a16z crypto show

Latest Episodes:

Debating Blockchain Architectures (with Solana) Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

with @aeyakovenko @alive_eth @guywuolletjr @smc90

This all-new deep-dive, hallway-style chat features a16z crypto general partner Ali Yahya and deal team partner Guy Wuollet, in conversation with Solana co-founder and Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko -- who also worked at Qualcomm for over a decade, where he was a senior engineer and engineering manager among other things.

The first half of the episode is a discussion/ debate blockchain architectures -- including of course Solana & Ethereum, the themes of monolithic vs. modular, et cetera -- but really is about what are the tradeoffs, and what should one optimize for (or not!), depending on what you’re building, and to make crypto happen at scale (now and in the future).

The second half of the episode covers company-, community-, and ecosystem-building -- including discussing the nuances of leadership in open source; and wherefore messiahs/ prophets?! -- as well as touching on engineering hiring, devrel (developer relations), governance; the Solana phone, and some of the Solana backstory as well.
What are the differences between hardware and software innovation? And how does innovation play out, in theory versus practice? These are the throughlines of this episode...

For more on some of the topics discussed, see also:

a high-level overview of topics including VDFs, defined (with Joe Bonneau)
resources on all things VDFs /verifiable delay functions on a16zcrypto.com, including:
an introduction to verifiable delay functions (from a16z crypto research partner Joe Bonneau)
our episode on AI & crypto (with Ali Yahya)
our discussion on the evolution of programming languages & crypto (including Move's Sam Blackshear)

As a reminder: none of this should be taken as investment, legal, business, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information -- including a link to a list of our investments.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Financial Freedom, Company Building, More Aug 22, 2023

Show notes

with @davidmarcus @smc90

This wide-ranging conversation covers company building, big to small -- including what cadence and when is the right "time" to ship; the relationship between centralization, decentralization, platforms, and financial freedom; moving from web2 to web3 in both crypto AND payments... as well as why bitcoin, views on remote work, and much much more.

Our guest is David Marcus, CEO and co-founder of Lightspark; Marcus was also a co-creator of Diem (aka Libra and Novi, the cryptocurrency project initiated by Facebook). Before that, he was vice president of messaging products there, where he ran the Facebook Messenger unit; and prior to joining Facebook, Marcus was the former president of PayPal (which had acquired his previous startup).

This episode begins with an interview just to help kick things off and then features a rich set of questions from the audience -- as this originally took place live on stage at our Crypto Startup School 2023.

related readings:

Regulate apps, not protocols series (2022-2023) - Miles Jennings et al, a16z crypto)
What it will take to create the next great Silicon Valleys (2014) - Marc Andreessen (Politico, a16z)
Why bitcoin matters (2014) - Marc Andreeessen (NYT, a16z)
When one app rules them all: The case of WeChat and Mobile in China (2015) - Connie Chan (a16z)

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

AI & Crypto Aug 12, 2023

Show notes

with @alive_eth @danboneh @smc90

This week's all-new episode covers the convergence of two important, very top-of-mind trends: AI (artificial intelligence) & blockchains/ crypto. These domains together have major implications for how we all live our lives everyday; so this episode is for anyone just curious about, or already building in the space.

The conversation covers topics ranging from deep fakes, bots, and the need for proof-of-humanity in a world of AI; to big data, large language models like ChatGPT, user control, governance, privacy and security, zero knowledge and zkML; to MEV, media, art, and much more. Our expert guests (in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi) include:

Dan Boneh, Stanford Professor (and Senior Research Advisor at a16z crypto), a cryptographer who’s been working on blockchains for over a decade and who specializes in cryptography, computer security, and machine learning -- all of which intersect in this episode;
Ali Yahya, general partner at a16z crypto, who also previously worked at Google -- where he not only worked on a distributed system for a fleet of robots (a sort of "collective reinforcement learning") but also worked on Google Brain, where he was one of the core contributors to the machine learning library TensorFlow built at Google.

The first half of the hallway-style conversation between Ali & Dan (who go back together as student and professor at Stanford) is all about how AI could benefit from crypto, and the second half on how crypto could benefit from AI... the thread throughout is the tension between centralization vs. decentralization. So we also discuss where the intersection of crypto and AI can bring about things that aren't possible by either one of them alone...

pieces referenced in this episode/ related reading:

The Next Cyber Reasoning System for Cyber Security (2023) by Mohamed Ferrag, Ammar Battah, Norbert Tihanyi, Merouane Debbah, Thierry Lestable, Lucas Cordeiro
A New Era in Software Security: Towards Self-Healing Software via Large Language Models and Formal Verification (2023) by Yiannis Charalambous, Norbert Tihanyi, Ridhi Jain, Youcheng Sun, Mohamed Ferrag, Lucas Cordeiro
Fixing Hardware Security Bugs with Large Language Models (2023) by Baleegh Ahmad, Shailja Thakur, Benjamin Tan, Ramesh Karri, Hammond Pearce
Do Users Write More Insecure Code with AI Assistants? (2022) by Neil Perry, Megha Srivastava, Deepak Kumar, Dan Boneh
Asleep at the Keyboard? Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot's Code Contributions (2021) by Hammond Pearce, Baleegh Ahmad, Benjamin Tan, Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, Ramesh Karri
Voting, Security, and Governance in Blockchains (2019) with Ali Yahya and Phil Daian

As a reminder: none of the following should be taken as investment, legal, business, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information -- including to a link to a list of our investments – especially since we are investors in companies mentioned in this episode.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Strategy & Operations for web3 (with Uniswap COO) Jul 31, 2023

Show notes

with @mclader @smc90
In this wide-ranging conversation, Uniswap Labs COO Mary Catherine (aka MC) Lader discusses the challenges -- and opportunities -- of decentralized finance (DeFi); business strategy (& competition) in a world of open source; product vs. protocol innovation... as well as organizational structure & collaboration, hiring, metrics, community engagement, app store policies, decentralization, and much, much more.
The conversation -- based on an interview with host Sonal Chokshi and founder Q&A live from a16z crypto Startup School earlier this year -- also covers how to make decisions on what to innovate on or not; how to move from idea and vision to business; and the transition overall from traditional finance/ tradfi. Before joining Uniswap Labs (which contributes to Uniswap, a protocol for trading and automated liquidity provision on Ethereum) -- Lader was a managing director at BlackRock (and chief operating officer of the firm’s digital wealth business and head of its climate tech business); was formerly a fintech entrepreneur; and began her career as an investment analyst at Goldman Sachs.
---

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Network Effects, Moats, & the Business of web3 May 16, 2023

Show notes

with @skominers @smc90

In this deep dive and tour through key business concepts, from theory to practice, we cover the topics of strategy, competitive advantage, network effects, moats, and more -- covering both both basic foundations, as well as the tricky nuances in a new world of open source, including web3. In the first half of this discussion, we cover foundational business concepts and questions -- such as the nature of competition, and how it *really* changes in web3; as well as how network effects really work -- and then, in the second half (in case you want to skip ahead), we cover mindsets and general guidance for builders…

Our expert guest -- in conversation with editor in chief and host Sonal Chokshi -- is a16z crypto research partner Scott Duke Kominers, who is also a professor at Harvard Business School; a faculty affiliate in Harvard’s Department of Economics; and advises several companies on marketplace development, incentive design, and more; as well as advises, and is directly involved, in several NFT communities.

Scott also teaches on these topics -- both at Harvard and also recently at our Crypto Startup School -- so be sure to subscribe to our playlist for those talks on the a16z crypto YouTube channel to get the latest updates as we release more videos from the 2023 cohort.

related links // see also:

Can web3 bring back competition to digital platforms? by Christian Catalini and Scott Duke Kominers
Why build in web3 by Jad Esber and Scott Duke Kominers
Vampire attacks: A theory (and thread) on 'blood sucking' platform competition by John William Hatfield and Scott Duke Kominers
Why NFT creators are going cc0 by Flashrekt and Scott Duke Kominers
Decentralized identity: Your reputation travels with you by Scott Duke Kominers and Jad Esber
Increasing returns and the new world of business (1996) by W. Brian Arthur
Network effects, origin Stories, and the evolution of tech with W. Brian Arthur, Marc Andreeessen, and Sonal Chokshi
The five competitive forces that shape strategy (2008 reformulation of 1979 paper) by Michael Porter
Strategies for two-sided markets (2006) by Tom Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne

---

As a reminder: none of the following 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Of Data Availability & Danksharding May 05, 2023

Show notes

with @lera_banda @danboneh @rhhackett

This 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. 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" [named to reference Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist]. The next Danksharding milestone for Ethereum is an upgrade called EIP-4844, known as "Protodanksharding" [also named to reference Ethereum researcher Protolambda, now at OP Labs] -- which is planned for later this year.

Our expert guests include:

Valeria Nikolaenko, a16z crypto research partner
Dan Boneh, Stanford cryptography professor and a16z crypto senior research advisor

...who discuss their recent piece on 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), based on a live conversation that took place recently on Twitter Spaces.

links to pieces/ topics referenced in this episode:

on data availability sampling and danksharding, an overview and proposal / Valeria Nikolaenko & Dan Boneh
on Proto-Danksharding, a technical analysis / grizzly-answer-991
EIP-4844: the specification of ProtoDankSharding / Ethereum Foundation
Proto-Danksharding FAQ / Vitalik Buterin
Danksharding workshop video / Devcon (Oct 2022)
2D data availability with Kate commitments discussion on commitments' expansion / Ethereum Research Forum
a note on data availability and erasure coding / Github

---
None 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

State of Crypto: Trends, Data, More Apr 16, 2023

Show notes

with @cdixon @eddylazzarin @DarenMatsuoka @rhhackett
An in-depth overview of web3 trends and tech progress toward building the next internet, this conversation covers themes from the 2023 State of Crypto Report.

The first half of the discussion (from our recent Twitter Spaces), delves into data points and analyses: what’s behind the recent uptick in NFT activity and experimentation; the curious relationship between gaming (including on-chain gaming) and innovation; as well as challenges, and opportunities, in blockchain scaling. We also discuss the pace of advances in the field of zero knowledge cryptography, plus what new applications and products are now possible... including beyond web3.

The second half (based on a separate discussion) delves deeper into the report’s methodology, especially behind the interactive State of Crypto Index data tool… finally zooming out on the big picture.

Guests include Chris Dixon, founding general partner at a16z crypto; Eddy Lazzarin, chief technology officer; and Daren Matsuoka, lead data scientist -- in conversation with guest host Robert Hackett, a16z crypto features editor and head of special projects.

links to pieces or topics referenced in this episode:

the 2023 State of Crypto Report (+ PDF, livestream, Twitter Spaces) / Daren Matsuoka, Eddy Lazzarin, Robert Hackett, & Stephanie Zinn
the State of Crypto Index / Daren Matsuoka, Eddy Lazzarin, Robert Hackett, & Stephanie Zinn
on the “domino effect” meme / knowyourmeme
on John Carmack, see "Masters of Doom" by David Kushner / book
on web3 gaming & on-chain games / web3 with a16z crypto podcast
on EIP-4844 aka “protodanksharding” / Ethereum Improvement Proposals
on “Jevons paradox” in economics / Wikipedia
on the concept of “induced demand” / WIRED
on zero knowledge applications to machine learning / Elena Burger
the zero knowledge canon (parts 1 + 2) / Elena Burger, Bryan Chiang, Sonal Chokshi, Eddy Lazzarin, Justin Thaler, & Ali Yahya
on developer activity trends in crypto / Electric Capital

None of the content is investment, business, legal, or tax advice. See a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Also, please note that any charts, data, or projections discussed here are subject to change without notice, may differ from opinions expressed by others, and are for informational purposes only – they should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. The content speaks only as of the date indicated, and a16z has not independently verified third party sources nor makes representations about the enduring accuracy of the information.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Marketing web3: Audience, Community, More Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

with @amandacassatt @kimbatronic @smc90

All about marketing, and web3 -- not just for marketers already in or seeking to enter web3, but also anyone doing community marketing/ community management, devrel (developer relations); or simply doing marketing in web2 or classic growth marketing, seeking to understand the latest trends and tactics.
With the author of the new book, Web3 Marketing: A Handbook for the Next Internet Revolution, Amanda Cassatt (who was also the first CMO at ConsenSys, helping bring Ethereum to market; and also founded and leads the pioneering, native web3-marketing agency Serotonin). Also joining this episode to share insights on marketing web3 -- in conversation with host and editor in chief Sonal Chokshi -- is Kim Milosevich, CMO at a16z crypto, where she oversees brand, marketing, events, and communications (and before that was VP of communications at Coinbase, where she took the company through its direct listing while leading internal, policy, product, and corporate communications internationally).

The episode also covers key top of mind questions for web3 builders and others, including how to do community marketing, manage "profiles" in decentralized and open source, and finding your audience... including feedback for product-market fit. And much. much more!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Web3 Gaming & On-chain Games Mar 29, 2023

Show notes

with @ariannasimpson @eddylazzarin @smc90

This episode provides an overview of web3 gaming, as enabled by crypto & blockchains -- including what ownership and decentralization really means for gamers and others; degrees of on-chain games; and a pulse-check on what’s working so far, what's more or less ready, and where the most exciting design spaces are for all kinds of builders.

The conversation -- between a16z crypto general partner Arianna Simpson and CTO Eddy Lazzarin, in discussion with editor-in-chief Sonal Chokshi -- also covers specific trends such as "play-to-earn" (P2E), metaverse, autonomous worlds, and other forms of worldbuilding -- and also touches on key themes such as design, user onboarding, open source, and frameworks for technology innovation.

shownotes // links referenced in this episode:

on "strong vs. weak" forms of technology / Chris Dixon
on Carlota Perez' framework for Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, a summary / Jerry Neumann
on "autonomous worlds" / 0xPARC
on "on-chain procedural generation" / 0xPARC
on a few of the things we're excited about / a16z crypto

None 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Crypto Policy & Regulation: What's Going On? Feb 13, 2023

Show notes

with @milesjennings @brianquintenz @colinmccune @smc90

We provide an overview of policy and regulation in the crypto industry right now -- from a lay of the land to pulse checks on sentiment -- as well as share helpful frameworks for policymakers, and quick guidance on how things work (and how to navigate and participate) for builders.

We also dig into the mindsets, myths, debates, nuances; and quickly discuss what to expect for regulation in a few specific domains -- from DeFi to DAOs, to briefly touching on CEX vs DEX, stablecoins, banks custodying crypto, unhosted wallets, etc.

Our expert guests include:

Miles Jennings, general counsel at a16z crypto; he was also previously at Latham & Watkins, where he co-chaired its global blockchain and cryptocurrency task force -- Jennings has written a lot for us here, including developing frameworks for regulating crypto while preserving both innovation and protecting consumers; developing and evolving legal frameworks for DAOs; releasing "can't be evil" licensing for NFTs; and sharing detailed guides to decentralization for builders.
Brian Quintenz, now head of policy at a16z crypto; previously, he was a commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he had led the agency’s Technology Advisory Committee -- during his service, the CFTC oversaw the listing of the first U.S. regulated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts on derivatives exchanges, and the rapid expansion of DeFi.
Collin McCune, who joined as head of government affairs at a16z crypto a few months ago; he has spent a decade on Capitol Hill, and most recently was Deputy Staff Director of the House Financial Services Committee. I asked McCune to jump in on this episode for where we cover navigating Congress and the legislative process.
...all in conversation with editor in chief Sonal Chokshi.

To stay up to date on our ongoing efforts, regular regulatory recaps, and other resources or educational materials that you can use or point others to, please also subscribe to our newsletter for the latest dispatches.

As a reminder: none of the discussion 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.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected