Composable: Exploring Crypto’s Building Blocks (an Espresso Pod)
Espresso
16 episodes
2 days ago
In this episode of Composable, hosts Alysia and Ellie welcome Hasu, an expert in MEV and the strategy lead at Flashbots. They delve into the intricacies of MEV, which stands for Maximal Extractable Value, discussing what it is in detail, its evolution, and its implications for our multi-chain future. The conversation covers topics such as private RPCs, order flow auctions, and the impact of MEV on both user experience and protocol efficiency. The episode also explores the trade-offs between s...
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In this episode of Composable, hosts Alysia and Ellie welcome Hasu, an expert in MEV and the strategy lead at Flashbots. They delve into the intricacies of MEV, which stands for Maximal Extractable Value, discussing what it is in detail, its evolution, and its implications for our multi-chain future. The conversation covers topics such as private RPCs, order flow auctions, and the impact of MEV on both user experience and protocol efficiency. The episode also explores the trade-offs between s...
In this episode of Composable, hosts Alysia and Ellie welcome Hasu, an expert in MEV and the strategy lead at Flashbots. They delve into the intricacies of MEV, which stands for Maximal Extractable Value, discussing what it is in detail, its evolution, and its implications for our multi-chain future. The conversation covers topics such as private RPCs, order flow auctions, and the impact of MEV on both user experience and protocol efficiency. The episode also explores the trade-offs between s...
In this episode of Composable, Ellie and Alysia dive deep into one of blockchain's most critical yet confusing concepts: finality. Triggered by a real-world story of someone losing funds due to misunderstanding finality in crosschain transactions, they explore the nuanced definitions of finality, settlement, and confirmations across different blockchain layers. The discussion reveals how finality is not a fixed concept but rather depends on trust assumptions, application requirements, and the...
In this episode, hosts Alysia and Ellie tackle Ethereum FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) head-on by rolling a special "Ethereum FUD" die—a special piece of swag that Espresso Systems produced for ETHDenver 2025—and discussing common criticisms of Ethereum. They cover everything from fee structures and L2 scaling solutions to fragmentation concerns and Ethereum's overall direction, diving into whether the FUD is valid or simply misconceptions and providing a balanced perspective on the...
In this episode, Ellie and Alysia dive deep into intent-based bridges, specifically exploring Across Protocol and their proposed Across Prime upgrade. They examine how intent bridges work, their advantages over traditional bridges, and the capital efficiency improvements that Across Prime aims to deliver for solvers (i.e., the liquidity providers that fulfill user intents). Key Topics Covered What are intents and intent bridges - Definition and distinction from traditional bridges, focusing ...
In this episode of Composable, hosts Alysia and Ellie speak with Orest from t1 about proof aggregation, TEEs (Trusted Execution Environments), L2 security, and how these concepts relate to finality. The conversation explores Vitalik Buterin's recent post proposing a "two out of three" proof system combining TEE proofs, ZK proofs, and Optimistic proofs to enhance blockchain security while improving finality times. Orest also shares how t1 is implementing TEEs to achieve faster finality times f...
In this episode of Composable, Alysia and Ellie explore the security of crosschain messages. They examine notable bridge attacks, analyze what makes crosschain messages vulnerable, and discuss various security approaches, including multisigs and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). The episode breaks down the technical aspects of securing crosschain messages while considering the trade-offs between speed and usability. Key Topics Covered:Notable bridge attacks like Ronin, Wormhole, and Orbi...
In this episode of Composable, hosts Alysia and Ellie speak with Eda Akturk, a developer advocate at Hyperlane, about intents in general and the recently released Open Intents Framework, specifically. They explore what intents are, how they're changing user experiences in web3, and dive into the collaborative effort behind the Open Intents Framework, which aims to make it easier for developers to build intent-based applications. Key Topics Covered How to define intents in a blockchain context...
In this episode, hosts Alysia and Ellie explore the concept of wrapped tokens in the Ethereum ecosystem, discussing their purpose, benefits, and limitations. Key Topics: Canonical vs. wrapped tokensUse cases for wrapped tokensSecurity implications of token issuanceLimitations and challenges of wrapped tokensBridging solutions and speed/security tradeoffsFuture of wrapped tokensComposable is a bi-weekly podcast exploring crypto's building blocks. Hosted by Alysia and Ellie, and brought to you ...
In this episode of Composable, hosts Ellie and Alysia dive deep into the topic of synchronous composability with guest Cecilia, an engineer at Gwyneth Taiko. They explore the technical challenges of reaching synchronous composability, potential implementations to enable it, and the future value it could drive. They also examine why many prominent figures in the crypto space consider synchronous composability overrated... Key Topics Covered: Synchronous vs. asynchronous composability in block...
In this sixth episode of Composable, Alysia and Ellie explore the question of what it means to "Build Something Real" and the tension that exists today between blockchain's potential versus its current hype-filled reality. Key Topics Covered: The controversial role of memecoins in crypto and whether they provide genuine valueWhat it actually means to "Build Something Real" in the blockchain spaceHow Web3 is rediscovering the same financial lessons that TradFi learned decades agoThe paradigm ...
Is bridging assets between chains real or just smoke and mirrors? Join Ellie Davidson and Alysia Tech as they dive deep into the fascinating mechanics and philosophical questions around cross-chain bridging. Key topics covered: The difference between "real" asset movement vs locking and minting wrapped tokensWhy bridging L1 to L2 is faster than L2 to L1, and the role of finalityNative vs wrapped assets: exploring USDT0 and other approachesHow traditional finance parallels help us understand b...
Join hosts Ellie and Alysia as they discuss the realities of cross-chain bridges, including looking at which are the most used, crypto UX, security tradeoffs, etc. — and then put several bridges to the test in a live demo, bridging assets across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base.Key topics covered include:Speed and fee comparisons across different bridge typesBridge architectures: canonical, intent-based, and externally verifiedSecurity tradeoffs between bridge designsEmerging trends: intent stand...
In this episode of Composable, hosts Alicia and Ellie sit down with Maria Shen from Electric Capital to discuss their latest Developer Report that's making waves in the crypto space. They dive deep into how the war for developers is shaping up — with particularly noteworthy data on Ethereum losing out to Solana for most new devs, and a migration of Ethereum devs to working L2s.Key topics covered:The surprising rise of Solana as the leader in attracting new developers, while Ethereum maintains...
In this episode of Composable, hosts Alicia and Ellie dive deep into the world of blockchain confirmations, exploring the nuances between preconfirmations, confirmations (like those provided by the Espresso Network), and L1 finality. They unpack how these different levels of transaction verification impact user experience and interoperability.Key topics covered:The emergence and evolution of preconfirmations, particularly in relation to based sequencing, and how they differ from BFT confirmat...
In the debut episode of Composable, hosts Alysia and Ellie begin with a foundational discussion about composability and its role in shaping Ethereum’s future. In it, they break down:The difference between synchronous (transactions completed within one block) and asynchronous composability (transactions completed across multiple blocks).UX pain points caused by fragmentation, like "dust" left on chains after cross-chain transactions.The value of synchronous composability for creating seamless ...
Introducing Composable, a biweekly podcast exploring cross-chain composability in a multi-chain world. Hosted by Alysia and Ellie, and brought to you by Espresso Pods.
Composable: Exploring Crypto’s Building Blocks (an Espresso Pod)
In this episode of Composable, hosts Alysia and Ellie welcome Hasu, an expert in MEV and the strategy lead at Flashbots. They delve into the intricacies of MEV, which stands for Maximal Extractable Value, discussing what it is in detail, its evolution, and its implications for our multi-chain future. The conversation covers topics such as private RPCs, order flow auctions, and the impact of MEV on both user experience and protocol efficiency. The episode also explores the trade-offs between s...
