Making Ethereum 240x Faster: From 12 Seconds to 50ms | Kevin Lepsoe

Jan 15, 2026

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In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Kevin Lepsoe, Founder of ETHGas, about blockspace and how a transparent blockspace futures marketplace could redefine Ethereum’s core economic engine. Kevin explains why Ethereum’s 12-second block time creates fragmentation, poor UX, failed transactions, and institutional reluctance and how slicing blocks into millisecond-resolution windows unlocks a completely new operating model for L1s.

He walks through his background as a trader during the 2008 crisis, why MEV behavior can mirror predatory high-frequency trading tactics, and why institutions won’t put billion-dollar balance sheets onchain in the current environment. Kevin also explains how ETHGas enables instant confirmations, how blockspace futures create the first native yield curve on any blockchain, and why this unlocks fixed-income products, cross-chain arbitrage, and a path toward deeper L1 liquidity.

They discuss its upcoming Token Generation Event (TGE) as well as validator incentives, governance design, airdrops, its Open Gas Initiative, and how gas abstraction can onboard everyday users into an easier Ethereum experience. Kevin also shares why real-time Ethereum could support new classes of trading, lending, and insurance products and why 2026 may be the year blockspace becomes a mainstream asset class.

Timestamps

(00:00) – Intro

(01:14) – Kevin’s path from options and volatility trading to bitcoin mining and DeFi Summer

(02:29) – Seeing the full mapping from money and equities to interest rates and credit onchain

(03:56) – Why big trading firms refuse to put assets onchain with MEV and liquidation risk

(05:28) – How MEV behavior mirrors HFT and why 12-second latency is too exploitable

(08:12) – Fragmentation across L1s and L2s and why real-time Ethereum consolidates liquidity

(11:17) – What blockspace futures are and how they allow real-time Ethereum execution

(13:16) – Turning a single block into hundreds of slices and fixing MEV through design

(15:06) – Real-time confirmations 50 ms execution and implications for trading and lending

(17:19) – Impact on DEXes, AMMs, liquidations and validator revenue with faster blocks

(21:49) – ETHGas integration path validators, wallets, RPC endpoints and expanding blockspace share

(23:48) – Targeting 40% of blockspace, validator incentives and economic alignment

(27:06) – ETHGas upcoming token launch governance design and why users must control real-time Ethereum

(31:29) – Open Gas Initiative: hiding gas from the user and rebating spend back via tokens

(33:29) – Airdrops for heavy gas users and aligning with the people who built Ethereum’s demand

(35:07) – Conversations with Ethereum researchers and the right vs wrong path for blockspace

(38:38) – L1 and L2 dynamics bringing real-time execution across the entire Ethereum stack

(41:09) – How real-time Ethereum helps ETH break major price thresholds and expand its user base

(42:12) – ETH’s yield curve unlocks native fixed-income and institutional onchain markets

(44:07) – Kevin’s final advice: the markets always come back and the real building is just starting

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