Standard Crypto

Nick Matthew is an investor with Standard Crypto. In this episode, Matthew joins The Scoop to discuss the current state of the crypto market, noting that investment opportunities still exist despite macro downturns. Matthew also contrasts the rise of stablecoins with memecoins, and the potential for crypto to consolidate and shift its evolution towards building 'Fintech 2.0' rather than web3. OUTLINE 00:00 – Introduction 01:12 – Sponsor break 03:04 – Coping with market downturnsl 03:25 – The Fundraising Freeze 05:02 – Macro in the driver seat 09:36 – Memecoin extinction or ressurection 15:59 – Who’s making money in crypto 17:45 – Fintech 2.0 or Web3 22:04 – Investing in stablecoins 25:26 – Investing in teams 28:30 – The next billion users 31:40 – Looking ahead and conclusion GUEST LINKS Nick Matthew on X: https://x.com/nickjmatt Standard Crypto on X: https://x.com/standardcrypto Are you hiring in crypto? Use Campus to quickly find your best candidates with our challenging Crypto Assessment Test. Faster hiring, stronger teams. Sign up for a trial today: theblock.co/campus This episode is brought to your by our sponsors: Fidelity Explore Fidelity crypto careers today. Go to crypto.FidelityCareers.com to learn more. Uranium.io Investing in uranium is now widely accessible. Visit uranium.io to learn more.

Nick Matthew

Investor

Standard Crypto

Alok Vasudev is the co-founder of Standard Crypto, a VC firm that has been investing across various blockchain verticals since 2019. In this episode, Vasudev explains why he believes the crypto industry is in a better position now than ever before, and how to spot the best opportunities during bear markets. Outline: 00:12 - Are we back? 02:23 - Crypto market maturity 06:41 - Alpha 09:45 - Crypto's application layer 14:25 - Web3 social 18:50 - Blockchain gaming 25:00 - Standard Crypto's thesis 26:13 - Tech advancements 31:10 - Higher lows 34:53 - Closing thoughts

Alok Vasudev

Co-Founder

Standard Crypto

My guest today is Alok Vasudev. Alok is an early-stage investor who has been in the crypto space for a very long time. Before co-founding Standard Crypto, he was an investor at Benchmark and S28 Capital. Given Alok's experience and the prevailing mood right now in crypto, this is a particularly interesting discussion on the ecosystem writ large. We discuss whether the bubble can be thought of as productive speculation, his views on skeptics in the space, and look at some big, potentially, underestimated ideas. Please enjoy my conversation with Alok Vasudev.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.    -----   Today's episode is brought to you by Brex. Brex is the integrated financial platform trusted by the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and fastest-growing companies. With Brex, you can move money fast for instant impact with high-limit corporate cards, payments, venture debt, and spend management software all in one place. Ready to accelerate your business? Learn more at brex.com/best.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:31] - [First question] - His history in venture and thoughts on the crypto ecosystem [00:06:06] - What it means to be great at searching for white space as a venture capitalist [00:08:00] - Things his original venture peers would say he was best and worst at [00:09:24] - How he would address crypto skeptics broadly given today’s market [00:13:35] - Whether or not it’s appropriate to look at each crypto token as a stock  [00:15:32] - The pool of demand for Dai and the end use-case itself for the stablecoin  [00:17:01] - What matters to him the most in the world of stablecoins  [00:19:59] - Defining sound and unsound collateral  [00:21:02] - Why the US doesn’t digitize the dollar and how being a government entity would impede some of their capabilities  [00:23:21] - What a community operated computer unlocks compared to a standalone one [00:27:09] - What persistence and resilience from community computers open up   [00:29:30] - Something going on that people aren’t talking about yet in regards to blockchains [00:33:54] - The notion of productive speculation and what it means  [00:36:03] - One of the best historical examples of productive speculation [00:42:29] - How things outside of the blockchain become integrated and connected to it [00:45:43] - Ways crypto will impact the gaming world over the coming years [00:49:10] - Handicapping a potential future where NFTs work and blockchains don’t benefit [00:51:42] - Thoughts on the world of art, IP, NFTs, and its changing landscape [00:54:43] - Whether or not there are companies being built that can streamline and facilitate this form of connection between artists and their fanbases [00:58:13] - Other controversial opinions he holds in the crypto community  [01:03:13] - What he’s most bullish and bearish on right now [01:07:29] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Alok Vasudev

Co-Founder

Standard Crypto

For some, a landscape of colorful NFTs and crypto anons can be daunting — yet for traditional investors, it can present an array of new challenges that require near-constant adjustment or reinvention. But as novel use cases evolve under the twin banners of "Web3" and "the metaverse," business interests such as VC firm Standard Crypto are eyeing the opportunity to leap into such a world.  During this episode of The Scoop, Alok Vasudev, co-founder at Standard Crypto, joined The Block's Frank Chaparro to discuss the future of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and NFTs, when a project "merits" a DAO, and how Vasudev learned to stop worrying and embrace the 'weirdness' of crypto.  Vasudev contends that, unlike other venture firms, Standard Crypto doesn't follow themes but rather operates first as fans of the innovations technology can present. This broad investment approach has recently included DAOs, which Vasudev said he believes could one day potentially function like companies in the future, with the added benefit of on-chain governance. "One thing that we talk about is whether DAOs in how they're structured are actually going to evolve to look a little bit more like companies than they have in the past, but with radically different accountability structures because of token holder governance." Vasudev also believes NFTs and projects being built for Web3 may likely serve as the proving ground for the future iterations of internet success stories like Angry Birds or Facebook: "I think I remember the first time I was kind of stunned that they were actually making an Angry Birds movie... So this idea that kind of internet culture is just going to become mainstream culture, I think is already proven out. And now I think NFTs are the next chapter in that story." Episode 7 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Alok Vasudev, co-founder at Standard Crypto. Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com. This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Chainalysis Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com. About Coinbase Prime Coinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime. About Chainalysis Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.

Alok Vasudev

Co-Founder

Standard Crypto

“We're not art investors. We're investing in things that have communities” On this episode of The Scoop, Adam Goldberg co-founder of Standard Crypto joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss his work as a crypto VC and how his company is looking at the DeFi market in an unconventional way. Standard Crypto is $1 billion in size, according to a source familiar with the fund. Today, their investment team is primarily focused on projects in three areas: infrastructure, networks and apps. Thus far, Standard Crypto has made investments in major companies like OpenSea, Axie Infinity, Matrixport, Aave and Telegram, among others. The firm also has stakes in projects such as Audius, BitClout/Deso and Instadapp. Goldberg framed Standard Crypto's focus on the types of investments that have an ability to execute on and build a community. "When you have a network that's owned by its participants, the rules can't change without the community being on board. And that's what makes us feel like crypto networks are the hardest thing to disrupt that we've ever seen in humanity, in that they evolve with their communities as things change and shift over time," said Goldberg. Gaming and the Metaverse in focus Goldberg told Chaparro that Standard Crypto is actively looking at companies advancing social and gaming projects in crypto. He sees the metaverse convergence of games and in-game economies as a new kind of development that's different from gameplay itself.  "You know, Axie is not just a game, it's a new movement. It's sort of like a new generation of Pokemon or of of Angry Birds. And it's possible that we'll see, you know, movies or other types of experiences built around that IP." Said Goldberg. NFTs Standard Crypto is also looking closely at NFT’s, of which Goldberg said he sees a lot of opportunities to capture value as “new types of productive assets”. Standard Crypto are current investors in NFT marketplaces OpenSea and Foundation. ... For most visit theblockcrypto.com/podcasts Episode 73 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Adam Goldberg, Co-Founder at Standard Crypto. Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com. This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Bakkt, Kraken and Masterworks Bakkt® unlocks the $1.2+ trillion of digital assets that is currently held in cryptocurrencies, rewards and loyalty points, gaming assets and merchant stored value. We began in 2018 with the vision to bring trust and transparency to digital assets. Through the Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and Options contracts, we serve institutional clients in an end-to-end regulated market with true price transparency. For consumers, Bakkt aggregates digital assets to enable instant liquidity and to empower users to trade, transfer and pay however they want. Visit Bakkt.com for more information About Kraken Whether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today. About Masterworks Masterworks is democratizing the exclusive multi-trillion-dollar art world. Instead of needing to write a $10 million dollar check to buy one Picasso painting, you can buy shares of masterpiece paintings. Masterworks has securitized over $250 million worth of art for their 235,000 members and was recently valued at over $1 billion, making them the first and only unicorn in the alternative investing space. Invest like a billionaire today with a few easy clicks at masterworks.io/scoop

Adam Goldberg

Partner

Lightspeed Venture PartnersStandard Crypto

Adam Goldberg is a Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the world's leading funds with a portfolio including the likes of SNAP, Mulesoft, Max Levchin's Affirm, AppDynamics and many more incredible companies. As for Adam, at age 13, Adam enrolled as a full-time student at UC Berkeley, where he studied pure and applied mathematics and conducted research in number theory and machine learning. He went on to work as a mathematician for the Department of Defense and as a researcher Berkeley, Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford. Following that, Adam worked as an engineer at Palantir and Dropbox and was an early product manager at Rubrik. In 2016, Adam left Rubrik to become a partner at Lightspeed where he has invested in the likes of Basis, Vector and Totemic Labs, just to name a few. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Adam made his way into the world of venture from the department of defence and working at titans such as Palantir and Dropbox? 2.) Why does Adam believe the rate of founder learning is the most important skill that an investor can evaluate and assess? What does optimizing for learning really mean to Adam? In practice, what can one do to optimize for learning? What are the common traits and signs of those founders that do this well? 3.) Why does Adam believe that there remains today no mass market decentralised consumer product? What is needed for this to happen? How does Adam forsee the development of token economics over the coming years? What novel token financing solutions does Adam respect? What is required within token economics for Adam to gain real comfort? 4.) Why does Adam believe that the Telegram ICO got such attention? Why is Adam fundamentally bullish on the opportunity? What 2 core characteristics does Telegram have that are required for crypto projects to be successful? On the other side of the table, where is there cause for concern when reviewing the opportunity? 5.)How does Adam think about "betting on fundamental trade-offs in crypto"? What are the 4 key trade-offs that founders must contemplate? What are the trade-offs that Adam is willing to accept vs not accept? How does Adam envisage the willingness to accept trade-offs so widely, change over time in the space? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Adam's Fave Book: Flowers for Algernon Adam's Most Recent Investment: Strangeworks As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Adam on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Are you told your standards are too high, well The League is the app that tells you to keep them that way, they know your time is valuable so simply tell them your preferences and they will handle the scouting and vetting for you. Plus even better, your profile will only ever be seen by people who match your preferences, matches expire after 21 days and so there are no drawn-out games and they even require LinkedIn to protect your privacy and block you from matching with co-workers and business connections. You can apply now by downloading The League on the app store or heading to The League.com Zoom is the fastest-growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an a variety of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. And you can see for yourself! Sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us. Culture Amp is the platform that makes it easy to collect, understand and act on employee feedback. From onboarding surveys to company-wide engagement, individual effectiveness and more, the platform manages multiple sources of feedback and connects the dots for you and that is why companies like Slack, Nike, Oracle and Lyft all trust Culture Amp. It enables leaders to make better decisions, demonstrate impact and turn your company culture into a competitive edge. Find out more on cultureamp.com.

Adam Goldberg

Partner

Lightspeed Venture PartnersStandard Crypto