I’m excited to announce we’ve led a $33 million seed round in @yupp_ai, a consumer product that allows anyone to discover and compare the latest AI models for free. AI needs robust and trustworthy human data. Crypto is built to provide it. Modern AI systems are shaped not only by compute and algorithms but by human feedback. Companies use post-training techniques such as Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and Direct Preference Optimisation (DPO) to improve their models. These techniques can reduce bias and enable higher quality, more coherent responses to prompts — crucial for accelerating progress in AI. Model evaluation is similarly critical, but a model can only be made better after first deciding what “better” means. That’s where challenges arise: Companies don't like to share — they keep their data and training processes secret. As a result, model improvements are constrained by what can be learned from closed systems or static benchmarks that are rarely informed by real-world use. These constraints make AI models difficult to evaluate. Users are also left in the dark, with little insight into how their feedback shapes models or whether it’s used at all. Some leaderboards and crowdsourcing sites attempt to shed light here, but they generally don’t enable users to audit their contributions or see any direct benefit from participating. Platforms that claim to be fair and transparent often rely more on good faith than enforceable standards. We believe crypto can bring transparency and ownership to this murky area of AI. Blockchains can make it easier for people to receive rewards for their contributions. They can also provide AI builders with assurances about the quality and provenance of the feedback data and evaluations they’re incorporating into their models. So users get incentives, builders get trustworthy data, and everyone can audit either side of the open market. Yupp crowdsources model evaluation: users enter prompts, see multiple AI-generated responses side-by-side, and then pick the best ones. Their choices create digitally signed “packets” of preference data that are useful for AI post-training and evaluation. In addition to users getting access to the latest models for free, they receive rewards based on the feedback that they provide. Yupp’s design turns human judgment into a renewable economic resource. Data “expires” as newer interactions replace it, creating a natural flywheel: more usage yields fresher evaluations; fresher evaluations yield better models; better models attract more usage. All participants — from users to AI model builders — can participate and see that the same transparent rules apply to everyone, ensuring a credibly neutral marketplace. No one can hide the scoreboard, and no one can manipulate the rewards or results. The founders bring deep experience in both AI and crypto. They built consumer-scale machine learning products together in the early days of Twitter. @pankaj ran global consumer engineering for Google Pay and @Coinbase. @gilad was a machine learning lead at GoogleX. The early team already counts senior engineers from Google, Coinbase, and top research labs. AI needs strong, reliable evaluation based on large-scale human input. Crypto is the trust machine that can help deliver it. By enabling people worldwide to contribute model-improving feedback, Yupp aims to become the default evaluation layer for the future of AI. We’re proud to back Yupp and look forward to helping them build the onchain feedback loop that ensures the rewards of AI innovation are shared by everyone who helps create it.

apple, google, facebook, and amazon engineered one of the greatest wealth creation machines in history by transforming our digital breadcrumbs into trillion dollar kingdoms. we received "free" products and watched ads while they mined our data and replicated, rug pulled, or shut down nearly every major breakout consumer app. the next wave of killer apps won't exploit you and your data — they'll empower users with private, secure, on-device data control AND directly reward the users the real value of their data. we're at a major crossroads in AI where private data is the biggest gap between developers building net new applications and addressing real-world problems with greater precision - and it turns out we all have a lot of it sitting idly on our phones. @getoro_xyz is letting anyone with a phone contribute to and own the frontier of software we're thrilled to back @ck_oro and @dgmonsoon as they put the value of consumers' data back in their hands!

CSX is coming to San Francisco this spring, and starting today we’re accepting applications to join the cohort! If you’re a passionate and visionary crypto startup founder, we want to hear from you. Apply using the link in my next post. @a16zcrypto CSX is an intensive, in-person program for early-stage startups building with blockchain technologies. It focuses on the expertise, mentorship, and support startups need to build ambitious products across industries. Participating founders are connected with capital, a network of industry experts, and a cohort of leading web3 teams. Each week of CSX is focused on a different pillar of company-building, such as research and engineering, marketing and social strategy, go to market, and people best practices. Founders can go as deep as they need to on the components that matter most for their project, through workshops and 1:1 discussions with specialists from a16z crypto and other experienced operators. We invest a minimum of $500,000 in each company accepted to CSX. The CSX 04 program will start in April and end in June with a Demo Day event, where each company gets the opportunity to pitch their project to an audience of prominent investors, thought leaders, and executives from many of the top crypto companies. I can’t wait for the CSX 04 program to get started. The last day to apply is February 7th, so submit your application today, and I hope to see you in SF! 🌉