Collin Myers & Oisín Kyne: Obol Network - Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) #497
Channel: Epicenter Podcast
Date: 2023-05-27

Ethereum's merge and transition to a proof-of-stake consensus implied switching from proof-of-work mining to transactions being validated by entities that have an economic stake in the network. Proof-of-stake distributed networks are subject to complex game theory models (e.g. slashing). Distributed validator technology (DVT) enables a more modular validator stack at every level: key pairs, hardware and entities. This reduces trust dependencies and increases security for validator entities.

We were joined by Collin Myers & Oisín Kyne, founders of Obol Network, to discuss Ethereum's 2.0 PoS consensus, the current validator landscape and how distributed validator technology (DVT) allows for an increased security and overall smoother UX for validator entities.

Topics discussed in this episode:
0:00 - Introduction
0:28 - Collin’s & Oisín’s backgrounds
7:46 - Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) explained
12:31 - How DVT improves user experience for different staking models
23:05 - Reducing validator costs and increasing fault tolerance through DVT
32:22 - Obol middleware approach
36:47 - Obol v.2
42:41 - Interacting with other middleware from ETH stack
50:57 - Expanding DVT to other ecosystems
56:29 - Future validator landscape
59:13 - How post-Danksharding data availability will be handled by an Obol cluster
1:01:40 - L2 Ethereum equivalence

Links mentioned in this episode:
- Collin Myers on Twitter: bit.ly/3OGu9En
- Oisín Kyne on Twitter: bit.ly/3qbul4y
- Obol Network on Twitter: bit.ly/3IGVeUk

This episode is hosted by Felix Lutsch & Meher Roy.
Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/497