How We’re Thinking About AI
Tasteful AI; the SocialFi stack; running the risk with tokens
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Congress is finally focused on crypto regulations (thanks, in part, to tireless work from our Chief Legal Officer, Jake Chervinsky). And Variant is back with another newsletter.
Okay, so it’s not the type of stuff that makes headlines, but we’re really excited to put regulatory questions aside and see what people are actually building.
In our posts below, Mason breaks down the four layers of the SocialFi stack, Li explores the different ways projects are merging AI and crypto, and Alana examines AI models with subjective outputs. Jake, meanwhile, muses about how token-based projects can calibrate for regulatory risk after last month’s EIGEN launch.
Finally, if you want to learn what’s new in the world of interoperability, come join us—and our friends from Base, Hyperlane, Reservoir, and AcrossBase—at our first Variant Builder Day. Click here to apply before June 7.
Enjoy reading.
What to read
Recent posts from Variant
Mason Nystrom: Verticalization of the Web3 Social Stack
As the SocialFi frontier expands, applications must own multiple layers of the web3 social stack to build protocol defensibility.
Li Jin: On the Intersection of AI and Crypto
At Variant, we believe the coupling of crypto and AI is fundamental to making AI equitable and user-owned. Here are the types of projects we’re seeing.
Alana Levin: AI Models with Taste
AI models can be trained to complete many types of objective tasks. But some have more subjective outputs, like making art. They need "taste."
Jake Chervinsky: On Non-Transferability, Geofencing, and the Regulatory Risk Spectrum of Token Distributions
The SEC has refused to provide a workable pathway for the registration of digital assets. So what is a risk-averse lawyer to do?
Updates from our portfolio
April and May highlights from the startups we’re proud to invest in
Zora, the NFT minting platform, acquired Mint.fun and is now on Coinbase Wallet.
Turnkey, which builds wallet infrastructure, raised a Series A.
Worldcoin’s World App reached 10 million users.
Reservoir's Relay, a cross-chain payments system, launched swaps.
LsETH from Alluvial, a contributor to the Liquid Collective, is now the exclusive liquid staking solution of Blockdaemon.
Variant announced our investments in Farcaster, a decentralized social protocol (Series A), and in Farcaster client Nook (preseed).
Thinking in public
We welcome your input and replies on X and Warpcast.
Jesse sees two paths converging toward onchain media:
Alana is putting out the call for Farcaster economics experts:
Jake isn’t sure there will be another crypto ETF soon:
Jack is looking for Farcaster AI data:
If this newsletter gave you ideas, remember that at Variant we’re always trying to help builders take their projects from -1 to 0. That means we love it when founders get in touch with us before they’ve even founded anything. Here are some ways to get on our radar at any stage:
Next Thing Dinner Series: Apply to join us for an intimate group dinner with builders across the full crypto stack who are beginning to think about their next things (-1 to 0 stage). Our next one is at EthCC.
Taco Tuesdays: Come co-work with us—we’ll bring the hot sauce.
Our DMs and DCs are open.
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you next issue.
Disclaimer: This post is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any investment and should not be used in the evaluation of the merits of making any investment decision. It should not be relied upon for accounting, legal or tax advice or investment recommendations. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by Variant. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Variant has not independently verified such information. Variant makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This post reflects the current opinions of the authors and is not made on behalf of Variant or its Clients and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Variant, its General Partners, its affiliates, advisors or individuals associated with Variant. The opinions reflected herein are subject to change without being updated.