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A lot of people became "VC"s during the bull run. They brought nothing to the table like YC did. Instead some previously reputable VCs like a16z became crypto g

A lot of people became "VC"s during the bull run. They brought nothing to the table like YC did. Instead some previously reputable VCs like a16z became crypto grifters. So it's good the market clears a bunch of them so that the YCs and next generation of VCs who actually bring something new to the table come to the forefront.

deleted 4y ago
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bsaul 4y ago
i've been betting against btc from the beginning, however i truely believe there's something interesting in this field, that may end up getting some real applications sometimes. Now what's still unknown is whether the funds that invested heavily on crypto in 2020s will have enough leftovers once this crisis is over to be a player when the crypto 2.0 era is coming.
- oarsinsync 4y ago
  > i've been betting against btc from the beginning Not literally, I assume? Or you’ve got a tiny position and have been (relative to the size if your position) haemorrhaging money for ~13 years? Or successfully rode some down waves? (I’m super jelly if you did the latter)
  - bsaul 4y ago
    of course not, i would be broke :)) I do have a bet with a friend regarding btc price going under 1k i made in 2019 but it's just for fun..
    - danuker 4y ago
      Bitcoin has seen several 80%+ crashes and bounced back. It is all in the demand. A lot of that 80% flucuation is made up of short term speculators. But some people are hardcore holders, and others use it because their national currency is worse (Venezuela, Sri Lanka). Couple that with the network effects (BTC is the largest still), and that's all it takes for the price not to go to zero.
foobiekr 4y ago
What happened with a16z is truly amazing.
- jacob_rezi 4y ago
  what happened?
  - xmodem 4y ago
    They've gone in hard on crypto, investing in absolute trash-tier companies that are difficult to distinguish from outright scams.
    - Spartan112 4y ago
  - unicornmama 4y ago
    Instead of our engineer talent pool working on things that matter, such as managing climate change, thanks to (in part) a16z they now work on overheating the planet with lame monkey jpegs. We are in proto-idiocracy.
    - x-complexity 4y ago
      > Instead of our engineer talent pool working on things that matter, such as managing climate change, thanks to (in part) a16z they now work on overheating the planet with lame monkey jpegs. We are in proto-idiocracy. This statement assumes the following axioms: - The engineers that go to work for such startups are capable of devising/deploying solutions towards climate change: Some engineers & researchers may be able to do this, but most are focused in CompSci/SoftEng, with no experience in the field that you want them to be in. - No roadblocks exist throughout the deployment of said solutions (NIMBYs, politicians, perfectionist "environmental activists"/virtue signalers, bureaucracy, supply chain issues) Despite the "Sounds good"ness of your statement (which I partially agree with), the practical reality is that the chances of succeeding in something like crypto is still way higher than in building infrastructure, as there are near-0 NIMBYs in crypto that will protest in the next town hall meeting, nor will there be weather issues during the deployment/upgrade of a network/smart contract. "Software will eat the world" still rings true today, only because the deployment of software is still orders of magnitude easier than deploying something into the real world. In order to make something like infrastructure deployment that much more enticing, the (chance_of_success*windfall - chance_of_failure*investment) must be greater than investing in software, which has significantly lower development costs, does not get bottlenecked by supply chain issues, & can be deployed globally within minutes.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

bsaul 4y ago

i've been betting against btc from the beginning, however i truely believe there's something interesting in this field, that may end up getting some real applications sometimes. Now what's still unknown is whether the funds that invested heavily on crypto in 2020s will have enough leftovers once this crisis is over to be a player when the crypto 2.0 era is coming.

oarsinsync 4y ago
> i've been betting against btc from the beginning Not literally, I assume? Or you’ve got a tiny position and have been (relative to the size if your position) haemorrhaging money for ~13 years? Or successfully rode some down waves? (I’m super jelly if you did the latter)
- bsaul 4y ago
  of course not, i would be broke :)) I do have a bet with a friend regarding btc price going under 1k i made in 2019 but it's just for fun..
  - danuker 4y ago
    Bitcoin has seen several 80%+ crashes and bounced back. It is all in the demand. A lot of that 80% flucuation is made up of short term speculators. But some people are hardcore holders, and others use it because their national currency is worse (Venezuela, Sri Lanka). Couple that with the network effects (BTC is the largest still), and that's all it takes for the price not to go to zero.

foobiekr 4y ago

What happened with a16z is truly amazing.

jacob_rezi 4y ago
what happened?
- xmodem 4y ago
  They've gone in hard on crypto, investing in absolute trash-tier companies that are difficult to distinguish from outright scams.
  - Spartan112 4y ago
- unicornmama 4y ago
  Instead of our engineer talent pool working on things that matter, such as managing climate change, thanks to (in part) a16z they now work on overheating the planet with lame monkey jpegs. We are in proto-idiocracy.
  - x-complexity 4y ago
    > Instead of our engineer talent pool working on things that matter, such as managing climate change, thanks to (in part) a16z they now work on overheating the planet with lame monkey jpegs. We are in proto-idiocracy. This statement assumes the following axioms: - The engineers that go to work for such startups are capable of devising/deploying solutions towards climate change: Some engineers & researchers may be able to do this, but most are focused in CompSci/SoftEng, with no experience in the field that you want them to be in. - No roadblocks exist throughout the deployment of said solutions (NIMBYs, politicians, perfectionist "environmental activists"/virtue signalers, bureaucracy, supply chain issues) Despite the "Sounds good"ness of your statement (which I partially agree with), the practical reality is that the chances of succeeding in something like crypto is still way higher than in building infrastructure, as there are near-0 NIMBYs in crypto that will protest in the next town hall meeting, nor will there be weather issues during the deployment/upgrade of a network/smart contract. "Software will eat the world" still rings true today, only because the deployment of software is still orders of magnitude easier than deploying something into the real world. In order to make something like infrastructure deployment that much more enticing, the (chance_of_success*windfall - chance_of_failure*investment) must be greater than investing in software, which has significantly lower development costs, does not get bottlenecked by supply chain issues, & can be deployed globally within minutes.