Tim Roughgarden, a theoretical computer scientist and, Columbia University professor has been appointed as a head of Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) new crypto research unit. Roughgarden’s CV includes more than three years as a computer science professor at Columbia University in New York, as well as a 14-year stint at Stanford. Since February of last year, he has also worked as a research partner at a16z.
a16z is one of the most active venture capital firms in cryptocurrency, with funds worth an estimated $9 billion. Roughgarden has stated that its funding for crypto research will increase by “many multiples of the next couple of years,” in part because of the firm’s new unit, which was announced earlier today.
Columbia University professor Roughgarden’s stated that:
“We’re currently in a particular moment in time, witnessing a new multidisciplinary field (spurred by web3) blossom before our eyes. There are enormous opportunities to shape this field through research and education.”
Dan Boneh, a computer science and electrical engineering professor at Stanford University, will also join Roughgarden as a senior research advisor. Boneh has been a portfolio research advisor at a16z for the past four years and also teaches applied cryptography at the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research.
The firm cited Roughgarden’s background in computer science, research, and economics, as well as his crypto and blockchain course at Columbia as one of the “best and most popular” online crypto introductions. Roughgarden was among the first to provide a formal analysis of Ethereum’s EIP-1559 fee mechanism.
As per a16z, the research team will form a multidisciplinary lab that will collaborate with its portfolio companies and others to solve “the important problems in the space,” increase user adoption, and advance Web3 science and technology.
According to the firm, “new entrepreneurial ideas for a Web3 application or protocol tend to uncover fresh research challenges,” which are critical to solving in order to secure the future of blockchain and crypto.
Scaling and development of infrastructure, tokenomics that benefit all participants, and methods to build token economies in Web3 applications such as social media and gaming are examples of such challenges.
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VC firm Andreessen Horowitz launches A16z crypto lab to support research in crypto industry
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