Cheaper Fees and No More Free Lunch for Layer 2s? Inside Ethereum's Fusaka Upgrade - Ep. 966

Unchained

Laura Shin

Tech News, Business News, News

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ethereum for the first time ever has rolled out a second major upgrade within a year. Fusaka has gone live less than six months after Pectra. In this Unchained podcast episode, Offchain Labs Prysm Team Ethereum Cored Developer Preston Van Loon joins Protocol Watch founder Christine D. Kim to unpack how Fusaka would make transactions cheaper, improve the UX for users and impact layer 2 chain operators. They also discuss the relatively short time to deployment and how this is impacting client and layer 2 teams. Preston also explains why he is less nervous about Fusaka than he was about Pectra and the indicators of success. Plus what comes next after the hard fork. Thank you to our sponsors! Uniswap Mantle Guests: Christine D. Kim, Host of Ready for Merge Podcast and writer of ACD After Hours Preston Van Loon, Ethereum Core Developer working at Prysm by Offchain Labs Previous appearances on Unchained: How Will ETH React to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade? Links: Unchained: Ethereum Fusaka Upgrade Clears Final Test Before December Launch Ethereum Gave Away Too Much for Too Long. Will Its Pivot Be Enough? Timestamps: 🚀 0:00 Introduction 👀 4:39 How Fusaka is scaling Ethereum's data layer without imposing big hardware requirements 💡 11:44 How Fusaka is “a big stepping stone” to Ethereum's proto-danksharding vision 💥 15:08 Why the Fusaka launch timeline is a significant milestone for Ethereum developers 🫆 17:12 How Fusaka will make signing transactions easier 👀 18:37 How Fusaka will impact layer 2 operators 🤔 22:49 Are layer 2 chains ready for Fusaka? ⁉️ 29:30 Can L2s benefit from PeerDAS without features like backfilling? 🤔 32:41 Did developers have enough time to prepare for Fusaka? 🫣 34:31 Do faster development timelines impact client diversity? 🧏 40:24 What should have been done differently with Fusaka preparations 📽 42:27 The best way to watch the Fusaka upgrade in real time 💡 44:20 Why Preston is less nervous about Fusaka than Pectra 🚦46:01 Indicators of Fusaka success 📝 46:45 Preston's risk assessment for blob parameter only hard forks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, Laura here. I'm actually on vacation this week, so we have a special guest host stepping in, Christine Kim.
0:08.5	Christine has been covering Ethereum's roadmap for years, and she sat down with core developer Preston Van Loon to dig into the upcoming Fusaka upgrade.
0:17.3	What's inside it, what it means for users, and how it affects layer 2s and client teams.
0:23.2	It's a great conversation and I'm excited for you all to hear it. Enjoy!
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1:05.8	builders. Historically, we move quite slow by design, right?
1:11.4	Like, there's just a lot of moving parts here.
1:14.3	And the fact that we can get two in one year is really impressive
1:17.6	because it means, like, people are finding a rhythm and, like, getting through.
1:22.1	And what I'm hearing from my peers, other core devs,
1:24.6	I'm not hearing excessive burnout.
1:26.3	Like, this isn't like, oh, we just worked twice as hard because we were already, you know, working 110%.
1:31.7	Hey, everyone.
1:34.0	Welcome to this special episode of Unchained.
1:37.5	I'm Christine D. Kim, the host of the Ready for Merge podcast and the writer of the ACD After Hours and BTC Before Light newsletters.
	...

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