249451
Daniel Barabander
@dbarabander #249451
GC and Investment Partner @variant | ex software engineer/@ycombinator founder, attorney Cravath | casts are not legal advice | I am not your lawyer
2833 Follower 142 Following
💯- and I think it primarily takes two forms:
1) founders who are thinkers and see the world differently
2) founders who are executors and have data to share about what they tried/learned since we last spoke
Either way the privilege of this job is getting to learn from these amazing founders
1) founders who are thinkers and see the world differently
2) founders who are executors and have data to share about what they tried/learned since we last spoke
Either way the privilege of this job is getting to learn from these amazing founders
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Look ma I made it
If you care about the future of crypto - SIGN THE PETITION
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One way to think about the case for crypto x AI is it’s a bet on horizontal v vertical scaling.
Big tech has mastered vertical - hoard compute, data ,and buy out competitors and vertically integrate them - form a monopoly.
Crypto horizontally scales - high variance in contributions, massive consumer compute, data, etc.
Bitcoin as the largest compute network shows horizontal can outcompete vertical. But the contributions are relatively deterministic (does this nonce hash).
When things are deterministic it’s easier to scale infinitely horizontally: determinism —> easy verifiability —> permissionless —> anyone can contribute. That’s how you get anyone with a GPU to contribute compute.
The hard part about AI is a lot of useful work in the real world that needs AI is not so cleanly verifiable.
So we have two options to make this scale:
Big tech has mastered vertical - hoard compute, data ,and buy out competitors and vertically integrate them - form a monopoly.
Crypto horizontally scales - high variance in contributions, massive consumer compute, data, etc.
Bitcoin as the largest compute network shows horizontal can outcompete vertical. But the contributions are relatively deterministic (does this nonce hash).
When things are deterministic it’s easier to scale infinitely horizontally: determinism —> easy verifiability —> permissionless —> anyone can contribute. That’s how you get anyone with a GPU to contribute compute.
The hard part about AI is a lot of useful work in the real world that needs AI is not so cleanly verifiable.
So we have two options to make this scale:
Let’s pregame this shindig together.
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Could not be more excited to announce our pre-seed investment in Plastic Labs, which is solving personalization for any LLM app.
So excited to back Vince, Courtland, Vineeth and the rest of the team as they tackle this enormous problem.
Check out the full announcement here:
https://blog.variant.fund/investing-in-plastic-labs
cc: @jhackworth
So excited to back Vince, Courtland, Vineeth and the rest of the team as they tackle this enormous problem.
Check out the full announcement here:
https://blog.variant.fund/investing-in-plastic-labs
cc: @jhackworth
Good crypto x AI projects leverage the features of crypto to overcome limitations faced by AI.
Here are three examples of challenges of AI:
1. Resources. To be competitive as an AI company you need to aggregate significant resources (compute and data) and talent.
2. Composability. Agents cannot reliably chain actions together.
3. Native Payments. Agents, while nearly infinite in their ability to act on a web made up of natural language, remain restricted by the fact that payment rails do not exist on internet rails.
These challenges can be solved through separate features of crypto: economic ownership, verifiability, and self-custody.
Here are three examples of challenges of AI:
1. Resources. To be competitive as an AI company you need to aggregate significant resources (compute and data) and talent.
2. Composability. Agents cannot reliably chain actions together.
3. Native Payments. Agents, while nearly infinite in their ability to act on a web made up of natural language, remain restricted by the fact that payment rails do not exist on internet rails.
These challenges can be solved through separate features of crypto: economic ownership, verifiability, and self-custody.
I was going to do a cast on my new article on Agents as NFTs but @atown did a better job of explaining what I'm trying to capture than anything I could write.
Check out the article here: https://blog.variant.fund/agents-as-nfts
Check out the article here: https://blog.variant.fund/agents-as-nfts
I'm going to be at the Port next week - if you want to meet up or chat let me know my DMs are open.
I’m thrilled to announce our seed investment in Pluralis Research, which is building a decentralized AI training protocol.
We are laser focused at investing in projects that use crypto ownership to solve coordination problems. Pluralis is a bullseye on that thesis, using ownership to solve the "resource problem" of training foundational AI models that are truly open.
We couldn't be more excited to support Alex and the rest of the team.
Full post here: https://blog.variant.fund/investing-in-pluralis-research
We are laser focused at investing in projects that use crypto ownership to solve coordination problems. Pluralis is a bullseye on that thesis, using ownership to solve the "resource problem" of training foundational AI models that are truly open.
We couldn't be more excited to support Alex and the rest of the team.
Full post here: https://blog.variant.fund/investing-in-pluralis-research
Crypto makes building open software with a resource problem possible.
Check out the piece where I unpack why 👇
https://blog.variant.fund/using-crypto-ownership-solve-resource-problem
Check out the piece where I unpack why 👇
https://blog.variant.fund/using-crypto-ownership-solve-resource-problem
Greatly looking forward to joining @jchervinsky
and the Exabits team for an AMA today at 12 PM ET!
Going to cover some of the unique legal wrinkles at the intersection of crypto x AI.
Join us soon!
https://x.com/exa_bits/status/1900203369391591553
and the Exabits team for an AMA today at 12 PM ET!
Going to cover some of the unique legal wrinkles at the intersection of crypto x AI.
Join us soon!
https://x.com/exa_bits/status/1900203369391591553
I shout out Warpcast/frames as a potentially great way to solve the "UI/contract problem" of agents 👀.
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New article unpacks the unique liability considerations for agent developers.
TLDR: agents introduce complexity but there are some common sense measures developers can take to reduce their liability exposure. Graphic below summarizing that.
Check out the piece here: https://variant.fund/articles/liability-considerations-agent-developers-crypto/
TLDR: agents introduce complexity but there are some common sense measures developers can take to reduce their liability exposure. Graphic below summarizing that.
Check out the piece here: https://variant.fund/articles/liability-considerations-agent-developers-crypto/
I did not realize how motivated I was by a “limited time profile halo”.
So excited to use my native social wallet.
So excited to use my native social wallet.
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A number of our recent pre-seed and seed portfolio companies are ACTIVELY HIRING.
These companies are building the future of crypto.
If you want to get in on the ground floor, fill out this short form and I will try and connect you with a fit. 👇
https://77fgxhdk47x.typeform.com/2025talent?typeform-source=t.co
These companies are building the future of crypto.
If you want to get in on the ground floor, fill out this short form and I will try and connect you with a fit. 👇
https://77fgxhdk47x.typeform.com/2025talent?typeform-source=t.co
With the rise of agents that heavily interact with Web2 applications, primitives that help users unchain their Web2 data will become increasingly important. These primitives include account encumbrance using TEEs, zkTLS to prove something about a user account, etc.
These primitives allow crypto companies to offer products/services that empower users to unlock their data without giving these companies access to users' credentials. Examples include Flashbot's Teleport (account encumbrance) and Pluto's Web Proofs (zkTLS).
These primitives allow crypto companies to offer products/services that empower users to unlock their data without giving these companies access to users' credentials. Examples include Flashbot's Teleport (account encumbrance) and Pluto's Web Proofs (zkTLS).
Agent devs need to grapple with the general rule crypto devs have had to deal with for years now:
Custody user funds = increased liability risk
Why? Control is the law’s lodestar for finding liability
Two issues immediately come to mind
Custody user funds = increased liability risk
Why? Control is the law’s lodestar for finding liability
Two issues immediately come to mind
I will continue to bang this drum - there is no lower hanging fruit for a crypto company to get right than strong/enforceable TOS.
Check out the piece I wrote on enforceable TOS here: https://blog.variant.fund/enforceability-terms-of-service-ui
https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/1880275786713944427
Check out the piece I wrote on enforceable TOS here: https://blog.variant.fund/enforceability-terms-of-service-ui
https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/1880275786713944427
How Enforceability of Terms of Service Relates to UI
This article unpacks the enforceability of online contracts and gives crypto app developers five tips for increasing the likelihood that their hyperwraps are enforceable.
blog.variant.fund
x.com
New piece: Why (good) AI needs crypto.
TLDR: Closed AI is anti-competitive. Open source AI hits a “resource problem” (huge compute/data costs). Crypto fixes this by incentivizing resource contributions via ownership—unlocking bigger models & faster innovation.
🔗👇
https://variant.fund/articles/why-good-ai-needs-crypto/
TLDR: Closed AI is anti-competitive. Open source AI hits a “resource problem” (huge compute/data costs). Crypto fixes this by incentivizing resource contributions via ownership—unlocking bigger models & faster innovation.
🔗👇
https://variant.fund/articles/why-good-ai-needs-crypto/
@bountybot I'm publishing a new piece this week about why open source AI needs crypto. My fundamental argument: foundation open source AI has a "resource problem" that ownership via crypto solves.
It's 5 pages single spaced (not including thank you's/disclaimer).
Could you post a 50 USDC bounty for one of the members of /ai to review for accuracy of claims? They can DC me for a link to the paper.
I need this by Tuesday.
I will also add whoever is selected to the thank you's : ).
It's 5 pages single spaced (not including thank you's/disclaimer).
Could you post a 50 USDC bounty for one of the members of /ai to review for accuracy of claims? They can DC me for a link to the paper.
I need this by Tuesday.
I will also add whoever is selected to the thank you's : ).
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
On how we can use new primitives to solve squishy problems instead of putting the burden on DAOs.
On how we can use new primitives to solve squishy problems instead of putting the burden on DAOs.
Can apply this same concept to make fuzzy prediction markets.
“Who will be more engaging on Twitter on [date], account 1 or account 2”? Throw the inputs to the agent and let it resolve the market.
“Who will be more engaging on Twitter on [date], account 1 or account 2”? Throw the inputs to the agent and let it resolve the market.
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