with @lera_banda @danboneh @rhhackettThis episode introduces concepts behind – and applications of – data availability sampling (DAS), a key piece of the puzzle that could help blockchains like Ethereum achieve full scaling. DAS is a low-overhead technique that uses random sampling of data to ensure that all necessary blockchain data has been made available to nodes, without straining the network. DAS features heavily in a series of planned Ethereum upgrades called "Danksharding" (a nickname chosen in honor of Dankrad Feist, an Ethereum Foundation researcher who has been central to the efforts). The next Danksharding milestone for Ethereum is an upgrade called EIP-4844, also known as "Protodanksharding", planned for later this year.Guests include Valeria Nikolaenko, a16z crypto research partner, and Dan Boneh, Stanford cryptography professor and a16z crypto research advisor, who discuss their recent research into data availability sampling and Danksharding – including a proposal they put forward to the improve current plans for upgrading Ethereum – with Robert Hackett, a16z crypto features editor and head of special projects. links to pieces or topics referenced in this episode:on data availability sampling and danksharding, an overview and proposal / Valeria Nikolaenko & Dan Bonehon Proto-Danksharding, a technical analysis / grizzly-answer-991EIP-4844: the specification of ProtoDankSharding / Ethereum FoundationProto-Danksharding FAQ / Vitalik ButerinDanksharding workshop video / Devcon (Oct 2022)2D data availability with Kate commitments  discussion on commitments' expansion / Ethereum Research Foruma note on data availability and erasure coding / Githubdiving into danksharding with Vitalik, Dankrad, Protolambda, Tim Beiko / BanklessNone of this is investment, business, legal, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information – including a link to a list of our investments.