AI, Crypto, and Building the Next Internet with a16z's Chris Dixon

• Tech waves (AI + crypto + hardware) reinforce each other like mobile/social/cloud did.
• AI world shockingly closed-source; only Llama/Mistral remain meaningfully open.
• Crypto enables AI infra: compute markets (Gensyn), IP licensing (Story Protocol), human proof (World).
  • Gensyn: blockchain-distributed GPU jobs across idle capacity globally.
  • Story Protocol: on-chain IP registry; creators set licensing terms + revenue splits.
• The creator-platform covenant is broken: AI trains on indexed data but kills referral traffic.
  • Builders indexed content for traffic; AI now answers directly, removing the incentive.
• Three adoption phases: skeuomorphic → native → second-order societal effects.
  • Native phase = behaviors with no prior precedent (cf. social media).
• Consumer AI (ChatGPT, Claude) lacks network effects → commoditized, price-compressed.
  • Crypto-native apps can add network effects on top of AI utility.
• DePIN (Helium model): community-owned infra bootstraps network effects with token incentives.
• Architecture is destiny: blockchain-native services avoid the 5-company concentration trap.
  • Five companies now own >50% of internet market cap; original web distributed value to edges.

Chris Dixon (GP a16z crypto) & David George (a16z growth), Feb 20 2025 · 2025-02-20 · Read on a16z.com