DeepSummary
Felix Salmon hosts Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz and Chris Dixon to settle a longstanding bet on whether 10% of Mexicans would be using cryptocurrency for payments by 2023. Ben acknowledges losing the bet, as crypto has evolved more towards a store of value rather than a payments system.
Chris Dixon explains that while payments are not the strongest use case for crypto, stablecoins are gaining traction, facilitating over $700 billion in transactions last month, especially in countries with currency volatility. He sees crypto's value in enabling new types of digital services and platforms that shift power to users and creators.
Ben Horowitz argues that crypto's mission is to prevent excessive concentration of power with big tech companies that control data and take high fees. He believes crypto can enable "stakeholder capitalism" where users and creators participate economically. They discuss blockchain's potential to authenticate truth and identity in an AI-driven future.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Ben Horowitz lost his bet that 10% of Mexicans would be using crypto for payments, acknowledging that payments are not crypto's strongest use case.
- Chris Dixon sees greater potential for crypto in enabling new decentralized digital platforms and services beyond just payments.
- Horowitz and Dixon view crypto as a way to counterbalance excessive concentration of power by big tech companies over data, platforms and the digital economy.
- They believe crypto can facilitate a model of "stakeholder capitalism" where users and creators have ownership stakes and participate economically.
- Use cases like stablecoins for payments, authenticating human identity, and compensating data/content creators are seen as promising crypto applications.
- However, there is acknowledgment that earlier blockchain hype exceeded reality, and mass adoption of major non-speculative crypto use cases has yet to be realized.
- Horowitz and Dixon remain optimistic that as the technology and ecosystems mature, crypto will enable profound shifts in digital power dynamics.
- They see crypto as a crucial counterweight to perceived centralizing forces like AI and the metaverse further consolidating with big tech incumbents.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “The fact that it's working, it's such a technological breakthrough, and that it works technically is amazing.“ by Ben Horowitz
- “Crypto is the architecture for stakeholder capitalism, where the people who use a product, the people are participating that the creatives who add value to the network all kind of participate economically in what's going on.“ by Ben Horowitz
- “I think when I look around the landscape, it's like AI metaverse. These are all kind of centralizing technologies and the only credible counterbalance, besides maybe regulation, is blockchains and crypto.“ by Chris Dixon
- “And I think that's the dystopian world. So crypto is the thing that makes the future bright, in my view.“ by Ben Horowitz
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4/16/24