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

forbes.com

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

#131

Post by mbrock »

zby wrote: post #130
chrisco255 wrote: post #50

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 problem with decentralized money is that there is no way to manage the supply - you can only commit to a given supply curve, but you cannot adjust it according to the state of the economy. Money is a collective action problem, a public good - it requires a solution that bounds everyone - just like defence.

Why can’t you do that?

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

#132

Post by beaner »

zby wrote: post #130
chrisco255 wrote: post #50

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 problem with decentralized money is that there is no way to manage the supply - you can only commit to a given supply curve, but you cannot adjust it according to the state of the economy. Money is a collective action problem, a public good - it requires a solution that bounds everyone - just like defence.

Some people think this is a problem. Others, a feature. At least now we have the ability to see what happens.

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

#133

Post by brian_cloutier »

QuackingJimbo wrote: post #108
brian_cloutier wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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

Honestly with this question you've summed up most of my feelings about blockchains. Humanity feels like it's become more powerful in some very specific way. We have a new tool and we're trying to figure out what it's good for.

I've pattern matched this to early reactions to the internet. Many of the critics pointed out that the internet didn't really make anything new possible, we could already quickly communicate with people across the world! But, it radically lowered the cost of that communication and put it into a format computers could use and that was enough to put companies like Blockbuster out of business.

It's really hard to work backwards from a new tool to places it could successfully be applied. And if 10 years from now we haven't found a use for nanopayments I'll admit it was a silly idea, but it sure does seem interesting.

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

#135

Post by srndh »

jakequist wrote: post #65

tl;dr - A16Z is reclassifying themselves as an "investment advisor", which will allow them to make riskier bets (crypto, real estate, etc). They'll still invest in startups like any other VC firm.

A totally n00b question.

Isn't VC the person with the money, so they are more in control.

While an "investment advisor" is just advising or suggesting where the money can be put for maximum returns like an investment advisor in banks? So, presumably less in control.

I don't understand why a title change was needed. Any technical or legal reasons?

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

#136

Post by zby »

mbrock wrote: post #131
zby wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with decentralized money is that there is no way to manage the supply - you can only commit to a given supply curve, but you cannot adjust it according to the state of the economy. Money is a collective action problem, a public good - it requires a solution that bounds everyone - just like defence.

Why can’t you do that?

The fundamental problem is probably with the possibility of fork - if it is decentralized then everyone can fork it if he disagrees with the way it works.

But maybe there are some good in-between solutions, less dogmatic, more pragmatic.

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

#137

Post by zby »

beaner wrote: post #132
zby wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with decentralized money is that there is no way to manage the supply - you can only commit to a given supply curve, but you cannot adjust it according to the state of the economy. Money is a collective action problem, a public good - it requires a solution that bounds everyone - just like defence.

Some people think this is a problem. Others, a feature. At least now we have the ability to see what happens.

You can have decentralized money without crypto - just use gold parity - but somehow no country uses it now. Maybe they are all corrupt - but maybe it is just not good way to manage the economy.

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

#138

Post by zby »

googlemike wrote: post #4
seibelj wrote: post #2

A16Z’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.

Gold but for the internet. I.e. value store that is digital and government independent. It is kind of fringe niche - but I think it will stay.

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

#139

Post by golergka »

chrisco255 wrote: post #50

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…

> But to the core of the argument that crypto has no use case.

Oh come on, this american-centric meme has to die off already. Drugs. Every drug-related transaction I know or heard off for the last ~2 years have been done through bitcoin.

In some aspects, US is ahead of the globe. In others, though - like having people such as drug dealers who meet their clients in person and make transactions in cash - it's way behind.

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