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web3 with a16z crypto

a16z crypto, Sonal Chokshi, Chris Dixon

"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.

  • 1 hour 30 minutes
    What, How, and Why We're Reading

    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!

    21 July 2024, 10:59 pm
  • 1 hour 5 minutes
    On Finding Product Market Fit — and Meaning

    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.

    25 June 2024, 8:30 pm
  • 1 hour 35 minutes
    Governing democracy, the internet, and boardrooms

    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:

    A selection of recent posts and papers by Andrew Hall:

    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.

    18 June 2024, 12:34 am
  • 1 hour 11 minutes
    Pricing Strategy

    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:

    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.

    1 June 2024, 3:00 pm
  • 1 hour 25 minutes
    Open Sourcing the Superchain (with Optimism)

    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:

    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.

    23 May 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 2 minutes
    Layer 2, Rollups, and Building Onchain (with Base)

    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:

    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.

    11 May 2024, 12:40 pm
  • 1 hour 15 minutes
    Theory to Code: Building the Breakthrough zkVM Jolt

    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:

    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.

    1 May 2024, 7:02 pm
  • 1 hour 16 minutes
    Let's Get Digi-Physical: From 'Tap' Chips to Taylor Swift

    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:

    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.

    13 April 2024, 2:16 pm
  • 1 hour 6 minutes
    The Art of Technology, The Technology of Art

    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:

     

    2 April 2024, 6:30 am
  • 36 minutes 30 seconds
    Leading through uncertainty (with Coinbase CEO)

    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.

    28 March 2024, 1:45 am
  • 44 minutes 18 seconds
    Snowboards, software, and scaling (with Shopify CEO)

    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.

    28 March 2024, 1:43 am
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