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A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

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101–110 of 360 posts

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#101
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the original use case of just Bitcoin is still by far the most compelling. A non-inflationary store of value not unlike gold, but it can be transferred for a very low cost anywhere in the world in minutes. I think the same arguments that come up about privacy can also apply to currency - I'm not doing anything illegal, why I do I care if I'm being monitored? or I'm not buying anything illegal, why do I care if ba…

Why don’t you think companies can inflate the crypto money supply in the same way that they inflate the fiat money supply?

I don't understand this question. Why do you think Bitcoin is inflatable as such?

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anywhere where there is no trusted intermediary, or their fees are too expensive Such as......?

Extremely common in international transactions, to name one space I work in.

Not sure why you are being downvoted, this is a very obvious use case for large sums of money transferred internationally, especially in certain jurisdictions.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Oh, simple enough.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#104
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the original use case of just Bitcoin is still by far the most compelling. A non-inflationary store of value not unlike gold, but it can be transferred for a very low cost anywhere in the world in minutes. I think the same arguments that come up about privacy can also apply to currency - I'm not doing anything illegal, why I do I care if I'm being monitored? or I'm not buying anything illegal, why do I care if ba…

Why don’t you think companies can inflate the crypto money supply in the same way that they inflate the fiat money supply?

Companies don't own the blockchain.

Not sure if you're familiar with crypto by this comment, but inflation control was the key feature that enabled Bitcoin (and the rest) to exist.

The whitepaper is worth a read: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#105
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter if they are? The statement stands.

I take it as an offering of deeper perspective, especially to one who is disheartened. This is not the first, and won't be the last, group of successful people who rise to top-tier power through offering to propel middle-class folks into entry-level upper class power at great risk to society. Move fast, break things.

And I take it as the sort of statement that can apply to literally anything. Chicago, Tulsa, Burbank, Dungeons and Dragons, antique mold collections, etc.

It's a silly thing to say on its own.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#106

Skepticism 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…

The article doesn't say much about it in relation to a16z. There is a16zcrypto.com . I am very involved in this space, I am wondering how a16zcrypto is structured compared to traditional VC. For many crypto startups it probably doesn't make much sense to base in US.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#107
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a legit use-case in micropayments with certain crypto implementations that don't share the blockchain's massive centralisation (what else do you call "every transaction has to be accepted on one shared append-only log"?), that would allow for offline P2P transactions if you have some trust. These cryptocurrency implementations along with some infrastructure would let you build a cheap low-cost micropayments…

Interesting Why not just use the real Paypal?

Paypal micropayments cost 5% + 5 cents.

cryptocurrency micropayments could potentially be much smaller. What if you could pay per packet the wifi access point forwards for you? Or pay per watt some charger gives you? Maybe nanopayments is a better name for them.

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting Why not just use the real Paypal?

Paypal micropayments cost 5% + 5 cents. cryptocurrency micropayments could potentially be much smaller. What if you could pay per packet the wifi access point forwards for you? Or pay per watt some charger gives you? Maybe nanopayments is a better name for them.

Re Paypal cost, is that micropayments to businesses? I just sent my friend $0.01 and it was free, with a linked bank account. Understood that the bank account payments take a while to settle but we're talking about micropayments so settlement time doesn't really matter

Fair point about nanopayments. But what's the win? Why split up the cost per single watt or packet? No one cares about losing one cent per day due to rounding errors

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#109

> venture capitalists have long traded a lack of Wall Street-style oversight for the promise that they invest mainly in new shares of private companies. It was a tradeoff firms gladly made—until the age of crypto, a type of high-risk investment the SEC says requires more oversight. So be it, says Andreessen Horowitz. By renouncing its venture capital status, it’ll be able to go deeper on riskier bets: If the firm wan…

[deleted]

Re: A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC

#110
post #49

a16z ("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…

Thanks for sharing this.
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