Where is the value in tokens?
Crypto / blockchain has always been as much of a business model innovation as a technical innovation… Technical innovation: running a decentralized ledger / platform at scale Business model innovation: issuing tokens to give users / participants in the platform a stake in the project By issuing crypto tokens, platforms gave early users an incentive […]
CryptoKitties and the KittyVerse: The exciting potential of programmable assets
You might have seen in the tech press today that our portfolio company Dapper Labs, the company behind the world’s first and most successful consumer blockchain product, CryptoKitties, has raised US$15M in a Series A2 round of funding led by Venrock, with participation by Google Ventures and Samsung NEXT. When we originally invested in Cryptokitties […]
Crypto-native applications
Every new technology platform has been built around a specific new capability. The Internet connected people and data at scale (“connecting everyone, everything”). Marketplaces, social platforms, and search all leveraged this capability. The next platform, mobile, was about “always on, everywhere.” Mobile helped spark new products that leveraged these capabilities, with messaging and ride sharing […]
A few take-aways from the Augur prediction market
I’ve always thought that the concept of a decentralized prediction market like Augur or Gnosis is one of the most interesting and crypto-native ideas. Just imagine creating millions of small markets around any potential outcome in the world…from sports to elections, weather and stock prices. So it was great to see Augur go live a […]
VCs rarely make exceptions to their investment scope
Part of the job of a VC is to deliver on the promises they made to investors when raising the fund. Every VC defines their investment scope by a combination of thesis (e.g. invest in network-effect driven business), thematic interest (e.g. invest in AR / VR companies), stage (single stage versus lifecycle investment), ownership targets, […]