Investing, for me, is a form of activism to create the world I want to see, and I'm beyond honored that the @nytimes wanted to spotlight it. 🙏🙏❤️❤️ nytimes.com/2021/09/01/techn…

Have you come across any particularly thoughtful essays on AI and human creativity? (emphasis on particularly thoughtful)

moving back to SF after 4 years away (nomading/NYC) looking to: - build community and host small gatherings with vibrant discussions - meet people who are passionate about how they spend their time - spend more time exploring museums / galleries - make art if anyone wants to join pls lmk!

Congrats @mbrendan1 on launching Cosmos Institute to explore philosophy and AI's intersection

An update: I’m transitioning from General Partner to Advisor at Variant. I’ll continue working with portfolio companies and advising the team, while stepping back from investing and day-to-day firm management. I’ve always been extremely mission-driven in how I approach my work: I care deeply about expanding access to opportunity, particularly economic and educational. This is what drew me to crypto and to Variant specifically in the first place – we are one of the few investors in the space that has a clear mission and thesis of what we hope this technology can accomplish in creating the foundation for a more equitable internet. This change allows me to have the time and space to explore my other interests that align with my mission, like in education, innovation, and technology more broadly; as well as to pursue more creative projects. I remain deeply optimistic that crypto can be the foundation for an internet that democratizes ownership to users, and about Variant’s role in ushering in that future. In Variant’s short history, we’ve left an indelible mark on the startup landscape, as well as how society broadly thinks about crypto as a technology. I’m incredibly grateful to @jessewldn for his support in this transition, and for being the best cofounder anyone could ask for for the last few years. There’s no one else in the world that I would have gone on this journey with. I’m also grateful for the entire team at Variant – working with all of them has been the privilege of a lifetime. Every person on the team is world-class at what they do, and I’m excited to see Variant continue to play a major role shaping the future of this technology.

It's a good time to take a long-term perspective and refocus on what you believe in. This is likely just a growth scare, and the outlook for crypto remains bright.

welcome Cooper we're so glad to have you!

Variant co-led @MorphoLabs seed round in 2022 because we were inspired by the team’s vision and believed in the project’s transformative potential. Today we’re thrilled to announce our investment in Morpho’s latest round!

Just read the @variantfund article on things they're excited about in crypto in 2024-2025 Some of the AI predictions: "Open-source AI turns to crypto for monetization. Decentralized AI and compute gain steam." - @ljin18 "The breakout AI x Crypto use case is community owned and trained models. We do see an important use case in decentralized training + inference emerge as centralized clouds begin to develop policies around what types of models can run on their servers, but that will take 2+ years to really develop (because regulation is slow)" - @AlanaDLevin "12 months from now, I expect there will be much more clarity about what use cases and platforms for agentic AI have PMF in crypto." - @gham1lt0n

Things we're excited about in crypto! blog.variant.fund/things-exc…

Pay with USDC live in many restaurants in NYC!

Lawyers who code are rare, but absolutely crucial to effectively navigate crypto regulation. I'm lucky to work with @dbarabander at Variant, whose technical ability is surpassed only by his extraordinary legal skills 🔥 See for yourself in his new blog: paragraph.xyz/@proofs-and-pr…

Welcome @AustinAdams10 to @variantfund :) Elegant mechanism design is a major component of protocol success--helping founders with that expertise is one of Austin's super powers.

In short, marketplaces can be categorized by quadrants based on whether they’re tapping into new vs. existing supply and whether they’re serving new vs. existing demand. Each entails different dynamics and considerations!

pulling this out from the July 4th vortex: my recent essay about a framework for thinking about tokenized marketplaces: blog.variant.fund/crypto-net…

How is Telegram able to distribute alternative app stores per app store policies?

In SF for the next week! Who’s around? Would love to meet new folks :)

gm This is our 50th episode of Kiwi Weekly, and you can join our community for a 50% off price! Learn more in the newsletter: paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-weekly/k… All links curated by: @p_e, @0xLuo, @freeatnet, @wong_ssh, @rainer_volz, @0xgokhan, @starl3xx, @QiaoLiang3, @pierrepauze, svj.eth, @timdaub, @mishaderidder & me :) And here's what you will find inside the newsletter NEWS SEC closing its investigation into Ethereum EU Chat Control proposal summary by @echo_pbreyer Results of the @dappcon_berlin x @KiwiNewsHQ writing challenge @EFDevcon 7 tickets auction & raffle @ZackDAbrams reports that Ethereum gas prices and Bitcoin miner revenue approach record lows ESSAYS & TALKS @divine_economy shares his social app thesis @0x35_kaori analyzes the good and bad elements of the Farcaster ecosystem @ljin18 suggests that Data DAOs can play an important role in the AI ecosystem @krishnanrohit analyzes the world of information through the network's lens David Zimmerman says that Telegram is crypto’s adoption machine Ben Horowitz shares how a16z evaluates CEOs @0x8104 dives deep into understanding the Meta-game @danshipper states that in the age of AI, every maker becomes a manager @andrewhong5297 explains how to read block explorers @v_theyounger asks is ZK enabling Ethereum to eat Solana’s lunch? @KentBeck suggests that sales happen when buyers fear missing out @0xfoobar explains why Tether launches a stablecoin backed by gold @LayerZero shares how they are addressing Sybil activity @MorganHousel describes the magic of quiet compounding @TimDaub writes about cryptocurrencies as international rights guarantors @p_e asks if rollups were meant to be on Bitcoin all along? 0x09 writes a self-sovereignty manifesto @dariastrategy looks at web3 hiring culture and asks what can we improve? @nagakingg suggests there's the DeFi revolution hiding in plain sight @david_tomu introduces the concept of channel tokens PRODUCTS Moshicam by @swaglord__420 Butterflies, a social network where AIs and humans coexist by @vu0tran Gnosis: Shutterized @GnosisChain @farcaster_xyz: Narrowcasts @TLSNotary: how does it work FOR DEVS EIP-4444 and torrents by @parithosh_j Nook: Source code by @Slokh @Ensdomains: Large Grants Ethereum: Unpacking Pectra ERC-7683: Cross Chain Intents @PREDALang: Parallel EVM model DASHBOARDS & REPORTS @Optimism Collective contribution dashboard @ton_blockchain Stat dashboard Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power since 1500 ART @BorisGroys writes about the relationship between art and populism @Tamulur creates a reverse Turing Test with AIs

Yesterday, I published a bi-annual reflection of what's going on in the crypto industry Here are some of the highlights 👇

2/  AI agents are going to complete the bulk of onchain transactions This trend is evident with Autonolas prediction market agents. The # of agent transactions has grown by 2x since the start of the year, completing over 38k weekly txs & ~63% of Gnosis Safe txs in the past month

Stoked to announce that Variant has co-led Farworld Labs’ pre-seed round It’s no secret that we’re fans of the Farcaster ecosystem. We’ve been on the lookout for teams that are: - Growing the pie by appealing to new users - Thoughtfully leveraging headless distribution - Exploring ways to make the net-new data types (frames, tokens) first-class citizens Enter: Farworld Labs