ECH Institute Podcast

Running nodes on the Ethereum network (and other blockchain networks) can be hard. The client software can update frequently and be hard to work with. In addition, they need monitoring and maintenance. The data provided as specified can be difficult to work with too. Yet, nodes are necessary to connect applications with the blockchain. The difficulties and need have led to the rise of providers ru...

Building apps that aggregate blockchain data opens up new paradigms in application development. Lefteris Karapetsas, a longtime contributor to the Ethereum ecosystem, joins the podcast to discuss his current project, Rotki, a crypto asset accounting app. We discuss the difficulties of obtaining event data from nodes, the benefits and challenges of developing in the open, and more.

Smart Contracts can hold immense amounts of value in an ecosystem that makes them accessible to anyone. As a result, exploits in smart contracts can have catastrophic results. samczsun, a researcher at Paradigm and famous white-hat hacker, joins us to talk about finding vulnerabilities in smart contracts. Among the topics, we talk about his preferred setup for analyzing contracts, how he picks wha...

Nethermind is an execution client for EVM-compatible blockchains. Tomasz Stańczak discusses what motivated him to begin working on creating a new execution client and the specific challenges (and joys) of building and maintaining one. We also discuss some of Nethermind's specific features as a client, and future directions for both the larger Nethermind company and the client specifically.

Smart contracts have opened up new opportunities, and we are still exploring what we are able to build with them. Andre Cronje is the creator of Yearn Finance, Keep3r, and more, and joins us in this episode to talk about building innovative platforms with smart contracts, and the various pressures that can come from being a recognized builder in the space.