a16z crypto show

a16z
  • 4.6 (58)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The a16z crypto show explores how decentralized networks are reshaping money, ownership, and the architecture of the internet. We go beyond the hype to look at what’s actually working, what isn’t, and what comes next as crypto continues to go mainstream and blockchains become core infrastructure. Each episode features conversations with founders, engineers, economists, policymakers, and researchers building at the frontier of finance, payments, AI, and distributed systems. We cover stablecoins and global payments, the tokenization of "real-world" assets, decentralized physical infrastructure, network design and governance, and the practical tradeoffs behind decentralization — along with lessons from past technology shifts. Produced and hosted by the a16z crypto team, the show combines reporting, analysis, and first-principles thinking to explain how crypto intersects with the economy and society — and why it matters now. Learn more at a16zcrypto.com. *** Posts should not be considered investment advice or an advertisement for investment services. Reposts of third-party content are not attributable to a16z; see disclosures for more information: https://a16z.com/disclosures/.

  1. 1D AGO

    AI Just Gave You Superpowers — Now What?

    A hot paper — "Some Simple Economics of AGI" — has been making the rounds, so we sat down with the author, covering:  Automation vs. verification: the key economic split  Why AI agents now feel like coworkers - What's happening to junior roles and the “codifier’s curse”  The “AI sandwich” structure for firms  The value of "meaning-makers," consensus, and status economies  Why crypto may become essential infrastructure for identity, provenance, and trust  Two possible futures: a hollow vs. augmented economy  Featuring Christian Catalini (founder of MIT Crypto Economics Lab) and Eddy Lazzarin (CTO of a16z crypto) in conversation with Robert Hackett, our discussion dives deep into how automation is reshaping labor markets, as well as the nature of intelligence.  What do these changes mean for startups, the future of work, and your career?  Highlights  00:00 Introduction  01:47 AGI economics optimism and playbook  05:39 Agents as coworkers  07:39 Software work becomes verification  10:47 Automation versus verification  12:03 "Unknown unknowns" and taste  16:27 Human augmentation and intent  17:55 The "AI Sandwich" and "Codifier's Curse"  21:54 "Meaning-makers" and the human touch  23:48 Crypto for identity and trust?  27:10 Measurability: How to think about it  33:23 Machine coordination and art after automation  35:46 Trojan horse risks  37:47 Liability and insurance  41:08 Crypto and verification  44:31 A hollow vs. augmented economy  49:45 Career advice in the AI era  51:26 The one-person billion-dollar startup  57:15 Open-source as antibodies  58:42 Blockchains for coordination  01:01:49 Closing thoughts  Follow a16z crypto for more...  X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto  📩 Subscribe for more industry reports, trend updates, news analysis, builder guides, and other resources: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/  ***  As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1h 6m

  2. 1D AGO

    Why Tokenize? Fidelity on Onchain Assets and the Next Phase of Adoption

    What does it actually mean to bring assets onchain — and why should investors care?  In this episode, Cynthia Lo Bessette, Head of Digital Asset Management at Fidelity Investments, breaks down Fidelity’s roadmap for digital market adoption — from Bitcoin ETPs to tokenized money market funds — and explains why tokenization is about far more than just putting assets on a blockchain.  We cover:  The three phases of digital asset adoption: Hold, Use, Build  Why tokenizing an asset must start with utility  How tokenized money market funds bridge payments and yield  The rapid rise of real-world assets (RWAs) onchain  The impact of the regional bank crisis and stablecoin depegging  Staking yield inside traditional wrappers  Institutional adoption of DeFi infrastructure  Build vs. partner decisions inside a major asset manager  Cynthia also shares insight into Fidelity’s early Bitcoin mining experiments, how they evaluate crypto founders, and why authenticity is the smallest hill she’ll always die on.  If you're interested in tokenization, real-world assets, crypto ETFs, DeFi infrastructure, or the future of asset management — this conversation is for you. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    16 min

  3. 3D AGO

    When Bots Have Bank Accounts: The Rise of the Agent Economy (With Sean Neville, Catena Labs)

    What happens when AI becomes the primary economic actor?  In this conversation, Sean Neville (cofounder of Circle, architect of USDC, and now cofounder of Catena Labs) shares his vision for the next phase of the internet: an agent-native economy powered by programmable dollars and AI banks.  As stablecoins put dollars on internet rails, a new question emerges: what happens when AI agents start earning, spending, lending, investing — and even managing our assets — on our behalf?  From KYA (“Know Your Agent”) to programmable spending policies to secure agent communication standards, this conversation explores the foundational layers that must be built before AI can safely participate in the global economy.  Sean breaks down:  Why he believes AI agents could become the dominant economic participants What an “AI-native bank” actually is (and why we’ll need one) The missing infrastructure required for safe agent-to-agent payments How cryptography can encode trust directly into software Why current financial risk systems are designed to block bots — and what needs to change The fragmented race to define standards for agent identity, payments, and communication- Lessons from building Circle and launching USDC Why he doesn’t love the term “stablecoin” Follow a16z crypto for more...  X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto 📩 Subscribe for more industry reports, trend updates, news analysis, builder guides, and other resources: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/ ***  As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    21 min

  4. FEB 11

    From Eater to Blackbird: Ben Leventhal on Restaurants, Loyalty, and Rebuilding Payments

    Restaurants generated more than a trillion dollars in sales last year — but they don’t control the payment rails those dollars flow through. In this episode, Ben Leventhal (founder of Eater, Resy, and now Blackbird) joins Robert Hackett to explain why that’s a problem, how loyalty and payments have failed independent restaurants, and where crypto fits into fixing it. Ben breaks down: Why most restaurant tech misses the pointHow Blackbird uses crypto without making restaurants think about cryptoWhat “restaurant-first” really means in payments and loyaltyWhy decentralization only makes sense at scaleLessons from building multiple companies in hospitalityWhy we’re living in the golden age of restaurantsPlus: favorite NYC spots, founder productivity hacks, and the smallest hill he’ll die on.This is a grounded conversation about technology, ownership, and the future of restaurants — from someone who’s been building in the space for over a decade.   Follow a16z crypto for more... X: https://x.com/a16zcryptoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pMZvsNXEnb0CYcPiDQywEApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/web3-with-a16z-crypto/id1622312549Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto📩 Subscribe for more industry reports, trend updates, news analysis, builder guides, and other resources: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/ 🎙️ Like, subscribe, comment, share the show: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/podcast/ *** As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    16 min

  5. FEB 2

    Bridge CEO Zach Abrams: Stablecoins Are The Next Platform for Money

    with @zcabrams @rhackett What happens when money moves 10x — or 100x — faster than it does today? In this episode, Zach Abrams, cofounder and CEO of Bridge (now part of Stripe), lays out a bold vision for the future of money: a world where stablecoins become the dominant payment rail, most transactions happen between non-human agents, and entirely new financial infrastructure is required to keep up. Zach explains why stablecoins are the next evolution of fintech, much like credit cards were decades ago — and why we’re still in the very early innings. We dig into agentic payments, AI-to-AI commerce, micro-transactions on the open internet, and what Stripe is building by assembling stablecoin infrastructure across the stack. Along the way, we cover: Why cards succeeded — and what stablecoins must learn from themHow AI agents could drive the majority of future paymentsWhat breaks when the velocity of money increases 10xStripe’s long-term strategy behind Bridge, Privy, and TempoThe case for open, decentralized payment infrastructureZach’s unconventional views on management, productivity, and product-market fitIf you’re curious about the future of payments, fintech, crypto, AI agents, or the economic foundations of the next internet, this conversation offers a look several steps ahead. Highlights: 00:00 Introduction 00:36 Stablecoins: The next platform for money 01:38 Credit cards had a moral panic too 03:29 What stablecoin infrastructure still needs to be built 05:22 The use cases no one predicted 11:11 Why Stripe is building with crypto 13:08 Why payments infrastructure must stay open 15:12 Lightning round: Bad advice, great books, and deep work Follow a16z crypto for more... X: https://x.com/a16zcryptoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pMZvsNXEnb0CYcPiDQywEApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/web3-with-a16z-crypto/id1622312549Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto📩 Subscribe for more industry reports, trend updates, news analysis, builder guides, and other resources: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/ 🎙️ Like, subscribe, comment, share the show: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/podcast/ *** As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    20 min

  6. JAN 30

    Why Privacy Will Be the Biggest Moat in Crypto

    with @alive_eth @rhackett a16z crypto General Partner Ali Yahya explains why privacy — not performance — will determine the long-term winners in crypto, and how it creates powerful network effects.  In conversation with a16z crypto show host Robert Hackett, Ali lays out how privacy creates lock-in and winner-take-most dynamics — without sacrificing decentralization. They also dive into the technologies making privacy possible today, from zero-knowledge proofs to trusted execution environments, and why financial use cases will drive mainstream adoption first. They cover: Why blockspace is becoming a commodityWhy users tolerate surveillance in social media—but not in financeHow anonymity sets work and why secrets are hard to migrateThe real trade-offs between privacy, composability, and decentralizationThe four privacy technologies shaping the next generation of blockchainsHighlights: 00:00 — Introduction 01:41 — Blockspace is becoming commoditized 03:11 — Privacy as lock-in: why secrets are harder to move than assets 06:01 — Do people actually care about privacy? 08:51 — Beyond finance: social, gaming, and private onchain apps 11:55 — Privacy zones, anonymity sets, and network effects 18:46 — Winner-take-most dynamics, explained 20:22 — What it means for crypto’s decentralization ethos 23:06 — Is privacy lock-in different from web2 lock-in? 28:31 — The privacy tech stack: ZK, MPC, TEEs, and FHE 32:13 — What this means for builders and investors 33:18 — Future considerations: Quantum computing and AI Follow a16z crypto for more... X: https://x.com/a16zcryptoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pMZvsNXEnb0CYcPiDQywEApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/web3-with-a16z-crypto/id1622312549Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto📩 Subscribe for more industry reports, trend updates, news analysis, builder guides, and other resources: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/ 🎙️ Like, subscribe, comment, share the show: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/podcast/ *** As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    36 min

  7. JAN 23

    From Oculus to Anduril: Palmer Luckey on Power, Technology, and the Future

    with @PalmerLuckey @cdixon In this special episode — our 100th on the a16z crypto show! — Chris Dixon interviews Palmer Luckey (founder of Anduril; founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift) to talk about the future of technology, belief, and building. What does it take to build hardware at scale? Where are many of today’s tech bottlenecks? And what's the case for optimism about the future despite growing geopolitical turmoil, regulatory constraints, and other blockers to innovation? The candid, wide-ranging conversation covers crypto, banking, and stablecoins, as well as modern warfare, the U.S.–China technology race, AI and manufacturing, and much more.  Dixon also digs into company building in good times and bad with Luckey; the conversation was recorded live at our Founders Summit.  Highlights: 0:00 — Introduction 2:08 — Early Oculus: Why VR was hard 8:02 — Bitcoin & early crypto days 9:49 — The Facebook acquisition 13:36 — How successful was VR, really? 18:59 — Starting Anduril 20:01 — Hiring for mission ("Don't Work at Anduril") 23:59 — How Anduril works (product dev, org design) 27:47 — How Palmer stays ahead of the curve 33:00 — The US-China technology race 34:40 — What Putin understood early about AI 39:45 — Stablecoins & banking risk 45:00 — Politics as bottleneck 47:00 — Future of technology: AI, fusion, quantum 50:23 — Automation, abundance, and optimism 53:23 — Ukraine, drones, and the reality of war Follow a16z crypto for more... X: https://x.com/a16zcryptoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pMZvsNXEnb0CYcPiDQywEApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/web3-with-a16z-crypto/id1622312549Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto📩 Subscribe for more industry reports, trend updates, news analysis, builder guides, and other resources: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/ 🎙️ Like, subscribe, comment, share the show: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/podcast/ *** As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1h 2m

  8. JAN 14

    Nobody's Gonna Trust Your Corp Chain

    with @ccatalini @rhackett Today we’re talking about who — if anyone — should own the rails of global money. Our guest is Christian Catalini, cofounder and chief strategy officer of the global payments startup Lightspark, and a former architect of Meta’s shuttered Libra project — one of the most ambitious attempts to create a corporate-backed digital currency. In this episode, we talk about… why Bitcoin is more than “digital gold,” what Christian learned from his time at Facebook, and why he believes openness — not corporate control — will ultimately winChristian also wrote a feature for us expanding on his argument, which you can read by subscribing to a16z crypto on Substack. Check it out and let us know what you think. This episode is part of a special series of interviews we recorded live at our Founders Summit in October.  Follow a16z crypto for more... X: https://x.com/a16zcryptoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pMZvsNXEnb0CYcPiDQywEApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/web3-with-a16z-crypto/id1622312549Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto📩 Subscribe for more industry reports, trend updates, news analysis, builder guides, and other resources: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/ 🎙️ Like, subscribe, comment, share the show: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/podcast/ *** As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    17 min
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4.6
out of 5
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About

The a16z crypto show explores how decentralized networks are reshaping money, ownership, and the architecture of the internet. We go beyond the hype to look at what’s actually working, what isn’t, and what comes next as crypto continues to go mainstream and blockchains become core infrastructure. Each episode features conversations with founders, engineers, economists, policymakers, and researchers building at the frontier of finance, payments, AI, and distributed systems. We cover stablecoins and global payments, the tokenization of "real-world" assets, decentralized physical infrastructure, network design and governance, and the practical tradeoffs behind decentralization — along with lessons from past technology shifts. Produced and hosted by the a16z crypto team, the show combines reporting, analysis, and first-principles thinking to explain how crypto intersects with the economy and society — and why it matters now. Learn more at a16zcrypto.com. *** Posts should not be considered investment advice or an advertisement for investment services. Reposts of third-party content are not attributable to a16z; see disclosures for more information: https://a16z.com/disclosures/.

Information

  • Channel
    a16z
  • Creator
    a16z crypto, Robert Hackett, Sonal Chokshi
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    107
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © a16z crypto / Andreessen Horowitz
  • Show Website
    a16z crypto show

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