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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

#201

Post by randall »

navigatesol wrote: post #180
ar7hur wrote: 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…

> 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. As an outsider, I'm curious as to how bad the VC situation is i…

Russ Hanneman is a pretty accurate portrayal of a combination of of any average real estate / non domain investor / rich person + the worst parts of someone like Jason Calacanis. Jason has a lot of upside (i used to work with him), but he brings a lot of "swag" which I think Russ Hanneman is based on. The non domain investor is the part where they tell you to work on ridiculous shit but have lots of money so they expect you to listen even though it's a horrible idea.

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

#202

Post by RhodesianHunter »

ratel wrote: post #200

Dear Gentlepeople, can I point out the Elephant in the room, or better the one leaving it. The most interesting part (especially for HN) is not where A16Z is going, but what it is leaving behind: VC. Setting aside the shift in social tide for a moment, why does A16Z think there will be no more profit in VC? Any thoughts?

They don't, they're still doing VC. This just lets them invest in other things as well (like crypto).

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

#203

Post by nradov »

luckydata wrote: post #148
nradov wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Synaptic Health Alliance has a good use case for using blockchain technology to share a directory of healthcare providers across multiple organizations while avoiding the free rider problem. https://www.synaptichealthalliance.com

Why do you need a blockchain to do that?

What other architecture would you recommend? There's no single entity which can be trusted to maintain a centralized database.

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

#204

Post by ratel »

RhodesianHunter wrote: post #202
ratel wrote: post #200

Dear Gentlepeople, can I point out the Elephant in the room, or better the one leaving it. The most interesting part (especially for HN) is not where A16Z is going, but what it is leaving behind: VC. Setting aside the shift in social tide for a moment, why does A16Z think there will be no more profit in VC? Any thoughts?

They don't, they're still doing VC. This just lets them invest in other things as well (like crypto).

That may be true, but the fact that they need the new path to make larger investments outsides of VC raises the question how much VC money will be left. Furthermore the change still implies that they think other investment opportunities might be more profitable than the one they were actually quite successful in.

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

#205

Post by geomark »

phillc73 wrote: post #90
geomark wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US expat trying to receive money overseas. US banks won't serve you unless you have a US address. Many lie and say it is illegal. The usual work-around is to establish some kind of US address through a relative or friend. Still ends up being costly and slow to do transfers. Some startups have tried to address it but it is still not very good. Coinbase like to claim they have solved this issue but it is total BS becau…

> US expat trying to receive money overseas. US banks won't serve you unless you have a US address. I admit to knowing almost nothing about the US banking system, but is it really true that one can't make an electronic transfer using an IBAN (International Bank Account Number)? I live in Austria and just paid a number of invoices, through online banking, to bank account holders in France, Czechia, Slovenia and the UK…

Of course you can make an electronic transfer, as long as you can manage to keep a bank account open at a US bank. But don't let them find out you are living overseas or they will close it.

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

#206

Post by geomark »

StreamBright wrote: post #112
geomark wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US expat trying to receive money overseas. US banks won't serve you unless you have a US address. Many lie and say it is illegal. The usual work-around is to establish some kind of US address through a relative or friend. Still ends up being costly and slow to do transfers. Some startups have tried to address it but it is still not very good. Coinbase like to claim they have solved this issue but it is total BS becau…

This is why we have Transferwise, Revolut, N26 and a bunch of others.

I have looked at many alternatives to banks. They are better than banks but not by much. For small amounts Transferwise is ok, but the fee isn't capped and keeps going up with the amount of the transfer. I do substantially better via the bank transfer method I use when I need to transfer larger amounts. Revolut might be ok if you are from the UK (I am not), although paying a monthly fee for an account seems unattractive and they have a high markup on debit card transfers to "exotic" currencies. There are others. None that good.

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

#207

Post by baddox »

peteretep wrote: post #83
baddox wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the centralized solutions are certainly better for the people who have no major issues with the centralized solutions. That’s nearly a tautology, of course. But it’s pretty reasonable to consider there may be many people and use cases that do not work with the centralized solutions, even if those work great for you and for everyone you know.

> consider there may be many people and use cases that do not work with the centralized solutions The comment you’re replying to is actively soliciting examples of those

Yes, and my point is that being unable to come up with examples based on personal experience is not very convincing evidence that no examples exist.

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

#208

Post by MusaTheRedGuard »

blfr wrote: post #157
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…

decentralized finance has a place in the present and future of our planet There is no guarantee that decentralized anything has a place in the future. So far the trends have been depressingly centralizing, whether it's government, finance, manufacturing, or even our great hope, the Internet.

What do you think decentralized finance even is?

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

#209

Post by baddox »

kurtisc wrote: post #190
beaner wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A single entity at one point had over 50% of the mining power for Bitcoin, effectively owning its blockchain.

Having just over 50% of mining power does not effectively mean you own the blockchain.

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

#210

Post by xtracto »

raverbashing wrote: post #165
Semaphor wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transferring money from one continent to another.

Calculate the full chain of costs then come back here with how it compares to Transferwise or other methods

MXN to GBP : I can't do it.

BTC to BTC :I can do it.

Non of the fancy services allow me to send money from Mexico to the UK.

It is crypto or paying for SWIFT, Western Union or similar. With very high costs.

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