With growing activity and innovation around token-based network models, builders are wondering how to distinguish different types of tokens — and which might be the best choice for their business. At the same time, both consumers and policy makers
Pricing is a common conundrum for marketplace builders. Many marketplaces heavily subsidize user activity to bootstrap initial growth and liquidity — giving their product or service away for free (or at a steep discount). But that’s not sustainab
It’s well understood that bitcoin can be used to buy and sell things/services, and the ecosystem of people accepting the cryptocurrency as payment is expanding. But what else can we use the underlying protocol for? How can we expand the same system that enables bitcoin-the-currency to flow and transactions to be recorded? This discussion (from the a16z Academic Roundtable 2014) examines that question, and answers why the currency is just the beginning of the story when it comes to this technology.