It’s time for a ‘flight to quality’ - Thrive founder Daniel Jacobs

The Block's Head of Growth, Tim Copeland, was joined by Thrive Founder Daniel Jacobs.

In this episode, Jacobs shares how Thrive uses a mix of expert and AI agent reviewers to validate contributions, making grant funding faster, fairer, and ensure they are supporting the creation of value. Jacobs also critiques the value-extraction mindset in crypto and advocates for a shift toward long-term value creation and ecosystem sustainability.

OUTLINE

00:00 – Introduction

01:03 – The Origin of Thrive

04:23 – Reviewer Incentives 

05:35 – AI Agent Adoption

08:52 – Confirming AI Accuracy

12:36 – Comparisons to Kaito

13:58 – Growth Metrics

16:26 – Challenges in Crypto Grant Funding

20:50 – Extracting vs. Creating Value

25:07 – Are VCs good for the space?

28:37 – Moving into “Fundamental Season”

30:07 – Interesting projects

31:17 – Daniel’s Predictions for 2025

31:42 – Closing Thoughts

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Guest links:

Daniel Jacobs - ⁠https://x.com/thrivegiraffe

Thrive Protocol - https://x.com/thriveprotocol

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