The Future of Crypto: Stablecoins, AI Integration, and the Path to Mass Adoption | Jesse Walden (Founder and Managing Partner at Variant)

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Jesse Walden is the founder and managing partner of Variant Fund, an early-stage crypto fund backing projects like Uniswap, Phantom, World, Morpho, Flashbots, Farcaster, Blockaid, Blackbird, and many more. Before launching Variant in 2020, he was an investor at a16z crypto, where he supported early-stage builders shaping the future of Web3.

In this episode, Jesse offers a wide-ranging view of where crypto stands today and where it’s headed. He unpacks the rise of stablecoins, the role of meme coins in capturing attention, and why NFTs are evolving rather than disappearing. We explore the challenges of interoperability between blockchains, the shift from invention to productization, and the intersection of crypto and AI, two technologies that may supercharge one another’s progress.

In our conversation, we explore:

• The fundamental difference between AI (technology of abundance) and crypto (technology of scarcity), and why the two technologies are complementary

• How the GENIUS Act is transforming the regulatory landscape for stablecoins and creating unprecedented bipartisan support

• How DAOs 2.0 will return to their original vision: automation at the center with humans at the edges

• How meme coins generate hype and the value of attention

• Why user experience still holds Web3 back and what needs to change

• What still needs to be solved to scale crypto, including true cross-chain interoperability

Explore the episode

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:19) An overview of Variant’s work

(03:03) Jesse’s vision of a tokenized future and why it makes sense

(06:19) The state of crypto since 2022

(10:46) The GENIUS Act: what it is and how it could reshape stablecoins

(14:28) How stablecoins are both a payment tool and a communication layer

(17:07) Why stablecoins are not yet convenient in the US

(19:06) Variant’s investment in stablecoins and blockchains

(21:33) The policy and regulation crypto still needs to mature

(24:15) Speculation vs. stablecoins

(27:06) Meme coins and the attention economy

(31:53) The shift from invention to productization

(33:47) How the user experience is evolving in crypto, and what’s still needed

(38:15) Phantom and other companies Jesse is bullish on

(42:20) The short-term dip and long-term rise in developer talent

(47:48) Jesse’s heuristic for determining a founder’s passion in the crypto space

(50:37) Where AI and crypto collide (and what they can do for each other)

(56:48) Why there’s still opportunity for NFTs

(01:01:57) An explanation of DAOs and DAO 2.0’s opportunity for humans

(01:07:04) Final meditations

Follow Jesse Walden

X: https://x.com/jessewldn

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewalden/

Website: https://jessewalden.com/

Resources and episode mentions

Books

• Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events: https://www.amazon.com/Narrative-Economics-Stories-Economic-Events/dp/0691182299

• The White Paper: https://www.amazon.com/The-White-Paper/dp/1999675924

People

• Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama

• Vitalik Buterin on X: https://x.com/vitalikbuterin

Other resources

• Bitcoin: https://bitcoin.org

• Stablecoin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stablecoin

• Beyond Speculation and Stablecoins: Crypto's Next Phase?: https://jessewalden.com/beyond-speculation-and-stablecoins-cryptos-next-phase/

• What is DeFi?: https://www.coinbase.com/learn/crypto-basics/plp-what-is-defi

• Morpho: https://morpho.org/

• Pump.fun: https://pump.fun/

• Zora: https://zora.co/

• Docker: https://www.docker.com/

• Privy: https://www.privy.io/

• Stripe: https://stripe.com/

• Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/

• Phantom: https://phantom.com/

• Coinbase: https://coinbase.com/

• Uniswap: https://app.uniswap.org/

• Worldcoin: https://world.org/worldcoin-token

• 2024 Crypto Developer Report

• Jesse’s post on X about NFTs: https://x.com/jessewldn/status/1749860648253526449

• DAOs 2.0: https://jessewalden.com/daos-2-0/

• Botto: https://botto.com/

• Paul Graham’s post about planting trees: https://x.com/paulg/status/1682079355445424129

• Land O’Lakes: https://www.landolakes.com/

• Ethereum whitepaper: https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/

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