Chris Dixon Explores the Intersection of Cryptography and AI

David George, partner of a16z Growth, and Chris Dixon, partner of a16z crypto, had a conversation to explore their vision for the new Internet

"What keeps a company in business? It's not the enthusiasm of the founder, nor the brilliance of the engineers, nor the devotion of the sales force. It's the customers. If they don't come back, nothing else matters." - Ben Horowitz, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

In a recent conversation, David George, partner of a16z Growth, and Chris Dixon, partner of a16z crypto, delved into their vision for the new Internet, highlighting decentralized AI infrastructure with cryptocurrency.

As technology advances at an unprecedented pace, we are witnessing the convergence of three major trends: mobile Internet, social networking, and cloud computing. Together, they form a powerful force that is transforming our world.

Fifteen years ago, mobile Internet enabled the number of users with computing devices to increase from hundreds of millions to billions, expanding the realm of technology to encompass a vast majority of the global population. This remarkable growth was fueled by the widespread adoption of mobile phones and other portable devices, connecting billions of individuals to the digital realm.

At the same time, social networking emerged as the "killer application," captivating users and fostering a sense of community on a massive scale. Platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn brought people together, facilitating interaction, sharing, and the formation of close-knit groups based on common interests and goals.

Providing the foundation for this technological revolution was cloud computing, offering the essential infrastructure for the mobile Internet and social networking to flourish. Services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure provided scalable and flexible computing resources, storage, and other services, empowering developers and businesses to build and deploy applications at an unprecedented rate.

Together, these three trends—mobile Internet, social networking, and cloud computing—were interconnected and interdependent, each contributing to the success of the others. Their combined impact transformed the technological landscape and laid the groundwork for the next chapter in our digital journey.

However, as technology advanced, the original business model of the Internet began to decompose, necessitating the introduction of a completely new model, especially for content creators. This shift in the economic paradigm was crucial for the sustainable development of the decentralized web.

"We might be breaking the economic contract of the Internet," said Chris Dixon, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, in a recent interview with David George.

Dixon explained that the Internet has always been fueled by an interplay of incentives. While search engines and social platforms obtained the rights to content, creators benefited from increased traffic and visibility for their work. This symbiotic relationship powered the growth of the web, with various actors contributing to a common goal.

However, with the advent of AI, this balance is being disrupted. AI can directly generate content, rendering the need for links and traffic less relevant. In this scenario, content creators, such as travel bloggers or food critics, who previously relied on search engines to drive visitors to their websites, would be economically devastated as users prefer consuming AI-generated content.

"The question is, how will new websites get made, and how will new things get created? We haven't really thought about that," said Dixon.

He further highlighted the implications of AI for content creators, stating that "the essence of the complaint is that if you're a travel blogger, food blogger, or if you make stock images, or if you're a small creator in any way, the economic incentives of the internet work in a certain way that have allowed you to get paid. But if AI can generate all of these things, there's no reason for people to go to your blog anymore."

This shift in the economic paradigm has led to the need for a new model, especially for content creators.

"I think we need to recognize that this is destroying the original incentive mechanism of the internet. And the second question is, is this a good thing? I don'operability. It began with nothing, and over 10 years, Linux achieved a 90% market share in the server operating system, while Windows decreased from 90% to 10%.

The same principle applies to a knowledge integration system like Wikipedia. It started small, with a few volunteers contributing their knowledge to create the world's largest encyclopedia. Today, millions of users worldwide contribute to and benefit from this collective effort.

Returning to Story Protocol, it enables creative content to be combined like Lego bricks, with each creator contributing a piece to a larger whole. For instance, one creator can make a character, another can write a story, and a third can use AI to generate animation, all coming together to form a new superhero universe.

"The key to this model is that the flow of funds is transparent and fair," said George.

This way, creators can use AI tools to improve efficiency and receive financial rewards, rather than being exploited.

"It induces people to use these new tools and provides an economic model. In our investment thinking, we