web3 with a16z crypto

with @ilblackdragon @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. I’m your host, Robert Hackett.

In this episode, we're diving deep into one of the most intriguing intersections in tech today: AI and crypto.

To help us unpack it, we're joined by Illia Polosukhin — co-founder of the crypto protocol NEAR and co-author of the groundbreaking 2017 "transformers" paper that kicked off the current AI boom. Ilia has been early to some of the biggest ...

with @eddylazzarin @DarenMatsuoka @ahall_research @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. I’m Robert Hackett.

Today we’re talking about one of the most familiar — and most misunderstood — mechanics in crypto: the airdrop.

We’ll explore the history of airdrops in and outside crypto, the challenges of incentive design, and learnings from airdrops to date. We’ll also answer questions like how do you avoid Sybil attacks and professional air...

with @mostrovs @skominers @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. I’m your host Robert Hackett, and today we’re talking about congestion pricing — an area of mechanism design that’s aimed at alleviating something everyone hates: traffic.

Now you may have heard this term recently since New York adopted its own version of congestion pricing at the beginning of the year. This is the first program of its kind in the U.S. — and it’s got sup...

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today we’re talking about a founder’s journey from academia to the tech startup world — and the many lessons he’s learned along the way. 

We dig into big ideas, like what people mean when they call blockchains "truth machines." We also share practical advice and insights, like how to go about deciding on your life’s work; what you can do to keep increasing — and compounding — your leverage; plus, how a bun...

with @SashaSpiegelman @Tim_Roughgarden @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today we’re talking about the ins and outs of blockchain performance. 

How does the “speed” of one chain compare to another? What are the tricky ways that people talk about important metrics like throughput and latency? And how do design choices across things like consensus and execution result in performance tradeoffs? 

Our guest today is Aptos Labs’ Head of...

with @mg_486662 and @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. I’m Robert Hackett and today we’re talking about what is potentially the biggest heist of all time — a hack of the Dubai-based crypto exchange ByBit which took place last month for a total of $1.5 billion and which the Federal Bureau of Investigation has attributed to a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group.

In this episode, we cover details of how the attack went down, t...

with @haydenzadams @kidsuper @smc90

This episode involves a special mix of guests:

• Hayden Adams, founder and CEO of Uniswap Labs, and inventor of the Uniswap Protocol a leader in decentralized finance (DeFi); they recently announced Unichain; and
• Colm Dillane, the multimedia artist behind fashion brand KidSuper, CFDA award winner who has his own Warhol Factory-like creative studio and space; Dillane started out selling t-shirts in...

Welcome to web3 with a16z, today we’re running a special episode about the intersection of AI and crypto.

Our guests are a16z crypto Founder and Managing Partner Chris Dixon & a16z Growth General Partner David George. They discuss the broken economics of the internet, new models for creative people, how to think through the first-, second- and third-order effects of big platform shifts, and more. 

Today’s episode is a crossover from ...

with @1HowardWu @SuccinctJT @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today’s show is all about privacy, why it matters, and how to achieve it technically onchain.

It's fair to say that many blockchains today are quite… revealing. But that openness and transparency doesn’t work for everything — who would want anyone to have full-on X-Ray vision into your finances? That’s one reason why there’s been a growing appreciation for — and trend ...

with @benleventhal @AriannaSimpson

Welcome to web3 with a16z. How many of you are regulars at a favorite cafe, bar, or dinner spot? Probably a lot of you — but if you’re not, well, our guest today aims to make you one. 

This episode features Ben Leventhal — the founder and CEO of BlackBird, and formerly the founder of Resy and Eater. In it, he shares his journey as a serial entrepreneur in conversation with a16z crypto General Partne...

with @0xgaut @ishverduzco @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today we’re talking about how to make social media work for you, rather than overwhelming you.

Whether you’re a startup founder, creator, avid doomscroller, or longtime lurker, this show has tips and tactics you can use to attract attention, build a following, and level up your online presence.

In this episode, we cover what to do and what not to do, how much of your auth...

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today's episode is all about design, creativity, and taste-making. 

Our special guest is Jason Mayden, the chief design officer of Jordan Brand at Nike — that's Jordan as in former NBA superstar Michael Jordan. In his role, Mayden is responsible for the look and feel of iconic products, like Air Jordan sneakers and related apparel. 

In this episode, Mayden speaks with Chris Lyons, a16z crypto's president of...

with @carrawu @eddylazzarin @0xkarmacoma and @smc90 @rhhackett

Welcome to our special end-of-year episodes -- which also look ahead to 2025 --  covering our annual Big Ideas lists, where various a16z crypto team members share what they are personally excited about. (You can see the firmwide list, also including all the trends of the crypto team,  here.)

This episode is part 2 of 2 -- but you don't have to listen to them in any partic...

with @sambroner @meigga @darenmatsuoka @jneu_net @chrislyons and @rhhackett @smc90

Welcome to our special end-of-year episodes -- which also look ahead to 2025 --  covering our annual Big Ideas lists, where various a16z crypto team members share what they are personally excited about. (You can see the firmwide list, also including all the trends of the crypto team,  here.)

This episode is part 1 of 2 -- but you don't have to listen t...

with @atabarrok @skominers @smc90

We've heard a lot about the premise and the promise of prediction markets for a long time, but they finally hit the main stage with the most recent election. So what worked (and didn't) this time? Are they better than pollsters, journalists, domain experts, superforecasters?

So in this conversation, we tease apart the hype from the reality of prediction markets, from the recent election to market fou...

with @baileyflan @ahall_research @rhhackett

Today we’re dusting off an ancient practice that has become trendy once again: the old-but-new idea of “sortition,” or selecting representatives by lottery.

Sortition was used in ancient Athenian democracy to elect public officials. It’s also been lately revived by tech companies like Meta and AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic to tackle some of their thorniest policymaking challenges.

Ou...

with @pmarca @bhorowitz

Today we’re running a special episode featuring a16z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz talking about AI bots and crypto. They discuss what happens when you mix postmodern theories and internet memes in an LLM. They also get into the sudden rise of a strange memecoin, the state of crypto regulation in the U.S., and more.

This episode is a crossover from the Ben & Marc Show, which you can follow on You...

with @DarenMatsuoka @eddylazzarin @rhhackett

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today we're taking you behind the scenes of our newly released, annual State of Crypto Report — a16z crypto's analysis of the latest data and trends that have defined the industry in 2024.

This year's report features some brand new insights, from estimating the number of real crypto users globally, to understanding how much interest in crypto swing states may hav...

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Today we explore the messy secrets of blockchain bridges. These cross-chain connectors are the go-betweens in today's multichain world, but their short history has been a checkered one, with prominent projects succumbing to major hacks and other hijinks.

So we've brought on one of the builders who knows this world best to help disentangle the messiness. That’s Bryan Pellegrino, cofounder and CEO of LayerZe...