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Governance Attack!? Aug 15, 2024

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with @ahall_research @eddylazzarin @0xShuel @smc90

In this episode, we cover both recent events + evergreen governance questions in political systems: Specifically, we breakdown the recent Compound “governance attack”... as well as the broader topic of DAO governance and voting in general. We also discuss how to avoid, prevent, and respond to such governance attacks -- highlighting key differences between on-chain/ token-based/ digital voting systems vs. physical-world political systems around the world.

What happens when you have activity from actors that the majority doesn’t necessarily agree with? How do you distinguish between good-faith and bad-faith activity, especially on-chain? And other such tricky questions?? Our experts answering these questions (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi) include:

- a16z crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin;
- head of network operations Ross Shuel;
- and a16z crypto research collaborator, and Stanford professor of political science, Andrew Hall.

The episode begins by quickly recapping the exact sequence of a recent Compound governance “attack” event a few weeks ago -- including discussing whether “governance attack” is the right label for it or not; how it’s different from other attacks; and the broader trend of online vs offline governance attacks in general -- before then going into specific solutions. The team also shares some behind-scenes tick tock on what happened, how people figure out motives behind actions on-chain (especially given the "indistinguishability problem"), and much more.

Pieces mentioned in this episode and other resources:

DAO governance attacks, and how to avoid them by Pranav Garimidi, Scott Duke Kominers, Tim Roughgarden
The DUNA: An Oasis For DAOs by Miles Jennings and David Kerr
Governance FAQs by Andrew Hall
A new financial model for app tokens: How to generate cash flows by Mason Hall, Porter Smith, Miles Jennings, and Ross Shuel
all things DAOs on a16zcrypto.com
all things decentralization on a16zcrypto.com
Voting, Security, and Governance in Blockchains (a16z Podcast, 2019) with Phil Daian and Ali Yahya (see also "On-Chain Vote Buying and the Rise of Dark DAOs" by Phil Daian, Tyler Kell, Ian Miers, and Ari Juels)
PoS Blockchains - Designs, Consensus, Attacks (web3 with a16z Podcast, 2022) with Valeria Nikolaenko, Tim Roughgarden, Sonal Chokshi
Lightspeed Democracy: What web3 organizations can learn from the history of governance by Andrew Hall and Porter Smith
Governing democracy, the internet, and boardrooms (web3 with a16z Podcast, 2024) with Noah Feldman, Andrew Hall, Robert Hackett
As a reminder: None of this should be taken as business, investment, 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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Token Do's and Don'ts Aug 08, 2024

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with @eddylazzarin @milesjennings @rhhackett

Today’s episode covers all things tokens — that includes what tokens have to do with decentralized protocols, understanding the different types of tokens, and, of course, the Do's and Don'ts of designing and launching a token.

Our guests are a16z crypto chief technology officer Eddy Lazzarin, as well as a16z crypto general counsel and head of decentralization Miles Jennings, the two of whom have advised many scores of projects on protocol design and tokencraft. They discuss what sets web3 apart from earlier technology eras; avoiding common pitfalls in the search for product market fit; how to reason about various designs and strategies, as well as their risk and reward tradeoffs; and more.

Related resources:

The token launch playbook (part 1)

"Operational guidelines for token launches, from creation to custody" by Adina Fischer, Matt Gleason, and Justin Simcock
"5 rules for token launches" by Miles Jennings
"Getting ready to launch a token: What you need to know" by Miles Jennings and Jason Rosenthal
"How to navigate token launch risks" by Miles Jennings
"Launching compliant tokens" by Miles Jennings

The token launch playbook (part 2)

"Tokencraft" with Eddy Lazzarin [Youtube, August 2024]
"Planning for token launches" with Miles Jennings [Youtube, August 2024]

As a reminder: None of the content 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.

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Where Innovation Happens Jul 31, 2024

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with @matthewclifford @smc90

This special episode is all about regional innovation — at both a systems and people level.

We cover what does and doesn’t work in making certain places become hubs of innovation and economic growth (aka “innovation ecosystems”). But we also discuss — going back and forth between the structural and individual — when to intervene for entrepreneurial talent; the nature of ambition, yearning, and finding one’s path; and more broadly, mindsets for navigating risk/reward and dynamism in different regions including London and Europe. We also discuss new ways of funding breakthrough R&D at a national level, tech trends of interest including crypto, and much more.

Our special guest — in conversation with editor in chief Sonal Chokshi, who also brought him to the a16z Podcast over 8 years ago in its first-ever UK roadshow in December 2015 — is Matt Clifford, who’s played an important role in the London entrepreneurial and tech ecosystem since 2011. Matt is the Chair of Entrepreneur First (which he co-founded with Alice Bentinck over a decade ago); and is also the Chair of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). [Before this episode was recorded, Matt was also the Prime Minister’s representative for the AI Safety Summit — which he helped organize at Bletchley Park (the historic home of computing in the UK); after this episode was recorded, Matt was appointed by the UK secretary of science to deliver an “AI Opportunities Action Plan” to the UK government, which was just announced last week.]

Fittingly, this episode was recorded live from Andreessen Horowitz’s first international office, in London; for more on our efforts there, and other content from there, please visit a16zcrypto.com/uk.

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 a link to a list of our investments.

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What, How, and Why We're Reading Jul 21, 2024

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with @rhhackett @smc90 @stephbzinn @tim_org

In this fun hallway-style conversation, a16z crypto's Sonal Chokshi, Robert Hackett, Tim Sullivan, and Stephanie Zinn discusses picks from our latest annual summer reading list, as well as evergreen/ Lindy picks that show up on our what-we're-reading lists again and again. We also share our top picks of all time.

Throughout, we also discuss HOW we read — whether audiobooks count as reading or listening, graphic novels, read-alouds; on multiple modes of reading; and technologies for reading and how they have changed us over time. Which books are better as movies and TV shows, and games too? Also, are collaboratively-filtered recommendations via family or friends really that great? What other heuristics — and anti-heuristics! — do we use to read?

Finally, WHY do we read?? Is mythology and fantasy filling a hole left by religion? Wherefore nonfiction vs. fiction... or seemingly new genres such as "infotainment," "romantasy," and others? From Shakespeare to Prince Harry to erstwhile seafarers to modern mermaids, this episode is a rollicking ride — and love letter — to all things books, and reading, from the a16z crypto editorial team and Andreessen Horowitz. Curiosity is magic, after all!

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On Finding Product Market Fit — and Meaning Jun 25, 2024

Show notes

with @jasonrosenthal @benrbn

Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next generation of the internet.

Our featured guest today is serial entrepreneur Ben Rubin, who previously built the viral livestreaming app Meerkat, and then the group video chat app Houseparty — acquired by Epic Games in 2019 — and who is now CEO and cofounder of Here Not There Labs, which is building a decentralized messaging protocol.

Rubin spoke with Jason Rosenthal, head of a16z crypto's CSX startup accelerator program, about paths to product market fit, given his journey in building breakout apps; they also discuss his unique perspective on creating company culture and more.

This conversation first took place at our recent CSX program, which just concluded in London. (Watch the video interview on Youtube here.)

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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Governing democracy, the internet, and boardrooms Jun 18, 2024

Show notes

with @NoahRFeldman, @ahall_research, @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. I'm Robert Hackett and today we have a special episode about governance in many forms — from nation states to corporate boards to internet services and beyond.

Our special guests are Noah Feldman, constitutional law scholar at Harvard who also architected the Meta oversight board (among many other things); he is also the author of several books. And our other special guest is Andy Hall, professor of political science at Stanford who is an advisor of a16z crypto research — and who also co-authored several papers and posts about web3 as a laboratory for designing and testing new political systems, including new work we'll link to in the shownotes.

Our hallway style conversation covers technologies and approaches to governance, from constitutions to crypto/ blockchains and DAOs. As such we also discuss content moderation and community standards; best practices for citizens assemblies; courts vs. legislatures; and much more where governance comes up.

Throughout, we reference the history and evolution of democracy — from Ancient Greece to the present day — as well as examples of governance from big companies like Meta, to startups like Anthropic.

Resources for references in this episode:

On the U.S. Supreme Court case NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton (Scotusblog)
On Meta's oversight board (Oversightboard.com)
On Anthropic's long term benefit trust (Anthropic, September 2023)
On "Boaty McBoatface" winning a boat-naming poll (Guardian, April 2016)
On Athenian democracy (World History Encyclopedia, April 2018)
The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President by Noah Feldman (Random House, October 2017)

A selection of recent posts and papers by Andrew Hall:

The web3 governance lab: Using DAOs to study political institutions and behavior at scale by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak (a16z crypto, June 2024)
DAO research: A roadmap for experimenting with governance by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak (a16z crypto, June 2024)
The effects of retroactive rewards on participating in online governance by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak (a16z crypto, June 2024)
Lightspeed Democracy: What web3 organizations can learn from the history of governance by Andrew Hall and Porter Smith (a16z crypto, June 2023)
What Kinds of Incentives Encourage Participation in Democracy? Evidence from a Massive Online Governance Experiment by Andrew Hall and Eliza Oak (working paper, November 2023)
Bringing decentralized governance to tech platforms with Andrew Hall (a16z crypto Youtube, July 2022)
The evolution of decentralized governance with Andrew Hall (a16z crypto Youtube, July 2022)
Toppling the Internet’s Accidental Monarchs: How to Design web3 Platform Governance by Porter Smith and Andrew Hall (a16z crypto, October 2022)
Paying People to Participate in Governance by Ethan Bueno de Mesquita and Andrew Hall (a16z crypto, November 2022)

As a reminder: none of the following should be taken as tax, business, legal, or investment advice. See a16zcrypto.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

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Pricing Strategy Jun 01, 2024

Show notes

with @jasonrosenthal @skominers @meigga @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z, I’m Robert Hackett and today, we discuss pricing strategy for startups — from traditional businesses to web2 to web3.

Topics we cover include:

unit economics
understanding consumer psychology
using onchain data to inform pricing decisions
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
How to navigate a pricing pivot
And lessons from real world pricing case studies, including Tesla, Nvidia, and others

Our experts include a16z crypto's Maggie Hsu, head of our go-to-market team; research partner and Harvard Business School professor of economics Scott Kominers; and head of our CSX startup accelerator Jason Rosenthal, who is a tech veteran having spent the last 25 years at various internet companies — the three combine all their different expertise around the theme of this episode.

Resources for references in this episode:

When is decentralizing on a blockchain valuable? by Marco Reuter (a16z crypto, January 2023)
The Value of Decentralization Using the Blockchain: An Economic Analysis by Marco Reuter (a16z crypto, January 2023)
"The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power..." — Warren Buffett (Bloomberg, February 2011)
Network Effects, Moats, & the Business of Web3 (Episode 25) (web3 with a16z podcast, May 2023)
6 questions every founder should ask about pricing by Jason Rosenthal and Maggie Hsu (a16z crypto, May 2023)
Zipcar: Refining the business model by Myra M. Hart, Michael J. Roberts and Julia Stevens (Harvard Business School Case Collection, May 2005)
Ning CEO: Building a Better Website by Adam Lashinsky (Fortune, September 2010)
On the best business advice Disney CEO Bob Iger ever received by Jeff Haden (Inc., December 2020)
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely (HarperCollins, February 2008)
On the Bored Ape Kennel Club donating secondary sale proceeds to charity (Twitter, June 2021)
Chief's Silicon Valley Stardom Quickly Clashed at J.C. Penney by Stephanie Clifford (New York Times, April 2013)
Tesla turns up heat on rivals with global price cuts by (Reuters, January 2023)

As a reminder none of the following should be taken as tax, business, legal, or investment advice. See a16zcrypto.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

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Open Sourcing the Superchain (with Optimism) May 23, 2024

Show notes

with @jinglejamOP @eddylazzarin @rhhackett

Hello and welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next era of the internet by the team at a16z crypto, that includes me, host Robert Hackett.

Today’s episode features Jing Wang, CEO and executive director of the Optimism Foundation, along with a16z crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin. We discuss the peculiarities of open source software — including the incentives that bind contributors together, tradeoffs between the freedom to customize versus sticking to standards, and the challenges in setting up and running a foundation

We also cover the nuances of governance and accountability, the importance of vibes, the indispensability of shipping products (versus debating roadmaps), and, the vision behind the so-called “superchain”.

As head of the Optimism Foundation, Wang helps stewards the Optimism collective — a band of decentralized companies, communities, contributors, and others who are using a suite of open source software – called the OP Stack — to scale the Ethereum blockchain network. The OP Stack also powers a number of popular "layer two" rollups — including Base, which we covered in last week's episode with its creator and lead, Coinbase’s head of protocols Jesse Pollak.

Be sure also to check out the a16z crypto YouTube channel for video podcast episodes, as well as talks from our recent startup accelerator programs CSX featuring Jing, Optimism co-founder Karl Floersch, and more.

Resources for references in this episode:

More on Optimism:
More on the Optimism superchain collective, including:
"Understanding Dencun, the biggest upgrade to Ethereum since The Merge" by Noah Citron and Valeria Nikolaenko (a16z crypto, March 2024)
- More on Ethereum upgrade EIP-4844 (Github)
"Layer 2, rollups, and building onchain (with Base)" by Jesse Pollak, Eddy Lazzarin, and Robert Hackett (a16z crypto, May 2024)
"Composability is to software as compound interest is to finance" by Chris Dixon (a16z crypto, October 2021)
"The Nature of the Firm" by Ronald Coase (Economica, November 1937)
"Weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation" [Intro 6.2 footnote] (Congress.gov)

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Layer 2, Rollups, and Building Onchain (with Base) May 11, 2024

Show notes

with @jessepollak @NoahCitron @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next era of the internet by the team at a16z crypto, that includes me, host Robert Hackett.

Today’s episode covers the bustling area of “layer 2” rollups, a technology for scaling “layer 1” blockchains such as Ethereum. Joining us is Jesse Pollak, who previously led engineering for Coinbase’s retail side and who now is the company’s head of protocols where he founded and leads the popular layer 2 rollup Base.

We’re also joined by Noah Citron, an engineer at a16z crypto who works on many open source projects and protocols, and who closely tracks developments in this area.

Our conversation digs into the shifting history and future of Ethereum, the arrival of upgrades like EIP-4844, experiments in futarchy, and the difference between leading — and innovating — inside companies versus within decentralized communities. We also discuss the challenges of winning developer mindshare, how to refine business metrics and measures, understanding the tangled interactions between rollups and bridges, and whether you should ever hyphenate the word “onchain.”

Resources for references in this episode:

jessepollak.com — Jesse Pollak's personal website
"A rollup-centric Ethereum roadmap" by Vitalik Buterin (Fellowship of Ethereum Magicians, October 2020)
"The Coinbase Secret Master Plan" by Brian Armstrong (Coinbase, September 2016)
"Proposed milestones for rollups taking off training wheels" by VItalik Buterin (Fellowship of Ethereum Magicians, November 2022)
L2Beat — dashboard of the state of the layer 2s
DefiLlama — dashboard of the state of DeFi
Relevant Dune dashboards relating to layer 2s
"How rollups *actually* work" by Kelvin Fichter (ETHGlobal Scaling Ethereum Summit, March 2023)
"Rollups are L1s (& L2s) a.k.a. how rollups *actually actually actually* work" by Jon Charbonneau (Mirror.xyz, May 2023)
"Rollups, Rigor, and Reality" by Kevlin Fichter (kelvinfichter.com)
"Futarchy: Vote Values, But Bet Beliefs" by Robin Hanson (George Mason University, August 2000)
"Ethereum Rollup Improvement Proposals (RIP)" (Github)
Ethereum EIP-4844 (Github, March 2023)

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Theory to Code: Building the Breakthrough zkVM Jolt May 01, 2024

Show notes

with @SuccinctJT @samrags_ @moodlezoup @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next era of the internet by the team at a16z crypto. That includes me, host Robert Hackett. Today's all new episode covers a very important and now fast developing area of technology that can help scale blockchains, but that also has many uses beyond blockchains as well.

That category of technology is verifiable computing, and specifically, SNARKs. So today we dig into zkVMs, or "zero knowledge virtual machines," which use SNARKs, and we discuss a new design for them that the guests on this episode helped develop — work that resulted in Jolt, the most performant, easy-for-developers-to-use zkVM to date.

The conversation that follows covers the history and evolution of the field, the surprising similarities between SNARK design and computer chip architecture, the tensions between general purpose versus application specific programming, and the challenges of turning abstract research theory into concrete engineering practice.

Our guests include Justin Thaler, research partner at a16z crypto and associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University, who came up with the insights underpinning Jolt, along with collaborators from Microsoft Research, Carnegie Mellon, and New York Universities. His is the first voice you'll hear after mine, followed by Sam Ragsdale, investment engineer at a16z crypto, and Michael Zhu, research engineer at a16Z crypto, both of whom brought Jolt from concept to code.

Resources for references in this episode:

"Jolt: SNARKs for Virtual Machines via Lookups" by Arasu Arun, Srinath Setty & Justin Thaler (Cryptology ePrint Archive, 2023)
the Jolt Github page
Michael Zhu and Sam Ragsdale’s post on the open source implementation
Justin Thaler’s post on the ideas behind Jolt
an FAQ untangling this new SNARK design paradigm
our Lasso + Jolt archives
▶️📹 Jolt, zkVMs, and speeding up blockchains by Justin Thaler — a quick (five minute) explanation of what Jolt is and why it's important
▶️📹 Correcting some SNARK misconceptions by Justin Thaler — a deeper dive into some of the common misconceptions behind Lasso (the theoretical foundation of Jolt) and how this new paradigm works
"Zero Knowledge Canon, Part 1 & 2" by Elena Burger et al. (a16z crypto, September 2022)
Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach by Sanjeev Arora and Boaz Barak (Princeton University, January 2007)

As a reminder, none of the following should be taken as tax, business, legal, or investment advice. See a16zcrypto.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.

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