why blockchains matter, for everyone

🔦Resource: State of Crypto - Policy spotlight

The internet is one of the most important innovations, and engines of progress, in human history — yet it is failing the people who rely on it most: consumers, creators, developers, and small businesses. Control (over decisions, data, and much more) is consolidated among a handful of big platforms, which unilaterally make decisions on behalf of their users; or change the rules suddenly on developers and other builders; and extract prohibitive fees from creators… and so on. 

Blockchains have not only emerged as a credible solution, they also represent an important new computing movement that opens up new opportunities and use-cases well beyond web3. But despite the potential of this industry, critical regulatory guidance has been lacking. 

To share what’s at stake — and provide a resource for anyone seeking to understand, or share more on blockchains & crypto with others more — we put together a quick spotlight deck. It sets context for the why, what, and how of web3; and shares relevant data from our State of Crypto report that you can share with others more broadly. The deck also offers guiding principles to help U.S. policymakers meet their goals of protecting consumers, providing a path to compliance, and ensuring innovation.

check out the report here [time: 10 minutes] 
share: on Twitter | LinkedIn | Farcaster

🎨Feature: A creator's journey to self-sovereignty: ‘The why is in the who’

Singer-songwriter, rapper, producer, and performance artist Latashá shares her journey through art, technology (including crypto), NFTs, and “self-sovereignty” in this talk delivered at our second annual Founders Summit a few weeks ago. She’s now the founder of a web3 media company/ label (TOPIA) focused on onboarding and highlighting independent artists to the forefront of crypto, tech, and blockchains; was also formerly head of community at NFT company ZORA; and has toured globally with her work "BLAK", and "Teen Nite at Empire", among many other things.  

watch the talk here [time: 13 minutes] 
share: on Twitter | on Instagram  

🔖Special giveaway: Physical-to-digital bookmark, NFT, & discount for pre-ordering Read Write Own 

Pre-order the new book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet (January 30, 2024; Random House) below to receive a physical bookmark that unlocks a unique generative art NFT and other digital experiences inspired by the book's themes. This is a limited-time offer.

See also this previous post from a16z crypto’s Chris Dixon on why he wrote the book, and who it’s for, here. In early reviews, Publisher's Weekly called it an "illuminating" debut, commenting on the author's ability to "add nuance to the oversimplified metaphors often used to describe blockchain"; while Kirkus Reviews described it as "A sharp-edged manifesto for 'new networks with better architectures” — better because they’re free of corporate control." 

pre-order now 

📝A few more things we’re excited about for 2024

We’re back with listing some of the things that excite various crypto partners about ahead. (See last year’s list here.) This year’s list covers everything from AI + blockchains, and also AI in gaming; to the UX of the future; and much, much more.

check out the list here [5 minutes]
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📄New paper: How can we democratize the online platforms of the future?

“When big tech companies have offered users a say in decision-making, they’ve often been met with stubbornly anemic participation. Democratizing technology is ‘actually super-hard to do,’ says Andrew B. Hall, a professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business… Some big-name companies have responded to those concerns by looking for ways to give users more power to decide what guardrails are being put around their products… OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is funding experiments in setting up a democratic process for deciding what rules its artificial intelligence systems should follow…

Hall says there may be an answer for boosting participation in online democracy — providing rewards to users who get (and stay) involved. In a new paper co-authored with Eliza R. Oak, a PhD candidate at Yale University, Hall studied the governance of Optimism, a startup that creates applications that improve the efficiency of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain platform… In what Hall and Oak believe to be the first study of its kind, they approach the project as ‘a novel laboratory for studying governance.’” 

• read more in “Insights by Stanford Business” [time: 5 minutes]

• download the full paper, “What Kinds of Incentives Encourage Participation in Democracy? Evidence from a Massive Online Governance Experiment” 

• share

See also these related pieces from the authors/ a16z Research collaborators Andy Hall & Eliza Oak:

• Designing reward systems for web3 governance by Eliza Oak

• Frequently asked questions on designing governance by Andy Hall 

not impossible

-- Sonal Chokshi and a16z crypto teams

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