a16z crypto (@a16zcrypto)

“Virtually every major industry in the United States has federal rules and regulations. We do not have that in the crypto industry.” @Collin_McCune on how regulatory uncertainty pushes technical talent away from crypto: "Are they gonna build in the blockchain space, or are they gonna go and build an AI startup?” “If there’s a 40 or 50% chance that I might get a knock on the door from the SEC, that’s not a very compelling route." @milkroaddaily

First Principles Ep. 6 with Ron Rivest Long before the internet became a place to bank, transact, or build blockchains, Turing Award winner Ron Rivest helped solve a foundational problem: how can strangers communicate securely without first meeting to exchange a secret? Rivest tells the story of inventing RSA with Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, why digital signatures fascinated him even more than encryption, and how cryptographic hashes, government pressure, patents, and standards shaped the security infrastructure we rely on today. Rivest shares his unusually candid views on quantum computing, post-quantum security, and more. Hosted by @Tim_Roughgarden with @danboneh. 00:00 Intro: the two problems that could break modern cryptography 01:10 Why Ron Rivest’s work underpins the internet and blockchains 08:10 Before public-key cryptography, there was no theory of security 11:05 The open problem that led to RSA 13:55 The night Ron Rivest discovered the core idea behind RSA 17:55 Why digital signatures were the real breakthrough 19:14 The RSA challenge — and a prediction that was off by quadrillions of years 28:33 How government pressure shaped cryptographic standards 30:36 Designing the hash functions that made digital signatures practical 33:26 The Fiat–Shamir transformation, explained 38:04 Building a cryptography company before the web existed 42:31 Will quantum computers ever become powerful enough to break RSA? 48:02 The cryptography securing the internet, elections, and everyday life 50:11 What surprised Dan: Quantum giveth and quantum taketh away

“Social networks created a big-bang moment in sociology.” @Tim_Roughgarden on why blockchains could do the same for political science: “You could study these age-old questions in sociology at a completely different scale and in a completely more automated way than you could previously.” “I think blockchains, on the political science side, are doing that same kind of unlock — where you can study different voting systems and get data about them at a scale and with an ease that was never before possible.” @MTSlive

“The United States is unique because we have this wonderful test bed of entrepreneurial talent. Everyone wants to come here. They want to build.” But regulatory uncertainty is putting that advantage at risk. @Collin_McCune on why America needs durable crypto legislation: “We all know people that are going and building in other places because they can’t deal with the wishy-washy or the gray area of the United States.” “Regulators can step in and use their existing authorities to write some rules. But nothing can replace long-term legislation.” @milkroaddaily

What happens when the CLARITY Act passes? @Collin_McCune points to the “absolute explosion of activity” following stablecoin legislation: “The most important thing that people miss about why clarity is so important is: It is a signal.” “It’s a signal that America is here, and they’ve made a long-term decision.” @milkroaddaily

First Principles Ep. 5 with Paul Milgrom One of the most important auction designs in modern history was sold to the FCC on a 3.5-inch disk. Nobel Prize winner Paul Milgrom on auctions, price discovery, and how mechanism design became real-world infrastructure — from spectrum auctions to DeFi. Hosted by @Tim_Roughgarden with @skominers. 00:00 Intro: economics assumptions that are “just wrong” 02:19 Scott Kominers and Tim Roughgarden on the genius of Paul Milgrom 05:35 An intro to the  Glosten-Milgrom model: The paper that created entire fields of economics 07:48 The auction theory breakthroughs of the 1980s 17:15 Why market microstructure matters for DeFi 24:17 When math teaches economics something new 32:38 How theory became spectrum auction design 36:22 The floppy disk that helped convince the FCC 41:05 What changed when auctions moved online 45:28 The auction that reorganized television 1:07:30 What economics and computer science can learn from each other 1:13:22 Futures markets for compute 1:15:12 Paul Milgrom’s advice for builders

"Most people who need a transplant die without getting one." Nobel laureate Alvin Roth helped pioneer modern market design — the same toolkit crypto builders use to reason about rules, incentives, and allocation in onchain markets. Here’s what that thinking looks like when applied to kidneys: "You can't pay a donor for a kidney. That's a repugnant transaction... Kidneys are gifts. Their price is zero and they're very scarce therefore." "Maybe I could give a kidney to your kid and you could give a kidney to my kid. That's a kidney exchange. Now we do about a third of living donor transplants through exchange."

"If we can't make contracts, then I can't send you 5,000 bushels of wheat with 60 days payable on delivery. But if we can promiscuously make contracts, then you can hire me before I have a chance to interview at the other places that are interested in hiring me." Nobel laureate Alvin Roth on the double edge of binding commitment, and @skominers on why smart contracts let you embrace it on purpose: "You can write a smart contract to commit to an outcome upfront before you participate in a marketplace. And sometimes the incentives are such that people would, in equilibrium, choose to do so — even if it means they're giving up rights to things they might later want from the marketplace protocol."

First Principles Ep. 4 with Alvin Roth Long before crypto made coordination programmable, Nobel Prize winner Alvin Roth was designing markets where coordination could save lives, matching doctors to hospitals, students to schools, and kidney donors to the patients who need them. Roth explains why markets are not just natural forces, but engineered systems; why the details of timing, congestion, incentives, and trust can make or break a marketplace; and why some of the most important markets are the ones where simply exchanging money can’t do the work. Hosted by @Tim_Roughgarden with @skominers. 00:00 Intro: Why market design matters 04:18 The economist as engineer 08:09 When theory meets the real world 07:02 Fixing the medical residency match 15:32 Why markets unravel 18:22 Redesigning NYC high school admissions 28:05 The hidden problem of congestion 34:47 How kidney exchange saves lives 45:26 How the internet changed market design 48:25 Airbnb, Uber and smarter marketplaces 51:28 Repugnant transactions and moral economics 53:32 When markets need social support 54:32 The unexpected effects of criminalizing surrogacy 01:04:58 Preference signals and the job market 01:18:53 A broken market: resettling refugees and other migrants

. @rhackett on why the "autonomous" in DAO finally works: “People would talk about it as a group chat with a bank account. But they had higher aspirations than that: maybe you could have an internet-native organization where people all over the world coordinate via decentralized protocols.” “AI is now able to digest and ingest tons of information and help people make better decisions. It’s completely game-changing.” “Let the machines take care of the stuff that humans frankly don’t want to deal with.” @MTSlive @gbrl_dick

"I think of the market as an information-producing machine." @eddylazzarin on why the CLARITY Act is the unlock for the experimentation crypto hasn't been able to run yet: "Because we lack the CLARITY Act, we haven't really been in a position for the market to do its experimentation and to learn about what actually works and what doesn't work." "Entrepreneurs don't wanna take extreme risk with their project based on a murky interpretation of some old laws before the new law passes." "The Clarity Act basically creates the conditions that this capital can connect with reality."

Crypto has been walled off from the real economy for years. That's changing. @eddylazzarin joins @smc90 and @rhackett to break down why crypto is entering a completely different phase, and what gets built once the rules finally catch up to the technology. 00:00 Intro 01:25 What it means to be a GP 02:00 Consensus vs. non-consensus bets 04:27 Network tokens and the CLARITY Act 09:35 Revenue, value capture, and network-token business models 21:18 Stablecoins as crypto’s first killer app 28:52 Engineer-philosopher mindset 39:04 Intellectual influences 52:40 Eddy’s path to crypto 01:03:15 The exuberant adoption phase of AI 01:14:38 Being "pro–AI psychosis"

Looking ahead, forecasts for tokenized assets vary a lot but they all point in the same direction: growth. McKinsey: $2–4T by 2030. Ark Invest: $11T by 2030. BCG/Ripple: $9.4T by 2030, $18.9T by 2033. Standard Chartered: $30T + by 2034. The gap between $2 trillion and $30 trillion is more about definitions than adoption. Different institutions are measuring different things. McKinsey focuses mostly on bonds, loans, funds, and equities. Standard Chartered adds commodities and trade finance. BCG and Ripple include deposits and stablecoins alongside more traditional asset categories. Despite these differences, the broader trend is consistent: Asset tokenization is expected to expand.