Requests for Startups: Crypto/Web3
If Fred Wilson says it’s time to double down on Crypto, it’s time to double down on Crypto: “When they want to shut it down, I say double down!”
Crypto is Deep Tech. And I say Crypto to describe the whole whole experiment that is “Digital Ownership on the internet.”
The history of Boost VC, is tethered to the story of Bitcoin. Bitcoin was the first Deep Technology we built a network in. We were the first Bitcoin focused accelerator/fund. We targeted to invest in 100 Bitcoin startups before there were 100 Bitcoin startups to fund, and our current crypto portfolio boast some incredibly important infrastructure for the industry.
To give a quick understanding of the Boost VC Crypto portfolio:
Etherscan: The Default Block Explorer of Crypto.
Coinbase: The most trusted Crypto wallet and exchange.
Shakepay: The most trusted wallet and exchange in Canada
Ripio: The most trusted wallet and exchange in LatAm
Polychain: The first Crypto hedge fund
Ledger: The most trusted cold storage wallet
…And 100+ more
Ever since Brian Armstrong from Coinbase pitched me in August of 2012,
“At some point the world will be on one financial infrastructure.”
That has been our thesis at Boost VC, which led to some incredible founders and investments.
So what are we looking for today!!! The same thing we always are Pinky, “Amazing humans solving the hardest problems.”
Thesis: Accelerate the development of Earth’s ONE financial infrastructure!
New Gateways: Every new smart contract brings new gateways. These gateways pop up in different countries, and different categories. The best business model in crypto has historically been gateway businesses, whether that be getting fiat currency into the crypto world, or getting Bitcoin into different crypto currencies. Coinbase, Binance, Uniswap and more. This is also true for NFT smart contracts: Nifty Gateway, OpenSea, Zora.
AI meets Crypto: Every upward movement in crypto has been caused by the release of a new smart contract or a new technology (ERC-20, ERC-721…). With the rise of OpenAI, there is going to be a flurry of experiments in this category, and we are excited to see what entrepreneurs come up with!
DeFi in it’s purest form: Who’s building DeFi that is permission-less, unstoppable due to no dependency inheritance risk and be available to all builders to use? We need the decentralized building blocks of the global financial infrastructure. Dan Elitzer from NascentXYC goes deep into this topic on this thread.
DeSci: The story of Crypto adoption is one of different customer segments understanding how “Ownership” on the internet can benefit them. It started with Idealists » Computer Scientists » Finance People » Entertainment. These evolutions came with new smart contract developments intersecting with an under-valued creator group experimenting. We believe that scientists are the next creator class to adopt this new business model. IP NFT’s are the next generation of NFT’s.
*Originally published on Adam’s Substack - https://www.adamdraper.vc/
Adam Draper
Managing Director at @BoostVC // Seed investor in @Coinbase, @Amplitude_HQ, @Benchling, Wave Mobile Money // Board Member of @Skybound I like comic books. #Bitcoin