Crypto Landscape: Innovation vs. Speculation

My guest today is Alok Vasudev. Alok is an early-stage investor who has been in the crypto space for a very long time. Before co-founding Standard Crypto, he was an investor at Benchmark and S28 Capital. Given Alok's experience and the prevailing mood right now in crypto, this is a particularly interesting discussion on the ecosystem writ large. We discuss whether the bubble can be thought of as productive speculation, his views on skeptics in the space, and look at some big, potentially, underestimated ideas. Please enjoy my conversation with Alok Vasudev.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes

[00:02:31] - [First question] - His history in venture and thoughts on the crypto ecosystem

[00:06:06] - What it means to be great at searching for white space as a venture capitalist

[00:08:00] - Things his original venture peers would say he was best and worst at

[00:09:24] - How he would address crypto skeptics broadly given today’s market

[00:13:35] - Whether or not it’s appropriate to look at each crypto token as a stock 

[00:15:32] - The pool of demand for Dai and the end use-case itself for the stablecoin 

[00:17:01] - What matters to him the most in the world of stablecoins 

[00:19:59] - Defining sound and unsound collateral 

[00:21:02] - Why the US doesn’t digitize the dollar and how being a government entity would impede some of their capabilities 

[00:23:21] - What a community operated computer unlocks compared to a standalone one

[00:27:09] - What persistence and resilience from community computers open up  

[00:29:30] - Something going on that people aren’t talking about yet in regards to blockchains

[00:33:54] - The notion of productive speculation and what it means 

[00:36:03] - One of the best historical examples of productive speculation

[00:42:29] - How things outside of the blockchain become integrated and connected to it

[00:45:43] - Ways crypto will impact the gaming world over the coming years

[00:49:10] - Handicapping a potential future where NFTs work and blockchains don’t benefit

[00:51:42] - Thoughts on the world of art, IP, NFTs, and its changing landscape

[00:54:43] - Whether or not there are companies being built that can streamline and facilitate this form of connection between artists and their fanbases

[00:58:13] - Other controversial opinions he holds in the crypto community 

[01:03:13] - What he’s most bullish and bearish on right now

[01:07:29] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him