Jesse Walden

In today's episode we dive into the emergence of decentralized social networks and how they enable new forms of distribution and business models. ​​Farcaster, a decentralized social network built on Ethereum, has seen 400% increase in daily active users. This episode's discussion unpacks the concept of headless marketplaces, powered by global onchain identity and money, and how they bring markets to users wherever they already are. We explore the the permissionless composability unlocked by onchain protocols and how frames allow embedded experiences inside applications, enabling seamless transactions and viral growth. Stick around for all of this and much more! - Follow Jesse: https://twitter.com/jessewldn Follow Antonio: https://twitter.com/antoniogm Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Arbitrum is a game-changer for daily Ethereum's users and developers, offering top applications and lower fees. As the leading scaling solution with 600+ apps, explore Arbitrum’s Portal to find your perfect fit. Interact with the home of DeFi, a flourishing NFT and creator ecosystem, and a rapidly growing Web3 gaming hub – Arbitrum has it all.  Get started at: portal.arbitrum.io  - - Harpie is the most advanced on-chain security solution for monitoring and protecting your crypto wallet from theft in real time. Harpie detects, blocks, and recovers compromised assets from malicious transactions before they execute, and is the only security tool to also protect users from off-chain signature attacks like the recent Ledger Connect Kit exploit. Secure your wallet for free at harpie.io. - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE10 to get 10% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps (01:51) Headless Marketplaces (13:50) Embedded Experiences in Applications (18:58) Permissionless Composability of App Experiences (28:26) Frames & Farcaster Overview (37:05) Arbitrum Ad (37:52) Harpie Ad (39:07) Company Adoption (52:52) Importance of Brand (58:55) Ownership Economy Thesis - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant

Antonio Martínez

Jesse Walden and Li Jin are General Partners at the crypto venture firm, Variant. In this episode, Walden and Jin announce the launch of Variant's new Founder Fellowship — a three-month educational program for crypto founders at the earliest stages of their startup journey. During this episode, Chaparro, Jin, and Walden also discuss: Developments in web3 social networking How token models can be more effective Why bear markets are better for building This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Circle, Railgun, Flare Network About Circle Circle is a global financial technology company helping money move at internet speed. Our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. Visit Circle.com to learn more. About Railgun Railgun is a private DeFi solution on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum and Polygon. Shield any ERC-20 token and any NFT into a Private Balance and let Railgun’s zero-knowledge cryptography encrypt your address, balance and transaction history. You can also bring privacy to your project with Railgun SDK, and be sure to check out Railgun with partner project Railway Wallet, also available on iOS and Android. Visit Railgun.org to find out more. About Flare Flare is an EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain designed to allow developers to build applications that can use data from other blockchains and the internet. By providing decentralized access to a wide variety of high-integrity data from other blockchains and the internet, Flare enables new use cases and monetization models. Build better and connect everything at Flare.Network.

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant

Li Jin

Founder

Variant FundVariantAtelier Ventures

Variant — a venture capital firm founded on the idea that the next iteration of the internet is going to be defined by decentralized, user-owned networks — has raised $450 million to be deployed across two new funds. In this episode of The Scoop, Variant co-founders Jesse Walden and Spencer Noon reveal how they plan on allocating the capital — and why Variant remains bullish on the long-term future of web3. According to Walden, the technology powering the emerging web3 industry will only improve from here: “In the history of technology, technology doesn't get worse and disappear — it gets better and more pervasive. And that's happening at an exponential rate in Web3, because this is all software, it's all open source, and there's just tons of talent jumping in... So the tech is working, and again, I think that means it's only going to be more pervasive.” Although web3 is still in its infancy, the Variant co-founders believe elements of it are already disrupting their centralized equivalents. For example, Walden describes how certain distressed lenders recently prioritized paying back loans to DeFi protocols over other counterparties: “DeFi protocols were the only protocols that got paid back by some of these institutions that blew up … the transparency and sort of enforcement of these smart contracts can actually have better outcomes than the alternative, which is opacity and sort of trust in the wrong parties.” Episode 70 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro, and Variant Co-Founders Jesse Walden and Spencer Noon. 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 Chainalysis & IWC Schaffhausen About Chainalysis Chainalysis is the leading 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. 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. About IWC Schaffhausen IWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant

Spencer Noon

Partner

Variant FundVariant

On today's episode of Empire, Jason Yanowitz and Santiago Roel Santos are joined by Li Jin and Jesse Walden of Variant. Bringing their specific expertise on the creator space, Li and Jesse discuss what it means to form a crypto creator economy that not only supports quality content but attracts players to actually invest in the concept. With Jason and Santiago, they cover mainstream adoption, NFTs, what it means to be an owner, and more. -- ParaSwap: If you want to make a swap at the best price across the DeFi market, check out paraswap.io. ParaSwap’s state-of-the-art algorithm beats the market price across all major DEXs and brings you the most optimized swaps with the best prices, and lowest slippage. -- Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like this, subscribe to Blockworks' free daily newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Follow me and Santiago on Twitter, @JasonYanowitz and @santiagoroel; let us know what you thought of the show! Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq?si=41bc452345b649f9 Subscribe to the podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3srZf7M

Li Jin

Founder

Atelier VenturesVariantVariant Fund

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

VariantVariant FundMEMediachain

Variant Fund is a venture capital firm that describes itself as “a first-check crypto fund investing in the ownership economy.” Jesse Walden and Li Jin, co-founders and general partners at Variant, join Unchained to discuss the ownership economy, issues with web2 and web3, NFTs, the future of work, and more. Highlights: where Li and Jesse met and how their backgrounds as investors + founders led them to the crypto space how Li’s investing niche, which she describes as the passion economy, ended up intersecting with crypto why Li believes that web3 platforms will be better for creators than the current web2 ecosystem why Jesse was so inspired by Bitcoin after working in the music industry for so many years why Jesse believes that NFTs are the “port of entry” for the mainstream adoption of crypto what other use-cases exist for NFTs outside of the JPEG or PNG meme (and why Jesse is so excited about music NFTs) why Li believes that web3 tools can help fix the issues inherent to the “gig economy” Li and Jesse respond to criticisms of web3 coming from Jack Dorsey and Moxie Marlinspike how Variant Fund thinks about investing in crypto projects what token allocation Variant Fund targets when investing in crypto projects why mainstream platforms are experiencing backlash for integrating with NFTs and crypto what trends in NFTs, DAOs, and the ownership economy Jesse and Li think will pop in 2022 Get Access to Premium Content Sign up for a premium Bulletin subscription! For becoming a premium subscriber, you'll get access to: a premium-only Discord group premium-only interviews the opportunity to ask questions the chance to weigh in on guests for Unchained and whatever other future offerings we add to the mix The special launch price until February 14 $2.99/mo or $29.99/year. Starting on February 15, the price increases to $4.99/mo or $49.99/year. Join now! Get a Signed Book Plate! Many of you have asked me how you can get a signed copy of the book. Here’s how: Pre-order the book, which you can do at bit.ly/cryptopians. Make a social media post about the book that includes the pre-order link, bit.ly/cryptoptians or to the book on any bookseller of your choice. Send a copy of your receipt to hello@unchainedpodcast.com with the subject line, “signed book plate.” In the email, include a pdf of your receipt + a screenshot of or a link to your social media post + the address to which you’d like me to send the book plate + the name of who you’d like me to dedicate the book plate to. If you show a pre-order receipt that shows you bought more than one format of the book, such as an audiobook and a hardcover, you can get two signed book plates. Finally, if you sign up for the Bulletin premium subscription plus do all the above to get a signed book plate, you’ll also receive a POAP. Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021           Beefy Finance: https://beefy.finance   Bosonic: https://bosonic.digital/ Alchemy Pay:  https://alchemypay.org   Episode links   Li Jin Twitter: https://twitter.com/ljin18  Substack: https://li.substack.com/ Li Jin on the creator economy The future of the creator economy https://drive.google.com/file/u/1/d/1C3fBfPgWxf-zqezGlPFr7VXIetlHlnaZ/view  https://twitter.com/ljin18/status/1454096370281943041  What the creator economy is doing wrong https://li.substack.com/p/legitimacy-lost  How to fix the “gig” style economy for creators https://li.substack.com/p/the-creator-economy-is-in-crisis How the creator economy could power universal basic income https://li.substack.com/p/the-case-for-universal-creative-income What labor should look like in Web3 https://li.substack.com/p/a-labor-movement-for-the-platform Building the middle class of the creator economy https://li.substack.com/p/building-the-middle-class-of-the Other Web3 is the “golden age” of content https://every.mirror.xyz/y_WLA-Tk3VF5uPqHi-glDLVVfHxLUbjXakRI7SMISas  Transitioning to Web3 from a non-tech perspective https://twitter.com/ljin18/status/1479111931977867275    Jesse Walden Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessewldn  Website (no blogs since 2020): https://jessewalden.com/  Random Tweets DAOs https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1459014962207244290 https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1470406564582498315  NFTs https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1473641606951669767  Music NFTs x Sound XYZ https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1471148257892044812 Commoditizing a compliment https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1465713306363117578  Writing NFTs make the internet ownable https://variant.mirror.xyz/T8kdtZRIgy_srXB5B06L8vBqFHYlEBcv6ae2zR6Y_eo Product vs. Protocol https://variant.fund/writing/balance-product-protocol-web3 Leadership in the ownership economy https://variant.fund/writing/leadership-in-the-ownership-economyscaling-decision  How DeFi crosses the chasm https://variant.fund/writing/how-does-defi-cross-the-chasm Crypto’s Business Model is Familiar. What Isn’t is Who Benefits https://variant.fund/writing/cryptos-business-model-is-familiar.-what-isnt-is  Narrative Economics https://variant.fund/writing/narrative-economics  Progressive decentralization https://variant.fund/writing/progressive-decentralization-a-playbook-for-building Layers of blockchain computing https://variant.fund/writing/layers-not-eras-of-blockchain-computing   Variant Fund Variant Fund Twitter https://twitter.com/variantfund Variant Fund website https://variant.fund/ Writing:  https://variant.fund/writing  Mirror Blog (Feb 2021 article on NFTs) https://variant.mirror.xyz/  Variant Fund + Atelier joining forces https://variant.fund/writing/atelier-ventures-and-variant-fund-are-joining-forces  https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/19/variant-debuts-a-new-110m-fund-for-crypto-startups-announces-li-jin-has-joined-as-a-general-partner/ Variant Fund team https://twitter.com/spencernoon/status/1450500555961507844 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant

Li Jin

Founder

Variant FundVariantAtelier Ventures

Come learn and hear about what the Creator Economy is, and what it has in store for our industry! Li Jin: @ljin18 Jesse Walden @jessewldn Cooper Turley: @Cooopahtroopa ------ 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/  🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/  🎖 CLAIM YOUR BADGE: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/-guide-2-using-the-bankless-badge  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 💰 GEMINI | FIAT & CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://bankless.cc/go-gemini  🔀 BALANCER | EXCHANGE & POOL ASSETS https://bankless.cc/balancer  👻 AAVE | LEND & BORROW ASSETS https://bankless.cc/aave  🦄 UNISWAP | DECENTRALIZED FUNDING http://bankless.cc/uniswap  ------ 📣 Ledger | Securely Exchange with Paraswap https://bankless.cc/LedgerYT2  ------ The Creator Economy Panelists: Cooper Turley, Li Jin, Jesse Walden The Creator Economy naturally erupts with the internet. Specialization allows creatives – artists, content creators, and everything in between – to carve out increasingly specific niches and build curated cultural communities. Art in all forms has an opportunity to blossom with the coordinative capacity of modern technology, and every active participant is inherently a creator. Smartphones and social media make everyone journalists, photographers, actors, and commentators simultaneously. With this budding paradigm, ownership of creations is paramount. The crypto industry lends itself elegantly to this need, blending creation and ownership. Web 2 has witnessed an explosion of distributed content, but centralized platforms determine the nature of how it plays out. Crypto offers a natural evolution to the creator economy, enriching the relationship between creator and community. This conversation takes a wide lens to the intersection of culture and the crypto industry. From MySpace to Instagram to Patreon, the ebbs & flows of internet culture and economy moves at a blistering pace. Our experienced panelists break these things down and discuss where we're going. ------ Resources: Li on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ljin18?s=20  Jesse on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessewldn?s=20  Cooper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cooopahtroopa?s=20  ------ Topics Covered: 0:00 Intro 4:30 Cooper, Li, and Jesse 7:30 What is the Creator Economy? 14:32 Evolving Creator and Community 21:31 Creator First vs. Platforms 28:35 The Internet Dream 36:16 Evolving Platforms 43:00 Sovereign Creation 47:19 DAOs and the Creator Economy 55:30 Creator Economy Platforms 59:27 Get Involved 1:02:08 Closing & Disclaimers ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant

Li Jin

Founder

Variant FundVariantAtelier Ventures

Cooper Turley

Creator economy investor & advisor

Variant FundAudiusCoop RecordsFriends With Benefits

My guest today is Jesse Walden, the founder of Variant, an early-stage venture firm investing in crypto networks and platforms building the ownership economy.   With all the hype surrounding NFTs, I wanted to talk to Jesse about them, given his background in the music industry and his focus on the creator and ownership economy. The conversation did not disappoint. We discuss the basics of what an NFT is, what new creative paradigms they might unlock, and where we are in the NFT hype cycle.   This episode is the first in what will likely become its own show we are calling Primers. Our goal for primers is to bring investors and operators from a zero to a seven understanding of a topic, concept, or industry. The goal here is for the education around these topics to be fast and entertaining. I hope you enjoy this discussion with Jesse Walden and hopefully the first of many Primers to come.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ------ Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  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 [00:04:19] - [First question] - Simple definition of an NFT [00:05:22] - What distinguishes NFTs from each other [00:06:24] - The value chain of a song, and who owns it [00:12:07] - Monetization and royalties on traded tokens [00:15:02] - Consumer incentives for purchasing NFTs [00:19:19] - Long-term passive income and media legos [00:22:23] - Technical breakdown of minting, hosting, and storing tokens [00:24:28] - Verification of token ownership on the blockchain [00:25:58] - NFT marketplaces and aggregators [00:27:06] - Opensea.io  [00:27:21] - Foundation.app  [00:29:46] - Innovations inspired by the NFT explosion [00:31:01] - Mirror.xyz  [00:32:26] - NBA Topshot [00:32:57] - Crypto Punks [00:23:24] - Nifty Gateway [00:34:30] - Physical cultural assets in the digital landscape [00:36:02] - Legacy brands exploring digital goods and tokenized ownership [00:38:37] - NFTs becoming the port of entry of all media [00:39:39] - An ownership economy in second generation internet platforms [00:41:02] - Uniswap[00:42:41] - The “hype cycle” of NFTs and incoming market correction[00:44:18] - Lessons for investors in the NFT space [00:45:15] - Lessons for buildings in the NFT space [00:45:54] - Resources to continue learning about NFTs[00:45:54] - NFTs make the internet ownable by Jesse Walden[00:46:20] - NFTs and a thousand true fans by Chris Dixon[00:46:13] - A beginner’s guide to NFTs by Linda Xie

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant

📣 Join us at Invest Ethereum Conference Oct 14th - http://bankless.cc/investeth $25 off w/ “BANKLESS” code ----- 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: http://bankless.substack.com/ ✊ STARTING GUIDE BANKLESS: https://bit.ly/37Q17uI ❤️ JOIN PRIVATE DISCORD: https://bit.ly/2UVI10O 🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/ 👕 BUY BANKLESS TEE: https://merch.banklesshq.com/ ----- GO BANKLESS WITH THESE SPONSOR TOOLS: 🌐 UNSTOPPABLE DOMAINS - HUMAN READABLE ETHEREUM & CRYPTO ADDRESSES https://bankless.cc/unstoppable 🌈 ZAPPER - ULTIMATE HUB FOR DEFI - ZAP INTO DEFI http://bankless.cc/zapper 💳 MONOLITH - GET THE HOLY GRAIL OF BANKLESS VISA CARDS https://bankless.cc/monolith 🤖YEARN - YIELD-SEEKING MONEY ROBOT THAT FARMS DEFI FOR YOU http://bankless.cc/yearn ------ The Ownership Economy | Jesse Walden Jesse Walden speaks about 'the ownership economy', in which value is returned to the producers via a protocol by compensation codified in its core. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter are now extracting more than they are providing. Can Ethereum and DeFi solve this? How can Ethereum host an internet-sized cooperative, like REI? How can token ownership create a larger tent, that can scale organizations past previous limits? We also discuss Jesse's 3 theories for how crypto will be adopted, and which one he believes will come first: - The people come, Bank the Unbanked! - The institutions come, WallStreet wants part of the global casino - The economy comes, non-financial apps create a “real economy" ----- Actions & Resources: Read Jesse’s articles: The Ownership Economy thesis https://variant.fund/the-ownership-economy-crypto-and-consumer-software/ The Ownership Economy in DeFi to date https://variant.fund/how-does-defi-cross-the-chasm/ Progressive Decentralization vs. Fair Launch https://variant.fund/progressive-decentralization-a-playbook-for-building-crypto-applications/ Business Models in Crypto https://variant.fund/cryptos-business-model-is-familiar-what-isnt-is-who-benefits/ Check out our Meet the Nation with RAC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZMQcjLzx7s&t=848s Five-star reviews to help grow the Nation!\ ------ Don't stop at the video! Subscribe to the Bankless newsletter program http://bankless.substack.com/ Visit the official Bankless website for resources http://banklesshq.com/ Follow Bankless on Twitter https://twitter.com/BanklessHQ Follow Ryan on Twitter https://twitter.com/ryansadams Follow David on Twitter https://twitter.com/TrustlessState Follow DeFi Dad on Twitter https://twitter.com/DeFi_Dad ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time we may add links in this channel to products we use. We may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. We'll always disclose when this is the case.

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant

Jesse Walden of Variant Fund, and Robert Leshner of Compound explain all of the problems associated with the decentralizing process in terms of governance and compliance, pulling from their own lessons and their commentary on other projects. We cover: Why projects must start with some level centralization How projects can both monetize and not put their code at risk of being forked How they can decentralize while also maintaining security, especially for composable DeFi projects that may become vulnerable as new technology and new protocols are introduced How and when to distribute the token so as not to attract only speculators and also not trip regulatory wires  How Compound’s current governance works, how it is decentralizing, why they decided to use a governance token, and what Compound (the company) will do after full decentralization  Why open-sourced projects are still able to extract profits, even after a fork Whether or not teams should have admin keys, such as what was used in response to the bZx attacks Whether or not projects should be upgrade-able What Block.One, which raised $4 billion in an ICO, did right to only pay a $24 million fine to the SEC  Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com: https://crypto.com Kelman Law: https://crypto.law   Stellar: https://www.stellar.org Episode links:  Jesse Walden: https://twitter.com/jessewldn Robert Leshner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rleshner/ A16z Crypto startup school: https://a16z.com/crypto-startup-school/ Compound: https://compound.finance Progressive Decentralization playbook: https://jessewalden.com/progressive-decentralization-a-playbook-for-building-crypto-applications/ What recent moves by the SEC say about mutability when it comes to crypto networks: https://a16z.com/2019/10/22/mutability-sec-recent-cases/ Compound’s $COMP token: https://medium.com/compound-finance/compound-governance-5531f524cf68 More on Compound’s governance token: https://www.coindesk.com/compound-extends-defi-ethos-to-itself-launches-governance-token Unchained discussion about bZx attacks: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-bzx-attacks-unethical-or-illegal-2-experts-weigh-in/ Eric Wall tweet storm on admin keys: https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1229198599264907264?s=20 tBTC shutting down: https://twitter.com/keep_project/status/1262483526437556228 More on tBTC: https://www.coindesk.com/bug-forces-shutdown-of-bitcoin-backed-ethereum-token-tbtc Unchained interview about tBTC in which Matt Luongo explains the admin key: https://unchainedpodcast.com/tbtc-what-happens-when-the-most-liquid-crypto-asset-hits-defi/ Is the SEC trying to kill the SAFT? https://www.coindesk.com/with-kik-and-telegram-cases-the-sec-tries-to-kill-the-saft  Block.One settlement with SEC: https://www.coindesk.com/eos-maker-block-one-settles-with-sec-over-unregistered-securities-sale Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant

Robert Leshner

Founder

SuperstateCompoundCompound Labs

Today’s episode is about a practical application of crypto — namely, the way it can “tokenize” fandom. More broadly, it’s about fan engagement, and the increasingly blurred lines between sports, culture and tech.  We talked to NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie, of the Brooklyn Nets. Spencer created a new platform on the crypto blockchain Ethereum that gives fans the opportunity to invest directly in his revenue-generating potential, through debt securities.  Joining this conversation are a16z managing partner and tech investor Jeff Jordan, who has long followed the evolving relationship between sports and tech. Also joining is Jesse Walden, a former a16z crypto partner and co-founder of Mediachain. He’s also a former music promoter and manager whose focus was on helping artists stay independent.   We discuss the evolution of models for fan engagement; how social media has changed the game; and where technologies like cryptonetworks and blockchains come in. Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg   Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Spencer Dinwiddie

NBA Player

Brooklyn NetsCalaxy

Jesse Walden

Co-founder

MEMediachainVariant FundVariant