Transcript Ep. 464: ETH Denver Debate: Should Testnet ETH Be Free or Have a Price?

Laura Shin:

Hi, all. Today’s episode recorded live at ETHDenver is about the recent drama in Ethereum over TestNet ETH, in particular ETH on the Goerli testnet. These are the test blockchains that developers use to simulate their projects. Whether they’re the devs working on the main software clients for the blockchain, or if it’s the node operators, stakers and miners or if it’s the application developers. As you’ll hear, the question of whether or not there should be a monetary value on TestNet ETH quickly became an extremely contentious issue, which is why at the last minute I was invited to moderate a debate the ETHDenver on the topic.

I hadn’t been intending to go, but I spontaneously decided to, two days in advance, and I’m so glad I did. The debate at ETHDenver was pretty heated, as you’ll hear, and myself am undecided about the best way to proceed. Tweet at me or the Unchained Twitter account to let us know what you think on the topic. The debate participants are Bryan Pellegrino, Chief Executive Officer at LayerZero Labs, Greg Markou, CPO of ChainSafe, and Matt Garnett, software engineer on the Go Ethereum Team. And now onto the show.

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So, the Ethereum community has been up in arms about something that LayerZero did a little over a week ago, and I think that the reason people feel so passionately about it is because it really gets at what the values of the Ethereum community are. Why don’t we have Bryan just start with your story of the problem that LayerZero Labs saw and what solution it was that you thought you could offer.