Year in review: Top pieces and themes of 2024 (plus book picks and more) [newsletter]
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared in our web3 newsletter — a guide to trending topics in crypto with insights and resources from engineers, researchers, and others on the a16z crypto team. Subscribe to see it in your inbox every other week.
Our most popular posts and themes
2024 has been a momentous year for crypto — and we’ve covered it all, from stablecoins to AI. Here’s a roundup of our most popular pieces (and themes) from this year, including podcasts, videos, and articles. We also included a few bonus picks from the a16z crypto editorial team. The end of the year is a great time to catch up on something you missed and to see what others found most interesting.
More top picks…
Winter reading
We’re big readers here on the a16z crypto team, so we’ve got lots of recommendations this season — everything from spherical geometry to celebrity autobiographies, and from supervolcanoes to retellings of Greek mythology. Here’s a selection of our top book picks this winter.
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
Asimov explores humanity as it transitions to a robotic world, leading to anxieties and a new economic order. This mirrors some of the same concerns people are having with the proliferation of AI today. — Noah Citron, engineering team
Biohack Like a Woman by Aggie Lal
I’ve been interested in biohacking, but most articles and books I’ve come across don’t take the female body and hormones into account. This book was a game changer for me. It has all the biohacking tips and tricks with the added element of catering to women and our biology. — Anna Semenova, marketing team
Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber
This book provides a blueprint for how society can accelerate technological and scientific progress. It emphasizes the importance of risk-taking (something I’ve long been very passionate about), and explains how “bubbles” — while often maligned as destructive to society — might actually be the key to unlocking new innovation and global prosperity. Anyone interested in emerging technologies should definitely read this! — Daren Matsuoka, deal team
Last minute gift ideas
Still scrambling for holiday gifts? It’s not too late.
We gathered 80+ recommendations across a variety of categories — from computer accessories and smart AI-powered devices to beauty, health, and wellness products — for you to consider. Here are some picks, sourced from members of our tech-loving team:
AI kit: Mac mini (link), with Exo Labs
The price/performance for Mac mini is wild. If you use Exo Labs you can do AI inference using multiple of these simply hooked up to your home network. It’s crazy easy and a lot of fun for someone who wants to dive deep into an AI homelab on easy mode. — Eddy Lazzarin, CTO
Focus Timer adjustable hourglass (link)
An elegant and adjustable hourglass without the sand — perfect for segmenting project blocks, writing sessions, or even morning meditation. — Scott Duke Kominers, research team
Dappnode (link)
Perfect for the crypto enthusiast who is interested in becoming a solo staker and running a validator node at home. I set one up during the holidays last year and have since recouped my investment through staking rewards. — Robert Hackett, editorial team
How stablecoins win
Sam Broner
Stablecoins are already the cheapest way to send a dollar — and they are poised to replace existing payment solutions, quickly and definitively.
Because stablecoins reduce the cost of transactions to nearly zero, they will free businesses from the friction of existing alternatives. This will disrupt the payments industry and benefit incumbent businesses that are most harmed by current payments options, including restaurants, retailers, enterprises, payment processors, and others.
This post analyzes the damage payment fees can wreak on businesses like coffeeshops or during international transfers, and shows the radical improvements to margins that businesses like Walmart, Chipotle, and Krogers could see if they were to adopt stablecoins.
Numbers like that will drive adoption, and as stablecoin adoption grows, more users, businesses, and products will come onchain.
Read about how stablecoins will eat payments
How to talk crypto over the holidays
Crypto was an important political issue this past year, even playing a role in the recent U.S. elections. (You can see more in our 2024 State of Crypto Report.) What may be less appreciated is that there’s growing bipartisan consensus about the importance of blockchain networks and the guide rails the industry needs to thrive, spur innovation, and protect consumers.
So to help equip you for an inevitable topic of conversation at your holiday gatherings, we’ve put together a list of five top areas of crypto policy that both parties agree on.
Crypto explained (in 30 seconds)
Tim Roughgarden, Columbia University computer science professor and head of a16z crypto research, has been releasing bite-sized chunks from his talk on mental models for blockchain protocols and web3. The full video (53:55) focuses on how blockchains can combine “the general-purpose functionality of a computer with the decentralization of the internet — in effect, a global shared computer with the internet as its hardware.” Now, he’s made available shorter clips to help anyone grasp the potential of web3:
- How to explain that crypto is more than cryptocurrency
- How crypto enforces property rights on the web
- Crypto as a decentralized virtual machine
Get ready! We will begin accepting applications for our next CSX crypto startup accelerator cohort starting on January 8th. Sign up to be the first to hear about them.
— a16z crypto editorial team
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