a16z crypto show

Latest Episodes:

Wait — The Bank Froze Your Life Savings? Jun 11, 2025

Show notes

Imagine waking up one day to find your bank account frozen. No warning. No explanation. No recourse.

This is not a thought experiment. It’s a real situation. And it’s happened not just to crypto companies and their founders, but to ordinary people who are just trying to live their lives. That includes our guest today, who learned firsthand what it means to be “debanked.”

In this episode, we talk about the unseen algorithms that monitor people’s accounts, the ramifications of the Bank Secrecy Act, and how crypto and decentralized finance may offer a much-needed check — and safety net — against the opaque systems of traditional finance.

Joining us are:

Uniswap Labs’s Chief Legal Officer Katherine Minarik, who shares her personal story of being debanked and what it taught her.
a16z crypto Finance and Operations Partner Em Westerhold, who helps founders navigate these issues, and who has tracked dozens of instances of debanking across our own portfolio.

A big thank you to Katherine for trusting us to share her story, which you can read a first-hand account of in an op-ed she contributed to a16zcrypto.com earlier this year. Find that and more below.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(2:03) The Problem of Debanking

(5:58) Debanking: A Personal Story

(7:33) Understanding the Bank Secrecy Act

(11:53) The Information Vacuum

(16:55) The Impact on Crypto Companies

(20:07) Addressing Skeptics

(22:07) Banks: Good vs. Bad

(27:35) The Scariest Moment

(36:17) "Operation Chokepoint 2.0"

(38:08) History of the Bank Secrecy Act

(44:04) Security Theater

(45:31) What Would You Change?

(48:45) The Impact of Financial Consolidation

(49:30) Crypto as Banking Solution

(53:02) Is Debanking Still Happening?

(58:35) Unresolved Mysteries

(1:01:47) One More Debanking Story

(1:08:07) Conspiracy or Coincidence?

(1:09:39) It Shouldn't Be This Hard

(1:11:18) Out From Under the SEC's Cloud

(1:14:23) The Urgent Need for Legislation

(1:17:26) Possible Tech Futures

(1:19:33) Advice for Founders

(1:22:04) Final Thoughts

Resources:

Anyone can get debanked. DeFi is a critical safety net by Katherine Minarik (a16z crypto, February 2025)
- This op-ed is part of a bigger package of crypto policy views found here: “U.S. as the crypto capital: What it would take”
Debanking: What you need to know (a16z crypto, December 2024)
End the era of mass financial surveillance by Grant Rabenn (a16z crypto, February 2025)

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

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Inside the Solana Story: Near-Death Brushes and a Need for Speed (with Solana) Jun 05, 2025

Show notes

with @aeyakovenko @alive_eth

Today’s episode features Solana cofounder Anatoly Yakovenko in conversation with a16z General Partner Ali Yahya, recorded live at our CSX Crypto Startup Accelerator program earlier this year.

Anatoly shares the origin story of Solana — from a late-night eureka moment to thousands of investor meetings and several near-death startup experiences. He talks about what it took to get the network off the ground, how his engineering background at Qualcomm shaped its design, and why a need for speed gave Solana its edge.

They also get into developer culture, engineering trade-offs, and what differentiates Solana’s approach to building — including its willingness to ship, iterate, and rethink everything: including, most recently, its consensus algorithm.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(2:54) Early Career and Move to SF

(3:57) Discovering Crypto and Solana's Beginnings

(8:28) Challenges and Fundraising

(12:12) Building Solana and Overcoming Obstacles

(13:41) Solana's Vision and Market Strategy

(17:23) Navigating Crises and Team Resilience

(22:37) Solana's Unique Approach and Future Plans

(24:57) Solana's Unique Approach to Software Development

(26:35) Redesigning Solana: Lessons Learned

(30:22) The Importance of Hackathons and Community

(32:32) Technical Choices and Implications

(34:16) Prioritizing User Experience Over Developer Comfort

(36:40) Competitive Landscape of Layer 1 Chains

(38:49) Building a Loyal Developer Community

(42:36) Future of Blockchains and Solana's Vision

(47:29) Long-Term View and Goals

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With AI, Anyone Can Be a Coder (with Github CEO) Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

In this special episode from TED Tech, hear from GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on how AI is breaking the barrier to entry for coding. Who could a coder look like if you could code just by talking out loud? Learn how, thanks to AI, creating software is becoming as simple (and joyful) as building LEGO. In a live demo, he introduces Copilot Workspace: an AI assistant that helps you create code when you speak to it, in any language.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(0:28) Personal Journey into Coding

(2:31) The Evolution of Programming Languages

(4:02) The Birth of GitHub Copilot

(6:14) Live Demo: Building with Copilot

(9:58) The Future of Software Development

(13:04) Q&A: The Role of Humans in AI-Driven Development

(14:32) Conclusion

About TED Tech:

From the construction of virtual realities to the internet of things — technology is changing our world every day. But how can we make sure that the quickly-evolving role that tech plays in our lives is one that builds, empowers, and connects us? Host Sherrell Dorsey guides you through the latest ideas from TED Speakers, uncovering the riveting questions that sit at the intersection of technology, society, science, design, business, and innovation. Listen in every Friday.

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

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AI vs. ID: Proof of human in a world of agents, bots, deep fakes, more May 30, 2025

Show notes

with @eddylazzarin @adrian_ludwig @remco @smc90

Hi everyone, welcome to this week’s episode of web3 with a16z podcast, I’m Sonal, and today we’re talking about a hot topic which is also very evergreen because we’re entering a world where AI – including AI agents, bots, deep fakes, and so on -- are changing the internet, very drastically. And so we will need proof of who’s human, or not, online – aka “proof of human” (as Tools for Humanity and World app call it).

The theme is actually represented on the latest cover of Time magazine, which features the Tools for Humanity orb: a ball-like hardware device that maps your eye’s iris code to an app on your phone to verify you’re human. (It’s actually only the fifth time in the past decade that hardware tech’s been on the cover; the other times are the iphone, Oculus, consumer drones, and SpaceX.)

Since the technology -- and network -- story here draws on both existing and new tech to help solve what’s actually a *very* difficult problem -- and in a way where privacy is by default -- we begin with the why it matters, then go into some common questions, and finally how it all works under the hood. Our expert guests are:

Eddy Lazzarin, CTO at a16zcrypto;
Adrian Ludwig, Chief Architect and CISO at Tools for Humanity; and
Remco Bloemen, Head of Protocol at World.

As a reminder: None of the following is investment, business, legal, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information including link to a list of our investments.

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Marketing 101 for Startups: Token Launches, Memes, Reaching Devs & More May 22, 2025

Show notes

with @kimbatronic@amandatylerj@clairekart

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Since our show covers both tech trends and company building, today’s topic is all about marketing — including differences between marketing in crypto and traditional tech.

The conversation shares a candid look at what works — and what doesn’t — when it comes to building reputation and community, attracting developers, hiring teams and agencies, launching tokens, raising founder profiles, and more.

Our experts are:

... Amanda Tyler, who was most recently Head of Marketing at the Optimism Foundation (and was formerly at Polygon, Coinbase, and Google);

... Claire Kart, Chief Marketing Officer at Aztec (who previously was at Risc Zero and SoFi);

... in conversation with Kim Milosevich, CMO at a16z crypto (who was formerly VP of Comms at Coinbase, and who has spent decades in tech at a16z, Skype, Yahoo, and elsewhere).

Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction
(1:41) The Role of Marketers
(4:52) Tech Marketing vs. Crypto Marketing
(6:34) Understanding the Core Audience
(10:56) Marketing for Ethereum and Layer 2 Projects
(16:09) The Role of Community Managers and Developer Relations
(25:21) Token Launch Strategies
(34:42) Building Founders' Profiles (Without Being Cringe)
(38:53) How to Support Founders
(40:55) When to Hire
(43:05) Consultants vs. Agencies
(46:08) Structuring a Marketing Team
(48:27) Finding and Hiring Talent
(50:36) Building an Editorial Content Operation
(53:39) International Marketing Strategies
(56:41) The Role of Events
(1:01:48) Memes and Crypto Culture
(1:04:57) Conclusion

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Everything Stablecoins: Big Picture, Deep Dive May 15, 2025

Show notes

with @cdixon @SamBroner @rhhackett

Stablecoins are quietly transforming how money moves — faster, cheaper, and more globally than ever before.

In this episode, we take a deep look at why stablecoins have emerged as one of the most promising applications in crypto today — and how they could reshape global payments.

I’m joined by Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto and author of the New York Times-bestselling book Read Write Own, and Sam Broner, a deal partner at a16z crypto who focuses on stablecoins.

Together, we unpack the technical and regulatory foundations of stablecoins, explore the cracks in the current payments system, and look ahead to what becomes possible once digital dollars go mainstream. We also dig into the current state of regulation — and why the future of money might end up looking a lot more like email or the web than a bank.

Check out the show notes for links and resources that we reference throughout this episode. Also be sure to listen to the episode we dropped just before this one where we analyze all the recent stablecoin news.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(1:45) Payments, Finance, and the Internet

(4:03) The Promise and Potential of Stablecoins

(9:02) Global Financial System and Its Shortcomings

(11:29) The WhatsApp Analogy

(15:38) The Read Write Own Thesis

(19:15) The Power of Blockchains

(21:06) Venmo's Business Model

(23:17) Stripe's Opportunity

(25:11) Backwards Compatibility (Like Skype)

(28:13) The Role of Stablecoin Regulation

(34:36) Political Realities (vs. Big Banks)

(38:11) The Business Implications of Stablecoins

(40:31) The Stablecoin Investment Paradox

(47:07) Why Blockchains?

(51:11) Tech Marketing: Words vs. Products

(54:28) What Happens Next

(57:26) Global Demand for Stablecoins

(59:37) Learning from the Past

(1:05:06) Conclusion

Links to related resources:

A guide to stablecoins: What, why, and how by a16z crypto editorial (a16z crypto, April 2025)
Stablecoins: Payments without intermediaries by Chris Dixon (a16z crypto, April 2025)
The month fintechs embraced stablecoins by Sam Broner (a16z crypto, May 2025)
What Stripe's acquisition of Bridge means for fintech and stablecoins by James da Costa and Sam Broner (a16z crypto, April 2025)
How stablecoins will eat payments, and what happens next by Sam Broner (a16z crypto, December 2024)
A useful framework for understanding stablecoins: Banking history by Sam Broner (a16z crypto, November 2024)
Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet by Chris Dixon (Random House, January 2024)
A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class by Joe Nocera (Simon & Schuster, October 1994)
All about airdrops [podcast] by Eddy Lazzarin, Daren Matsuoka, Andrew Hall, and Robert Hackett (a16z crypto, April 2025)

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All the Stablecoin News: Stripe, Visa, Coinbase, Circle, More May 15, 2025

Show notes

with @rhhackett@smc90@DarenMatsuoka@SamBroner

Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about the next generation of the internet. I'm Robert Hackett.

There has been a flurry of stablecoin news lately, so we're doing a special bonus episode to cover everything that's been going on. Sonal and I are joined by a16z crypto’s Data Science lead Daren Matsuoka who shares the actual data behind the stablecoin trend. Then we have Sam Broner — who is a Deal Partner here and our frequent author on stablecoins — to analyze the news, and help highlight the signal versus the noise.

Here's a selection of the news:

USDC issuer Circle filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange
Coinbase released an agentic payments standard with support for stablecoin payments
Visa and Mastercard enhanced stablecoin support
Stripe announced stablecoin financial account balances, a programmable stablecoin (via Bridge), a stablecoin-backed card, and more
Meta is reportedly in talks to introduce stablecoins as a means for payouts
And much more

We also have one of our regular episodes covering the broader stablecoins trend and big picture, dropping separately in the feed, also with Sam and a16z crypto Founder Chris Dixon, so be sure to check that out next.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(1:30) Stablecoin Data Overview

(3:55) Stablecoin Adoption and Infrastructure

(4:24) Market Share of Issuers and Blockchains

(6:10) Stablecoin Growth vs. Crypto Market Cycles

(7:45) Stablecoin News and Developments

(9:44) Fintech Embraces Stablecoins

(12:44) Legacy Payment Systems vs. Stablecoins

(17:04) The Future of Stablecoins and Open Networks

(22:11) Conclusion

Links to related resources:

Everything stablecoins: Big picture, deep dive with Chris Dixon, Sam Broner, and Robert Hackett (a16z crypto, May 2025)
A chart of stablecoin usage growth vs. crypto market cyclicality (@DarenMatsuoka on X)
The month fintechs embraced stablecoins by Sam Broner (a16z crypto, May 2025)
What Stripe's acquisition of Bridge means for fintech and stablecoins by James da Costa and Sam Broner (a16z crypto, April 2025)
A guide to stablecoins: What, why, and how by a16z crypto editorial (a16z crypto, April 2025)

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Quantum Computing: What, When, Where, How May 08, 2025

Show notes

with @danboneh @succinctJT @smc90

This episode is all about quantum computing -- what it is, how it works, what's hype vs. reality, and how to prepare for it/ what builders should do.

Specifically, we cover:

What quantum computing is and isn't, and what people are really talking about when they worry about a quantum computer that can break cryptographic systems that are not secure against quantum attacks.
When is it happening/ what are the "timelines" for quantum computing becoming a reality -- or rather, when could we have a cryptographically relevant quantum computer -- how many years away are we? and when are the U.S. government's deadlines/ NIST standards for post-quantum cryptography?
How will different types of cryptography be affected, or not? What are different approaches and tradeoffs?
Where does quantum computing and post-quantum crypto apply to blockchains -- which by and large rely on signatures, not encryption, so may be more quantum-resistant in many ways (and not in others)...

As always, we tease apart the signal vs. the noise in recent "science-by-press release" corporate quantum-computing milestone announcements. We also help answer questions on when do builders need to plan their switch to a post-quantum crypto world, what pitfalls to avoid there (hint: bugs! software upgrades!). Finally, we briefly cover different approaches to post-quantum crypto; and also dig deeper on zero-knowledge/ succinct-proof systems and how they relate to post-quantum crypto.

Our expert guests, in conversation with Sonal Chokshi, are:

Dan Boneh,Stanford University professor and applied cryptography expert and pioneer; also Senior Research Advisor to a16z crypto;
Justin Thaler, research partner at a16z, professor at Georgetown, and longtime expert and pioneer in interactive and ZK proof systems.

more resources + papers on topics mentioned:

A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography by Dan Boneh and Victor Shoup [see also]
Proofs, Arguments, and Zero-Knowledge by Justin Thaler
LatticeFold+: Faster, Simpler, Shorter Lattice-Based Folding for Succinct Proof Systems by Dan Boneh and Binyi Chen
Neo: Lattice-based folding scheme for CCS over small fields and pay-per-bit commitments by Wilson Nguyen and Srinath Setty
"Q-Day Clock" from Project Eleven -- public dashboard to visually track timeline for quantum computing to reach cryptographically relevant capabilities and break widely used encryption algorithms
on hard forks for quantum emergencies
Quantum analysis of AES, Kyungbae Jang, Anubhab Baksi, Hyunji Kim, Gyeongju Song, Hwajeong Seo, Anupam Chattopadhyay
The Google Willow Thing by Scott Aaronson
FAQs on Microsoft’s topological qubit thing by Scott Aaronson
Microsoft’s claim of a topological qubit faces tough questions, American Physical Society

As a reminder, none of this is investment, business, legal, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information including a link to our investments.

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Your Guide to Tokens: Types, Design, Uses, More Apr 25, 2025

Show notes

with @eddylazzarin @skominers @milesjennings @rhhackett

Today we're diving deep into *the* defining concept in crypto: tokens.

We're moving beyond conventional categories — like “governance tokens” or “utility tokens” or even “memecoins” — to present a full taxonomy that details what tokens are, what they aren’t, and what they're capable of becoming.

Questions we'll explore include: What is a token? Is it a form of money? A piece of data? Something else? How many types of tokens are there — and who is in control of each? And how should we think about their actual economic, legal, and technical characteristics? We'll also dig into different token designs and their uses; where tokens derive value from; how they jibe with securities laws; and much more.

In this conversation, you’ll hear from several experts on the a16z crypto team who have developed a new 7-part framework for classifying tokens, which you can find linked below. Joining us are the coauthors: Chief Technology Officer Eddy Lazzarin, General Counsel and Head of Policy Miles Jennings, and Research Partner Scott Kominers, who is also a Professor at Harvard Business School where he teaches courses on market design and entrepreneurship.

Check out the resources below for a flowchart that we’ll also be referencing throughout this episode and that will be helpful as we wend our way through the token idea maze.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(3:28) The Evolution of Token Terminology

(6:19) Classifying Tokens: Economic, Legal, and Technical Dimensions

(8:37) Moving Beyond “Governance Tokens”

(12:05) Inherent Value: The Memecoin Debate

(15:35) Company-Controlled Tokens: Risks and Realities

(31:33) Arcade Tokens: Stability and Utility

(46:00) The Power of Blockchain Interoperability

(49:34) Shared Rewards and Loyalty Programs

(59:19) Asset-Backed Tokens and Their Mechanisms

(1:08:23) Collectible Tokens and Their Uniqueness

(1:14:31) Network Tokens: The Future of Decentralized Marketplaces

(1:31:03) Regulatory Challenges and "Lawyer Tokens"

(1:36:57) Final Thoughts and Future Prospects

Resources referenced in this episode:

7 canonical tokens, defined [see flowchart] by Miles Jennings, Scott Duke Kominers, and Eddy Lazzarin (a16z crypto newsletter, March 2025)
Defining tokens by Miles Jennings, Scott Duke Kominers, and Eddy Lazzarin (a16z crypto, March 2025)
Network tokens vs. company-backed tokens by Miles Jennings, Scott Duke Kominers, and Eddy Lazzarin (a16z crypto, March 2025)
Defining decentralization: It comes down to control by Miles Jennings (a16z crypto, February 2025)
Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet by Chris Dixon (Penguin Random House, January 2024)
The Everything Token: How NFTs and Web3 Will Transform the Way We Buy, Sell, and Create by Steve Kaczynski and Scott Duke Kominers (Penguin Random House, January 2024)

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AI and the End of Apps (with NEAR) Apr 16, 2025

Show notes

with @ilblackdragon @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. I’m your host, Robert Hackett.

In this episode, we're diving deep into one of the most intriguing intersections in tech today: AI and crypto.

To help us unpack it, we're joined by Illia Polosukhin — co-founder of the crypto protocol NEAR and co-author of the groundbreaking 2017 "transformers" paper that kicked off the current AI boom. Ilia has been early to some of the biggest recent tech trends, and today he brings us a rare, panoramic view of the tech industry’s cutting edge.

Together we explore what the phrase “user-owned AI” really means; why the so-called agentic internet — that is, a world where your AI assistant talks directly to services on your behalf — might replace the very notion of websites and apps as we know them; and much more.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction
(3:40) Centralization and Challenges of AI
(6:17) "User-Owned" AI
(12:14) Confidential Computing and AI
(17:51) The Birth of Transformers
(22:33) NEAR AI and Crowdsourcing
(27:56) AI Agents and Future Applications
(31:04) The End of Websites and Applications
(34:08) Dead Internet Theory & Distinguishing Humans
(41:49) Open Source vs. Open Weight Models
(43:48) Geopolitical Implications of AI
(46:55) NEAR Protocol and Blockchain Scaling
(59:29) The Role of Humans in an AI World

Resources: