How Ethereum's Sprawling Pectra Upgrade Will Boost Its Ability to Compete - Ep. 805

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As Ethereum deploys Pectra, it faces stiff competition and community criticism. Ethereum Foundation Research co-leads Alex Stokes and Barnabe Monnot map out the chain’s direction. Ethereum is well on its way to some major upgrades, with Pectra and Fusaka introducing a number of performance improvements in the near future. But will it be enough to stay ahead of the competition? Ethereum Foundation Research co-leads Alex Stokes and Barnabe Monnot join the show to discuss: How Pectra and Fusaka will improve Ethereum’s performance What it means that its launch on two testnets failed Ethereum’s “north star” — decentralization Whether Ethereum can retain its top spot in the smart contract space As Ethereum adopts native rollups and data availability, does it create competition with existing L2s and DA providers? The new direction for the Ethereum Foundation leaders and whether Etherealize can bring Wall Street Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Bitwise Guest: Alex Stokes, Co-Lead, Ethereum Foundation Research Barnabe Monnot, Co-Lead, Ethereum Foundation Research Previous appearances on Unchained: 5 Things to Know About Coinbase’s 2021 Links Previous coverage on Unchained of: Etherealize advocates for Ethereum Why Ethereum’s New Marketing Arm Is Convinced Wall Street Will Adopt ETH Ethereum Foundation contemplates comeback Ethereum Is Lagging. Here’s How It Could Finally Shake Off Rival Solana 2025 Will Be a Year of Crypto Competition. Can Ethereum Make a Comeback? What Ethena means for Ethereum Ethena’s L1 Shows Fat Apps Are on the Rise. Can They Beat Fat Protocols? The Chopping Block w/ Guy Young: Lessons from USD0, Ethena’s Bold Vision, and DeFi’s Future The Pectra Upgrade Ethereum.org: Pectra Testnet Announcement | Ethereum Foundation Blog tim.mirror.xyz: AllCoreDevs Update 17 Ethereum.org: EIP-7691: Blob throughput increase Ethereum.org: Holesky and Hoodi Testnet Updates | Ethereum Foundation Blog Coindesk: Hello, Hoodi: Ethereum Welcomes a New Testnet Fusaka on the horizon Github: EIP-7805 proposed for Fusaka Native rollups versus non-native rollups Youtube: The Future of Ethereum Scaling: Native Rollups Explained Reddit: Native rollup debates L1 and L2 debates Vitalik.eth.limo: Reasons to have higher L1 gas limits even in an L2-heavy Ethereum Vitalik.eth.limo: Scaling Ethereum L1 and L2s in 2025 and beyond Ethereum Foundation Leadership changes X: Barnabe Monnot and Alex Stokes announcement X: New EF titles X: Fixing the Core Dev process Ethena’s Converge news John Wang’s tweet Camila Russo’s comment Timestamps: 👋 0:00 Intro 🪝 2:05 How Barnabe and Alex got hooked on Ethereum development ⚙️ 6:37 How Pectra will change Ethereum 🪴 10:35 How does increasing blobs boost Ethereum? 🪲 13:22 Pectra fork bugs on Holeski testnet 🔮 18:38 What’s in the upcoming Fusaka upgrade? 🤯 22:42 How decisions get made in Ethereum and which groups are involved 📈 30:34 Can Ethereum keep up with the competition? 🏁 39:16 Can Ethereum compete by scaling the L1? 🤓 44:02 What are native roll-ups and how do they help Ethereum compete? 🤺 49:26 Native rollups and expanded data availability on Ethereum vs. non-native options ⚰️ 52:22 Is Ethena building its own blockchain the “nail in the coffin” for Ethereum? 👬 1:00:05 Shaking up the EF’s leadership 🤔 1:06:14 Will Etherealize fix Ethereum’s problems? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there. Thanks so much for listening to Unchained. If you enjoy the podcast, please hit the
0:06.4	subscribe button now so you never miss an episode. This helps us deliver to you the best
0:12.2	interviews every week. Plus, it means other listeners can more easily find the show. Thanks for
0:18.0	your support. Velocity is important and I do think we like, well, we could definitely do better. And like
0:24.4	you mentioned, yeah, you can imagine we try to do more frequent upgrades. That's, yeah,
0:28.6	definitely something to move faster. I think what's probably more lacking is just simply,
0:32.9	you know, there's this notion of North Star that people like to go around. And so, you know,
0:37.1	if you look at
0:37.7	like even ACD today, I think different people have different visions for like where a
0:42.3	Ethereum go.
0:46.9	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained. You're no hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host,
0:51.8	Laura Shin. We are now featuring quotes from listeners on the show.
0:55.7	Today we have one from C-MOSC-C-89 on YouTube, responding to my interview with Ryan Watkins on the
1:02.4	future of layer ones. C-Mosk C-89 says, I don't know why a TradFi app needs a blockchain app at all.
1:09.8	Just start a company and keep them on centralized exchanges.
1:13.1	They still have counterparty risk anyway.
1:15.7	To have your comment featured, write a review of the podcast overall or leave a comment
1:20.1	on our video on YouTube or X.
1:22.7	This is the March 25th, 2025 episode of Unchained.
1:26.7	Crypto moves fast.
1:28.2	It's why Bitwise launched the weekly CIO memo, a jargon-free summary of what's moving
1:33.4	crypto markets, written by one of the best in the business, CIO Matt Hogan.
	...

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