CFI Podcast

Crypto, an Oral Essay

Dan Boneh, Chris Dixon, Scott Kupor, Eddy Lazzarin, Alex Pruden, Arianna Simpson, Jesse Walden, Linda Xie, Ali Yahya, Sonal Chokshi, and Zoran Basich

Posted April 18, 2021

This is a special episode of the CFI podcast — it’s an audio history, told through the voices of the CFI crypto team, about what crypto is, how it really works, and why it matters. This “innovation overview” is meant as a resource, and it features hallway-style conversations with the CFI team as well as outside experts.

In brief segments, we’ll take you from the ground up — from the basics, to the most current developments, and beyond that to a look at what we might see in the future. 

Here are the topics and voices you’ll hear, with timestamps of the segments included for easy navigation:

The Beginning

Introduction — Zoran Basich, CFI crypto editor

Before bitcoin: previous attempts to create digital money (1:45) — Dan Boneh, computer science professor at Stanford and CFI advisor 

The core innovations of Satoshi’s white paper (3:36) — Dan Boneh 

Proof of work (5:36) — Alex Pruden, chief strategy officer at Aleo Systems and former CFI crypto partner 

Mining and why it’s important (7:10) — Alex Pruden 

The history of mining (8:20) — Alex Pruden 

Value in monetary systems, or why bitcoin is worth anything (9:53) — Arianna Simpson, CFI crypto partner 

Bitcoin as store of value (11:30) — Arianna Simpson 

Security in crypto (12:45) — Alex Pruden 

Expansion

Why is it called a blockchain? (14:00) — Eddy Lazzarin, CFI data scientist 

Why the blockchain matters and what you can do with it (15:09) — Chris Dixon, CFI general partner 

Beyond bitcoin (17:01) — Eddy Lazzarin 

Ethereum as logical extension of open source (17:36) — Eddy Lazzarin 

Tokens: What are they? (19:04) — Eddy Lazzarin 

Tokens and the functions they serve (19:53) — Scott Kupor, CFI managing partner

Tokens and the ownership economy (21:19) — Jesse Walden, Variant Fund founder, former CFI partner, and Mediachain founder 

What tokens enable for creators (22:18) — Ali Yahya, CFI general partner 

Right Now

What DeFi means (23:58) — Eddy Lazzarin 

Yield farming: What is it? (25:16) — Eddy Lazzarin 

NFTs: What they are and why they matter (27:15) — Linda Xie, Scalar Capital managing director, and Jesse Walden 

Developer ecosystems, crypto, and composability (30:17) — Jesse Walden 

Decentralized networks, value capture, and what it means for builders (33:05) — Ali Yahya 

The Future

The big picture, web3, and DAOs (35:38) — Chris Dixon 

For more crypto resources, please see our Crypto Startup School page, our documentary about the program, and our NFT Canon.

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The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of CFI or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by CFI . While taken from sources believed to be reliable, CFI has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; CFI has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by CFI . (An offering to invest in an CFI fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by CFI , and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for CFI to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

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The CFI Podcast discusses the most important ideas within technology with the people building it. Each episode aims to put listeners ahead of the curve, covering topics like AI, energy, genomics, space, and more.

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