How does content spread on the Internet? How do people get rewarded for it?

Author: Joel Khalili

Translation: BitpushNews

On a cloudy morning in March, a group of software developers made their way through the crowded tourists and muddy streets of central London. They walked in twos and threes into an office building on the edge of the Soho district, which was inconspicuously hidden among the prominent Tudor and neoclassical facades of the street. They were here to attend the first cryptocurrency technology training camp.

Five years ago, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z for short) first launched a series of lectures aimed at aspiring cryptocurrency founders. They hoped to encourage higher quality startups to explore the limits of cryptocurrency technology. This program was later renamed the Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX), which has now become a comprehensive program similar to Y Combinator: a16z provides participants with $500,000 in funding, 10 weeks of tuition, and the opportunity to use a16z resources in exchange for a certain amount of equity. The latest session selected founders from 25 startup companies.

The group was predominantly male, ranging in age from about 20 to over 50, but dressed similarly: most wore hoodies or patterned T-shirts paired with jeans. Some appeared relaxed and confident, chatting freely while eating fresh fruit or croissants from the breakfast stall. Others remained silent on the edges of the room.

As an outsider, I piqued the curiosity of some of them. When I introduced myself as a journalist, I noticed some people became a bit tense. "Should I be worried that you might report on this?" one founder half-jokingly said. But most seemed happy to have someone willing to listen to their work.

The founders also assessed each other, comparing their abilities in the cryptocurrency field. Some were newcomers to the industry, but most had a deep understanding of cryptocurrency language, mysteries, and traditions. One founder claimed to be the first person in London to use a Bitcoin ATM. Another started trading cryptocurrency futures at the age of 17. Some began discussing the technical analysis of their projects with geeky enthusiasm. "I heard he's a big shot," another person said, referring to the a16z partner assigned to him as a mentor.

Soon, the group was led to a room behind the a16z office, which would serve as a classroom and lecture hall for the next 10 weeks. Rows of long tables and stools faced a stage decorated with the sky-blue and black CSX logo. Jason Rosenthal, the operating partner of a16z and head of CSX, was the first to take the stage.

Almost all of the major comprehensive venture capital firms—from Sequoia Capital and Accel to Greylock and Lightspeed—have invested in some cryptocurrency startups. But a16z stands out in its belief and investment in the industry's ability to produce a new generation of defining software companies—it hopes these founders can achieve that. "Each of us has the opportunity to build a once-in-a-lifetime technology franchise," Rosenthal told the audience. "We are very confident that there will be companies in this new field occupying that position in the near future. The seed will be planted today."

a16z was founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Marc Andreessen was involved in the development of early web browsers Mosaic and Netscape, while Ben Horowitz sold a software company to HP with him. The investment firm is known for its investments in companies like Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, and Slack.

In 2018, a16z shifted its focus to the cryptocurrency field when seeking the next major investment opportunity. While it continues to invest in multiple industries, the company has raised over $7.5 billion through four specialized cryptocurrency funds and now needs to find returns for these funds. Sriram Krishnan, a partner at a16z, said, "We follow great founders. You don't want venture capitalists to tell you what to build." He added, "We believe the best founders are working in these areas."

However, the recent performance of the cryptocurrency industry has not been optimistic. In 2022, several large enterprises, including the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, collapsed, leading to a crisis of confidence in cryptocurrency prices and a market downturn, which further resulted in more business bankruptcies, closures of cryptocurrency-friendly banks, and strong regulatory reactions. Since then, cryptocurrency founders in the United States have been sentenced, some celebrities have been accused of illegally promoting cryptocurrency without disclosing compensation, and billions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrency have been stolen in various scams and security vulnerabilities.

a16z has also faced some failures in cryptocurrency investments in recent years, such as investing in the now-defunct cryptocurrency Diem developed by Meta, and similar closed projects like Basis. It was reported that in the first half of 2022, the initial cryptocurrency fund of a16z dropped in value by 40%, yet investors still expect to achieve tenfold returns.

In 2021 and 2022, comprehensive venture capital firms invested billions of dollars in cryptocurrency startups, but their attention was subsequently drawn elsewhere, indicating their limited confidence in the long-term potential of this technology. Robert Le, a cryptocurrency analyst at market data company PitchBook, said, "Many investors fled the cryptocurrency field when the market collapsed." Although the cryptocurrency market has since recovered, he said, "General investors have not truly returned."

Edith Yeung, a partner at venture capital firm Race Capital, said, "For comprehensive venture capital firms, all their focus is on generative artificial intelligence. Cryptocurrency technology has already been the previous hot trend." As an investor in the cryptocurrency network Solana, Edith Yeung holds a "cautiously optimistic" view of the prospects for cryptocurrency startups in 2024 and appreciates a16z's continued focus on the cryptocurrency field, but her firm would be more inclined to invest in artificial intelligence. She said, "Many venture capital firms do not have the resources to focus on both areas."

The goal of CSX is to inject "rocket fuel" into early-stage cryptocurrency startups, as Rosenthal put it, to prove that these companies can demonstrate that this technology is not just for money laundering and financial speculation. Rosenthal said, "The downturn in the cryptocurrency market effectively pushed those who only wanted quick profits—namely, speculators—towards the field of artificial intelligence, where they believe the next quick profits will be." "The people who stayed are the hardcore technical experts truly dedicated to this. This was reflected in our selection process."

Although Rosenthal is in charge of the CSX project, the team more reflects the views of a16z partner Chris Dixon, who leads the company's practice in the cryptocurrency field. In a book published in January, "Ownership of Reading and Writing," Dixon outlined his vision for cryptocurrency technology, believing it is the foundation for building a fairer internet. According to his argument, the network is being stifled by greedy profit guardians (some of whom are invested in by a16z), causing suffering for users. However, blockchain—the digital ledger behind cryptocurrency networks, following pre-coded rules that can only be changed through mass voting—can reclaim some control from the world's largest tech companies and return the internet to its egalitarian roots.

"I firmly believe that the world's current attention to cryptocurrency technology is not enough," Dixon said. "How does content spread on the Internet? How do people get rewarded for it? What form and economic model will the Internet community take? How will they be governed? For me, these are the questions that cryptocurrency technology is about to answer."

a16z's London office is located on the sixth-floor attic, with tall windows and exposed piping, and was almost empty in the weeks leading up to CSX. Now, the shelves are stocked with energy bars and beef jerky, and the fridge is filled with low-calorie sodas. The bookshelf is filled with recommended reading: Peter Thiel's "Zero to One," Horowitz's "The Hard Thing About Hard Things," and of course, Dixon's new book.

When I returned a few weeks later, the energy of the first day of school had been replaced by a studious atmosphere. Founders were hunched over their laptops in the office, wearing AirPods, waiting for the classes to begin. They were fully focused.

Throughout the course, lectures from Rosenthal and other a16z staff were constantly rotating, along with talks from other founders under a16z, such as Ben Rubin, the creator of the chat app Houseparty. The speakers shared their pearls of wisdom, including on hiring ("don't dilute your shares too early"), layoffs ("killers want to be with other killers"), and enduring hardships ("when you've chewed enough glass, you learn to like the taste of your own blood"). But the course content was built around unique issues related to cryptocurrency, such as designing tokens, dealing with hostile regulatory environments, and experimenting with novel cryptographic technologies.

At times, the cryptocurrency course felt like opening a window to another world. People weren't scrolling through their phones but sneakily checking code logs. The language of Silicon Valley startup culture—"zero to one," "product-market fit," "grit," and so on—was overlaid with even more obscure cryptocurrency terms: danksharding, delay functions, and zk-snarks. "If you really want to impress a cryptographer, ask them if the lattice assumption will survive," one speaker joked. Everyone laughed, but I didn't.

While some founders came from Europe and elsewhere, a large portion were Americans. During an icebreaker activity, a founder from Texas expressed concern about the quality of corn tortillas in London. Another person who had been in the city for some time confirmed that his concern was valid.

Whether it was intentional posturing or genuine hunger, the group members embodied the stereotypical image of overworked and sleep-deprived founders. One day during lunch, I asked a founder if he had set aside time for sightseeing. He gave me a puzzled look; he explained that during CSX, he had been staying up late at his desk.

The software developed by the startups in this accelerator program can be divided into three categories: consumer-facing applications, enterprise services, and the technical infrastructure on which other cryptocurrency software relies. Fewer companies highlighted cryptocurrency prominently in their introductions—looking at their websites, you might not necessarily know they were involved with cryptocurrency—but each company was using cryptocurrency technology behind the scenes.

One startup, AminoChain, provides a solution for patients to earn royalties by providing biopsy samples for medical research, while also providing a platform for hospitals to distribute and store samples, which are often underutilized. Another startup, Roux, turns recipes into collectible NFTs to help chefs and food bloggers generate revenue without plastering their recipe pages with ads and SEO content. Valyu Network converts data used to train AI models into tokens, creating a system for licensing and tracking information sources to address the issue of copyright abuse.

The founders of these startups stated that they came to a16z partly for its internal expertise in cryptocurrency engineering and partly for its resources and network. Like any accelerator program, they needed help designing various elements of their products, as well as legal or regulatory advice. But they also hoped to leverage a16z's relationships in the cryptocurrency industry to introduce potential employees, policymakers, and other investors. At the start of the program, the startups were divided into groups and assigned an a16z partner as a mentor to lead them in what founders called "group therapy sessions." "One aspect of self-selecting into an accelerator is acknowledging that you need help—and wanting experienced people to help," said a16z partner Elizabeth Harkavy, who had mentored one of the groups. "It's very difficult to work with founders who can't seek help."

a16z's continued commitment to investing in the cryptocurrency industry, while other comprehensive companies have been withdrawing, has itself attracted cryptocurrency founders. In the past year, in addition to the CSX program, a16z has added nine new cryptocurrency startups to its portfolio, joining companies like the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Lisa Grimm, co-founder of Roux and a serial food entrepreneur, said, "Roux is both consumer-facing and cryptocurrency-related. It's important for us to find a partner who understands the balance between the two. a16z clearly does that."

Although millions of people now own cryptocurrency in some form, applications based on cryptocurrency have not seen substantial development outside of trading. But Dixon claims that this technology is approaching a turning point. He said that advancements in infrastructure have made cryptocurrency networks faster and transaction fees lower, allowing for inexpensive experimentation, which will bring about practical and widely appealing applications. "Imagine if in 2006, every time you clicked on someone's Facebook profile, you had to pay a dollar. That just wouldn't work," Dixon said. "At that magical moment, (cryptocurrency transaction fees) became so low that you could subsidize users, making it effectively free for them."

Although the latest batch of founders participating in CSX may be among the first to benefit from this "magical moment," they are entering the market at a time when the technology is being doubted and its potential has yet to be proven. One startup mentioned encountering skepticism when discussing the technology behind their product with potential clients. "There's a chicken-and-egg problem here—this group has to deal with that," Dixon said. But he hopes these founders can help dispel the stigma around cryptocurrency.

Dixon said he doesn't know how long this process will take. "But at least it feels like we're in the right maze of thinking," he said, "because you can do things now that you couldn't do before."

On the final day of CSX in June—demo day—founders will give brief pitches to a packed room of investors. a16z chose a shiny underground venue on the edge of Soho, usually used for live music and club events. A mezzanine balcony overlooks a ground space surrounded by neon lights from floor to ceiling. In the front, a theater-sized screen and sound system frame a stage where founders will present.

When I arrived, electronic music was blaring. In the back, a founder was introducing his project to a coat check attendant, who responded with a polite smile. Those who left the pitching to their partners gathered at the bar, while some were mingling with investors. One investor joked, "The seating is arranged like a comedy club." After opening remarks from Dixon and Rosenthal, the pitches began.

Each founder had a few minutes. As one presented, the next would be on the side of the stage, adjusting their microphone and taking deep breaths. One founder said that waiting was the worst part. The youngest founders were too rehearsed in repeating their lines, but most were confident in their pitches. They were clearly instructed to explain technical terms concisely, as those were more likely to stick in the memory of potential investors. Caspar Barnes, co-founder of AminoChain, pleaded at the end of his pitch, "Join us in bringing trust to science and medicine."

As the founders pitched, investors took notes on the side. Some nodded in agreement or whispered to each other behind their hands. During the break, they joked about staking claims on shares of the most promising projects. There were about forty investors in attendance, from companies like Accel, Foundation Capital, and Amex Ventures.

Many founders hoped to raise funds after demo day. Rosenthal said that as with previous CSX programs, a16z expects to further invest in some of the companies, but the rest will need to find alternative paths.

The real "chasing" opportunities came after the pitches, at a rooftop cocktail lounge decorated in traditional Chinese courtyard style. When I arrived, it was packed. The most confident founders were already shaking hands and introducing themselves under blooming cherry blossom trees; others seemed unsure of what to do, either sticking together or pacing the room with their drinks. I didn't envy them.

This scene reminded me of a quote from Rosenthal at the start of the program: "Most people really shouldn't start companies, because it's hard—painful. Oh, if there was a way to get around that, but I haven't found it yet."

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。