The Chopping Block: Why Everyone Is Talking About EigenLayer - Ep. 497

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner, chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan explains his vision for providing “decentralized trust” to new projects on Ethereum. Was Vitalik Buterin’s recent “re-staking” post a shot across EigenLayer’s bow?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• how Sreeram has transitioned from academia into the world of crypto
• why he believes that crypto is the “coordination highway”
• what EigenLayer is – explained to a five-year-old, a high schooler, a day trader, a developer, and a crypto professor
• how middleware enables technology innovation
• where the value accrues if there’s no token for securing a blockchain
• whether Vitalik is right in being concerned about the risk of corrupting validators
• what EigenLayer did to minimize risks and externalities to Ethereum
• whether protocols and applications will fork if they get hacked and whether Ethereum will “bail them out”

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Guest

• Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer
• Previous appearances on Unchained: 
• Do You Need to Think Twice Before Restaking Your Assets?

Disclosures

Links

• Don't overload Ethereum's consensus by Vitalik Buterin

Previous coverage of Unchained on Ethereum staking: 

• Shapella in the Rearview: After Major Upgrade, What’s Next for Ethereum?
• How Will ETH React to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade?
• Post-Merge, If Lido Becomes Dominant, What Does That Mean for Ethereum?
• In the Recent Crypto Market Meltdown, What Role Did Lido’s stETH Play?
• Is ETH on Its Way to Becoming Ultra-Sound Money? Yes, Says Justin Drake

Learn more:

• How Liquid Staking Works
• A Guide to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade
• How to Stake Ethereum With Liquid Staking

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices