The Catalysts for This Crypto Bull Market: AI, DeFi, Real World Assets? - Ep. 615
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In this episode of Unchained, Alex Pack, managing partner at Hack VC discusses the firm's recent $150 million fundraise, the challenges of raising capital in a bear market, and the firm's focus on early-stage Web3 infrastructure. He also shares his thoughts on the intersection of crypto and AI, the future of DeFi, and the importance of security in the crypto space. Pack believes that the current infrastructure of crypto is still in its early stages and needs significant improvement before it can reach mainstream adoption. He also sees potential in the development of more secure smart contracts and the integration of AI into decentralized applications.
Show highlights:
How Hack VC was able to raise $150 million in a bear market, especially after the blowups of FTX, 3AC, and Terra
Alex's interaction with SBF, whom he calls a "sociopath," and why he didn't invest in FTX
Hack VC's philosophy to "back hackers" in crypto
The goals behind Zuzalu, the new community that resembles Balaji Srinivasan's idea of a network state
What the main focus of Hack VC's investments are, including scalability, AI, and DeFi
Why Alex believes that "we are still so early"
How Alex believes crypto and artificial intelligence will intersect
The role of AI agents and how to use them in decentralized applications
Why he thinks that EigenLayer is a great solution for middleware applications
Alex's opinion on the modular vs. monolithic approach for scaling blockchains
How DeFi survived the last bear market, contrasted with the collapses of CeFi companies like Celsius, BlockFi and FTX
Whether algorithmic stablecoins can ever work and what Alex thinks of Ethena's USDe
How to improve security in crypto, according to Alex
Why the outcome of the Bitcoin ETFs exceeded Alex's expectations
What he believes the catalysts are for the next bull market
Thank you to our sponsors!
Polkadot
Guest:
Alex Pack, Managing partner at Hack VC
Previous appearances on Unchained:
Dragonfly Capital on Why Ethereum Is So Far in the Lead
‘The Last Big Whale’: Why the Crypto Contagion of 2022 Eventually Hit Genesis
Links
New fund
Bloomberg: Hack VC Raises $150 Million for Bets on Battered Crypto Industry
Hack VC Closes $150M Venture Fund I, Bringing AUM to $425M
Stablecoins:
Unchained:
What Is Ethena’s USDe Synethic Dollar? A Beginner’s Guide
What Is Terra and Why Did It Fail?
Why It's so Hard to Keep Stablecoins Stable
What Is Depegging in Crypto and Why Does It Occur?
What Is Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization? A Beginner's Guide
EigenLayer ecosystem
Unchained: What Is EigenLayer? A Guide to the Decentralized ETH Restaking Protocol
The Block: AltLayer closes $14.4 million strategic round co-led by Polychain and Hack VC
Modular vs. monolithic approach
Unchained:
What Are Modular Blockchains? A Beginner's Guide
Three Crypto Pioneers on Crypto’s Monolithic vs. Modular Debate
Crypto x AI crossover
io.net and Ritual Collaborate to Boost Global AI Compute Landscape
Ritual x EigenLayer: Restaking for AI
Unchained: 5 Use Cases of AI in Blockchain
Zuzalu
Decrypt: I Spent a Month Inside Vitalik Buterin’s Social Experiment—Here’s What It Was Really Like
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'The Last Big Whale': Why the Crypto Contagion of 2022 Eventually Hit Genesis - Ep. 426
Michael Jordan, founder at DBA and former co-head of investments at Galaxy Digital, and Alex Pack, managing partner at Hack VC, talk about the potential insolvency of Genesis and DCG, the cycle of credit expansion, and the importance of DeFi to prevent these situations.
Show highlights:
what will happen with Genesis and its parent company DCG
where the insolvency of Genesis might have come from
how the expansion of crypto lending in 2021 is impacting the markets and the role the Fed played in this expansion
how the Terra collapse kickstarted a ton of contagion effects in crypto companies
Alex's story of why he did not invest in Alameda in 2018
whether it is possible to prevent the "FTXs of the future"
the importance of assessing the quality of collateral assets
the story of when SBF called DeFi a "Ponzi black box"
the mystery of where FTX Ventures got the $2 billion it planned to invest
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Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Chainalysis
Minima
Michael:
Twitter
Previous Unchained episodes:
Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting?
Alex:
Twitter
Episode Links
Previous coverage of Unchained on Genesis and FTX:
Why Genesis Could Very Well Be Insolvent, Not Just Illiquid
Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion
Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting?
Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX?
The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater
Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets
The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto?
Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC
Genesis:
Unchained:
Genesis Warns of Bankruptcy If Funding Plans Fail: Report
On-chain Analysts ID 432 GBTC Addresses After Grayscale Says No to Proof-of-Reserves
WSJ: Crypto Lender Genesis Asks Binance and Apollo for Cash
Decrypt: Digital Currency Group Says No Imminent Threat Despite Owing Genesis $575M
The Block: DCG CEO Barry Silbert updates shareholders, says company will emerge 'stronger'
FTX Collapse:
First declaration document
Unchained: FTX Bankruptcy Overseer Says Company’s Collapse Is Worst He’s Ever Seen
SBF tweet: FTX files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Bloomberg: Transcript: Sam Bankman-Fried and Matt Levine on How to Make Money in Crypto
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Dragonfly Capital on Why Ethereum Is So Far in the Lead - Ep.153
Alex Pack, founding partner of Dragonfly Capital, and Haseeb Qureshi, Dragonfly managing partner, talk about why Dragonfly has a global focus, how they choose investments, and why they try to be as agnostic as possible about asset type. They also discuss why most protocols, including Bitcoin, still look like venture bets, why, at the moment, Bitcoin looks like a better investment than anything built on top of Bitcoin, and why Lightning hasn't yet taken off and why they think it won't. We also cover what the future holds for Bitcoin. They explain what they think will happen in the smart contract platform race, why Ethereum is so far in the lead and whether anything will become an Ethereum killer. We also cover Libra, and how Libra affects their investments in stablecoins, why Xi Jinping's "blockchain, not crypto" emphasis is a dead end, whether blockchain-based identity is an investable area, what they think the killer app is or will be and their predictions for 2020. Also, Haseeb, a former professional poker player, describes how poker playing is similar to crypto trading.
Thank you to our sponsors!
CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unchained
Kraken: https://kraken.com/
Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/
Episode links:
Alex Pack: https://twitter.com/alpackap
Haseeb Qureshi: https://twitter.com/hosseeb
Dragonfly Capital: https://www.dcp.capital/
Dragonfly Capital’s blog: https://medium.com/dragonfly-research
Forbes on Dragonfly Capital’s $100 million initial raise: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2018/10/09/new-fund-dragonfly-bridges-china-us-crypto/#572aeb953c9a
Venture Beat story: https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/09/dragonfly-capital-partners-scoops-up-100-million-for-cryptocurrency-investments/
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/10/09/1618445/0/en/Dragonfly-Capital-Partners-Unveils-100-Million-Inaugural-Fund-for-Cryptocurrencies-Bridges-Gap-between-East-and-West.html
DeFi cannibalizing POS security: https://medium.com/dragonfly-research/how-defi-cannibalizes-pos-security-84b146f00697
Mimblewimble blog post: https://medium.com/dragonfly-research/breaking-mimblewimble-privacy-model-84bcd67bfe52
Haseeb’s 2020 article on CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/what-defi-needs-next-year-three-priorities
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