Description

In this Ready for Merge episode, Christine D. Kim interviews Philip Ngo, a developer working on the Ethereum consensus layer (CL) client, Lodestar. Phil recounts his transition from the Canadian Armed Forces to working full-time on Lodestar for Chainsafe Systems. He shares what motivated him to make a career jump into crypto and his vision for the future of Ethereum protocol development. 

This interview was recorded on July 23, 2025.

Timestamps:

(1:41) Show announcements

(3:06) Phil’s biggest contribution to Ethereum

(3:47) Phil’s career before Ethereum

(13:51) What it’s like project managing the Lodestar client

(29:35) The pressures of open-source development

(53:07) What Phil plans to do next

(54:30) Rapid-fire questions

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