Cloudflare Needs 100M TPS from Crypto to Fix the Internet | CEO Matthew Prince
The internet is about to be flooded by machines, and Matthew Prince thinks the old business model is not ready. The Cloudflare co-founder and CEO joins Bankless to explain why AI agent traffic could overtake human traffic by 2027, how crawlers are changing the economics of content, why ads and subscriptions may not survive in their current form, and how x402, stablecoins, and pay-per-crawl could create a new payment layer for the web.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
1:18 When AI Bot Traffic Overtakes Humans
4:19 What Cloudflare Actually Does
10:40 Life on the Internet’s “Ice Wall”
13:33 The Internet’s Business Model Problem
17:43 Google, Traffic, and the Attention Economy
24:56 AI Agents and the End of Ads
28:47 Why Faster Answers Can Still Hurt Creators
33:26 AI Companies as the Next YouTube or Netflix
38:18 Creating Scarcity for Content Markets
41:52 Content Independence Day
45:24 Should AI Agents Count as Human Users?
51:37 The Risks of Subscription-Only AI
57:24 A Golden Age of Content Creation?
1:01:46 Pay-Per-Crawl and x402
1:04:34 Why Stablecoins Matter
1:07:56 The Cloudflare Stablecoin Question
1:14:18 The Final Form of the Internet
1:17:40 The Park Record and Local Journalism
1:22:16 The Centralization Risk
1:27:12 Advice for Content Creators
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RESOURCES
Matthew Prince
https://x.com/eastdakota
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
The internet is breaking. So what’s next? with Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince
AI bots are on track to outnumber humans online by 2027. No one has a better line of sight into that shift than Matthew Prince — his company, Cloudflare, routes more than 20% of all internet traffic. Speaking live from SXSW, Prince reveals how AI is rewriting the economics of the web, how tech giants are scrambling to respond, and what it means for anyone running an online business. Plus, what it's like to be on the frontlines of Iranian cyberwarfare, and why Prince made the unexpected move to buy a local Utah newspaper.
Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Can The Web Survive Generative AI? — With Matthew Prince
Matthew Prince is the CEO of Cloudflare. He joins Big Technology podcast to discuss whether the web can withstand a wave of generative AI companies scraping content, summarizing it, and not cutting the original creators into the revenue. Tune in to hear Prince masterfully dissect the problem and put forth a solution.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Shifting Value of Content in the AI Age with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince
Cloudflare has spent nearly fifteen years making the Internet faster, more reliable, and more secure. So now that AI systems are changing the way we interact with the Internet, Cloudflare wants to help level the playing field for content creators. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare to discuss the evolution of the internet from search to AI, including Cloudflare’s role in facilitating that shift. Matthew talks about how AI assistants are changing the shape of the Internet, the problems Google created by making traffic the arbiter of content value, and how he sees Cloudflare’s part in facilitating the new content marketplace for the mutual benefit of creators and AI companies. Plus, a look towards how agentic infrastructure may unfold in the near future.
Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com
Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @eastdakota | @Cloudflare
Chapters:
00:00 – Matthew Prince Introduction
00:37 – Cloudflare’s Role in Securing the Internet
02:08 – The Road to Cloudflare’s Dominance
03:20 – The Internet’s Shift from Search to AI
06:34 – Role of Agents and Content on the New Web
09:44 – Reshaping the Content Market Online
13:05 – De-emphasizing Traffic as a Proxy for Value
18:04 – Will We Run Out of Quality Human-Generated Content?
20:01 – Scaling the Value of Content in the AI Age
22:32 – Cloudflare’s Approach to Inference
24:55 – How Cloudflare Responds to Market Demand
26:04 – Open vs. Closed Models
27:21 – Path to the New Marketplace for Content
30:58 – Advice for Content Creators
32:47 – Exploring the Timeline for Running Models Locally
40:07 – The Future of Agentic Infrastructure
44:52 – Conclusion
Age-Gating the Internet + Cloudflare Takes On A.I. Scrapers + HatGPT
This week, we look at the fallout from a sweeping internet age-verification law that went into effect in Britain. We explain why age restrictions are suddenly popping up all over the internet — and how some might create more problems than they solve. Then Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare, returns to the show to discuss his company’s new plan to help publishers fight back against A.I. scrapers and potentially to create a new online marketplace for quality content in the process. Finally, we round up some headlines from around the tech world in the latest round of HatGPT.
Guests:
Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare
Additional Reading:
Supreme Court Upholds Texas Law Limiting Access to Pornography
The U.K.’s age gates are coming to America
Cloudflare Introduces Default Blocking of A.I. Data Scrapers
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Blocking AI crawlers to save the internet, with Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince
Cloudflare recently made headlines with breakthrough technology that stops AI companies from scraping online content with impunity. That’s major impact, since the company is involved in more than 20 percent of all online traffic. Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince joins Rapid Response to share how the new tools are poised to dramatically impact AI firms, publishers, and the future of the internet. Prince also takes listeners inside the state of cyberwarfare in the age of AI, and why Trump’s immigration policy could erode US business dominance for years to come.
Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Summer Replay - Cutting Cloud Costs at Cloudflare with Matthew Prince
In this Summer Replay of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey is joined by Co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, Matthew Prince. In this cost-cutting conversation from 2021, Matthew breaks down what exactly Cloudflare is up to, and how they are handling their clients' cloud cost needs. The pair focus on Cloudflare as a company and the options they are bringing to their clients. They discuss their mutual concerns with some AWS costs and why Cloudflare’s suite of tools has slowly been made available over time. Turn back the clock with this fan-favorite episode for more insight.
Show Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(0:53) Backblaze sponsor read
(1:20) Origins of Cloudflare
(5:55) The Achilles Heel of the AWS cloud
(10:09) What is Cloudflare R2?
(12:26) Pricing philosophies in the cloud
(17:35) Egress cost of the “static” internet
(19:48) How Amazon’s pricing harms the overall market
(24:34) Firefly sponsor read
(25:10) Cloudflare’s endgame
(28:32) Staying focused as a business
(33:35) The value of providing a valuable service
(37:17) “The internet is a fad.”
(42:19) The strength of admitting you’re wrong
(43:04) Where you can find out more about Cloudflare
About Matthew Prince:
Matthew Prince is co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world's largest networks, which spans more than 200 cities in over 100 countries. Matthew is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law. Matthew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and awarded the Dubilier Prize for Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Illinois Bar, and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago and B.A. in English Literature and Computer Science from Trinity College. He’s also the co-creator of Project Honey Pot, the largest community of webmasters tracking online fraud and abuse.
Links Referenced:
The Cloudflare Blog: blogs.cloudflare.com
Sponsors:
Backblaze: https://www.backblaze.com/
Firefly: https://www.firefly.ai/
Why Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is the internet’s unlikely defender
Cloudflare is an infrastructure provider basically protecting more than 20% of the entire web from bad actors. When everything is going well, you don't even have to know it exists. It's one of the only defenses — sometimes the only defense — standing between websites and the people who want to take them down.
Protecting free speech on the internet around the world, across war zones and hundreds of different kinds of government, is no easy feat. That puts the company, and CEO Matthew Prince, right at the heart of some of Decoder's biggest challenges and themes.
Links:
A Cloudflare outage broke large swathes of the internet | The Verge
Why security company Cloudflare is protecting U.S. election sites for free | Fast Company
The Daily Stormer just lost the most important company defending it | The Verge (2017)
Cloudflare to revoke 8chan’s service, opening the fringe website up for DDoS attacks | The Verge (2019)
Cloudflare blocks Kiwi Farms due to an ‘immediate threat to human life’ | The Verge
Why Cloudflare Let an Extremist Stronghold Burn | Wired
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince interview on Ukraine cybersecurity | Semafor
3 ways the ‘splinternet’ is damaging society | MIT Sloan
Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23885440
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google’s Epic Loss + Silicon Valley’s Curious New Subculture + How 2023 Changed the Internet
A jury decided the Google Play store unfairly stifles competition and maintains a monopoly. Kevin and Casey discuss how the ruling could reshape the digital economy. Then, a growing movement of developers and enthusiasts of artificial intelligence want the technology developed as quickly as possible, even if it has negative consequences for humanity. And finally, why the internet of the future could look totally different.
Today’s guest: Cloudflare CEO and co-founder Matthew Prince.
Additional Reading:
Epic Games won its lawsuit against Google.
‘Effective Accelerationism’ is Silicon Valley’s latest, and maybe weirdest, counterculture.
Cloudflare tracked the biggest changes to the internet in 2023.
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20VC: The Two Biggest Mistakes Every Founder Makes, Why Founders Are Not Ambitious Enough Today, Why Having a Narrow Target Customer is Dangerous & The Three Possible Outcomes in Company Building with Matthew Prince, Co-Founder @ Cloudflare
Matthew Prince is the co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, on a mission is to help build a better Internet. Matthew has scaled Cloudflare to over $1BN in revenue, $20BN in market cap, and over 3,200 employees. Today the company runs one of the world's largest networks, which spans more than 200 cities in over 100 countries. Matthew is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law.
In Today's Episode with Matthew Prince We Discuss:
1. From Selling Fireworks to Public Company CEO:
How did Matthew first make money selling fireworks as a kid?
Does Mathew believe in the trope "you have to love what you do"?
What does Matthew know now that he wishes he had known when he started Cloudflare?
2. Money, Identity and Happiness:
Why does Matthew feel many of the most successful founders lose their way when they leave their companies? How does he assess Gates, Bezos and others?
Does Matthew tie his own identity to Cloudflare and the success of the company?
How does Matthew evaluate his own relationship to money today? How has it changed over time?
How does Matthew keep score today on how he is doing? What is success to Matthew?
3. The Three Outcomes for Companies Today:
What are the three outcomes available to companies today?
What is the worst and why?
What are the two biggest mistakes Matthew sees founders make today?
Why does Matthew know that diverse teams are more successful? What is the proof?
What is Matthew's single biggest advice to founders when it comes to selecting a co-founder?
4. Focus is BS: You Have to Have Mega Ambition:
Why does Matthew believe it is BS to have a very specific target customer from the offset?
What does Matthew believe are the benefits of not having an ICP in the early days?
What are the biggest pieces of VC advice to founders that Matthew knows to be wrong?
EP 81: Matthew Prince (CEO, Cloudflare): Untold Stories Behind the $20B Business That Runs the Internet
Matthew Prince is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cloudflare, a public company doing over a billion dollars in revenue. In the episode, Matthew shares fascinating anecdotes from Cloudflare’s early days and how they scaled up customers from obscure markets to major enterprises. He also explores Cloudflare's commitment to maintaining a high talent bar and candidly reflects on his co-founder’s battle with a devastating illness. Overall, an unfiltered conversation about the journey of building Cloudflare into the powerhouse it is today.
Wired article on Lee Holloway: https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/
(0:00) Intro
(1:12) The internet was a fad
(3:49) What is Cloudflare?
(6:42) Project Honeypot
(12:53) Meeting Michelle
(19:12) Buying into the vision
(23:04) The internet was built to support the porn industry
(28:48) Borrowing Money
(37:18) Transparency
(43:08) On Lee Holloway
(52:23) Philosophy behind hiring and talent
(1:00:45) Prioritize curiosity and empathy
(1:02:54) The fairness of an initial offer
(1:07:11) Titles are cheap
(1:21:59) How has being an English major manifested itself?
(1:25:14) Building explosives in high school
(1:32:38) Engaging with fans and critics
(1:38:32) Going public
(1:46:39) Conventional Silicon Valley wisdom
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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How Cloudflare is Working to Fix the Internet with Matthew Prince
Matthew Prince, Co-founder & CEO at Cloudflare, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how and why Cloudflare is working to solve some of the Internet’s biggest problems. Matthew reveals some of his biggest issues with cloud providers, including the tendency to charge more for egress than ingress and the fact that the various clouds don’t compete on a feature vs. feature basis. Corey and Matthew also discuss how Cloudflare is working to change those issues so the Internet is a better and more secure place. Matthew also discusses how transparency has been key to winning trust in the community and among Cloudflare’s customers, and how he hopes the Internet and cloud providers will evolve over time.
About Matthew
Matthew Prince is co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world's largest networks, which spans more than 200 cities in over 100 countries. Matthew is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law. Matthew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and awarded the Dubilier Prize for Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Illinois Bar, and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago and B.A. in English Literature and Computer Science from Trinity College. He’s also the co-creator of Project Honey Pot, the largest community of webmasters tracking online fraud and abuse.
Links Referenced:
Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eastdakota
Cutting Cloud Costs at Cloudflare with Matthew Prince
About Matthew
Matthew Prince is co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world's largest networks, which spans more than 200 cities in over 100 countries. Matthew is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law. Matthew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and awarded the Dubilier Prize for Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Illinois Bar, and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago and B.A. in English Literature and Computer Science from Trinity College. He’s also the co-creator of Project Honey Pot, the largest community of webmasters tracking online fraud and abuse.
Links:
Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com
Blog post: https://blog.cloudflare.com/aws-egregious-egress/
Bandwidth Alliance: https://www.cloudflare.com/bandwidth-alliance/
Announcement of R2: https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-r2-object-storage/
Blog.cloudflare.com: https://blog.cloudflare.com
Duckbillgroup.com: https://duckbillgroup.com
