Lex Sokolin: Explaining the Ethereum Merge - [Web3 Breakdowns, EP.38]

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Lex Sokolin. Lex is the Head Economist at ConsenSys, a major Ethereum development company that built MetaMask. Our conversation breaks down the Ethereum merge and its implications on the network and ecosystem. We discuss how the switch affects centralization, the crypto economics of inflation and deflation, and popular market narratives around the event. Please enjoy this conversation with Lex Sokolin.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes

[00:02:08] - [First question] - The history leading up to the Ethereum merge

[00:06:00] - A high level overview of proof-of-work compared to proof-of-stake

[00:13:26] - Critical arguments he’s heard that have merit and are worth debating

[00:17:19] - How staking worked before the merge and how it’ll work afterwards and allow retail traders to participate more easily 

[00:23:51] - Control of governance and decision making power when staking is outsourced

[00:28:49] - How far away we are from being able to stake directly from our wallets

[00:34:22] - Ways to think about and calculate the interest rate impact post-merge

[00:36:58] - Liquidity of staking and ease of access to deposit and withdraw tokens

[00:38:14] - An Ethereum fork and why so many participants are shorting Ethereum today

[00:43:49] - What would happen to unique and serialized NFTs in a network fork 

[00:47:53] - How conversations have gone between him and institutional players about the coming changes to the network

[00:51:34] - What he’s most excited to see built in the next six months and six years

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