TCG Crypto Year in Review 2023
Below is a written and abridged version of the annual presentation we recently shared with TCG Crypto investors.A consumer-first approach to emerging technologyTwo years ago, we launched TCG Crypto with the belief that blockchains could catalyze new user behaviors for consumer businesses. While many investors in this category were focused on lower-level infrastructure alone, we turned our attention instead to what we believed the technology would unlock: net new consumer platforms, experience...
TCG Crypto Year in Review 2023
Below is a written and abridged version of the annual presentation we recently shared with TCG Crypto investors.A consumer-first approach to emerging technologyTwo years ago, we launched TCG Crypto with the belief that blockchains could catalyze new user behaviors for consumer businesses. While many investors in this category were focused on lower-level infrastructure alone, we turned our attention instead to what we believed the technology would unlock: net new consumer platforms, experience...
Revisiting borderless payments
What’s old is new again. By Gaby Goldberg and Bridget HarrisIn recent months, we’ve seen an increasing number of projects working in and around borderless payments, from peer-to-peer solutions like Sling, Code, Ottr, and Decaf to on- and off-ramp companies like Kravata, Latamex, Koywe, and Rio. Over the last decade, the concept of borderless payments was frequently hailed as crypto’s ultimate killer use case. Designed to operate globally from the start, crypto payments could make moving money...
Revisiting borderless payments
What’s old is new again. By Gaby Goldberg and Bridget HarrisIn recent months, we’ve seen an increasing number of projects working in and around borderless payments, from peer-to-peer solutions like Sling, Code, Ottr, and Decaf to on- and off-ramp companies like Kravata, Latamex, Koywe, and Rio. Over the last decade, the concept of borderless payments was frequently hailed as crypto’s ultimate killer use case. Designed to operate globally from the start, crypto payments could make moving money...
MTV, Napster and Embracing Destruction
There are lots of discussions around LLMs, crypto and generative AI, all of which are expanding our ability to create & consume content outside of our predisposed constraints. Interestingly, there’s a large amount of focus around product building and “solutions” aimed at maintaining what currently exists — playing defense. The energy should instead be hurled towards accelerating the means and modes of disruption and seeing how it all fleshes out. Here, we should find inspiration in the chaos....
MTV, Napster and Embracing Destruction
There are lots of discussions around LLMs, crypto and generative AI, all of which are expanding our ability to create & consume content outside of our predisposed constraints. Interestingly, there’s a large amount of focus around product building and “solutions” aimed at maintaining what currently exists — playing defense. The energy should instead be hurled towards accelerating the means and modes of disruption and seeing how it all fleshes out. Here, we should find inspiration in the chaos....
In Crypto, Acquisition is Easy-- Retention is Hard
Crypto faces a unique challenge for consumers. Naturally, any consumer of a crypto product is focused on two things at once: the product and the asset value. This can be equated to needing to own Facebook stock to use Instagram or needing to own a part of the NYT while also being a reader. The value shifts from “is this product good?” to “is the business of the product good?” While it seems like a hard hill to climb, there is opportunity in re-imagining the consumer and commercial relationshi...
In Crypto, Acquisition is Easy-- Retention is Hard
Crypto faces a unique challenge for consumers. Naturally, any consumer of a crypto product is focused on two things at once: the product and the asset value. This can be equated to needing to own Facebook stock to use Instagram or needing to own a part of the NYT while also being a reader. The value shifts from “is this product good?” to “is the business of the product good?” While it seems like a hard hill to climb, there is opportunity in re-imagining the consumer and commercial relationshi...
Finance, Fairer
“I think a lot of Westerners want to think of developing-world uses as a boring sideshow, and highlight Westerners trading monkey gifs as the only part of crypto worth talking about. But about 66% of crypto users live in the developing world. More people own cryptocurrency in Africa than in North America… If nothing’s wrong with your country’s financial or political system, then you don’t need crypto.” — Scott Alexander, Why I’m Less Than Infinitely Hostile To CryptocurrencyMicro, small, and ...
Finance, Fairer
“I think a lot of Westerners want to think of developing-world uses as a boring sideshow, and highlight Westerners trading monkey gifs as the only part of crypto worth talking about. But about 66% of crypto users live in the developing world. More people own cryptocurrency in Africa than in North America… If nothing’s wrong with your country’s financial or political system, then you don’t need crypto.” — Scott Alexander, Why I’m Less Than Infinitely Hostile To CryptocurrencyMicro, small, and ...
