TL;DR: We believe in the commercialization of blockchain technology and Web3 applications, and we want to play a big role in it.

2022 was a tumultuous year filled with negative headlines. In March, Axie Infinity’s Ronin network was hacked for $625 million worth of ETH. In May, Terra-LUNA crashed, leading to industry-wide contagion. In June and July, Voyager and 3AC filed for bankruptcy. In November, the world learned that FTX was notoriously mismanaged, resulting in the company filing for bankruptcy. These events made it extremely easy for people to dismiss the entire industry as one that is i) brimming with scams and ii) filled with bad actors. We’ve heard many “I told you, it was all too good to be true!” over the last few months. But let’s not dismiss the entire space just yet.

Why are we telling you this? In order for Web3 to thrive, there needs to be a world where people are using apps without knowing they are powered by blockchain technology. This means that apps need to be fast and smooth, user experience has to be excellent, and products need to be built for everyday consumers (as opposed to ones exclusively built for crypto users). The Merge brought us closer to this reality, and “technological upgrades” are no longer buzzwords that exude skepticism - these are real and can be executed successfully. Ethereum, the largest smart contract blockchain for dApps, can be fast(er) with (better) user experience! Exciting!

So what is the issue? Blockchain is still too theoretical for the layman. We believe that the industry is going through what artificial intelligence (“A.I.”) experienced over the last decade. A.I. stood as a buzzword in pitchbooks and podcasts for many years, but the layman did not understand its implications. Only the experts in A.I. did. That all changed when ChatGPT came out. Suddenly, the layman could comprehend its use cases and applications, and the entire world became excited. This spawned new apps and businesses. We believe a ChatGPT-like day will come for blockchain, and we want to help the space get there.

So how can we make an impact? By investing in and working on projects that bring us to a Web3 environment with “good user experience” and “proper use cases” - let’s refer to this as “the commercialization of Web3.” Specifically, we’re looking to invest across four major themes/narratives, which mainly revolve around laying the foundation for the next set of Web3 businesses and consumers:

1. Emergence of consumer apps: End-user products that will on-board the next billion users to crypto including gaming, social graphs and media platforms, and messaging protocols.

2. Underlying infrastructure for broader adoption: Blockchain and Web3 infrastructure necessary to scale adoption and unlock new blockchain business models, including scaling & bridging solutions necessary to scale adoption, privacy solutions necessary for on-chain data monetization, consumer analytics, and multiparty data coordination.

3. Need for business solutions: Business solutions necessary to support the next generation of Web3 business models and value transfer including payment, accounting and auditing services, compliance and risk monitoring, decentralized cloud storage and computing, and marketing services such as consumer relationship and campaign management.

4. Institutionalization of Decentralized Finance: Tools, goods, and services that reflect an open and more equitable financial system. This is where enterprise and institutional adoption will likely occur at scale.

2022 was certainly a bad year with many negative headlines, but the foundations were laid for a bright Web3 future. We’re incredibly excited and optimistic about Web3, and believe that blockchain will be an integral part of everyday life. If you are working on any project that fits within our thesis and need our help (we have relevant experience - we’re early employees of Web3 startups, and have significant experience re: fundraising, strategy, tokenomics, etc.), please reach out to us. Until then, keep building. Onwards and upwards!

TL;DR: We believe in the commercialization of blockchain technology and Web3 applications, and we want to play a big role in it.

2022 was a tumultuous year filled with negative headlines. In March, Axie Infinity’s Ronin network was hacked for $625 million worth of ETH. In May, Terra-LUNA crashed, leading to industry-wide contagion. In June and July, Voyager and 3AC filed for bankruptcy. In November, the world learned that FTX was notoriously mismanaged, resulting in the company filing for bankruptcy. These events made it extremely easy for people to dismiss the entire industry as one that is i) brimming with scams and ii) filled with bad actors. We’ve heard many “I told you, it was all too good to be true!” over the last few months. But let’s not dismiss the entire space just yet.

Why are we telling you this? In order for Web3 to thrive, there needs to be a world where people are using apps without knowing they are powered by blockchain technology. This means that apps need to be fast and smooth, user experience has to be excellent, and products need to be built for everyday consumers (as opposed to ones exclusively built for crypto users). The Merge brought us closer to this reality, and “technological upgrades” are no longer buzzwords that exude skepticism - these are real and can be executed successfully. Ethereum, the largest smart contract blockchain for dApps, can be fast(er) with (better) user experience! Exciting!

So what is the issue? Blockchain is still too theoretical for the layman. We believe that the industry is going through what artificial intelligence (“A.I.”) experienced over the last decade. A.I. stood as a buzzword in pitchbooks and podcasts for many years, but the layman did not understand its implications. Only the experts in A.I. did. That all changed when ChatGPT came out. Suddenly, the layman could comprehend its use cases and applications, and the entire world became excited. This spawned new apps and businesses. We believe a ChatGPT-like day will come for blockchain, and we want to help the space get there.

So how can we make an impact? By investing in and working on projects that bring us to a Web3 environment with “good user experience” and “proper use cases” - let’s refer to this as “the commercialization of Web3.” Specifically, we’re looking to invest across four major themes/narratives, which mainly revolve around laying the foundation for the next set of Web3 businesses and consumers:

1. Emergence of consumer apps: End-user products that will on-board the next billion users to crypto including gaming, social graphs and media platforms, and messaging protocols.

2. Underlying infrastructure for broader adoption: Blockchain and Web3 infrastructure necessary to scale adoption and unlock new blockchain business models, including scaling & bridging solutions necessary to scale adoption, privacy solutions necessary for on-chain data monetization, consumer analytics, and multiparty data coordination.

3. Need for business solutions: Business solutions necessary to support the next generation of Web3 business models and value transfer including payment, accounting and auditing services, compliance and risk monitoring, decentralized cloud storage and computing, and marketing services such as consumer relationship and campaign management.

4. Institutionalization of Decentralized Finance: Tools, goods, and services that reflect an open and more equitable financial system. This is where enterprise and institutional adoption will likely occur at scale.

2022 was certainly a bad year with many negative headlines, but the foundations were laid for a bright Web3 future. We’re incredibly excited and optimistic about Web3, and believe that blockchain will be an integral part of everyday life. If you are working on any project that fits within our thesis and need our help (we have relevant experience - we’re early employees of Web3 startups, and have significant experience re: fundraising, strategy, tokenomics, etc.), please reach out to us. Until then, keep building. Onwards and upwards!