Devin Baker

The Fat Protocol Thesis is being eroded in real time. Not by a faster L1, but by a growing recognition that value capture lives where demand is native and immediate, not abstract and structural.

The point of a free market, though, is that while it can be messier in the short-run than a centrally-planned one, it leaves room for market-based solutions that can be better in the long-run.

The argument in favor of a BSR is similar to the US’s rationale for stockpiling the largest amount of gold vs any other nation-state; it allows the US to assert financial supremacy over every other nation in the digital and physical realms. If Bitcoin is the hardest money ever known, then the strongest government fiat currency is the one whose... See more

For our purposes here, we will just draw a simple distinction between L1s and L2s:

• L1 – Network relies on its own dedicated operators.


• L2 – Network relies on the operators of another network. It may or may not have its own dedicated operators in addition to these.

America is the machine that builds the machines that builds the machines.

Recently the term REV (Real Economic Value) was coined – representing the subset of network activity that directly compensates the protocol for providing security and state maintenance. This includes:

• Base fees collected for transaction inclusion


• MEV tips that pass through to validators or stakers


• Blob/data availability fees in the case of modular

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At a16z, we believe that the best thing that a society can do for a person is to give them a chance. Give them a shot at a great life regardless of their circumstance, background, ethnicity, religion, gender or any other attribute. Give them a shot, a chance to contribute, a chance to do something larger than themself and make the world a better... See more

The regulatory environment is clearing a path for builders to realize the potential of tokens as a new digital primitive, akin to what websites were for previous generations of the internet. With regulatory clarity, more network tokens will be able to complete their economic loop by generating revenue that accrues to tokenholders — creating a new... See more