a16z Frontier

What Comes After Stablecoins? (ft. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire and Chris Dixon)

15K views · 2w ago · 49:15

Guest: Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire

Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire joins a16z crypto founder and founding partner Chris Dixon for a conversation about stablecoins, Circle’s Arc blockchain, and what happens when programmable money meets increasingly capable machines.

Topics: Circle’s original vision for programmable money · Why institutions started taking stablecoins seriously · Learnings from building a global financial network · What gives a stablecoin its moat? · Crypto’s growing adoption in the shadow of AI · From making existing things better to creating entirely new markets

Can AI Actually Break Cryptography? Experts Weigh In On the FUD

13K views · 3w ago · 40:36

AI is getting better at solving hard math problems. But what does that mean for the cryptography protecting everything from banking and private messages to crypto wallets and more? We bring together expert cryptographers from Stanford and a16z crypto to make sense of the recent warnings sounded on social media, partly sparked by OpenAI’s drop of recent math results.

Topics: What sparked the debate about AI and cryptography · Signal vs. noise: What the math does and doesn’t tell us · Why cryptography depends on open problems · Why the stakes go beyond blockchains · How AI could strengthen confidence in cryptography · Considerations for users and institutions

How Crypto Is Rebuilding Finance From First Principles

6.2K views · 3w ago · 53:24

a16z crypto GP Guy Wuollet thinks crypto will have succeeded when we stop calling it crypto. Financial services will run on blockchains, just like other businesses now run on the internet. So what will it take to get there?

Topics: From a16z intern to crypto general partner · Bitcoin and Guy’s cypherpunk roots · From technological revolution to practical products · Why timing matters for crypto adoption · Token launches, liquidity, and going public · Backing founders for the long term

How Perpetual Futures Work and Why They Matter

27K views · 1mo ago · 4:55

Perpetual futures have become one of crypto’s biggest markets. In 2025, the top 10 centralized exchanges processed $86.2 trillion in perp volume, while leading decentralized exchanges processed $6.7 trillion. How did a contract with no expiration date become a crypto-native hit? And could it change how other assets trade?

Topics: Why perps · A brief history of perps · Robert Shiller’s proposal three decades ago · How BitMEX first popularized crypto perps · What is a perpetual future? · How funding rates affect prices

Chris Dixon on How the Future Gets Funded

7.8K views · 1mo ago · 57:56

In this conversation with Internet History Podcast host Brian McCullough, the a16z crypto founder and author of Read Write Own traces his path from programming and philosophy to building SiteAdvisor and Hunch, cofounding Founder Collective, and joining Andreessen Horowitz. He explains what drew him to early Bitcoin and virtual reality communities, why Coinbase’s approach to compliance stood out, and how he built conviction in technologies that still looked like toys.

Topics: From programming to Wall Street and venture capital · Hunch and the challenge of being early to AI · Building AI products that can compete with ChatGPT · Backing founders and learning from Ron Conway · Joining Andreessen Horowitz · Why the next big thing starts as a toy

What If You Built a Bank Like a Blockchain? (ft. OpenReserve’s Dee Choubey & Richard Correia)

6.7K views · 2mo ago · 1:06:21

Guest: OpenReserve’s Dee Choubey

What if, instead of layering blockchain technology onto a bank built decades ago, you rebuilt the bank from scratch? The opportunity starts with an old problem: Capital gets trapped when markets, counterparties, and financial systems cannot coordinate efficiently. Ancient coins solved one version of that matching problem.

Topics: Why now is the time to build a new bank · What a bank actually does · Rebuilding the bank core like an L1 · What makes a founder partnership work · Why they decided to build another company · Building a bank for stablecoins

How Bitcoin Survives Quantum Computers (ft. Dan Boneh)

7.1K views · 2mo ago · 1:09:37

Guest: Dan Boneh

A lecture from Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh. He explains how a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could forge the signatures used to authorize Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions, and what it would take to upgrade both networks before that happens.

Topics: Why blockchains need to prepare for quantum computers · Why Bitcoin may bet on hash-based signatures · The “big footgun” in stateful signatures · A quantum-safe signature that takes one billion hashes · Inside SLH-DSA’s virtual tree · How Bitcoin and Ethereum could make the switch

The 'Useless' Theory Behind Modern SNARKs (ft. Gödel Prize Winner Noam Nisan)

1.4K views · 2mo ago · 1:15:04

Guests: Gödel Prize Winner Noam, Noam Nisan

More than 30 years ago, Gödel Prize Winner Noam Nisan helped develop a proof technique that he never expected anyone to use in the real world. At the center of that breakthrough was the sum-check protocol — an elegant technique that emerged from Noam Nisan’s early work on interactive proofs. At the time, even Nisan assumed ideas like these were far too theoretical to become practical technology.

Topics: Noam Nisan and the origins of verifiable computation · Why Noam Nisan left complexity theory · POPcorn, distributed computing, and early blockchain-like ideas · The birth of algorithmic game theory · Justin Thaler discovers the sum-check protocol · From arithmetization to LFKN

How Shafi Goldwasser Co-Invented Zero-Knowledge Proofs

2K views · 2mo ago · 57:02

How can you prove that something is true without revealing why it is true? That question gave rise to zero-knowledge proofs, one of the most important breakthroughs in modern cryptography. What began as an attempt to solve a seemingly playful problem — playing poker securely over the telephone — ultimately changed how computer scientists think about proofs, privacy, and verification.

Topics: The simulation paradigm and the meaning of “zero knowledge” · Why the original paper was repeatedly rejected · How interactive proofs became more powerful than conventional proofs · The road to modern SNARKs · Why the sum-check protocol is so useful for verifiable computation · Why many so-called “zk proofs” are not actually zero knowledge

Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon: Why America Needs Clarity

52K views · 3mo ago · 58:16

a16z Cofounder and General Partner Marc Andreessen and a16z crypto Founder and Managing Partner Chris Dixon on why the CLARITY Act matters. Congress is debating once-in-a-generation market structure legislation that could determine where financial and internet infrastructure gets built.

Topics: From crypto subculture to financial infrastructure · Why crypto needs rules now · The regulatory war on crypto · How CLARITY could prevent another FTX · Why criminals using crypto may be easier to catch · Privacy, blockchains, and the invention of HTTPS

The Clarity Act, Explained (ft. Miles Jennings)

2.2K views · 3mo ago · 13:40

Guest: Miles Jennings

The CLARITY Act could establish the first comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto market structure in the United States. So why has it taken Congress so long to pass it? Miles Jennings, Head of Policy and General Counsel at a16z crypto, explains what the bill would do, why existing securities laws are poorly suited to decentralized networks, and how the legislation would divide oversight between the SEC and CFTC.

Topics: What the CLARITY Act would do · Why legislation has taken so long · Networks versus companies · How digital assets are classified · How the GENIUS Act regulates stablecoins · What is a network token?