Five talks from the a16z crypto summit

Some great talks from the a16z crypto regulatory summit. You can tell they’re for a more general audience (read: people that do not obsessively check crypto twitter every hour).

1. Social Networking in 2030: How Could Crypto Change Things?

Chris Dixon builds on the thesis he laid out in early 2018 and applies it to social networks.

2. The Architecture of Crypto Innovation

Very good, concise overview of fundamental concepts in the architecture of blockchains and the applications on top of them. Dispassionate discussion of the trade-off space and identification of areas that are still challenging.

3. Security and Privacy for Crypto with Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Watch this. The simplest demonstration of zero knowledge proofs I have ever seen.

4. Taking Crypto Beyond Volatility: Stablecoins

Starts with a taxonomy of stablecoins and their tradeoffs and then ends with a really beautiful story about a government program that offered bus tokens for garbage that led to massive cleanup of previously garbage-filled lake. Leaves me with a lot more questions than answers around how issuing a stablecoin can lead to desirable environmental effects. Not sure how causal this is.

5. Decentralized Applications: What’s Now, What’s Next

Nice overview of categories where there’s some end-user activity in crypto today.