web3 with a16z crypto - a16z crypto, Sonal Chokshi, Chris Dixon

Government... By Lottery? Nov 02, 2024

with @baileyflan @ahall_research @rhhackett

Today we’re dusting off an ancient practice that has become trendy once again: the old-but-new idea of “sortition,” or selecting representatives by lottery.

Sortition was used in ancient Athenian democracy to elect public officials. It’s also been lately revived by tech companies like Meta and AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic to tackle some of their thorniest policymaking challenges.

Our guests today are experts on sortition, including Bailey Flanigan, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard who is joining MIT as an assistant professor next year, and who has helped develop selection algorithms for sortition that are in use today. Also joining is Andrew Hall, Stanford University poli sci professor, advisor to Meta, and consultant to a16z crypto research.

In this episode, we discuss why not to rely exclusively on expert authority, how the process of deliberation changes people’s minds, and how sortition can apply everywhere from the governance of countries to the governance of crypto projects, and more.

Related resources:

Algorithms for fair, manipulation-robust, and transparent sortition with Bailey Flanigan

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.

AI Bots & Memecoins Oct 26, 2024

with @pmarca @bhorowitz

Today we’re running a special episode featuring a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz talking about AI bots and crypto. They discuss what happens when you mix postmodern theories and internet memes in an LLM. They also get into the sudden rise of a strange memecoin, the state of crypto regulation in the U.S., and more.

This episode is a crossover from the Ben & Marc Show, which you can follow on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

See the original episode:

How An AI Bot Became a Crypto Millionaire

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

State of Crypto 2024: Builder Energy, U.S. Election, Stablecoins, AI, More Oct 18, 2024

with @DarenMatsuoka @eddylazzarin @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today we're taking you behind the scenes of our newly released, annual State of Crypto Report — a16z crypto's analysis of the latest data and trends that have defined the industry in 2024.

This year's report features some brand new insights, from estimating the number of real crypto users globally, to understanding how much interest in crypto swing states may have ahead of the U.S. election. We also dig into infrastructure improvements to blockchains and key applications — including stablecoins, AI, and so-called DePIN. Be sure to visit a16zcrypto.com for all this and more including a new “Builder Energy” dashboard, which we’ll discuss on the show.

Joining me to talk about the findings are lead data scientist and report author Daren Matsuoka and CTO Eddy Lazzarin. The first voice you'll hear after mine is Daren's, then Eddy's.

a16z crypto resources:

State of Crypto Report 2024
Builder Energy dashboard
Estimating the number of real crypto users by Daren Matsuoka and Eddy Lazzarin

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

Bridges: Out of the Mess, Into the Meshnet (with LayerZero) Sep 28, 2024

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today we explore the messy secrets of blockchain bridges. These cross-chain connectors are the go-betweens in today's multichain world, but their short history has been a checkered one, with prominent projects succumbing to major hacks and other hijinks.

So we've brought on one of the builders who knows this world best to help disentangle the messiness. That’s Bryan Pellegrino, cofounder and CEO of LayerZero Labs, maker of a popular blockchain interoperability protocol. In this episode, Bryan delivers a crash course on the evolution of bridges, including the ups and downs of various approaches. You'll also learn about the technology's inner workings, its applications, and how it fits in with ongoing efforts to scale blockchains.

Joining is a16z crypto general partner Ali Yahya, who is also an expert in this area; plus me, your cohost, Robert Hackett. The first voice you'll hear after mine is Bryan's, then Ali's.

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

Games as Reality (with EVE Online) Sep 13, 2024

with @HilmarVeigar @eddylazzarin

Our featured guest today is Hilmar Pétursson, the CEO of CCP Games, maker of EVE Online, a massive multiplayer online role playing game. In this episode, Pétursson shares his unique world view and game-making philosophy, as well as a deep dive into the technology and economic design of his sci-fi simulation. He also touches on how niche cults can break into mainstream culture, how slow databases can make for fun gameplay, and what to expect from EVE Frontier, a new blockchain-based overhaul of the space survival game that is now inviting people to apply as playtesters.

The other voice you'll hear is that of Eddy Lazzarin, a16z crypto’s Chief Technology Officer and an avid gamer himself. This conversation originally took place earlier this year at a16z crypto's CSX startup accelerator program in London, videos of which are posted on the a16z crypto YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe for more thought-provoking conversations and other insightful content.

Related links:

"Crafting Virtual Worlds with Hilmar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games" (a16z crypto Youtube)
Eve Online (eveonline.com)
Eve Frontier (evefrontier.com / projectawakening.io)
- Playtest signup

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.

How Blockchain Tech Advances Benefit Other Industries Sep 09, 2024

with Dan Boneh @tim_roughgarden @smc90

In this special 50th episode of the web3 with a16z podcast, we discuss how work in the blockchains/ crypto space has led to advances in several important technologies — which can be (and are being) used by many other industries beyond crypto.

Tim Roughgarden (a16z crypto Head of Research and professor at Columbia University) and Dan Boneh (a16z crypto Senior Research Advisor and professor at Stanford University) discuss these advances in conversation with Sonal Chokshi.

Topics covered include automated market makers; credible auctions, collusion, and mechanism design not possible before; as well as zero knowledge; trusted execution environments (TEEs) and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE); and much more. We also discuss the recurring theme of how web3 provides a laboratory not only for experiments in governance, but for macroeconomics and more. The two also offer many useful explanations for anyone new to these technologies or seeking to understand why they matter in the big picture.

It’s an innovation story we’ve seen over and over again, from the space program to other massive invention efforts: Technologies developed for one purpose often lead to benefits for humanity overall.

Pieces mentioned in this episode and other resources:

On some results and challenges in cryptoeconomics -- Tim Roughgarden, CESC 2022
8 reasons why blockchain mechanism design is hard -- Tim Roughgarden, a16zcrypto.com, 2024
The computer in the sky (short version) -- Tim Roughgarden, 2024
Zero knowledge canon -- with Justin Thaler's annotated bibliography, a16zcrypto,com 2022
Using zero-knowledge proofs to fight disinformation -- Trisha Datta and Dan Boneh, IACR 2023
VerITAS: Verifying Image Transformations at Scale -- Trisha Datta, Binyi Chen, Dan Boneh, 2024
Achieving crypto privacy and regulatory compliance [+pdf of full paper]-- Joseph Burleson, Michele Korver, Dan Boneh, 2022
Credible auctions: A trilemma -- Mohammad Akbarpour, Shengwu Li, Econometrica, 2020
Auction design for web3 [episode 3 of this podcast] -- Scott Duke Kominers, Tim Roughgarden, Sonal Chokshi, 2022
Building Cicada: Private on-chain voting using time-lock puzzles -- Michael Zhu, 2023
Transaction fee mechanism design for the Ethereum blockchain: An economic analysis of EIP-1559 -- Tim Roughgarden, 2020
Collusion-resilience in transaction fee mechanism design -- Hao Chung, Tim Roughgarden, Elaine Shi, 2024
Transaction fee mechanism design in a Post-MEV world -- Maryam Bahrani, Pranav Garimidi,Tim Roughgarden, 2024
Notes on Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) -- Barnabé Monnot, 2022
Complexity-approximation trade-offs in exchange mechanisms: AMMs vs. LOBs -- Jason Milionis, Ciamac Moallemi, Tim Roughgarden, 2023
Trusted execution environments (TEEs) for blockchain applications -- Ari Juels, a16zcrypto.com, 2023

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.

Governance Attack!? Aug 15, 2024

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.

Token Do's and Don'ts Aug 08, 2024

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.

Where Innovation Happens Jul 31, 2024

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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

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.

Pricing Strategy Jun 01, 2024

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.

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

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)

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.

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

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)

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.

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

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.

Let's Get Digi-Physical: From 'Tap' Chips to Taylor Swift Apr 13, 2024

with @creeefs @blauyourmind @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next generation of the internet from the team at a16z crypto — that includes me, Robert Hackett, your cohost and an editor here. Today's episode explores the merging of the physical and digital worlds, as well as what that means for the future of our interactions and identities.

Our guests today are Chris Lee, cofounder of IYK, a startup that's bringing the physical closer together to the digital through NFC chips, and joining us is Michael Blau, a deal partner at a16z crypto who creates generative art in his spare time.

In the conversation ahead, we cover new consumer experiences in everything from concert-going to commerce, the intersection of high tech and high fashion, and differences between building in web2 versus web3. We also dig into the power of open standards, the challenges of posed by bots and counterfeiting, and debates over terminology, including whether 'phygital' should be a thing.

Resources for references in this episode:

"After Taylor Swift Ticket Chaos, Senators Question FTC Over Bot Law Enforcement" (Rolling Stone, November 2022)
"Pearl Jam: Taking on Ticketmaster" (Rolling Stone, December 1995)
IYK FAQ (Notion)
"Tap to pay your fare with OMNY" (MTA)
"Introducing Stories Highlights and Stories Archive" (Instagram, December 2017)
Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Live Aid 1985) (Youtube)
"Queen win greatest live gig poll" (BBC News, November 2005)
"The tech behind Taylor Swift concert wristbands" (Wired, June 2023)
"Finally, The P.J. Tucker x D&G Collab is Here" (GQ, July 2021)
On different models for linking NFTs to physical items (Mirror.xyz, February 2023)
"Lessons from 2023's fashion and beauty NFTs" (Vogue Business, December 2023)
"Singer Vérité’s fan-first approach to Web3, music NFTs and community building" (Cointelegraph, October 2023)
"How to Spot a Real Moncler Jacket" (TheRealReal, November 2019)
"Why Knockoffs Can Help Build a Strong Brand" (Freakonomics, September 2012)
On the verification process at StockX (StockX)
"I Returned to Webkinz So You Wouldn’t Have To" (Yale News, January 2019)
"A Wine-Soaked True Crime Doc with ‘Fraud, Deception and Intrigue’" (Wine Enthusiast, May 2023)
Sour Grapes (2016) documentary (Amazon Prime)
"I Love the Blockchain, Just Not Bitcoin" (Coindesk, November 2014)
"Timeline: Causes of the global semiconductor chip shortage" (Supply Chain Digital, January 2023)
"ERC-721 Non-fungible Token Standard" (Ethereum Foundation, November 2023)
Read Write Own by Chris Dixon book, bookmark, and NFT (Random House, January 2024)
On Duolingo outfits (Duolingo Wiki)
Ready Player One (Netflix, 2018)
On "phygital" (Collectid, March 2023)

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

The Art of Technology, The Technology of Art Apr 02, 2024

with @dennnnnnnnny @smc90

We know that technology has changed art, and that artists have evolved with every new technology — it’s a tale as old as humanity, moving from cave paintings to computers. Underlying these movements are endless debates around inventing versus remixing; between commercialism and art; between mainstream canon and fringe art; whether we’re living in an artistic monoculture now (the answer may surprise you); and much much more.

So in this new episode featuring Berlin-based contemporary artist Simon Denny -- in conversation with a16z crypto editor in chief Sonal Chokshi -- we discuss all of the above debates. We also cover how artists experimented with the emergence of new technology platforms like the web browser, the iPhone, Instagram and social media; to how generative art found its “native” medium on blockchains, why NFTs; and other art movements.

Denny also thinks of entrepreneurial ideas -- from Peter Thiel's to Chris Dixon's Read Write Own -- as an "aesthetic"; and thinks of technology artifacts (like NSA sketches!) as art -- reflecting all of these in his works across various mediums and contexts. How has technology changed art, and more importantly, how have artists changed with technology? How does art change our place in the world, or span beyond space? It's about optimism, and seeing things anew... all this and more in this episode.
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 a list of our investments.
SHOW NOTES:

Leading through uncertainty (with Coinbase CEO) Mar 28, 2024

with @brian_armstrong @cdixon

Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next generation of the internet from the team at a16z crypto. This episode features Brian Armstrong, CEO and cofounder of Coinbase, in conversation with a16z crypto founder and managing partner Chris Dixon.

The conversation was originally recorded at our Founders Summit in November. It covers the aftermath of FTX and the rise of crypto in politics — but it also goes into company building at scale, lessons for directing product development, how to balance core business with disruptive innovation, and more.

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

Snowboards, software, and scaling (with Shopify CEO) Mar 28, 2024

with @tobi @bhorowitz

Welcome to the web3 with a16z podcast. Today's episode features a conversation between Tobias Lütke, CEO and cofounder of the ecommerce platform Shopify, and Ben Horowitz, cofounder of a16z, which took place at our second annual Founders Summit in November. They discuss what it takes to build a breakout startup in a crowded category; the changing face of retail; how to effect change in the workplace; and how to handle individual emotions and corporate culture — including dealing with calls for activism as well as the value of embracing negativity. They also touch on the moral imperative behind creating quality software, the symbiosis between AI and crypto, and more.

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

Money, power, politics, and the internet's next battleground Mar 02, 2024

with @cdixon @pmarca @bhorowitz @rhhackett

Welcome to the web3 with a16z podcast. Today's episode is the final installment in our limited series on Read Write Own, the new book by a16z crypto founding partner Chris Dixon. Today's episode features Dixon in conversation with a16z cofounders Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen. Their discussion covers the internet’s corporate takeover and how that affects startups, creativity, and innovation; blockchains as inheritors of the open source ethos; where AI comes in; and the next battleground in global politics. This episode is a crossover from the Ben & Marc Show, which you can find and follow on the a16z YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts.

Resources for references in this episode:

"How an economic moat provides a competitive advantage" by Chris Gallant (Investopedia, August 2023)
"The dynamics of network effects" by D'Arcy Coolican and Li Jin (a16z, December 2018)
"Skeuomorphism" (Interaction Design Foundation)
"How to rebuild social media on top of RSS" (Hacker News, December 2022)
"Cardinal conversations: Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel on 'technology and politics'" (Hoover Institute, January 2018) [see @ 29:00]
"Peter Thiel: AI is communist" by Dan Primack (Axios, February 2018)
"Sam Altman seeks trillions of dollars to reshape business of chips and AI" by Keach Hagey and Asa Fitch (Wall Street Journal, February 2024)
"Join a union—but also join a DAO" by Daisy Alioto (The Nation, December 2021)
Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto by Aaron Bastani (Verso, June 2019)
"Friedrich Hayek and the price system" by Randal K. Quarles ("The Road to Serfdom at 75" conference, November 2019)
Pandora's Box: A Fable from the Age of Science "Part 1. The Engineers' Plot" by Adam Curtis (BBC, June 1992) [see @ 25:00]
"Going from web2 to web3: 'Your take rate is my opportunity'" by Chris Dixon (a16z crypto, August 2021)
"Blockchain & internet glossary (A–Z): Key terms from Read Write Own" by Chris Dixon and Robert Hackett (a16z crypto, February 2024)
"Why decentralization matters" by Chris Dixon (a16z crypto, February 2018)
"The Vision Pro needs apps. Now is not a good time for Apple to be at odds with developers" by Hasan Chowdhury (Business Insider, January 2024)
"Upgrading Ethereum | 4.2.5 Deneb" by Ben Edgington (Eth2book, September 2023)
"What to expect from Ethereum's Cancun-Deneb Upgrade" by Wilfred Daye (Coindesk, February 2024)
"Bitcoin Obituaries" (99 Bitcoins)
"An Overview of H.R. 4766, Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act" by Paul Tierno and Andrew P. Scott (Congressional Research Service, September 2023)
"The Rings of Power" (The Lord of the Rings Wiki)
"There's no downplaying the impact of Operation Choke Point" by Dennis Shaul (American Banker, November 2018)
"Operation Choke Point 2.0: The Federal Bank Regulators Come for Crypto" by David H. Thompson, et al. (Cooper & Kirk Lawyers, March 2023)
"Google Chatbot’s A.I. Images Put People of Color in Nazi-Era Uniforms" by Nico Grant (New York Times, February 2024)
"This is Worldcoin: Humanness in the age of AI" (Worldcoin, February 2024)
The Blocksize War: The Battle for Control Over Bitcoin's Protocol Rules by Jonathan Bier (Amazon, March 2021)
"Balaji Srinivasan: The Bitcoin Network State" (Bitcoin Magazine, October 2023)

The story of the internet, emergent networks, and their effects Feb 11, 2024

with @stevenbjohnson @cdixon @rhhackett

Welcome to the web3 with a16z crypto podcast. Today's episode features a conversation between Steven Johnson, a prolific author of books about technology and innovation who is also, as editorial director at Google Labs, helping to develop AI writing tools such as NotebookLM, and Chris Dixon, founding partner of a16z crypto and author of the new book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet. The two discuss the history of their shared interests, they explore the emergent properties of decentralized networks, and they dig into the past, present, and future of the internet.

Resources for references in this episode:

Author page for Steven Johnson
Google Labs's personalized AI writing tool NotebookLM
"Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble" by Steven Johnson (New York Times Magazine, January 2018)
How We Got To Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson (Riverhead Books: 2015)
Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, And History's First Global Manhunt by Steven Johnson (Riverhead Books: 2021)
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson (Sribner: 2002)
Chris Dixon's blog at cdixon.org
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (Random House: 1961)
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro (Vintage: 1975)
The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual (Basic Books: 2000)
"A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" by John Perry Barlow
"1000 True Fans" by Kevin Kelly
Index, a History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age by Dennis Duncan (W.W. Norton: 2022)
ReadWriteWeb blog (ca. 2003)
"Airbnb Proposes Giving Hosts a Stake in the Company" by Aisha Al-Muslim and Maureen Farrell (Wall Street Journal, September 2018)
"Lyft Unlikely to Get SEC Pushback on Plan for Two Share Classes" by Nabila Ahmed and Ben Bain (Bloomberg, March 2019)
"OpenAI Says New York Times Lawsuit Against It Is Without Merit" by Cade Metz (New York Times, January 2024)

Read Write Own: A new era Jan 30, 2024

with @cdixon @rhhackett

Welcome to the web3 with a16z crypto podcast. I'm Robert Hackett, an editor here at a16z crypto, and I'm here with Chris Dixon, founding partner of a16z crypto and author of the new book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet. I had the privilege of editing Chris throughout the book writing process, and I'm thrilled now to talk to you about what went on behind the scenes, the big themes of the book, the challenges, and also about the crypto industry at large as well as what we can expect from it in the future.

Learn more at https://readwriteown.com/.

Resources for references in this episode:

Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse
"'It's a canon event' TikTok trend, explained"
Chris Dixon's blog at cdixon.org
- "Come for the tool, stay for the network"
- "The next big thing starts out looking like a toy"
- "Can't be evil"
The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen
- On Andrew Chen's writing habits
On investing in Coinbase in 2013
Guidance from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission in 2019: "Framework for 'Investment Contract' Analysis of Digital Assets"
On blockchains as "a programmable computer that lives in the sky" via a16z crypto head of research Tim Roughgarden
Gödel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstader
"How Aristotle Created the Computer" by Chris Dixon for The Atlantic
"A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" by Claude Shannon
Principia Mathematica by Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought by George Boole
The End of Education by Neil Postman
"Inside out vs. outside in: The adoption of new technologies" by Chris Dixon
"The Inevitable Showdown Between Twitter and Twitter Apps" by Chris Dixon
"Elon Musk says X is discouraging links in posts" by Sara Fischer
"Make Ethereum Cypherpunk Again" by Vitalik Buterin
"What Will Happen in 2024" by Fred Wilson
"A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity" by McCullough and Pitts
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
On "thesis, antithesis, and synthesis" and Hegel's Dialectics

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

On the decentralized web, truth, and human rights: 'Hacking authenticity' Dec 23, 2023

Welcome back to web3 with a16z -- a show about building the next generation of the internet, from the team at a16z crypto. This show is for anyone -- whether company leader or other entrepreneur, creator or developer, media or policymaker -- seeking to understand, and go deeper on all things blockchains, crypto, and web3. We’re back with all new episodes this season, beginning with some conversations that took place at our recent Founders Summit.

Today's guest is Jonathan Dotan, tech founder, Emmy-nominated producer, and writer who spent six seasons on HBO's show Silicon Valley. He is also the founding director of The Starling Lab for Data Integrity at Stanford & USC -- which prototypes tools and principles to bring historians, legal experts, and journalists into the new era of web3 -- and where he leads applied research on the decentralized web and human rights.

This episode is based on a conversation that took place at our recent second annual Founders Summit -- with a16z crypto's Robert Hackett (also former senior writer at Fortune) -- in which they discuss how cryptographic technologies can help establish "ground truth" in conflict zones; the history of open source regulation; and more.

Dotan is also a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Blockchain Research and a lecturer at Stanford’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Graduate School of Business. This talk was preceded by a short presentation from Dotan on the "enduring promise of web3" delivered at our second annual a16z crypto Founder Summit in November 2023, which you can watch on YouTube.

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

Communicating in Crypto, and Beyond Oct 07, 2023

with @smc90 @stanfordgsb

How does one *communicate* well -- especially in crypto, but also in other technical industries or open source communities? Or in distributed, decentralized organizations, where you may have participants that are both remote and in person, or a mix of regulars and newcomers/ strangers. (Take for instance a community call to discuss technical or governance changes.)

How do you present information to different types of stakeholders; speak spontaneously; or resolve and recover from conflicts on the spot? So in this special book-launch episode of web3 with a16z, we invited Matt Abrahams -- author of the new, just-released book, Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot (he also hosts a popular podcast by a similar name, “Think Fast Talk Smart”, which you should also subscribe to!). Matt is not only a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, but he works with lots of companies and leaders on strategic communication, persuasive communication, interpersonal communication, and much more.

In this episode, Matt covers -- in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi -- specific templates, tactics, and tools that anyone can use; but we begin the first 15 minutes setting some foundational context, including the difference between informal vs. formal communication; why structure matters and how it relates to "spontaneity"; the art of listening with pace, space, and grace (for listening to oneself, too). We then cover several types of structures that anyone -- whether leader or individual contributor, engineer, marketing, sales -- can use in many types of communication.

Ultimately, crypto isn't just about technology and code -- but about open source, decentralization, collaboration -- people coordinating with each other at unprecedented scale: a very human thing. That's why finding the "common" in communication is essential, and represents the future of work, now.

resources referenced in this episode:

How to Moderate Talks, Panels, Meetings, and More (Virtual and Beyond!), a16z Podcast, November 2020 -- with Matt Abrahams and Sonal Chokshi
Ethereum, Merge and Beyond, web3 with a16z podcast, September 2022 -- with Tim Beiko et al

None of the following should be taken as investment, legal, business, or tax advice. Please also see a16z.com/disclosures for important information -- including a link to a list of our investments -- since we are investors in some of the companies mentioned in this episode.

Chain Choices: Or, How to Decide What Blockchain to Build On Sep 19, 2023

with @guywuolletjr @eddylazzarin @smc90
"Which blockchain should I build in?" Is a very top of mind question for builders in web3, including for people coming into the space for the first time -- but also relevant to anyone interested in tech innovation, tech stacks, and the evolution of infrastructure. So how does one decide among all the chain choices out there, particularly given how fast-moving the crypto and web3 space is? Things are constantly changing, things are still being built, and there's no one size fits all answer...

So in this episode, we -- a16z crypto’s Guy Wuollet, and CTO Eddy Lazzarin, in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi -- tease apart all the tangled threads and nuances of the topic. In the first third of the discussion, we sketch out the overall landscape, why it matters, quick definitions. Then, we focus on common/ frequently asked questions, specific tradeoffs, and a framework for deciding which chain -- including discussing different technical specs, as well as other dimensions such as: community, marketing & ecosystem support, security, custody, programming languages, and much, much more.

resources related to or mentioned in this episode:

Programming Languages & Crypto (2023) with Sam Blackshear, Eddy Lazzarin, Noah Citron, Sonal Chokshi
The Four Horsemen of Centralization (2018) by Ali Yahya
Decentralization for web3 Builders: Principles, Models, How (2022) by Miles Jennings
Network Effects, Origin Stories, and the Evolution of Tech (2018), with Brian Arthur, Marc Andreessen, and Sonal Chokshi [see also this paper referenced]

None of the following should be taken as investment, legal, business, or tax advice. Please also see a16z.com/disclosures for important information -- including a link to a list of our investments -- since we are investors in some of the companies mentioned in this episode.

Debating Blockchain Architectures (with Solana) Sep 05, 2023

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.

Financial Freedom, Company Building, More Aug 22, 2023

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.

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.

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

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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.

Of Data Availability & Danksharding May 05, 2023

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

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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.

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

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.

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

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!

Web3 Gaming & On-chain Games Mar 29, 2023

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.

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

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.

Programming Languages & Crypto Jan 30, 2023

with @b1ackd0g @noahcitron @eddylazzarin @smc90

This episode is all about programming languages and crypto -- and it’s for both existing blockchain & smart contract programmers, and also other non-web3 developers seeking to enter the space... and, for anyone who is just curious about how programming languages evolve and come into existence (as well as interested in the intersection of language, code, and expression!)

It's a fun and fascinating ride, because we cover everything from differences (and similarities) in conventional programming languages vs. smart contract programming; discuss and debate the unique constraints (and opportunities) of blockchains; and also touch on topics such as formal verification, governance & community, tooling, cross-platform adaptation, and much much more... But we also dig into with the history, ebbs, and flows of traditional programming to today.

Our guests in this episode, in conversation with Sonal Chokshi, include:

Sam Blackshear -- co-founder and CTO of Mysten Labs (which is building foundations for the decentralized future of web3); Sam has a long history in programming languages from his PhD to working at Facebook (and Libra/Diem) to creating and being one of the authors of Move, an open-source programming language for building smart contracts;
Noah Citron, smart contract & research engineer here at a16z crypto (who also recently authored a light client for Ethereum called Helios, and, won a challenging gas-optimization challenge with another partner here); and
Eddy Lazzarin, head of engineering for a16z crypto; before that, Eddy was in software engineering at Netflix, as well as data engineering and data science at Facebook.

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 a list of our investments.

Creators, Creativity, and Technology with Bob Iger Dec 20, 2022

with @robertiger @cdixon @smc90

In this intimate chat with Bob Iger (now-again CEO of Disney, although this conversation was recorded a few months ago), a16z crypto host Sonal Chokshi and founding general partner Chris Dixon discuss the interplay between technology, content, and distribution... Bob shares his journey (as captured in his book The Ride of a Lifetime and beyond) -- and the journey of various creators! -- especially as the industry has evolved from TV and cable to the advent of the internet/ web 1.0; to web 2.0 and distribution models like streaming, to business models like advertising; to web3 and emerging technologies like VR and AR.

We also touch briefly on related top of mind topics like IP, decentralization, remote work, and more. As well as other themes top of mind for company (and community) builders of all sizes -- from the innovator's dilemma and whether to build vs. buy, to managing creatives and much more.

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

Building and Overcoming the Hard Things Dec 02, 2022

with @brian_armstrong @bhorowitz
An all-new, guest-hosted episode based on a chat that took place just this week between:

CEO and co-founder of Coinbase Brian Armstrong;
interviewed by a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz, who authored the bestselling business books The Hard Things About the Hard Things and What You Do is Who You Are on how to create your business culture.

Their conversation — which took place just this week (November 29, 2022) at our inaugural a16z crypto Founder Summit — goes into management, company culture, and much more on building and overcoming the hard things while innovating… as well as commentary on recent events and news (FTX etc.) in the crypto industry and beyond.
You can also watch this on our YouTube channel at: https://youtu.be/_YqQGs4QxDM
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As a reminder, none of the discussion should be taken as business, legal, tax, or investment advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Mental Models for Navigating Crypto Markets & Cycles Nov 21, 2022

A hallway-style conversation between a16z crypto's Chris Dixon, Eddy Lazzarin, and Sonal Chokshi about market conditions, cycles of innovation, and mental models for navigating crypto and web3 -- as well as the longer arc and evolution of technology; methods & metrics for measuring price-innovation cycle ebbs and flows; some key trends; and more.
This episode originally ran in May 2022, as episode #1 in our new show 'web3 with a16z'. The 2022 State of Crypto report referenced can be found at a16zcrypto.com/stateofcrypto -- please sign up for our newsletter to be notified about the next report and other resources + updates: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/
As a reminder, none of this discussion should be taken as business, legal, tax, or investment advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Mainstreaming NFTs: Use Cases, Art, More Nov 04, 2022

with @punk6529 @cdixon @smc90

Chris Dixon and Sonal Chokshi chat with Punk6529 about NFT use cases; NFT art (and generative art!); VR, AR, metaverse; more. As well as about regulatory mindsets, moves, and news -- such as Apple's in-app purchasing guidelines for NFTs, and Reddit NFTs.

links:

https://twitter.com/punk6529
https://web3-with-a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/metaverse-crypto-vr-games-virtual-society
https://web3-with-a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/web2-to-web3-nfts-art-ai-hot-topics-trends-cycles-in-computing-u_kA5xPh
https://future.com/podcasts/crypto-creators-art-galleries-tokenized-collectibles/
https://cdixon.org/2019/01/08/strong-and-weak-technologies
https://tylerxhobbs.com/essays/2021/the-rise-of-long-form-generative-art

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web3 with a16z is a show about building the next generation of the internet, from the team at a16z crypto. As a reminder, none of the content 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.

The Metaverse, Crypto, Virtual Society Oct 21, 2022

This episode is a deep dive on all things metaverse, defining what the metaverse is, and what it isn’t; covering frequent misconceptions (and nuances) around how VR or virtual reality, videogames, and other applications relate (and don't relate) to the metaverse; and discussing how communities, fashion, sports, and more play here.

We also go into where crypto comes in -- including discussing trends in on-chain gaming, DAOs; themes like interoperability, composability; etc. But we also go well beyond technology -- and into science fiction, the arts, low-fidelity design, narrative, and much, much more -- in this wide-ranging, hallway-style conversation between:

Herman Narula, author of the new book Virtual Society: The Metaverse and the New Frontiers of Human Experience; Narula is also the CEO and co-founder of Improbable;
Elena Burger, deal partner on a16z crypto (where she focuses on games, NFTs, web3 media, infrastructure, and more); Berger also wrote a thoughtful review of Narula’s book;
...and host Sonal Chokshi (who also shares writings on topics such as "narrative collapse" and more as well as past episodes of the a16z Podcast with Narula on distributed systems at scale, gaming, and more).

For more on metaverse from the a16z crypto, please see this piece.
To order Narula's book, please select from here.

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web3 with a16z is a show about building the next generation of the internet, from the team at a16z crypto. As a reminder, none of the content 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.

Age of Wonders: NFTs, Art, AI, Cycles of Computing Oct 09, 2022

with @kevinrose @cdixon

This wide-ranging discussion is a tour through tech trends and hot topics both within and beyond crypto – including art, AI, the evolution of mediums including blockchains; a deep dive on NFTs, artists, communities; debates around cc0, modding and copying on the internet, royalties; plus role of brands, DAOs, wisdom of crowds; and much more.
The hallway-style conversation took place this week between Chris Dixon (founding general partner of a16z crypto, former entrepreneur) and Kevin Rose (co-founder of Proof Collective, Digg, more). Their discussion is not just a journey through time (long cycles of computing, web2 to web3) and place (LA, SF, NYC), but into "the age of wonders". Are we at the end of (computing) history, or the beginning? You decide... but only after listening to this conversation.
As a reminder, NONE of this is investment, business, legal, or tax advice -- nor is it directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund – also, please note that any a16z investments and portfolio companies mentioned are not representative of all a16z investments; you can see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Ethereum, Merge and Beyond Sep 12, 2022

with @timbeiko @tim_roughgarden @alive_eth @smc90

A deep dive on all things Ethereum, which this week makes the big move to Proof of Stake in The Merge. So in this long and wide-ranging conversation with Tim Beiko -- who runs the core devs calls and Protocol Support for Ethereum Foundation -- a16z crypto head of research (Tim Roughgarden), general partner (Ali Yahya), and editor in chief (Sonal Chokshi) cover:

how Ethereum got here today -- and the co-evolution of the protocol and the community;
what went into The Merge -- both technical and the social processes behind the outcomes; what changes, what doesn't;
top of mind tech trends such as rollups, data availability, EVMs, and more (as well as hot topics including proposer-builder separation and others);
views on token governance
the nature of distributed collaboration especially between R&D

...but it's really a conversation about how innovation happens, in a decentralized way. And what does that mean for community involvement, who participates, and how more people can participate in web3?

In case you missed it, check out last week's episode for an overview of proof of stake blockchains.

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.
"web3 with a16z" is a show about building the next generation of the internet from the team at a16z crypto; this show is for anyone seeking to understand, and go deeper, on all things crypto and web3.

PoS Blockchains - Designs, Consensus, Attacks Aug 29, 2022

with @lera_banda @tim_roughgarden @smc90

We share an overview of proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains -- from quick background on how blockchains work, differences between PoS & PoW (including the energy question), and approaches to improving both; to digging deeper into Sybill attacks and Sybill resistance... and much more on the design (and some debates) of PoS blockchains overall.
We therefore also go into different consensus approaches for PoS blockchains, from Nakamoto to BFT-style consensus and beyond; touch briefly on the question/ debate of centralization vs. decentralization in practice when it comes to PoS blockchains; and cover costless simulation and long-range attacks... plus briefly discuss topics like slashing and more, when issues are "escalated" to the social vs. protocol layer. [We don’t go into too much detail on Ethereum or the Merge i this episode, since we cover that in an upcoming episode.]

Our expert guests in this episode (in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi) are:

Valeria (Lera) Nikolaenko, a16z crypto research partner -- who was previously on Novi at Meta (formerly Facebook), where she was a research scientist and cryptographer for the Diem blockchain; Lera specializes in modern cryptography, post-quantum cryptography, proof-of-stake blockchain design, and more.
Tim Roughgarden, a16z crypto Head of Research -- who, among many other things, is also a computer science professor at Columbia, and before that Stanford (and who joins as co-host in this episode).

Be sure to also subscribe to our YouTube channel for several introductory and deep-dive videos -- including the exact topics discussed in this episode, on an overview of PoS Blockchains & on long-range attacks on PoS blockchains, as presented by Lera -- just search for 'a16z crypto research'. See also Tim Roughgarden's YouTube channel with several lectures on foundations of blockchains, including on topics mentioned in this episode (Tendermint protocol, longest-range consensus, random leader selection, more).
Finally, if you’d also like a more high-level survey of research in web3 -- and a quick tour through tech topics like VDFs, rollups, and more -- be sure to check out episode 8 in this feed, which was also a hallway-style jam with the research team...
As a reminder, none of the following investment, business, legal, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Crypto Regulations, Illicit Finance, Privacy and Beyond Aug 19, 2022

with @michelekorver @jai_ramaswamy @smc90

We tease apart the facts vs buzz around recent news -- that the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash for allegedly laundering proceeds of cybercrimes, and then later the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service stated that they arrested a suspected developer of Tornado Cash Tornado Cash -- including what's novel and what's not here, as well as the broader regulatory and compliance backdrop.

But we also share an evergreen explainer that goes well beyond recent events, to help crypto founders and others navigate various regulatory and compliance requirements for builders... while still ensuring innovation.

The first third covers a ton of analysis beyond the news around Tornado Cash -- from broader backdrop to specifics to players to what's novel or not in recent actions; as well as going into the differences between sanctions and national securities laws, to civil enforcement actions, criminal liability and money laundering, and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) program compliance requirements.
We then do a brief interlude on the difference between obfuscating vs privacy preserving technologies, and why that matters in the big picture.
And then the SECOND half of the episode dives deep into understanding and navigating compliance and legal for builders, covering: different frameworks, principles, common myths & misconceptions; when and how to resource (tooling to hiring); a lightning-round primer on the alphabet soup of governmentt entities relevant to this space; advice for BOTH entrepreneurs & government agencies on engaging with each other
and much, much more… that’s all in the second half of the episode.

Our expert guests (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi) are:

Michele Korver, head of regulatory at a16z crypto, former federal prosecutor who was also at the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as their chief digital currency advisor; she also spent time in the U.S. Departmentt of Justice, where she was the first dedicated subject matter expert in cryptocurrency-related prosecutions and forfeitures; and
Jai Ramaswamy, chief legal officer at Andreessen Horowitz, where he oversees legal and compliance; he was also formerly chief risk and compliance officer at cLabs, which launched the decentralized protocol Celo; Jai also headed (or advised) on AML compliance & risk management at major banks (Capital One, Bank of America); and previously spent over a decade in government including significant time in the U.S. Department of Justice criminal division, where he focused on cybercrime, asset forfeiture, and money laundering.

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

Bridge Hack, Wallet Hack Aug 12, 2022

with @mg_486662 @riyazdf @nassyweazy and @smc90

This week’s all-new episode digs into recent high-profile hacks that took place in the crypto space over the last week -- we not only dig into what happened, including a more technical breakdown of the how and how we know -- but also cover the categories and issues specific to (and not specific to!) web3 security; as well as solutions and advice for builders.

We also touch on related trends and topics such as the role of open source; communications around hacks, as well as social media status signaling; and much more. Throughout, we try to help tease apart what’s hype/ what’s real, as well as the signal vs. the noise, in the narratives out there...

Joining host Sonal Chokshi this week are experts from the a16z crypto security team, including: security engineer Matt Gleason; CTO Riyaz Faizullabhoy; and CISO Nassim Eddequiouaq -- both of whom previously worked at Facebook, Anchorage, and Docker [Nass also appeared on an earlier episode of this show, on evolving NFTs & security, available here].

But for this episode, just to quickly recap for your context, the hacks we’re specifically covering are:

The hack of the Nomad bridge -- which connects several different blockchains including Avalanche, Ethereum, Evmos, Moonbeam, and others – with reported range of between $185-$190M stolen;
The hack of the Slope wallet -- a non-custodial, browser-based wallet that was reported to affect nearly 8000 users on Solana as well as other ecosystems -- with reported range of between $4.5-8M stolen. It occurred a week ago and Slope just posted their latest update today confirming some of the details in this episode (which was recorded a few days earlier).

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

Top Tech Topics, Explained Aug 06, 2022

@tim_roughgarden @josephbonneau @skominers with @alive_eth @cdixon

A tour through top-of-mind blockchain & crypto tech topics, explained by several a16z crypto researchers, including VDFs (verifiable delay functions); zk-rollups, SNARKs, and zero knowledge in general; and others. We quickly zip up and down the stack, and across themes -- such as scalability; data availability; reputation and the creator economy, also discussing applications for NFTs and more.
It is based on a conversation that took place a few months ago (on the heels of our a16z crypto research lab announcement), live on Twitter with:

Tim Roughgarden, Head of Research at a16z crypto and professor in the computer science department at Columbia University;
Joseph Bonneau, research partner at a16z crypto, who also wrote the textbook on cryptocurrency technologies, pioneered VDFs, and has taught cryptocurrency courses at several top universities; and
Scott Duke Kominers, research partner at a16z crypto and professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics, who also advises a variety of marketplace businesses, startups, and crypto projects, and serves as an expert on NFT-related matters.
...with moderators and general partners Chris Dixon and Ali Yahya.

Be sure to also subscribe to our YouTube channel -- as well as our newsletter at a16zcrypto.substack.com -- for more related content, and videos from researchers, going deeper on the topics discussed in this episode and beyond...

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Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next generation of the internet, from the team at a16z crypto -- this show is for anyone (whether researcher, developer, engineer, artist, company leader, community manager, entrepreneur or other builder) -- seeking to understand, and go deeper on all things crypto and web3: towards a decentralized, community-owned, and creator-owned internet.

Policy Principles Jul 23, 2022

@jakeauch @cdixon @milesjennings

A quick overview of principles for thinking about policy, briefly covering topics and recent moves that are top of mind in U.S. crypto regulation -- from stablecoins to NFTs to DAOs to more. It is based (only lightly edited for this medium) on a live conversation that took place a couple weeks ago on Twitter with:

Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, also Vice-Chair of the Financial Services Committee (he also formerly led product development at both a Fortune 100 insurance company and a cybersecurity startup);
Miles Jennings, general counsel and head of decentralization at a16z crypto who has advanced and published several frameworks for both builders and industry on topics such as decentralization in practice, legal frameworks for DAOs, and more;
Chris Dixon, a16z crypto founding general and managing partner who also moderates this conversation.

Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about building the next generation of the internet from the team at a16z crypto. This show is for anyone -- whether developer, artist, community leader; startup entrepreneur or other builder, policymakers, company leaders, others – anyone seeking to understand, and go deeper on all things crypto and web3: towards a decentralized, community-owned, and creator-owned internet.

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

Securing and Evolving NFTs Jul 18, 2022

with @x0rart / @blauyourmind, @nassyweazy, @smc90

Building “usable” security will be critical as NFTs scale across applications and mediums — including “dynamic NFTs” for art, identity, experiences (token access, more). In the latest episode of our podcast ‘web3 with a16z’, expert guests discuss security best practices for builders, experiments, and trends now and ahead — also addressing common myths and misconceptions along the way (artist royalties in smart contracts? immutability?... well…)

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

Puzzles (& Crypto) Jul 05, 2022

with @enigmida @skominers @smc90

A special bonus holiday episode (during our brief summer vacation) based on a hallway-style conversation we did linking two seemingly unrelated things: puzzle design, and crypto.
What's the connection? Our experts riff on all things puzzle design, from types of puzzles and mediums to mindsets -- as well as the parallels between the general principles of incentive design, engagement, accessibility, and more to NFTs, escape rooms, games, and other experience design -- drawing on their deep experience and passion from both inside puzzle communities and from work they've done for different crypto projects.

Hosted by Sonal Chokshi, our guests in this episode are: Scott Kominers (a16z crypto research partner and professor at Harvard Business School), who also wrote Bloomberg’s puzzle column for a couple years; and Matthew Stein (former software engineer at Google and now full-time puzzle designer), who specializes in narrative puzzle hunts, as well as in designing alternate reality games for NFT communities, movies, musicians, companies, individuals, and others. Stein also designs puzzles for Art of Play's art journal; and is a reviewer for Room Escape Artist, the largest escape room website in North America, where he also writes about various topics in immersive gaming.

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

Decentralized Creativity & Collaboration Jun 27, 2022

with @RMcElhenney @cdixon @smc90

This first live taping of 'web3 with a16z' took place an event hosted by a16z crypto & Adim during NFT NYC June 20, 2022 -- with special guest Rob McElhenney* in conversation with Chris Dixon and Sonal Chokshi. Given the theme of "decentralized media"/ "decentralized content creation", the conversation covers decentralized creativity and collaboration; community, creator access; IP and evolution of the internet; and where NFTs and web3 specifically comes in... do we really need web3 for this?
We also touch on topics such as the metaverse, storytelling across mediums, managing writer’s rooms, favorite TV shows, nostalgia, and much more.
*Rob McElhenney is the creative force behind It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the critically-acclaimed FXX comedy series in which he co-stars and serves as executive producer and writer; the fifteenth season premiered in December 2021, breaking the record as the longest-running live-action television sitcom in history. He is also the creator, executive producer, and star of Mythic Quest, the acclaimed comedy series that debuted on Apple TV+ (co-created by Megan Ganz and Charlie Day, and a co-production of Ubisoft and Lionsgate Television); it was recognized as one of the best new series of 2020. McElhenney is the co-founder and co-chairperson of Adim, which brings web3 technology to creative development to build a new model and value network for creators and collaborators to have a stake in the success and evolution of what they create -- initially through a scaled network of writer's rooms and through a platform for a broad character ecosystem.

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

Auction Design for web3 Jun 14, 2022

with @skominers @tim_roughgarden @smc90

In this episode, we go into all things auctions – which, broadly defined, are simply ways of selling and allocating scarce things – and which applies in web3 contexts to everything from NFT mints, to blockchains themselves. (Which we also go into in this episode, including an overview of the technical challenges specific to mechanism design in a permissionless context. We also briefly cover EIP 1559).

We provide a quick overview of auction types, and incentive design, and how it works in both theory and practice -- including the nuances of market-clearing prices, gas wars, and more… sharing tradeoffs, choices, and principles for builders designing these systems throughout.
Our expert guests in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi are Scott Kominers, a16z crypto research partner and professor at Harvard Business School who specializes in market, marketplace, and incentive design; and Tim Roughgarden, head of research at a16zcrypto and professor at Columbia, who led the development of the field of algorithmic game theory -- which brings together computer science and economics to solve real-world computing problems.

This conversation includes a brief mention of lotteries, which are sometimes used in conjunction with auctions, and which we kept for educational purposes only. Note there are some questions about the legality of such mechanisms like “sweepstakes” that narrow participants by requiring them to do something to enter -- so builders should NOT use these without consulting a lawyer. As a reminder, NONE of the following is legal, business, tax, or investment advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information.

Blockchains / Crypto / web3 May 31, 2022

with @cdixon @alive_eth @tim_roughgarden @smc90

We set some context, quickly, into the connection between blockchains, crypto, and web3 – and offer some useful analogies, and more mental models, for thinking about a blossoming area of computer science in both theory and practice.

web3 with a16z is a new podcast for anyone seeking to understand and go deeper on blockchains, crypto, and web3. It is about how users and builders -- whether artists, coders, creators, developers, companies, organizations, or communities -- now have the ability to not just "read" (web1) + "write" (web2) but "own" (web3) and build with pieces of the internet, unlocking a new wave of creativity and entrepreneurship.

Brought to you by the team at a16z crypto (and the original team behind the a16z Podcast), this show features hallway conversations, discussions, interviews, oral essays, and more on the latest and leading trends in the space, including sharing research, occasional data readouts, and insights from the top scientists, and makers, in the space. It is hosted by Sonal Chokshi, longtime showrunner (2014-2022) and host of the popular a16z Podcast and network, now editor in chief at a16z crypto; as well as a rotating cast of characters from our team who appear in and occasionally co-host episodes as well.

In the initial episodes, we start by setting some quick context, before we dive deep the rest of the season on topics ranging from auction design and mechanics, NFTs, security, zero knowledge, gaming, decentralized media, tokenomics, history, infrastructure, roadmaps, and much more -- in the form of everything from hallway conversations to interviews to oral essays; but as always, as is a signature of our other shows, with high density insights and respect for our listeners' time and attention.

You can find show notes with links to resources, books, or papers discussed; transcripts; and more at a16zcrypto.com.

This episode was produced, and edited by Sonal Chokshi. The episode was technically edited by our audio editor Justin Golden, with thanks to longtime sound engineer Seven Morris. Credit also to Moonshot Design for the art. And special acknowledgments to Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner; CMO Kim Milosevich; and several others on our team here for their support.

To follow more of our work and get updates, resources from us, and from others – be sure to subscribe to our newsletter web3 weekly; you can find it on our website at a16zcrypto.com.

Methods to the Madness May 31, 2022

with @cdixon @eddylazzarin @smc90

A conversation about the markets and how recent events affect crypto and web3; mental models for thinking about crypto and web3, and the longer arc and evolution of technology history, open source, etc.; and methods & metrics for measuring price-innovation cycle ebbs and flows, creators in web2 vs web3, and much more -- as well as key trends that are top of mind.

web3 with a16z is a new podcast for anyone seeking to understand and go deeper on blockchains, crypto, and web3. It is about how users and builders -- whether artists, coders, creators, developers, companies, organizations, or communities -- now have the ability to not just "read" (web1) + "write" (web2) but "own" (web3) and build with pieces of the internet, unlocking a new wave of creativity and entrepreneurship.

Brought to you by the team at a16z crypto (and the original team behind the a16z Podcast), this show features hallway conversations, discussions, interviews, oral essays, and more on the latest and leading trends in the space, including sharing research, occasional data readouts, and insights from the top scientists, and makers, in the space. It is hosted by Sonal Chokshi, longtime showrunner (2014-2022) and host of the popular a16z Podcast and network, now editor in chief at a16z crypto; as well as a rotating cast of characters from our team who appear in and occasionally co-host episodes as well.

In the initial episodes, we start by setting some quick context, before we dive deep the rest of the season on topics ranging from auction design and mechanics, NFTs, security, zero knowledge, gaming, decentralized media, tokenomics, history, infrastructure, roadmaps, and much more -- in the form of everything from hallway conversations to interviews to oral essays; but as always, as is a signature of our other shows, with high density insights and respect for our listeners' time and attention.

You can find show notes with links to resources, books, or papers discussed; transcripts; and more at a16zcrypto.com.

This episode was produced, and edited by Sonal Chokshi. The episode was technically edited by our audio editor Justin Golden, with thanks to longtime sound engineer Seven Morris. Credit also to Moonshot Design for the art. And special acknowledgments to Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner; CMO Kim Milosevich; and several others on our team here for their support.

To follow more of our work and get updates, resources from us, and from others – be sure to subscribe to our newsletter web3 weekly; you can find it on our website at a16zcrypto.com.

web3 with a16z, a show about the next internet May 20, 2022

"web3 with a16z" is a show about the next generation of the internet, and about how builders and users -- whether artists, coders, creators, developers, companies, organizations, or communities -- now have the ability to not just "read" (web1) + "write" (web2) but "own" (web3) pieces of the internet, unlocking a new wave of creativity and entrepreneurship. Brought to you by a16z crypto, this show is the definitive resource for understanding and going deeper on all things crypto and web3. From discussing the latest and leading trends to sharing research, data readouts, and insights from top scientists and makers in the space, this is a variety show with a variety of formats and topics listeners can pick and choose from. It is hosted by the longtime showrunner of (and original team behind) the popular a16z Podcast. Learn more at a16zcrypto.com.

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