Joel Monegro, partner at crypto VC firm Placeholder Ventures, describes how well his seminal blog post, "Fat Protocols," is holding up, why he and his partner Chris Burniske opted to found a crypto VC firm as opposed to a hedge fund, and what main factors they think will determine the success of a blockchain. He also describes how crypto and blockchains fit into the evolution of technology, how the business models in the crypto space will be built, and why their first publicly known investment was in Decred. Plus, he reveals why their firm is called Placeholder.

Placeholder: https://www.placeholder.vc

Joel: https://twitter.com/jmonegro

The Placeholder investment thesis: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmZL4eT1gxnE168Pmw3KyejW6fUfMNzMgeKMgcWJUfYGRj/Placeholder%20Thesis%20Summary.pdf

The Fat Protocols Thesis:

https://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols

Decred investment thesis: https://www.placeholder.vc/blog/2018/5/12/decred-investment-thesis

Blog post on information technology cycles: https://monegro.org/work/2018/2/20/information-technology-market-cycles-a-brief-history

Joel's blog post on the shared data layer of the blockchain application stack:

http://joel.mn/post/104755282493/the-shared-data-layer-of-the-blockchain

and on the blockchain application stack: http://joel.mn/post/103546215249/the-blockchain-application-stack

Two episodes featuring his partner, Chris Burniske:

http://unchainedpodcast.co/how-to-valuate-a-crypto-asset-s3e08

http://unchainedpodcast.co/want-higher-returns-invest-in-bitcoin-say-arks-chris-burniske-and-coinbases-adam-white

Another episode that I forgot to mention during the show, the interview with Bill Tai, which contains ideas that overlap quite a bit with Joel's:

http://unchainedpodcast.co/maitai-globals-bill-tai-on-why-blockchain-is-the-6th-wave-of-technology

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