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Jesse Walden is the founder and managing partner of Variant Fund, an early-stage crypto fund backing projects like Uniswap, Phantom, World, Morpho, Flashbots, Farcaster, Blockaid, Blackbird, and many more. Before launching Variant in 2020, he was an investor at a16z crypto, where he supported early-stage builders shaping the future of Web3.
In this episode, Jesse offers a wide-ranging view of where crypto stands today and where it’s headed. He unpacks the rise of stablecoins, the role of meme coins in capturing attention, and why NFTs are evolving rather than disappearing. We explore the challenges of interoperability between blockchains, the shift from invention to productization, and the intersection of crypto and AI, two technologies that may supercharge one another’s progress.
In our conversation, we explore:
The fundamental difference between AI (technology of abundance) and crypto (technology of scarcity), and why the two technologies are complementary
How the GENIUS Act is transforming the regulatory landscape for stablecoins and creating unprecedented bipartisan support
How DAOs 2.0 will return to their original vision: automation at the center with humans at the edges
How meme coins generate hype and the value of attention
Why user experience still holds Web3 back and what needs to change
What still needs to be solved to scale crypto, including true cross-chain interoperability
Explore the episode
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(02:19) An overview of Variant’s work
(03:03) Jesse’s vision of a tokenized future and why it makes sense
(06:19) The state of crypto since 2022
(10:46) The GENIUS Act: what it is and how it could reshape stablecoins
(14:28) How stablecoins are both a payment tool and a communication layer
(17:07) Why stablecoins are not yet convenient in the US
(19:06) Variant’s investment in stablecoins and blockchains
(21:33) The policy and regulation crypto still needs to mature
(24:15) Speculation vs. stablecoins
(27:06) Meme coins and the attention economy
(31:53) The shift from invention to productization
(33:47) How the user experience is evolving in crypto, and what’s still needed
(38:15) Phantom and other companies Jesse is bullish on
(42:20) The short-term dip and long-term rise in developer talent
(47:48) Jesse’s heuristic for determining a founder’s passion in the crypto space
(50:37) Where AI and crypto collide (and what they can do for each other)
(56:48) Why there’s still opportunity for NFTs
(01:01:57) An explanation of DAOs and DAO 2.0’s opportunity for humans
(01:07:04) Final meditations
Follow Jesse Walden
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewalden/
Website: https://jessewalden.com/
Resources and episode mentions
Books
Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events: https://www.amazon.com/Narrative-Economics-Stories-Economic-Events/dp/0691182299
The White Paper: https://www.amazon.com/The-White-Paper/dp/1999675924
People
Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama
Vitalik Buterin on X: https://x.com/vitalikbuterin
Other resources
Bitcoin: https://bitcoin.org
Stablecoin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stablecoin
Beyond Speculation and Stablecoins: Crypto's Next Phase?: https://jessewalden.com/beyond-speculation-and-stablecoins-cryptos-next-phase/
What is DeFi?: https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/plp-what-is-defi
Morpho: https://morpho.org/
Pump.fun: https://pump.fun/
Zora: https://zora.co/
Docker: https://www.docker.com/
Privy: https://www.privy.io/
Stripe: https://stripe.com/
Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/
Phantom: https://phantom.com/
Coinbase: https://coinbase.com/
Uniswap: https://app.uniswap.org/
Worldcoin: https://world.org/worldcoin-token
2024 Crypto Developer Report
Jesse’s post on X about NFTs: https://x.com/jessewldn/status/1749860648253526449
DAOs 2.0: https://jessewalden.com/daos-2-0/
Botto: https://botto.com/
Paul Graham’s post about planting trees: https://x.com/paulg/status/1682079355445424129
Land O’Lakes: https://www.landolakes.com/
Ethereum whitepaper: https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/
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