As some reading this may know, I’ve spent a ton of time in the cryptocurrency business. I’ve spent years working in a variety of roles in the industry; from working at a market making firm/OTC desk in Asia (Eigen Capital), then at crypto asset manager Iconic Holding, and now as a VC. I’ve spent quite a bit of time conducting research about cryptocurrency through the Stanford Digital Currency Initiative, of which I’m a founding member, as well as with boots on the ground-esque primary research purveying the space: going to events, talking to as many founders/investors/researchers/policymakers/other relevant stakeholders as possible, being in as many group chats as possible, knowing SME experts, even helping stand up DAOs etc.

DAOs are changing how humans work.

I have previously mapped the crypto landscape in my article about the crypto VC landscape, and written about where I think crypto VC will go next. I wanted to pick up where I left off with regards to my thesis for the space there, and continue mapping the VC landscape, with a bit more nuance than previously expressed. In fact, while I divided funds across clear lines, the truth is a bit blurrier, and less obvious paradigms are emerging that require careful observation and interactions with both the funds in question and the founders who actually work with them to understand who and what is propagating true value creation on the investment side and allowing it to flow down the to the founders themselves.

As someone who has been in the cryptocurrency industry for six years, and who has dedicated my life to researching, investing, and evangelizing them, I am always astounded by the level of ignorance most people have towards: a) what a cryptocurrency is; b) what its uses are; and c) whether or not it/they is/are good investments. I’ve had to field numerous allegations of working in an industry full of money launderers (false), people who don’t work very hard (false), and people who just got lucky (false).

Crypto Venture Capital can often seem murky to outsiders and is widely known to be one of the most competitive and cutthroat subsects of the space. New funds pop up all of the time, rounds close at lightning speed, and Twitter threads (written by disgruntled founders) have popped up recently about “vulture capital” funds who don’t allocate resources but expect to get into deals. Some founders are now avoiding taking capital from funds themselves, preferring instead to work with a large network of angels or DAOs.