Conversations From The 2021 Multicoin Summit [VIDEOS]

The 2021 Multicoin Summit was our biggest yet. For those who attended, it was fantastic to see all of you in real life again after two years of quarantine. For those who couldn’t make it, we prepared the following videos below to help you experience the summit from afar.

This year’s summit was a first for many; we were very fortunate to welcome a number of new LPs to the partnership this year. As that was the case, we used this summit as an opportunity to share an update on the firm (as heard in the opening remarks), as well as to present more detail on how we think and operate the firm (as heard in Multicoin’s 2022 Outlook).

Beyond discussing the firm, we design summits with the intent of spotlighting trends in the industry that we think will have an outsized impact. At a 10,000-foot view, the trends we chose to magnify this year were: composability, creator monetization, the metaverse, moving up the Web3 stack, and the path to onboard billions of users to crypto. With that introduction, I invite you to explore each of the videos below. I hope you enjoy the best conversations from the 2021 Multicoin Summit.

Tushar kicked off the summit with an overview of the firm and its growth throughout 2021. While 2021 was certainly a difficult year for many, it was unquestionably an explosive year for the firm. We nearly doubled the team and expanded the firm in practically every dimension. In this presentation, Tushar discusses the firm’s growth in the context of the tailwinds driving the industry.

Defining the Next Generation of Crypto Apps with Composability

As is our custom, Kyle presented the first keynote presentation. In this talk, Kyle introduces the idea of composability and explains why it’s at the center of the firm’s investment strategy for the year ahead. He then goes on to explore the state of the Solana ecosystem and the “primordial soup” of composable primitives that exist (or are soon to exist), and how those primitives will compose to create new DeFi and consumer applications as well as new, higher-order composable “legos.”

Creator Monetization with Roniel Rumburg

In this conversation, our partner Matt Shapiro interviews Roniel Rumburg, the co-founder and CEO of Audius. With a background in computer science and venture capital and a genuine passion for music, he is at the forefront of the creator economy movement. With Audius, he is pioneering a new set of tools that will unlock a new generation of creators to connect more intimately and directly with fans. This conversation covers a wide range of topics ranging from the current media distribution, to social tokens and NFTs, to creator monetization models.

Disclosure: This post includes views expressed by Roneil Rumburg (“Investor”), who is or was at the time of this post an investor in one or more funds managed by Multicoin Capital Management, LLC (“Multicoin”) and is affiliated with Audius, Inc., a portfolio company invested in by one or more Multicoin funds. Multicoin did not compensate Investor in connection with this interview. Investor’s status as an investor in Multicoin funds and an affiliate of Audius, Inc. creates a material conflict of interest since (1) Investor may be strongly incentivized to portray Multicoin and the investments it makes in a positive light, and (2) Investor may be less incentivized to be critical about Multicoin.

Matthew Ball, the Managing Partner of EpyllionCo and famed essayist, joins Kyle on stage next for what ends up being a brisk stroll through the metaverse. Matthew’s effortless distillations of computing and cultural history paint a compelling picture of the metaverse and argue why now—as major technological, infrastructure, and hardware forces collide—we’re ready to see the next major computing paradigm emerge.

Disclosure: This post includes views expressed by Matthew Ball (“Investor”), who is or was at the time of this post an investor (directly or through an investing entity) in one or more funds managed by Multicoin Capital Management, LLC (“Multicoin”). Multicoin did not compensate Investor in connection with this interview. Investor’s status as an investor in Multicoin funds creates a material conflict of interest since (1) Investor may be strongly incentivized to portray Multicoin and the investments it makes in a positive light, and (2) Investor may be less incentivized to be critical about Multicoin.

The Future of On-Chain Credentialing with Harry Zhang

After two years in China, my partner Mable Jiang finally was able to join us stateside for an in-the-flesh conversation with Harry Zhang, the co-founder and project lead of Project Galaxy. Project Galaxy makes it possible to curate on-chain and off-chain credentials, which, combined with NFTs and other crypto-native media and interactions, unlocks a new way to coordinate with individuals in a Web3-native way. This conversation covers a lot of ground, including the emergent category of Utility NFTs.

Disclosure: This post includes views expressed by Harry Zhang (“Investor”), who is or was at the time of this post an investor in one or more funds managed by Multicoin Capital Management, LLC (“Multicoin”) and is affiliated with Star Frameworks Labs Pte. Ltd., a portfolio company invested in by one or more Multicoin funds. Multicoin did not compensate Investor in connection with this interview. Investor’s status as an investor in Multicoin funds and an affiliate of Star Frameworks Labs Pte. Ltd. creates a material conflict of interest since (1) Investor may be strongly incentivized to portray Multicoin and the investments it makes in a positive light, and (2) Investor may be less incentivized to be critical about Multicoin.

Multicoin Capital’s 2022 Outlook

We were very fortunate to have Packy McCormick, the founder of Not Boring, one of Multicoin Capital’s favorite newsletters, join Kyle and Tushar on stage for a conversation about our 2022 outlook. As I mentioned above, the firm grew tremendously this year, and with it the way we operate. This conversation starts with an introduction of the firm, our roots and where we came from and then gones on to explore how we identify theses and make decisions. It concludes with Kyle and Tushar sharing what Multicoin is looking forward to most in the year ahead.

Building Physical Infrastructure With Crypto Networks

Later in the afternoon Tushar retakes the stage with Amir Haleem, the co-founder of Helium, and Ariel Seidman, the founder of Hivemapper, to discuss how crypto incentives can be leveraged to build and deploy physical infrastructure in the real world. While both of these projects are objectively very different, they share many similarities insofar as they are both coordinating people to build real-world networks—in this case wireless networks and open maps. They are representative of a new category of crypto-projects that bridge crypto to the physical world.

Disclosure: This post includes views expressed by Amir Haleem (“Investor”), who is or was at the time of this post an investor in one or more funds managed by Multicoin Capital Management, LLC (“Multicoin”) and is affiliated with Nova Labs, a portfolio company invested in by one or more Multicoin funds. Multicoin did not compensate Investor in connection with this interview. Investor’s status as an investor in Multicoin funds and an affiliate of Nova Labs creates a material conflict of interest since (1) Investor may be strongly incentivized to portray Multicoin and the investments it makes in a positive light, and (2) Investor may be less incentivized to be critical about Multicoin.

Crypto in the Browser with Brendan Eich

Last but certainly not least, Kyle welcomes Brendan Eich, the CEO of Brave and the creator of Javascript, to the stage to discuss his plans for crypto in the browser. This conversation traverses Brendan’s deep history with browsers, Brave’s most recent announcements at Solana’s Breakpoint conference, and Project Themis, the company’s ambitious new advertising platform.