March 17, 2025

Fixing Ethereum: Hart Lambur on Cross-Chain Intents & the Future of Interoperability

In this episode, I sit down with Hart Lambur, the co-founder of Risk Labs, the team behind UMA and Across Protocol, two projects solving some of the biggest challenges in crypto—cross-chain interoperability and on-chain data verification.

Ethereum has scaled, but in the process, it’s fragmented into over 50 Layer 2s, creating a messy user experience. Hart and his team are pushing for a cross-chain intent standard (ERC-7683) to make blockchain transactions feel instant and seamless—because let’s be real, waiting minutes (or days) to move assets across chains is a joke.

We also dive deep into:

The “two-second rule” for crypto UX and why speed is king
How ERC-7683 enables cross-chain swaps without waiting for block confirmations
Why Ethereum’s fragmentation problem could kill adoption if we don’t fix it
The future of prediction markets and decentralized oracles
How Chainlink maintained dominance in the Oracle space—and whether that’s changing
Why AI-powered agents will need blockchain-based dispute resolution
If you're into DeFi, cross-chain tech, and the future of Ethereum, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

Key Takeaways:
✅ Ethereum has scaled, but it now feels like 50 separate chains—interoperability must be solved.
✅ The two-second UX rule: If a transaction takes longer, users will lose focus and abandon it.
✅ ERC-7683 introduces cross-chain intents, allowing instant swaps by having solvers front transactions.
✅ Optimistic oracles (used by UMA) enable decentralized dispute resolution, powering prediction markets like PolyMarket.
✅ AI agents will need on-chain contract enforcement—blockchain oracles will play a crucial role.

Listen & Subscribe:
🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Us:
📢 Follow me on Twitter (@CharlieShrem) for behind-the-scenes insights and updates!

Show Notes

In this episode, I sit down with Hart Lambur, the co-founder of Risk Labs, the team behind UMA and Across Protocol, two projects solving some of the biggest challenges in crypto—cross-chain interoperability and on-chain data verification.

Ethereum has scaled, but in the process, it’s fragmented into over 50 Layer 2s, creating a messy user experience. Hart and his team are pushing for a cross-chain intent standard (ERC-7683) to make blockchain transactions feel instant and seamless—because let’s be real, waiting minutes (or days) to move assets across chains is a joke.

We also dive deep into:

The “two-second rule” for crypto UX and why speed is king
How ERC-7683 enables cross-chain swaps without waiting for block confirmations
Why Ethereum’s fragmentation problem could kill adoption if we don’t fix it
The future of prediction markets and decentralized oracles
How Chainlink maintained dominance in the Oracle space—and whether that’s changing
Why AI-powered agents will need blockchain-based dispute resolution

If you're into DeFi, cross-chain tech, and the future of Ethereum, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Ethereum has scaled, but it now feels like 50 separate chains—interoperability must be solved.
✅ The two-second UX rule: If a transaction takes longer, users will lose focus and abandon it.
✅ ERC-7683 introduces cross-chain intents, allowing instant swaps by having solvers front transactions.
✅ Optimistic oracles (used by UMA) enable decentralized dispute resolution, powering prediction markets like PolyMarket.
✅ AI agents will need on-chain contract enforcement—blockchain oracles will play a crucial role.

Listen & Subscribe:

🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts!