Stablecoin transaction volumes hit $1.82 trillion last month, a record high.

And organic, non-speculative uses appear to be growing, even as crypto trading volume fluctuates.

Still, it’s easy to underestimate the promise of stablecoins.

So we’ve rounded up a quickstart guide for understanding stablecoins — from what’s *not* a stablecoin to reimagining money from first principles.

Check out the guide: a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

⤵️ Stablecoins could be a ‘WhatsApp moment’ for money, making international transactions nearly free and instant.

Before apps like WhatsApp, sending a text across borders meant paying 30 cents per message.

Payments are now where messaging was in 2008: expensive, full of intermediaries, and limited by borders. Stablecoins could dramatically improve this situation.

More on this here… a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

Making the U.S. the crypto capital: What it would take

The U.S. seems to be turning its combative stance on blockchains and crypto toward a more supportive one that offers guidance and clarity on the rules for builders to follow. While it’s still early, a number of encouraging steps have already been taken across government toward that end. New leadership, new rules, new task forces — all of these help give the crypto industry something that it has sorely lacked: a meaningful path forward.

Whereas recent years were marked by lawsuits against startups, turf wars between regulatory agencies, angry letters from lawmakers, incidents of debanking, and regulation-by-enforcement, the past few weeks signal a much more optimistic, pro-tech approach. From the White House, we’ve seen the appointment of an AI & Crypto Czar and an executive order declaring support for blockchain development. The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has formed a new crypto task force and repealed Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, a damaging rule that had held back crypto development. And in both houses of Congress, prominent legislators have indicated a willingness to enshrine clear rules of the road for the industry in legislation.

To foster the conversation between government officials and blockchain experts, we’ve gathered 11 views from industry experts on issues ranging from taxes and the freedom to stake, to broader issues like encouraging decentralization and reforming the U.S. regulatory regime. These views offer policymakers important considerations for how to approach crypto regulation, ensuring that the U.S. leads this critical shift toward the next generation of the internet.

Read them here: a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/… 1. Why decentralization matters, and needs incentives

by @milesjennings

🔖: a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

5 pieces on AI x crypto: What, where, how

Beginning with why that convergence matters, and ending with some big ideas for the near future.

⤵️ #1 Blockchain innovation will put an AI-powered internet back into users’ hands

by @cdixon

a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

Here are a few of the books the a16z crypto team is reading and recommending this winter.

This list has something for everyone, from spherical geometry to celebrity autobiographies, and from the science of supervolcanoes to science fiction.

📚 ⤵️ From @danboneh –– Heavenly Mathematics: The Forgotten Art of Spherical Trigonometry by Glen Van Brummelen

From @SamBroner –– Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert

From Brittney Burrows –– Medea by Rosie Hewlett

We’ve just released our latest State of Crypto report.

It shares insights on key trends — like stablecoins, L2s, and AI — plus, crypto’s rise as a hot policy issue, new data on builders and users, and much more.

Full report:

Here are 7 top takeaways ⬇️ a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/… 1) Crypto activity and usage hit all-time highs

There have never been more monthly active addresses at 220 million.

Monthly mobile wallet users also hit an all-time high in June of 27 million.

See more on how we size up the industry: a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

Your guide to tokens:

How to design, launch, structure rights, and more.

🧵 Token do's and don'ts

w/ @eddylazzarin, @milesjennings, @rhhackett

a16zcrypto.com/posts/podcast/…

Interested in learning about Zero Knowledge?

Here are some of our resources. 🧵 Zero knowledge made simple w/ @SuccinctJT

Interested in learning about DAOs?

Here are some of our resources.

🧵 DAO research: A roadmap for experimenting with governance

by @ahall_research & @eliza_oak

a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

One of the most frequent questions we get from founders is…

“How do I approach a token launch?”

So @milesjennings , @jasonrosenthal, & @Adina_S_Fischer put together a playbook covering the how, when, and what, as it relates to token launches.

Dig into the posts ⤵️ How to navigate token launch risks

by @milesjennings

📓 → a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/…

Frames on Farcaster are a powerful new primitive not just for decentralized social, but for the web overall.

Going beyond previous web2 attempts at open graphs and "embeds" (a la Facebook), Frames are a simple way to bring interactivity into posts -- turning posts into various applications.

Importantly for web3, Frames are portable across clients (i.e., interoperable): Since the logic of the Frame lives split across the Farcaster protocol, and the server running the Frame, they are totally independent of any one client (e.g., Warpcast).

For developers, this means you can create a consistent experience that can be shared all across the web.

For users, it makes possible "a real and universal graph of user actions across consumer apps” (as @antoniogm put it well in a recent post).

Another thing that makes Frames exciting in a way web2 couldn’t is that, because they use your Farcaster signing key, the Frame user is automatically authenticated into the Frame... So no matter which client they’re using, you know who interacted with the Frame straightforwardly.

Anyway, here are a few posts from a16z crypto engineering playing around with frames in just a couple hours (they're that easy to make!) @blauyourmind
warpcast.com/michaelblau/0x…

A few things we're excited about in crypto next year.

🧵

https://twitter.com/DarenMatsuoka/status/1732469509213352002?s=20

A few new Crypto Startup School (CSS23) videos –– covering all-things legal & governance.

Featuring @milesjennings & @_portersmith

Check them out below. ⤵️ @milesjennings explores the much debated topic of token launches – from common myths and regulatory considerations to a few best practices for token launches, plus some additional frameworks for web3 founders.

6 questions every founder should ask about pricing strategy. 🧵 Getting one’s approach to pricing right can have a dramatic impact on a company or project’s early customer wins, go-to-market strategy, and long term success. The key is ensuring that a product’s capabilities and features align to a philosophy that allows for optimal pricing.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

7 Key takeaways from our 2023 State of Crypto Report 🧵 1/ Blockchains have more active users, and more ways to engage.

Active addresses hit an all-time high last month – 15 million – doubling over the last two years, as a growing variety of apps and services, like on-chain games, offer people new ways to engage.

In one tweet, explain ZK Proofs to someone new to web3. ↓ “A ZK Proof mathematically demonstrates to a third party (typically called the verifier) that you've done some computation honestly without revealing the details nor requiring recomputation.” - @samrags_

22 of our most popular posts, podcasts, videos, and other resources from 2022. 🧵 1/ Introducing the 2022 State of Crypto Report

a16zcrypto.com/state-of-crypt…

Just a few things we're excited for in crypto ↓

- Blockchain's mobile moment
- ZK, MPC, Post-quantum crypto
- Developer onboarding for ZK
- On-chain games
- Non-transferable tokens
- Decentralized energy

More directly from our partners here: a16zcrypto.com/big-ideas-2023/

https://twitter.com/guywuolletjr/status/1603455481934413824?s=46&t=MoTOgKYDoFYcZANeNkEM4A

We’re thankful for all of the clever (mindblowing, even) new ideas to build on in crypto.

You might call it a code-u-copia.

In this thread you'll find some tools in case you have a little extra time this holiday season and want to build.

🧵 Our goal in sharing our tools and proofs of concept is to demonstrate how new primitives can be used in production today, and to help accelerate their adoption by bringing more applications online.

Enjoy! 🔨

Today, we’re releasing a new open source Solidity implementation of a sealed-bid auction –– this time using a surprising combination of tools…

github.com/a16z/auction-z…

@moodlezoup

🧵 This thread provides an overview of the approach but you can learn more in this post here:

a16zcrypto.com/hidden-in-plai…

Web3 development and regulation must achieve two goals:

1. Protect consumer privacy
2. Reduce the risk of illicit finance
We believe both ends are simultaneously achievable.

🧵

a16zcrypto.com/achieving-cryp… Zero knowledge proofs enable auditable security without undermining secret-keeping.

These cryptographic advances can help reconcile privacy and regulatory compliance, as @burlesonjm, @MicheleKorver, and @danboneh lay out.

a16zcrypto.com/achieving-cryp…

Today we’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new accelerator, Crypto Startup School.

The program will include:

Investment from @a16zcrypto ($500k)
Mentorship from leading founders
Advice from domain experts
Network of fellow builders

Apply: a16zcrypto.com/css23 We couldn’t be more excited about the future of web3.

But we also recognize unique challenges involved in building a crypto startup, from protocol design to regulatory to GTM.

Unlike general tech accelerators, CSS is designed to help web3 founders navigate this novel terrain.