Danny Ryan on: leading crypto’s biggest upgrade, paving his own path, and bringing $120T to Ethereum

Mon, Mar 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

Danny Ryan was in a band, ran a screen printing company, and was building apps for a duty free theme park on the Mexican border before a friend sent him a New York Times article about Ethereum. By 2022 he was leading the Merge, one of the most complex engineering feats in crypto history. Now he's co-founded Etherealize to help bring $120 trillion onto Ethereum. This is an interview with a leader, a founder, and a father, someone who lives life on their own terms, and builds technology such that others can too. This is Danny Ryan, OFFSTAGE. In this episode: 00:00 Intro 02:54 Discovering the internet in 2nd grade 08:02 The "$85/hour" math & not getting a job 12:47 "There is no New Orleans meetup. I have to make it." 16:45 How a guy like Danny ended up leading The Merge 23:07 Why the world needs Ethereum now 24:46 Decentralization vs. Counterparty Risk 35:29 AI, kids, and the future 42:48 The most intense Jenga move of the season Follow @offstage_x on X: https://x.com/offstage_x Hosted by Binji Pande, Ethereum Foundation