Is the title intentionally clickbaity, or does the author just not know that "blowing up" could mean two completely opposite things?
a16z is not the object of the "blowing up". There is no clickbait or ambiguity.
A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
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Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#42A16Z’s unapologetic bet on cryptocurrency and blockchain companies is big for the industry. As crypto heats up again and blockchain 3.0 projects emerge (Cosmos, Polkadot, Ethereum Proof of Stake) VC will help legitimize the industry.
I really hope VCs do the right thing by the environment and stop supporting any crypto company that involves the sort of excessive Bitcoin type mining we've seen today. Whatever problem they supposedly solve does not outweigh the staggering impact to the planet.
Many of the newer, high profile blockchains have moved away from proof of work to proof of stake, which is not energy intensive
Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
When it comes to laundering money and ponzi scheming cryptocurrency is second to none in terms of cost, risk & speed. Edit: Strugglinng to type on my phone.
You got me there. I am in the 99th percentile of crypto bears but I myself have used Bitcoin very effectively to buy illegal drugs, buy illegal steroids, and bet on sports illegally. Bitcoin is truly second to none in these domains.
If you're doing those things because you think your transactions are anonymous...you're putting yourself at risk. Bitcoin is not private, like at all.
Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you provide a single problem where the right solution space is blockchain? Ive thought about this a good amount, and cannot come up with a single use case where current established centralized technology is not a better solution.
Transferring money from one country to another. It might seem easy right now, but if Visa or MasterCard ban you or your recipient, or their region, or country then it becomes much harder.
Just don't get banned by Visa or Mastercard
Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#45As a side note, I generally like reading, but I cannot for the life of me pay attention this circus of an article. The animations give me motion sickness.
I see comments here which indicate there may be something worth reading in there, but my brain is screaming at me to ignore it. The whole thing feels like an advertisement.
Perhaps it's because suits are making a corporate comeback.
Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you provide a single problem where the right solution space is blockchain? Ive thought about this a good amount, and cannot come up with a single use case where current established centralized technology is not a better solution.
One problem that I think blockchains could be well suited for is the storage of police evidence. Not physical evidence of course, but anything that could be turned into data. There was a scene in the show Billions where U.S. prosecutors tampered with evidence in the from of notes taken while interviewing persons of interest. Since blockchains are at their core a tamper-proof append-only data store, if those notes had…
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Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#47By stopping the investment or no-investment-for-free shares?
Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#48A16Z’s unapologetic bet on cryptocurrency and blockchain companies is big for the industry. As crypto heats up again and blockchain 3.0 projects emerge (Cosmos, Polkadot, Ethereum Proof of Stake) VC will help legitimize the industry.
Can you provide a single problem where the right solution space is blockchain? Ive thought about this a good amount, and cannot come up with a single use case where current established centralized technology is not a better solution.
Blockchains are essentially paperclip optimiser machines.
For bitcoin - paperclips are PoW hashrate.
The network rewards people that contribute to it's growth.
It doesn't care about people and people values - it's like a new kind of living organism that uses people as substrate to exist
Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#49a16z ("our" partner was Chris Dixon) led our seed round at Wit.ai. Working with them on a day-to-day basis was an incredible experience. They never asked for anything, but were always ready to jump in instantly when we needed anything from sales intros to offices in Palo Alto. When we got an offer from Facebook we founders wanted to accept it. They initially disagreed with us, but once we confirmed our decision they supported us 100% in the negotiation process. That's what I call class.
Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC
#50Skepticism might be warranted, but it should be noted by now that decentralized finance has a place in the present and future of our planet and it's not going away. I strongly encourage technologists to keep an open mind and do in depth research into the space.
Yes, 2017 was over-hyped. The tech was not mature then, and while it has matured some since then, there's still quite a ways to go.
Bitcoin Lightning network is growing. Ethereum has successfully navigated core upgrades and has a clear path to scalability. Other platforms are doing great innovative things.
But to the core of the argument that crypto has no use case. It's 2019. We've seen our internet rights to speech and expression violated by companies imposing their values on their user base. We've seen digital ghosting, deplatforming, fake news manipulation, propaganda and all kinds of insidious behaviors from corporate giants that are too big to be truly accountable anymore.
Bitcoin et al. are a very real promise that the future of banking and finance and money will be decentralized. Which as far as I'm concerned, is about freedom as much as speech is. You don't have any freedom if you have to beg VISA or PayPal for permission to spend your money. That alone should be enough to justify the existence of block chain technology and we should all be cheering on its eventual success.
But besides that, the tech is being used in novel ways. From gaming to loans to tokenized asset trading. Cryptocurrency is programmable in a way that is just not possible with dollars.