> We believe that the next wave of computing innovation will be driven by crypto.
But then they also say that [0]:
> Crypto is purely a software movement and doesn’t depend on a hardware buildout, in contrast to, say, the internet, which required laying cables and building cell towers
That doesn't make any sense, though. Crypto heavily depends on specialised hardware (ASICs, GPUs, SSDs, ...) and existing network infrastructure (have fun trying to establish crypto in underdeveloped countries).
I get that products are just based on software and that infrastructure is provided by 3rd parties, but so far very little has come out of crypto in terms of "innovation in computing".
Just a random pick of their investments, ARwave [1], reveals actual regression, not innovation:
> The maintainers of the network are able to filter and screen the transaction in whichever manner they choose, checking against known illicit material, scanning the data with computer vision software, et cetera.
So basically "store data forever, decentralized, no more 404s, no stealth edits, blah", but also "we decide what's actually going to be stored and reserve the right to censor your data however we see fit".
Honestly, I don't see the innovation in that. Most of the other investments are either NFT market places or crypto-based trading platforms. Again, not really an innovation in computing.
Maybe I'm just too illiterate when it comes to decoding marketing speak.
[0] https://a16z.com/crypto/#vertical-landing-investment-thesis