Olaf Carlson-Wee
Showing 1–3 of 3 transcripts.
- a16z50 min
Seven Trends in Blockchain Computing (Spring 2019)
Olaf, the first employee of Coinbase, details the third wave of blockchain evolution driven by WebAssembly integration and Proof-of-Stake consensus to resolve current developer bottlenecks and security flaws inherent in older protocols. This upcoming phase emphasizes superior technical infrastructure, including built-in on-chain governance and sub-second finality, while shifting industry metrics from user counts to composability and open-source development speeds. As the sector transitions from a nascent launch phase to mature application development, these upgrades aim to facilitate complex use cases like decentralized finance and AI data markets without relying on ad-revenue models or arbitrary platform control.
- a16z22 min
a16z Podcast | Trends in Cryptocurrencies
Juan Benet, Olaf-Carlson Wee, Chris Dixon
At the November 2017 A16Z Summit, moderator Chris Dixon facilitated a panel with Protocol Labs CEO Juan Bennett and Polychain Capital CEO Olaf Carlsen-Wi to analyze the cryptocurrency sector's transition from a trust deficit to a foundational "peer-to-peer summer." The discussion highlighted a critical infrastructure shift where capital formation via ICOs accelerates development while technical innovations like Filecoin, Truebit, and proof-of-stake mechanisms address scalability and energy inefficiency currently hindering decentralized networks. With experts forecasting the emergence of consumer applications by late 2018 and 2019, the panel emphasized that the industry is moving toward on-chain governance and censored-resistant architectures to fundamentally replace centralized web platforms with user-owned marketplaces.
- a16z33 min
a16z Podcast | Cryptocurrencies, App Coins, and Investing in Protocols
Chris Dixon, Sonal Chokshi, Olaf Carlson-Wee
Polychain Capital invests directly in equity ownership of open-source cryptocurrency protocols, positioning these digital networks as a new asset class that mirrors early internet domain speculation while offering value accrual historically outperforming traditional venture-backed application companies. By replacing centralized corporate governance with decentralized tokenization, the strategy incentivizes developers and users to act as shareholders, thereby funding critical infrastructure layers like Ethereum and Maker through a model that prioritizes self-sustaining networks over founder-dependent entities. This approach targets the low-level internet stack to unlock emergent, uncorrelated growth, though the fund warns that the sector's high volatility and technical complexity require deep expertise before retail participation.