OG Olaf Carlson-Wee on Why His Crypto Thesis Is Stronger Than Ever

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Polychain Capital founder and CIO Olaf Carlson-Wee has been through every single bubble in crypto history, from Bitcoin’s rise past the single digits in 2012 to the ICO craze of 2017 to 2021’s NFT mania, and he says his main thesis about crypto has remained consistent since the beginning. That is, that crypto constitutes an “incentive vortex” that will replace the world’s preoccupation with country-backed currencies.

Carlson-Wee, who was the first employee at Coinbase, joins Unchained to discuss the significance of the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, how he successfully navigated all the industry blow-ups in 2022, the challenges of balancing incentives for early adopters versus new users, why EigenLayer is so significant, why Worldcoin’s distribution strategy is a “disaster,” and the strange places that the intersection between crypto and AI could take us.

Show highlights:

Why Olaf sees the current market as the cusp of another bull run and how his thesis has remained consistent since 2011

How the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs marks a significant milestone

Why criticisms of the crypto space are really criticisms of money in general

The fundamental differences between Web3 applications and the Web2 ecosystem and why they matter

The importance of fair token distribution in enhancing the value of Web3 projects

When Olaf expects Bitcoin to replace legacy financial systems

The areas and technologies Olaf and his fund are keen to invest in

Why Olaf thinks a modular blockchain architecture is superior to a monolithic one in the long term

How EigenLayer is innovating to enable new types of applications and whether it competes with Celestia

How Polychain managed to avoid being hurt by the major market blowups of 2022, including Terra and FTX

The evolution of the space from an ideologically driven to a more pragmatic approach

The significance of incentive design in crypto ecosystems and the trade-offs involved in system design

Olaf’s perspective on the recent rise of points systems

The growth of privacy-focused crypto projects and the potential for private blockchains to become the norm

Why he thinks Worldcoin’s distribution strategy is a “disaster”

Olaf’s interest in the intersection of AI and crypto and potential developments in this area

His bullish outlook on SocialFi and Web3 gaming

Thank you to our sponsors! Popcorn Network

Guest:

Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CIO of Polychain Capital

Previous appearances on Unchained:

Olaf Carlson-Wee: 'If There Is a Money-Losing Exploit, the Money Is Gone'

Why The First Employee Of Coinbase Launched A Hedge Fund

To the Moon and Back With Polychain's Olaf Carlson-Wee

Special Episode with CNBC's Crypto Trader: Olaf Carlson-Wee on Why This Crypto Winter Is Different From Previous Ones

All Things Cryptoeconomics, Pt. 1, With Olaf Carlson-Wee and Ryan Zurrer of Polychain Capital

Links:

Olaf Carlson-Wee

Forbes:

This Man Has Been Living On Bitcoin For 3 Years

Why This Hedge Fund CEO Once 'Put Most Of My Meager Life Savings Into Bitcoin'

TechCrunch: The future is a decentralized internet

Blockworks: Why Polychain Capital Founder Never Sells His Crypto

CoinDesk: Olaf Carlson-Wee: Crypto Is the Great Wealth-Redistribution Machine

Restaking/EigenLayer

Unchained:

DeFi Protocol EigenLayer Reaches Restaking Capacity, Pushing TVL Past $1.4 Billion

Do You Need to Think Twice Before Restaking Your Assets?

Olaf’s tweet on EigenLayer

Crypto + AI

Olaf’s tweet: “in crypto nearly 100% of value accrues to start-ups and outsiders, not existing establishment interests”

The crypto ethos

Episode of The Chopping Blockwhere Haseeb Qureshi talks about Justin Sun

Recent investments from Polychain Capital

CoinDesk: Crypto VC Firm Polychain Capital Raises $200M for Fourth Fund: Fortune (Jul 18, 2023)

Polychain Capital and Hack VC Lead $18 Million Funding Round for Bitcoin Staking Protocol Babylon

The Block: Polychain Capital-backed Bioniq to leverage Internet Computer with new Bitcoin Ordinals marketplace

Fortune: Polychain Capital among group betting $20 million that first-person shooter ‘Shrapnel’ can succeed where other Web3 games have failed,

CreateSafe, the company behind Grimes AI, raises $4.6m in seed round

Unchained Podcast is Produced by Laura Shin Media, LLC. Distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Michele Musso and Executive Producer is Jared Schwartz.