The best industrial research labs throughout history have played a critical role in pioneering much of modern technology. Two modern examples of successful research labs — both founded in the wake of radical advances in the field of artificial intelligence — include DeepMind and OpenAI. Both of them have since pushed the field to new heights. 

In the last decade, the world of crypto and web3 has likewise emerged as a new frontier in technology, and it has matured into an independent field of knowledge that brings together elements of computer science, economics, finance, and the humanities. After all, like personal computers and smartphones, modern blockchains behave just like computers — they are fully programmable. What makes them unique, however, is that they allow developers to write code that makes strong commitments about how that code will behave in the future. It is that property that makes it possible for Bitcoin to guarantee that there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins. And, it is that same property that brings about a fundamentally new model of computation.

With the advent of Ethereum and other blockchains that are fully programmable, web3 has unlocked an extremely rich design space for innovation. It’s a space that we’ve only just begun to explore. In the past several years, we have seen entrepreneurs build applications that include novel blockchain-based financial primitives (DeFi); social networks that empower artists and creators (via NFTs); games with built-in economies that transcend those games and interoperate with real-world markets; and new mechanisms for large-scale human coordination that rely on open-source code running on blockchains (DAOs), rather than on centralized intermediaries.

Innovation in the space is only accelerating. Each new entrepreneurial idea for a web3 application or protocol tends to uncover fresh research challenges that are fundamental to how this technological movement will play out. Already, those challenges have included hard questions about how the computational infrastructure will scale and evolve; how token incentives in protocols should be structured to align all participants (tokenomics); and how to best build token economies into consumer-facing web3 applications like games and social networks. 

There is an opportunity for an industrial research lab to help bridge the worlds of academic theory with industry practice, and to help shape crypto and web3 as a formal area of study by bringing together the very best research talent from the various disciplines that are relevant to the space. 

Today, we’re excited to announce the creation of a16z crypto research, a new kind of multidisciplinary lab that will work closely with our portfolio and others toward solving the important problems in the space, and toward advancing the science and technology of the next generation of the internet. But what will the next great industrial research lab look like? We’ve asked this question to founders, technologists, and researchers over the past 18 months, and two key components stood out…

The best industrial research labs throughout history have played a critical role in pioneering much of modern technology. Two modern examples of successful research labs — both founded in the wake of radical advances in the field of artificial intelligence — include DeepMind and OpenAI. Both of them have since pushed the field to new heights. 

In the last decade, the world of crypto and web3 has likewise emerged as a new frontier in technology, and it has matured into an independent field of knowledge that brings together elements of computer science, economics, finance, and the humanities. After all, like personal computers and smartphones, modern blockchains behave just like computers — they are fully programmable. What makes them unique, however, is that they allow developers to write code that makes strong commitments about how that code will behave in the future. It is that property that makes it possible for Bitcoin to guarantee that there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins. And, it is that same property that brings about a fundamentally new model of computation.

With the advent of Ethereum and other blockchains that are fully programmable, web3 has unlocked an extremely rich design space for innovation. It’s a space that we’ve only just begun to explore. In the past several years, we have seen entrepreneurs build applications that include novel blockchain-based financial primitives (DeFi); social networks that empower artists and creators (via NFTs); games with built-in economies that transcend those games and interoperate with real-world markets; and new mechanisms for large-scale human coordination that rely on open-source code running on blockchains (DAOs), rather than on centralized intermediaries.

Innovation in the space is only accelerating. Each new entrepreneurial idea for a web3 application or protocol tends to uncover fresh research challenges that are fundamental to how this technological movement will play out. Already, those challenges have included hard questions about how the computational infrastructure will scale and evolve; how token incentives in protocols should be structured to align all participants (tokenomics); and how to best build token economies into consumer-facing web3 applications like games and social networks. 

There is an opportunity for an industrial research lab to help bridge the worlds of academic theory with industry practice, and to help shape crypto and web3 as a formal area of study by bringing together the very best research talent from the various disciplines that are relevant to the space. 

Today, we’re excited to announce the creation of a16z crypto research, a new kind of multidisciplinary lab that will work closely with our portfolio and others toward solving the important problems in the space, and toward advancing the science and technology of the next generation of the internet. But what will the next great industrial research lab look like? We’ve asked this question to founders, technologists, and researchers over the past 18 months, and two key components stood out…