Theoretical computer scientist and professor at Columbia University Tim Roughgarden has been appointed head of Andreessen Horowitz’s new cryptocurrency research unit (a16z).
Roughgarden’s resume includes more than three years as a professor at Columbia University in New York, along with a 14-year stint at Stanford. He is also a research associate of a16z since February of last year.
a16z is one of the most active venture capital firms in the crypto space, with funds worth around $9 billion uby. Guided in part by the firm’s new unit announced today, Roughgarden has stated that its cryptocurrency research funding will grow by “many multiples in the next two years.”.
“We are at a particular moment, in which we are witnessing the blossoming of a new multidisciplinary field (powered by web3) before our eyes. There are tremendous opportunities to shape this field through research and education.”
8/ As a research lab within a VC firm, a16z crypto research represents a new funding model for basic research—one that seems obvious in hindsight (with the long-term focus necessary for fundamental research already hard-wired into the firm’s business model) .
— Tim Roughgarden (@Tim_Roughgarden) April 21, 2022
8/ As a research lab within a venture capital firm, a16z’s cryptocurrency research represents a new funding model for basic research, one that seems obvious in hindsight (with the long-term focus needed for fundamental research already incorporated in the business model of the company).
The firm highlighted Roughgarden’s background in computer science, research, and economics, along with his cryptocurrency and blockchain course at Columbia as one of the “best and most popular” introductions to the online crypto space. Roughgarden was one of the first to provide a formal analysis on the fee mechanism for Ethereum’s EIP-1559 upgrade..
According to a16z, the research team will form a multidisciplinary laboratory that will work with its wallet companies and others to solve “the big problems in the space,” increase user adoption, and advance the science and technology of the Web3.
Professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University, Dan Boneh will also join Roughgarden as Senior Research Advisor. Boneh has worked with a16z for the past four years as a portfolio research advisor and also teaches applied cryptography at the Stanford Blockchain Research Center..
Major announcement from us today: we’re launching a16z crypto research to advance the science and technology of the next generation of the internet, led by the incomparable @Tim_Roughgarden https://t.co/KtvmP7fSkh
— cdixon.eth (@cdixon) April 21, 2022
Important announcement from us today: We are launching a16z cryptocurrency research to advance the science and technology fields of the next generation of the internet, led by the incomparable @Tim_Roughgarden https://t.co/KtvmP7fSkh
The firm noted that “a new business idea for a Web3 application or protocol tends to uncover new research challenges” that are extremely important to solve in order to solidify the future of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
These challenges include infrastructure development and scaling, tokenomics that benefit all participants, and methods for building token economies in Web3 applications.such as social networks and games.
“With the advent of Ethereum and other blockchains that are fully programmable, web3 has unlocked an extremely rich design space for innovation. It is a space that we have only just begun to explore.”
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