173 – Olaf Carlson-Wee: Polychain Capital and the Rise of Protocol Tokens




Epicenter – Podcast on Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies show

Summary: Support the show, consider donating: 1TonpBUGNCtBJm82a8K5hwiym5zVaQPDq (http://bit.ly/2mu3ptS) Writing his college thesis on Bitcoin in 2012 and becoming Coinbase's first employee in 2013, Olaf Carlson-Wee has been at the forefront of cryptocurrency for many years. Recently, he left Coinbase to start Polychain Capital, a hedge fund focused solely on investing in cryptocurrencies and protocol tokens. Olaf joined us to discuss his journey in the industry and the investment thesis behing Polychain. Topics discussed in this episode: - How Olaf Carlson-Wee became Coinbase's first employee - The investment thesis behind Polychain Capital - Why protocol tokens represent a huge investment opportunity - The current state of tokensales - Why the blockchain crowdfunding campaigns will start resembling VC deal structure - His view on the state of the Bitcoin network and community Links mentioned in this episode: - Polychain Capital: http://polychain.capital - Beyond Bitcoin: The future of cryptocurrencies - The Signal: https://blog.mixpanel.com/2016/07/27/blockchain-technology-olaf-carlson-wee/ - Bitcoin Will Never Be a Currency—It's Something Way Weirder | WIRED: https://www.wired.com/2017/01/bitcoin-will-never-currency-something-way-weirder/ - The Golden Age Of Open Protocols – AVC: http://avc.com/2016/07/the-golden-age-of-open-protocols/ - Blockchain Tokens and the dawn of the Decentralized Business Model: https://blog.coinbase.com/app-coins-and-the-dawn-of-the-decentralized-business-model-8b8c951e734f#.rl4mv6p98 - Fat Protocols | Union Square Ventures: http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols - a16z and USV invest $10m in new digital asset hedge fund: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/12/09/andreessen-horowitz-and-union-square-ventures-invest-10-million-in-new-digital-assets-hedge-fund/#2e6f5ce95e97 - The future is a decentralized internet | TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/08/the-future-is-a-decentralized-internet/ Sponsors: - Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts. Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.