a16z’s Chris Dixon thinks it’s time to focus on blockchains’ use cases, not speculation

The crypto world is riddled with noise. Memecoins, speculation, rug pulls, scams, hype and doomers distract us from all the innovative stuff people are building with blockchains. And sometimes the noise pollutes the stream of information so much, it can get really difficult to continue to believe in the technology.

Still, one venture capital veteran feels the only way to cut a clear path is to focus on blockchain technology and startups building in the industry.

“Crypto and blockchains are in the news a lot, but a lot of it is around speculation and prices. I feel that there’s another side of the story,” Chris Dixon, partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), told me on TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast. “It’s the side of the story that I live in, that the entrepreneurs we work with live in, which is what I would call the productive side of blockchains.”

Dixon has been at a16z since 2012 and he even helped found the firm’s crypto division, which he currently leads. In the past year or so, he has been heads-down writing his new book, “Read Write Own,” which came out earlier this week.
In the book, Dixon compares blockchains to steel and the Web 2.0 internet to wood — when steel first came about, most people thought it was unnecessary because wood worked fine, but then things changed drastically once steel was adopted at scale.