web3 with a16z crypto

with @DarenMatsuoka @rhhackett

Today we've got a midyear market update and news episode for you. 

At the end of last year, our guest — and resident data weatherman — Daren Matsuoka put out a post on "5 metrics to watch in 2025." Most of the metrics that Daren picked measure how crypto's adoption: from mobile wallet usage and onchain transaction fees to volume across stablecoins, decentralized exchanges (or DEXs), and exchange traded-...

with @MinarikLaw @EMinSF @rhhackett

Imagine waking up one day to find your bank account frozen. No warning. No explanation. No recourse.

This is not a thought experiment. It’s a real situation. And it’s happened not just to crypto companies and their founders, but to ordinary people who are just trying to live their lives. That includes our guest today, who learned firsthand what it means to be “debanked.”

In this episode, we talk abo...

with @aeyakovenko @alive_eth

Today’s episode features Solana cofounder Anatoly Yakovenko in conversation with a16z General Partner Ali Yahya, recorded live at our CSX Crypto Startup Accelerator program earlier this year.

Anatoly shares the origin story of Solana — from a late-night eureka moment to thousands of investor meetings and several near-death startup experiences. He talks about what it took to get the network off the ground,...

In this special episode from TED Tech, hear from GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on how AI is breaking the barrier to entry for coding. Who could a coder look like if you could code just by talking out loud? Learn how, thanks to AI, creating software is becoming as simple (and joyful) as building LEGO. In a live demo, he introduces Copilot Workspace: an AI assistant that helps you create code when you speak to it, in any language.

Timestam...

with @eddylazzarin @adrian_ludwig @remco @smc90

Hi everyone, welcome to this week’s episode of web3 with a16z podcast, I’m Sonal, and today we’re talking about a hot topic which is also very evergreen because we’re entering a world where AI – including AI agents, bots, deep fakes, and so on -- are changing the internet, very drastically. And so we will need proof of who’s human, or not, online – aka “proof of human” (as Tools for Hu...

with @kimbatronic @amandatylerj @clairekart

Welcome to web3 with a16z. Since our show covers both tech trends and company building, today’s topic is all about marketing — including differences between marketing in crypto and traditional tech.

The conversation shares a candid look at what works — and what doesn’t — when it comes to building reputation and community, attracting developers, hiring teams and agencies, launching tokens, r...

with @cdixon @SamBroner @rhhackett

Stablecoins are quietly transforming how money moves — faster, cheaper, and more globally than ever before. 

In this episode, we take a deep look at why stablecoins have emerged as one of the most promising applications in crypto today — and how they could reshape global payments.

I’m joined by Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto and author of the New York Times-bestselling book ...

with @rhhackett @smc90 @DarenMatsuoka @SamBroner

Welcome to web3 with a16z, a show about the next generation of the internet. I'm Robert Hackett.

There has been a flurry of stablecoin news lately, so we're doing a special bonus episode to cover everything that's been going on. Sonal and I are joined by a16z crypto’s Data Science lead Daren Matsuoka who shares the actual data behind the stablecoin trend. Then we have Sam Broner — who ...

with @danboneh @succinctJT @smc90

This episode is all about quantum computing -- what it is, how it works, what's hype vs. reality, and how to prepare for it/ what builders should do.

Specifically, we cover:

• What quantum computing is and isn't, and what people are really talking about when they worry about a quantum computer that can break cryptographic systems that are not secure against quantum attacks.
• When is it happening/ what...

with @eddylazzarin @skominers @milesjennings @rhhackett

Today we're diving deep into *the* defining concept in crypto: tokens. 

We're moving beyond conventional categories — like “governance tokens” or “utility tokens” or even “memecoins” — to present a full taxonomy that details what tokens are, what they aren’t, and what they're capable of becoming.

Questions we'll explore include: What is a token? Is it a form of money? A piece of ...

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 ...