a16z crypto: Still Betting Long on Crypto, Believing Other Category Apps Will Emerge Post-Blockchain Financial Inclusion

BlockBeats News, February 7th, a16z partner and a16z crypto leader Chris Dixon posted an article on social media titled "The Long Game of Cryptocurrency":

There's a popular belief circulating — that the non-financial applications of cryptocurrency are dead. Some also claim that the "read-write-own" model has already failed. These conclusions both misunderstand the core idea and misjudge the stage of development we are in.

We are currently in the financial era of blockchain. But the core idea has never been that all crypto applications would emerge simultaneously, nor that finance wouldn't lead the way. The core idea has always been that blockchain introduced a new primitive: the ability to coordinate labor and capital at internet scale and embed ownership directly into the system. (And increasingly, to coordinate AI agents as well.)

Finance is where this primitive most naturally proves its worth, which is why we often cite finance as the primary example of productive token use cases. Finance is not separate from a larger vision; it is a part of it. It is the foundation and proving ground for all other applications.

At a16z and a16z crypto, we take a long view: Our fund structure is designed for more than a 10-year horizon because building new industries takes time — sequencing is crucial.

Infrastructure and distribution networks often precede new application categories. The internet did not start with social media, streaming, or online communities; it began with packet switching, TCP/IP, and basic connectivity. Only once billions were online did entirely new cultural and economic categories emerge. Cryptocurrency is likely to be similar. A reasonable conjecture is that we need to onboard billions through financial applications like payments, stablecoins, savings, and DeFi before we can see meaningful adoption in media, gaming, AI, or other potentially more distant fields. Many applications rely on wallets, identity, liquidity, and trust mechanisms that are already in place.

This is why a16z has spent over five years working to help shape a clear regulatory framework for tokens. Great endeavors take time. The breakthroughs we see today in AI are the result of decades of hard work by exceptional talent. Building a new technological system is a marathon, and this is what a marathon looks like in practice: a long period of groundwork followed by a sharp inflection point. It is in these tumultuous years that the future's obvious achievements are forged.