferrin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlzd_XMI0KE) Concerns about EOF (https://hackmd.io/@pcaversaccio/eof-when-complexity-outweighs-necessity) Ethereum protocol upgrade process document (https://github.com/ethereum/pm/pull/1409) EIP 7883, ModExp gas cost increase (https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7883) Christine’s X profile (https://x.com/christine_dkim) Galaxy Research website (https://www.galaxy.com/insights/) Timestamps: (00:02:12) Hoodi testnet upgrade (00:07:03) April 30 (00:17:34) Complete EOF (00:29:11) Something’s gotta give (00:35:29) Christine’s big announcement This episode was recorded on Friday, March 28, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep. 90 of Infinite Jungle, Christine interviews Piper Merriam, an Ethereum Foundation researcher leading efforts for history expiry on Ethereum. History expiry enables Ethereum nodes to prune old block and transaction data from their databases. It is estimated to free up 100s of GB worth of hard disk space. It is also expected to open the design space for differentiated and use case specific client software. Christine speaks to Merriam about the benefits, risks, and timeline for history expiry, as well as his views on why history expiry efforts are often underappreciated in the Ethereum community. Guest: Name: Piper Merriam Title: Ethereum Foundation Researcher Show note links: The Portal Network (https://ethportal.net/) Timestamps: (00:01:00) How Piper got involved with Ethereum (00:08:08) How history expiry enables node differentiation (00:14:26) The risks of history expiry (00:21:42) The game theory behind history expiry (00:35:38) Meet the Portal team (00:38:27) The history expiry timeline (00:43:28) Piper’s motivation for working on Ethereum This episode was recorded on Friday, March 21, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep.89 of Infinite Jungle, Christine shares her main takeaways from ACDC #153 where developers reconfirmed next steps for Pectra testing, discussed the strategy for history expiry, and debated the merits of EIP 7688 for the Fusaka upgrade.  Show note links:  Hoodi blockchain explorer (https://dora.hoodi.ethpandaops.io/) EIP 7688, Forward compatible consensus data structures (https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7688) EIP 4788, Beacon block root in the EVM (https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4788) ACDC #153 call notes (https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/ethereum-all-core-developers-consensus-call-153/) Timestamps: (00:01:29) Hoodi is alive! (00:05:25) Concerns about the history expiry timeline (00:20:54) Concerns about the scope of Fusaka This episode was recorded on Friday, March 21, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep. 88 of Infinite Jungle, Christine interviews Camila Russo, the founder of The Defiant and author of The Infinite Machine. Christine speaks with Camila about how she started The Defiant, a news site that specializes in covering major developments in decentralized finance and on-chain activity. Christine also speaks with Camila about her views on Ethereum’s value and recent organizational changes in the Ethereum Foundation. Christine and Camila discuss concerns about Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap and the value accrual mechanisms for ETH considering the migration of user activity to L2s. Guest: Name: Camila Russo Title: The Founder of The Defiant and Author of The Infinite Machine X: https://x.com/CamiRusso Show note links: The Defiant (https://thedefiant.io/) The Infinite Machine (https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Machine-Crypto-hackers-Building-Internet-ebook/dp/B07X8HS2WC) Timestamps: (00:00:56) The Defiant is independently owned (00:03:39) How the Defiant is going on-chain (00:10:23) Cami’s ETHDenver 2025 takeaways (00:18:32) Ethereum’s two main problems (00:31:01) The most promising Ethereum competitors (00:39:03) Why ETH is gas or sound money but not both (00:43:26) Cami’s take on recent changes in the EF This episode was recorded on Friday, March 14, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep.87 of Infinite Jungle, Christine shares her main takeaways from ACDE #207. Ethereum developers agreed on another new game plan for Pectra that involves the launch of a brand new public testnet called Hoodi. Hoodi will mimic Ethereum mainnet in almost every way, including Ethereum’s validator set size and network specifications. From genesis, Hoodi will activate with Dencun specifications, which are the specifications live on Ethereum mainnet today, and within 10 days of launch, developers will roll out the Pectra upgrade on Hoodi. If the Pectra upgrade on Hoodi goes well, developers may schedule the Pectra upgrade for Ethereum mainnet as early as 30 days out thereafter. This means developers are now estimating the earliest Pectra could go live on mainnet is late April. Christine explains why the upgrade is more likely to happen some time in May and highlights the surprising shift in developer sentiment on the ACD call from shipping faster to taking it easy. Show note links:  ACDE #207 Call Notes (https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/ethereum-all-core-developers-execution-call-207/) Timestamps: (00:01:25) Holesky win changes Pectra plans (00:08:08) The 4 options for Pectra testing (00:18:42) What developers needs to see before Pectra goes live on mainnet (00:26:51) Why developers decided to with Option #1 This episode was recorded on Friday, March 14, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep. 86 of Infinite Jungle, Christine interviews Ethereum Foundation Developer Operations Engineer Parithosh Jayanthi and Ethereum Foundation Geth Developer Marius van der Wijden about the recent Holesky and Sepolia testnet upgrades. Both upgrades resulted in major hot fixes to Ethereum clients. Jayanthi and van der Wijden explain why these results are not out of the ordinary for Ethereum developers and what learnings have been gleaned from both testnet incidents. They also share their views on recent organizational changes to the Ethereum Foundation and their outlook on the state of Ethereum protocol development. Guest: Name: Parithosh Jayanthi Title: Ethereum Foundation Developer Operations Engineer X: https://x.com/parithosh_j Name: Marius van der Wijden Title: Ethereum Foundation Geth Developer X: https://x.com/vdWijden Show note links: Marius’ Sepolia Pectra fork incident recap (https://mariusvanderwijden.github.io/blog/2025/03/08/Sepolia/) Pectra audit competition (https://cantina.xyz/competitions/9ab19e33-b73c-4384-83a8-b905f508ce5e) Timestamps: (00:01:27) Resetting expectations for Pectra testing (00:13:51) The need to reprioritize protocol hardening (00:27:39) When will Pectra be ready for mainnet? (00:32:24) Can Ethereum upgrade safely and faster? (00:46:55) Views on the Ethereum Foundation This episode was recorded on Friday, March 7, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep.85 of Infinite Jungle, Christine shares her main takeaways from ACDC #152 where Ethereum developers agreed on a new game plan for Pectra in the aftermath of the Holesky and Sepolia testnet upgrades. Developers will launch a clone or shadow fork of the Holesky testnet to support testing of the Pectra upgrade by the broader Ethereum ecosystem in lieu of the original Holesky testnet. Holesky remains in a state of non-finalization. However, developers are still working to restore the testnet for long-term use. The Sepolia testnet is healthy in the aftermath of the Pectra upgrade, though developers needed to issue a hotfix to clients within the first few hours of Pectra activation to stabilize the testnet initially. Christine runs through all the latest updates in Ethereum protocol development and shares the silver linings to recent setbacks for the Pectra development timeline. Timestamps: (00:00:50) Holesky Status Update (00:07:46) Sepolia Status Update (00:12:57) New Game Plan for Pectra (00:19:17) Learnings from Pectra Public Testnet Upgrades This episode was recorded on Friday, March 7, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep. 84 of Infinite Jungle, Christine interviews Hasu, Strategic Advisor to Lido and Strategy Lead at Flashbots. They discuss the importance of the Lido V3 upgrade, the risks it entails, and opportunities for improving Lido’s competitive value against centralized staking solutions. They also discuss the underperformance of ETH and what needs to change about Ethereum’s research and development culture. Hasu argues for three critical changes. First, allocate mindshare away from “endgame planning”. Second, reduce the number of clients. Third, plan upgrades by goal not EIPs. Guest: Name: Hasu Title: Strategic advisor to Lido and Strategy Lead at Flashbots X: https://x.com/hasufl Show note links: Lido V3 (https://v3.lido.fi/) Timestamps: (00:01:29) What is Lido V3? (00:04:52) What risks does the V3 upgrade entail? (00:12:35) Why should institutions stake with Lido? (00:20:42) Is the Lido DAO competitive against CEXs? (00:31:50) How V3 enables restaking on Lido (00:34:34) Hasu’s thoughts on ETH’s underperformance (00:40:33) Are L2s parasitic to ETH value? (00:43:10) Ethereum’s culture problem This episode was recorded on Friday, February 28, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

On Ep.83 of Infinite Jungle, Christine shares her main takeaways from ACDE #206. The call was dedicated to figuring out next steps for the Holesky testnet. The testnet devolved into a state of non-finalization following Pectra activation. Developers misconfigured three out of five execution layer clients when upgrading Holesky. Fixes for these clients have since been released and developers have agreed to move forward with Pectra activation on Ethereum’s second public testnet, Sepolia, on Wednesday March 5. Christine explains why this decision may have been a mistake for developers in hindsight and what other impacts the Holesky incident has on the Pectra development timeline. Show note links:  ACDE #206 Call Notes (https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/ethereum-all-core-developers-execution-call-206/) Georgios Konstantopoulos’ X post on the Holesky incident (https://x.com/gakonst/status/1894173832317211112) Timestamps: (00:02:51) What Happened to the Holesky Testnet (00:09:35) How Developers Are Trying to Revive Holesky (00:23:39) What the Holesky Incident Means for Pectra This episode was recorded on Friday, February 28, 2025. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/