Jeff Amico
@_jamico
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Following
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COO @GensynAI / ex @a16z @Cravath
Los Angeles, CA
Joined August 2018
🚨 NEW REPORT. GPT@home: Why the Future of Training is Decentralized. Can we train a large AI model over the world’s edge devices?. Increasingly the answer appears to be yes. New report on decentralized training - why it matters, recent breakthroughs, and the challenges ahead.
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Over the last year @a16z has delegated the majority of our governance rights in protocols like @Uniswap @Compoundfinance to a network of nonprofits, startups, university orgs & more. Today were excited to share the details of this program & open source all of its component parts.
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a16z voted AGAINST the Flipside Crypto @Uniswap proposal. We appreciate the hard work of @flipsidecrypto in bringing this proposal forward, and believe a modified version of it could be successful, but we do not think the current version should pass. Here’s why:.
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Biden's AI Executive Order is out and it’s terrible for US innovation. Here are some of the new obligations, which only large incumbents will be able to comply with 👇
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We just wrapped up the Spring 23 cohort of Crypto Startup School, and we couldn’t be more excited about the future. It’s been a privilege supporting this group as they build and push our industry forward. As we look ahead, we wanted to highlight the 26 amazing teams who joined
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Some personal news. I’ve joined @a16z as counsel to focus on law and policy in crypto. I’m extremely excited and lucky to work with such a talented team, including @katie_haun @cdixon @apruden08 @ali01 @eddylazzarin @NinaSuthers & many others.
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The US is making it hard for AI startups to compete. This began with Biden’s Executive Order and continues with the new AI Bill in California. Here’s what these rules mean for the space:
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Energy will soon become the biggest bottleneck in AI. Gigawatt datacenters are already being built; larger ones are on the way; countries will struggle to produce enough power to satisfy demand. Distributed training will become increasingly important, helping balance
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.@a16z supports @compoundfinance Proposal 100. COMP rewards have proven successful over the last 2 years, helping to bootstrap adoption & decentralize governance of the protocol. Having accomplished these goals, we think a new approach is warranted today. Here’s why:.
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Thrilled to announce our new seed accelerator, Crypto Startup School, which I’ll be moving over to run full time! 🌱🚀. Program includes:.Funding from @a16zcrypto.Mentorship from top founders.Advice from domain experts.Network of fellow builders. Apply:
Today we’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new accelerator, Crypto Startup School. The program will include:. Investment from @a16zcrypto ($500k).Mentorship from leading founders.Advice from domain experts.Network of fellow builders. Apply:
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These include our: . 1) Best practices for token delegation.2) Criteria for assessing delegates.3) Legal mechanics and template docs.4) Current delegate network .5) Ideas for future improvement.
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.@a16z will vote against @compoundfinance Proposal 84. Deciding to add new collateral assets is one of the most important decisions that COMP tokenholders must make, since these assets are what backstop the protocol's loans. These decisions should be weighed carefully.
A massive $COMP loan has on-chain sleuths wondering if @justinsuntron is trying to sway a governance proposal on @compoundfinance. @Blockanalia reports .
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Reviewing the Crypto Startup School applications and selecting this cohort has been an incredibly inspiring experience. We’ve met founders from all over the world who are passionate about crypto and ready to build. We couldn’t be more excited to support their journey.🌱.
We’re excited to share that we’ve finalized the cohort for our upcoming Crypto Startup School!🎉. The program kicks off on March 7th. We’d like to give a huge thank you to the 8,000+ teams who applied from all over the world. Details on the incredibly impressive applicant pool:.
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We're proud to support the creation of the Uniswap Foundation. The UF will foster the continued decentralization of the protocol, via an expanded grants program and additional support for community contributors. We look forward to working with Devin, Ken & team going forward.
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a16z voted YES on dYdX Improvement Proposal 0. The proposal is necessary to restore functionality to the Safety Module and to allow dYdX users to recover their funds from the staking contract. We appreciate the community’s work in identifying and bringing forward a solution 🤝.
dYdX Improvement Proposal 0 by @danrobinson is live. Vote for or against:.🛠️ Restoring functionality to the Safety Module. ✔️ Allowing users who are currently staked to recover their funds. 💸 Allowing users with staked funds to receive rewards. Vote:
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Every crypto service provider should be developing their DAO BD strategy. B2DAO is going to be huge.
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FeiRari is a landmark proposal. It brings together 2 of the most ambitious communities in DeFi & exemplifies the innovative spirit of the industry as a whole. We @a16z are excited to work w/ the combined @RariCapital + @feiprotocol communities as they build the future of DeFi 💥.
Cross-DAO voting of epic proportions begins now 💥. Vote on the historic FeiRari proposals here ⏬.🏎️ Rari - . 🌲 Fei -
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@a16z delegates in @compoundfinance and @Uniswap now include student clubs at. @StanfordCrypto .@HarvardLawBFI .@CalBlockchain .@blockchainucla .@BlockchainatCU .@MITBitcoinClub . All are passionate about crypto and bring unique perspectives to governance. More to come soon!.
🦄Verifying myself as a @UniswapProtocol #UNIDelegate on Sybil🏛 addr:0xdC1F98682F4F8a5c6d54F345F448437b83f5E432 sig:0x8f37e673f279641b867a2f90deb676657645f9a8d35a2b0e0519f660323de50e2d4846ff3a4f43991c2287efdfb1455f4c806395a4c85d0f018dc337febe20211c.
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The structure is overly complex and lacks proper oversight. It nominally sets up a grants program to fund data analytics, but that program is effectively administered by a single service provider in that field. This understandably has cast doubt on the neutrality of the program.
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I think two things are simultaneously true right now. 1. The SEC’s application of securities laws to crypto has been consistent with the principles of U.S. securities laws and existing legal doctrine. 2. We need more specificity on concepts like "sufficient decentralization".
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Incredibly excited for @jasonrosenthal to continue building CSS. Can't think of anyone better to support our early stage founders as they begin their journey. Stay tuned for updates on the next cohort and be sure to apply if you're starting something new!💪.
1/ Very excited to share that I’m expanding my role at @a16zcrypto to lead Crypto Startup School, beginning with our Spring 2024 Cohort in London.
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DeFi is taking off because it allows people to make money from things that they’ve never been able to do before, like margin lending or market making. Some of this may be reg arbitrage (we’ll see) but a lot of it is just about abstracting complexity and reducing barriers to entry.
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If on the other hand the proposal is meant to be a grant to a specific company, that’s OK! DAOs should be able to contract for services with specific vendors, but those arrangements should be explicit, with clear terms and a right to terminate (decided by the community).
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Thrilled to add @UMichBlockchain to our growing delegate network! 🚀. @CalBlockchain .@StanfordCrypto .@HarvardLawBFI .@PennBlockchain .@BlockchainatCU .@blockchainucla .@MITBitcoinClub . The future of crypto is bright 😎.
Ecstatic to announce that @a16z is delegating 2.5M $UNI and 50K $COMP to Blockchain at Michigan!. We look forward to advancing the future of DeFi with some of our favorite friends @amico_jeffrey @CalBlockchain @HarvardLawBFI @PennBlockchain @ColumbiaCBA @StanfordCrypto and more.
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Apply now for our next cohort! 🌱.
.@brian_armstrong on finding product market fit. Video from our 2020 Crypto Startup School. Applications for our next cohort are now open! 📝. Apply here:
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We also look forward to gathering feedback and finding ways to refine our approach. In addition to the materials included in the blog, you can find the rest of our templates/mechanics at our Github repo going forward, so let us know what you think
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Pretty cool. Also checks some of the key boxes that earlier utility tokens missed. - rewards actual users of the platform.- distribution tied to usage .- has real consumptive use cases.- platform already built and widely used.- not used to raise funds or marketed as investment.
Wow. @reddit mobile app now has an integrated Ethereum wallet and they've launched community currencies!. r/FortniteBR & r/Cryptocurrency will distribute tokens to contributors, the value of which derives from paid memberships, tipping & badges!. Amazing onboarding story too!
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1/ @a16z voted against @compoundfinance Proposal 86. While we support adding MATIC to the protocol, we think the community should wait until @OpenZeppelin has a chance to review the integration and define a process for listing new assets going forward.
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Why decentralized training is the future. Part 1: State of model training today.Part 2: Recent breakthroughs in distributed training.Part 3: Power of edge compute.Part 4: Remaining challenges. Part 1 below, including why training is so expensive 👇
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If the proposal is intended to be a grants program that’s open to all service providers, then it should be fully arms-length from Flipside (inc. both the Allocation Cmte and the Oversight Cmte), which is not currently the case. The @uniswapgrants program offers great precedent.
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1/ @a16z is proud to support @NomicFoundation’s request for funding from @Uniswap and @compoundfinance. Public goods like @HardhatHQ are essential to the development of protocols like Compound & Uniswap and the Ethereum ecosystem more broadly.
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We plan to post further thoughts in the Uniswap forums, and hope to have the opportunity to work with Flipside and the community on a new proposal that works for all sides.
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History of AI offers many parallels to crypto:. - Periods of hype followed by long "winters" of doubt.- Longer than expected path to commercial use case.- Tribalism b/w different approaches.- Rebrandings during winters (neural nets --> deep learning).- Eventual breakthrough as
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Compound’s Audit RFP is a major milestone, both for the protocol and for the broader DAO ecosystem. Here's a quick overview on how it worked, why it matters, and how it can serve as a blueprint for other DAOs looking to hire service providers going forward.👇.
Proposals 075, 076, & 077 are competing #B2DAO proposals submitted by @chain_security, @OpenZeppelin, and @trailofbits to provide audit & security services to the Compound protocol. Voting begins in 2 days. Discussion:
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Current state of decentralized training. Where do things stand today? 👇
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.@compoundfinance has been at the cutting edge of DeFi since the get go, and Jake is a big reason for that. From their pioneering governance model to their broader advocacy work, kudos to @jchervinsky for helping to drive Compound and the entire industry forward 🔥.
1/ Some personal news: after 2.5 amazing years, yesterday was my last day at @compoundfinance ❤️. It's been a genuine honor helping @rleshner, @justHGH, & the Compound Labs team build the future of finance 🤖. I'm taking October off, then starting a new challenge (stay tuned) 🧵.
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Given this desired endstate, early stakeholders in these networks should think critically as to their role in this process & what they can do to help catalyze this transition to long-term community governance. We’ve discussed a few such ideas previously .
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If you acquire a large amount of compute, you must disclose “the existence and location of these clusters and the amount of total computing power available in each cluster.”. Treating compute - an inherently neutral technology - as a dangerous resource that must be regulated.
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And a huge shoutout to all of the founders who made this cohort so special:. @levychain @elliefarrisi; @jessziyuezhang @0Linglong0 @noweiitsmichael; @_nityas @adeets_22 Norwood Square; @NikitaVarabei @umariomaker Vito Giovannetti; @j_eth_id; @0xFAR @ChelseyWickmark; @brandontory.
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Many assume decentralized model training will look like regular training, but distributed. In reality it will look different. Models will be more modular, less monolithic, with small adapters / pieces of the model running on edge devices, with a routing layer between them. Of
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But first, it’s worth explaining why we delegate our tokens at all. Unlike traditional companies, protocols are meant to be governed on a decentralized basis. This unlocks their core value prop (neutrality) and ensures they’ll remain open to anyone who wants to use/build on them.
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Let us know if you're interested in becoming an @a16z governance delegate! 👇.
In August we at a16z open sourced our thinking around token delegation. Today we’re opening up a delegate application for individuals and organizations interested in participating in DeFi governance for Uniswap and Compound.
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It was a privilege working with @GregJessner @mattschoch and the Narval team during Crypto Startup School. Big congrats on their new seed round today! 👇.
We are super proud to announce @Narvalgmi's $4M seed round led by @BlockTower, alongside @fabric_vc & @frst_vc. We also gladly welcome aboard @a16zcrypto (Crypto Startup School), @CherryVentures, @motierventures and @Bpifrance, and an amazing group of business angels. 🚀.
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The increased raise caps under Reg A and CF are great here. But I think the even bigger deal is the ability for Reg CF issuers to group crowd investors into a single SPV on the cap table. Common sense reform, and hopefully a shot in the arm for Reg CF. Here's why it matters.
SEC proposes rule changes to harmonize, simplify and improve the exempt offering framework
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If you are developing a large model, you must report “the ownership and possession of the model weights of [your model], and the physical and cybersecurity measures taken to protect those model weights.”. Implied restriction on open sourcing model weights.
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To understand the role of crypto you first need to understand the history of the internet, and why certain early shortcomings have led to our status quo. Nobody tells this history better (or more concisely) than Chris, while also painting an optimistic vision for the future. This.
For the last 12 months I’ve been working on a book. I’m excited to talk about it for the first time today. 📘. Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet (March 2024, publisher: Random House). Pre-order here:
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Useful analogy: Airbnb vs. Uber. GPU marketplaces are like Airbnb. User scrolls the list of options, picks one, rents it for a period of time. Suppliers are all distinct, branded, and not commoditized. Training platforms (like @gensynai) are like Uber. User submits a task they.
Correct. Decentralized training is very different from the “GPU marketplace” category it currently gets lumped into. It will eventually subsume that category, as users prefer programmatic training vs renting + managing a specific machine.
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Nice piece by @ReedAlbergotti on @gensynai and decentralized compute markets. "Blockchain got really good at efficiently selling compute power to the highest bidder with very little fuss. And now, the generative-AI craze has spawned a new industry that is even more.
Desperately searching for a GPU to train your AI model? You might find one . on the blockchain. New from me:
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The whole point of decentralization is to build resilient systems without single points of failure. That seems like an important priority in AI these days. If you're interested in building this future, reach out. 🫡.
AI will transform our lives. But we cannot leave it to the hands of a small few. @karpathy is right. We need decentralization for AI to succeed. Here's why 👇.
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This was fun! . Check it out if you're curious about decentralized training and why 2025 is going to be a big year. .
It’s live 🌐 Around the Block: Decentralized Training. A 90-minute conversation with 6 of the brightest minds in our portfolio at the center of decentralized training, moderated by @jbrukh
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It’s been a remarkable privilege to work with Katie over the last two years. She’s the reason I joined @a16z and has been an incredible colleague, mentor and friend since then. I’m excited to see what she builds, and to continue working together to shape the future of web3. 🚀.
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If you are developing a large model, you must report to the government re: “any ongoing or planned activities related to training, developing, or producing [your] model.”. Essentially public company reporting for startups building large models.
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If you're an infra provider, you must report to the gov't anytime a “foreign person [transacts]…to train a large AI model with potential capabilities that could be used in malicious cyber-enabled activity.”. New KYC regime for compute, increasing costs of transacting w/ startups
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California's AI Bill is a threat to innovation. It protects incumbents, blocks open source, and pushes innovation offshore. Here's what it means for startups:. 1. Pre-Training Assessment of "Hazardous Capabilities". If you're training a "large" model (anything using more
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This is a roadmap for anyone looking to build a successful, user-centric network on the web today. It explains why protocols are the right foundation to build networks on. It also explains why many prior attempts have fallen short. Important lessons from the history of the
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So where does this all end up?. Startups will struggle to meet the burden of these new laws, most of which are impossible for small teams to comply with. Their counterparties (including centralized clouds) will find it more difficult to serve them, given the new reporting.
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@levychain @elliefarrisi @jessziyuezhang @0Linglong0 @noweiitsmichael @_nityas @adeets_22 @NikitaVarabei @umariomaker @j_eth_id @0xfar @ChelseyWickmark @brandontory Check out our full recap of CSS23 here, and stay tuned for updates on upcoming cohorts.
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Bear markets are the best time to build, but they're challenging for obvious reasons. CSS helps you navigate the terrain with @a16zcrypto and a cohort of fellow founders at your back. No better platform to launch something new. Apply now 👇.
Applications are now open for Crypto Startup School 2024, taking place this spring in London, UK. Crypto Startup School is twelve-week accelerator designed for the specific needs of web3 startups, featuring lectures and mentorship from industry experts, talks from founders,
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Nvidia today is IBM in the mainframe era. Fully integrated offering (hardware, software, services), closed source, monopoly position. Who becomes the Microsoft who builds the standard OS that breaks the monopoly by commoditizing the underlying hardware?
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Training current model architectures over decentralized compute is skeumorphic. Akin to early days of the web when we copied old media onto webpages. Breakthroughs will come from new model arch's that leverage the novelties of these networks, rather than try and mitigate them.
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On FIT21 and Why it Matters. Tokens are a breakthrough in network design. They incentivize cooperation towards shared goals among unaffiliated parties. In doing so, they enable crowdsourced markets for digital resources that can compete with monopoly incumbents. This drives.
In the next two weeks, the House of Representatives will vote on the most important piece of crypto legislation to date: FIT21. We’ve long called for regulatory clarity that protects consumers and innovation and the FIT21 Act will do just that. Americans have embraced digital.
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Today this network includes leading non-profits like @Kiva and @mercycorps; global businesses like Deutsche Telekom; startups like @gauntletnetwork, @argentHQ and @Dharma_HQ; university organizations like @StanfordCrypto & @BlockchainatCU; community leaders like @gettyhill & more.
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Prediction: Google will open source Gemini. Google sees where things are heading (frontier commoditizing). Better to build an open ecosystem vs. try and monetize a closed model. Will put pressure on closed labs who can't afford this strategy. Android 2.0.
We are giving developers 1,500,000,000 tokens for free everyday in the Gemini API. There is no stronger developer value proposition out there 🧵 (1/4).
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Thrilled to continue supporting web3 founders alongside this team. Proud of what we've built, but even more excited for the future. Onward! 🚀.
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While there are ultimately many ways to contribute, we are increasingly strong proponents of token delegation, and believe it is one of the most effective ways that we (and other early stakeholders) can contribute to governance while this overall process plays out.
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To truly serve this purpose though, a “strong” form of delegation is needed. One that not only reduces surface level concentration, but that optimizes for certain other key principles as well, including quality, diversity, engagement, and perhaps most of all, independence.
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Here is @a16z response to FinCEN’s rulemaking on self-hosted wallets. The rule is fatally flawed, both procedurally and substantively, and should be withdrawn. If it’s not, we stand ready to challenge it in court should it become law. Here’s why:.
1/ Read why @a16z opposes @stevenmnuchin1’s proposed crypto rulemaking that was dropped under the cloak of the holidays.
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💯. It's not that "crypto lawyers" should be blindly permissive towards the law (nor is Jake saying that). It's that Twitter is a really bad representation of the legal work being done within the industry (and those actually doing it).
Some "crypto lawyers" are really anti-crypto lawyers. They've become the loudest group on Twitter by far, but they don't speak for the crypto bar as a whole. Just be aware that the lawyers actually doing the work aren't the ones casually throwing out hot take accusations today.
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Fascinating take on Bitcoin and how it arguably found product-market-fit as a new-age speculative game/lottery, rather than its intended use (e-cash). And further, how the game use case inherently undermines the cash use case (due to the resulting vol).
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That's right! We go to great lengths to find a qualified and diverse set of delegates. Today these incl. top co's / orgs like @StanfordCrypto @HarvardLawBFI @CalBlockchain @blockchainucla @Dharma_HQ @argentHQ @gauntletnetwork, and we're excited to add even more from here.
3/ @a16z crypto is also delegating to outside parties, and looks forward to seeing an even more diverse ecosystem of delegates emerge over time. Let us know if that might be you! @amico_jeffrey has the details.
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Strong endorsement of open source AI from @alighodsi and @NaveenGRao. “Trusting two companies to figure this out is not the right way”. 💯
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Excited to add @PennBlockchain to this group. Welcome aboard!.
@a16z delegates in @compoundfinance and @Uniswap now include student clubs at. @StanfordCrypto .@HarvardLawBFI .@CalBlockchain .@blockchainucla .@BlockchainatCU .@MITBitcoinClub . All are passionate about crypto and bring unique perspectives to governance. More to come soon!.
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Positive statement from the SEC on custody of digital securities. Main takeaway: BDs that effect digital securities transactions are better situated if they do not take custody of investor assets, but instead facilitate P2P transactions. Right approach.
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The last decade of ML has been driven by scaling transformer models bigger. This was enabled by . 1) hardware improvements .2) training in lower precision. Both are now hitting a wall. We need new architectures (modular) and methods (decentralized training) to scale further.
This is the most important paper in a long time . It shows with strong evidence we are reaching the limits of quantization. The paper says this: the more tokens you train on, the more precision you need. This has broad implications for the entire field and the future of GPUs🧵
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My latest on security tokens, smart contracts, and the promise of automated compliance in capital markets. @factora_ @fluidityio . (h/t fellow contributors @Cravath @TemplumInc).
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I struggle to see why stablecoins should be regulated as securities.
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While we’ve been excited to see the growth of this network so far, we’re very much in the very early days. We look forward to seeing an even deeper and more diverse group emerge over time. Let us know if that might be you!.
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Future of crypto is bright. Can’t wait to dig in here 👇.
We received 8,000+ applications for our 2023 Crypto Startup School cohort.📝. Huge thanks to everyone from all around the world who took the time to submit.🫡. We'll be reviewing applications in the coming weeks and will reach out with next steps via email.📧.
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Jai is one of the sharpest legal & regulatory minds in the industry. Could not be more excited to welcome him to the @a16z team.
Today, we're welcoming Jai Ramaswamy to @a16z crypto as Chief Regulatory Officer. Jai has the right combo of nuanced perspective, deep expertise, and diverse experiences to help our portfolio navigate the regulatory environment
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Over the last year we’ve built a formal delegation program around these exact principles, and have used it to delegate the majority of our governance rights across a number of protocols to a broad network of qualified delegates.
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Extremely excited to unveil the TAP, which we believe will become a core infrastructure layer allowing legacy capital markets to connect with and leverage the growing ecosystem of DeFi applications.
Today @fluidityio introduced the Tokenized Asset Portfolio (TAP) -- . A model enabling real world assets to be pledged as collateral in decentralized credit facilities --. Including the MakerDAO multi-collateral Dai system cc @makerdao $dai #ethereum.
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The future of DAO governance 👇.
1/ The Governance Steering Council (GSC) is a key feature of the Council Governance framework and will be one of the main mechanisms by which the community will govern the Element Protocol as it decentralizes.
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This was a blast 🔥.
Just wrapped the most world class 1.5 hour roundtable on decentralized AI training ever. Can’t wait to launch this in December! . #deAI @bagel_network @gensynai @Pluralis__ @KivaAi @PrimeIntellect 🔥🔥🔥
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Join us to discuss the topic on everyone's mind today: . Decentralized training!.
Join us for a conversation on the current state of decentralised AI, with:. @m_ryabinin from @togethercompute.@bloc97_ from @NousResearch.@_grieve from @gensynai.@johannes_hage from @PrimeIntellect.@mo_baioumy from @exolabs. November 6.10:30 - 11:30 AM PST.
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Inference costs for GPT-4 fine tunes are 50% higher than the base model. You're also at the mercy of the safety police at all times. Why open source is so important.
We're launching fine-tuning for GPT-4o so you can improve performance and accuracy for your apps.
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It's becoming increasingly clear that this is how all new clubs, groups and ultimately companies are going to be formed in the future. Congrats @BlockchainatCU on blazing the trail! 🔥.
Announcing Lion DAO 🦁. We've decided to launch a DAO on @viamirror to expand the scope of our organization’s opportunities to support the ecosystem and allow for members/alumni to engage with the organization in a crypto-native way.
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