This is the year the world came onchain.
When we launched our first State of Crypto report, the industry was still in its adolescence. The total crypto market was worth about half what it is today. Blockchains were much slower, more expensive, and le
Each year, the State of Crypto report from a16z crypto cuts through the noise and tracks crypto’s evolution across markets, technology, policy, and culture.
Now in its fourth edition, the 2025 State of Crypto report reveals how crypto has gone ma
Digital marketplaces are becoming increasingly vital for the real-world adoption of emerging technologies. Gerry Tsoukalas (Boston University) examines their pricing structures, highlighting that while most use simple commission contracts to generate revenue, control over pricing varies: it may be centralized with the platform or decentralized, left to individual agents. We show these choices critically affect market outcomes (supply, adoption, welfare, etc.). Centralization enhances coordination but increases information asymmetry between the platform and its agents, whereas decentralization reverses this tradeoff. Neither approach is universally optimal. Using mechanism design, we propose a structural tweak to commission contracts, termed “affine pricing,” that can enable optimal market outcomes under either form of pricing control. We discuss implications for both established and emerging disintermediated web3 marketplaces governed by smart contracts.
About the presenter
Gerry is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, with secondary appointments at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell’s FinTech Initiative, and the Luohan Academy (Alibaba Group). Specializing in digital platforms and analytics (AI/ML), he co-founded the Crypto and Blockchain Economics Research Forum (CBER). He has collaborated with various firms and startups in technology, healthcare, and financial services, and worked on policy with government agencies and think tanks.
About a16z crypto research
a16z crypto research is a multidisciplinary lab that works closely with our portfolio companies and others toward solving the important problems in the space, and toward advancing the science and technology of the next generation of the internet. More about us: a16z.com/2022/04/21/announcing-a16z-crypto-research
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