Robert Leshner and Jesse Walden: Deep Dive on Decentralization

Jesse Walden, a former a16z investment partner and Mediachain cofounder, and Robert Leshner, founder and CEO of Compound, do a “Deep Dive on Decentralization.” Walden starts with a playbook for progressive decentralization — the process by which crypto project creators build a useful product, create a community around that product, and then gradually hand over control of the maturing network to the community. This process is in keeping with the cooperative model of crypto networks, which drives rapid, compounding innovation through better alignment of incentives and open participation. Leshner follows with a case study of his experiences at Compound, an automated money market for crypto assets in which lenders and borrowers can come together to transact without the involvement of third parties. Compound, one of the first crypto projects to move through the full progressive decentralization model, built a thriving community of third-party application developers, who have set up shop on top of Compound’s smart-contract protocol. The Compound team has gradually brought this community further into the protocol’s inner workings; in the final stages before handoff to the community, the founding team made changes transparently, with greater reliance on the community’s input, and created a sandbox for experimentation to test governance mechanisms. Decentralizing “allows the protocol to live forever,” Leshner says, which fosters innovation because developers can trust the protocol with their businesses and livelihood.

Andreessen Horowitz’s Crypto Startup School brought together 45 participants from around the U.S. and overseas in a seven-week course to learn how to build crypto companies. Andreessen Horowitz is partnering with TechCrunch to release the online version of the course over the next few weeks.

[leo.espiritual]

mi mind blow at 25.
essa aula é um grande passo para a humanidade. Amado, gratidao por todos seus ensimentos.
this class is a big step for humanity. Beloved, gratitude for all your feelings.

[mikl]

If tokens are distributed free to users, and not used as a fundraising mechanism, because Compound relied on venture funding earlier, what I don't understand is, how does the venture funding get its exit? Does the venture fund hold tokens which it will then sell into the market after the free float is established? Or was the venture investment in some separate entity? If so how does that entity make profit? Where is the missing piece we're not hearing about?

[nandit]

great video on building an awesome decentralized product

[zuggrr]

mmm... He didn't actually answer what is their business model... does anyone know ?

[prasadmahadik]

Great videos! Are there going to be more of these videos?

[utkarshjain]

Can we please get the slides used in this video?

[allstarunderdogs]

Are these presentations you guys use readily available somewhere somehow?

[wetwarerecords]

We really love this video! Very inspiring. Especially for our team that's working on decentralized social media daily.

We'd love to send you our whitepaper

[danielospinabotero]

Very old fashioned thinking. No wonder they are a web2 VC

[danieljychun]

Cool project - artracx thanks . Is compound token erc20