This is a podcast about the evolution of Ethereum. Hosted weekly by Galaxy Research’s Christine Kim, the show dives into the ways Ethereum as an ecosystem is ch...
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.
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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/
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47:02
ACDC #153: Pectra on Hoodi, The Final Testnet Upgrade
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.
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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/
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35:25
Is ETH Gas or Sound Money? w/Camila Russo
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.
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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/
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48:03
ACDE #207: Hoodi & Chill
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.
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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/
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43:33
Setting the Record Straight on Pectra Testing w/Pari and Marius
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.
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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/
This is a podcast about the evolution of Ethereum. Hosted weekly by Galaxy Research’s Christine Kim, the show dives into the ways Ethereum as an ecosystem is changing, covering broad trends and narratives that are shaping the way people use Ethereum and think about the value of Ethereum.
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