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Chris Dixon

Founder & Managing Partner, a16z crypto · 3 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorfounderauthor@cdixon ↗LinkedIn ↗cdixon.org ↗Wikipedia ↗

Chris Dixon founded and leads a16z crypto, managing multibillion-dollar dedicated funds and backing notable companies such as Coinbase and Oculus. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz in 2012, he co-founded startups SiteAdvisor and Hunch, and authored the 2024 book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet.

99statements → 40claims → 21claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 3.64/5average certainty → 2.4/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 13said about them ↓

7 supported 5 partly supported 9 contradicted 19 not checkable as stated how the 40 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

9 predictions · 31 assertions · 17 opinions · 32 insights · 9 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 40 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 21 are resolved, and 19 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Chris argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Dixon: Global NFT sales reached $8.6 billion in 2023
“There were 8.6 billion in NFT sales last year.”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 32:11 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up
Dixon: Web3 payouts will pass Web2 payouts in next couple years
“I believe we'll see in the next couple of years, web three payouts past web two payouts.”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 20:28 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
33% certainty 3
54% certainty 4
0% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Chris Dixon on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Chris Dixon said on Capital Allocators that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Dixon: Interest rates and macro factors are irrelevant to early-stage VC
“People talk about interest rates. I don't think it's relevant to early stage venture capital, because again, it's like any exit would be 10 years away. And fundamentally to get there, it's just so much more Driven by the quality of the team and the ideas than …”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 28:35 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Dixon: Google and Facebook will become low-growth legacy giants like IBM
“I think they're very likely going to become like IBM and HP and just chugging along and not really doing much new innovative stuff. They'll still be around and they'll still have their services, but I think that their relevance and growth are limited.”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 14:27 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dixon: a16z owns less than 5% of most Web3 networks
“Generally what we own, contrary to Jack Dorsey and others saying that we own web three, we generally own sub five percent of most of these networks.”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 18:42 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Dixon: Web3 payouts will pass Web2 payouts in next couple years
“I believe we'll see in the next couple of years, web three payouts past web two payouts.”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 20:28 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Dixon: Decentralized blockchain communities will build tomorrow's social networks
“A lot of the thesis we have with crypto blockchain is that a similar thing will happen with internet services in the same way that almost all software today is made by a group, a community of people who get together and build something. We think the same thing…”
Chris Dixon Jan 11, 2021 ▶ 29:45 Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
Opinion
Dixon: Bitcoin is too eccentric to scale to billions of users
“I think Bitcoin's important, but I think a little too eccentric for the billions of people kind of scale.”
Chris Dixon Jan 11, 2021 ▶ 45:53 Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
Assertion Contradicted
Dixon: No top App Store apps were created in the last decade
“Go look at the top apps in the app store. And none of those services were created in the last 10 years.”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 10:56 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
Insight
Dixon: Centralized platforms inevitably shift from attracting creators to extracting value
“These networks have a set of shifting incentives where when they start off, They're solicitous to software developers, creators. They have to be their startup. But over time, as they gain power and the network effects kick in, they start to extract.”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 11:57 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
Opinion
Dixon: Blockchains combine protocol network rights with corporate network capabilities
“So blockchain is the best of both worlds. So you get the societal benefits of protocol networks where users and software developers and creators have rights and agency and economic benefits, but you also can do a lot of the advanced things that led corporate n…”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 13:01 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
What-if
Dixon: Had RSS won, $150B would have flowed to internet users
“Social networks made last year, one hundred and fifty billion dollars. Had RSS won, and you had an architecture with no gatekeeper, I think it's credible to think that hundred and fifty billion dollars would instead flow to the edges of the network.”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 15:36 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
Insight
Dixon: US crypto policy perversely protects useless tokens over useful products
“So there's this really reverse thing I think happening now where people are afraid to build useful products, but it's perfectly legal to build useless products.”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 49:31 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Dixon: Banning Open-Source AI Would Leave Five Companies In Control
“If it's banned, which I think some places seem to be moving towards, that will end up in a very different world. It'll end up in the world where you have five companies that control the technology and just a very different economic structure.”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 51:59 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
Opinion
Dixon: AI is sustaining for incumbents, while blockchains are disruptive
“I think AI, for example, is sustaining. I think blockchains are disruptive. Blockchains are very, very hard to respond to.”
Chris Dixon Apr 15, 2024 ▶ 55:55 Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
Insight
Dixon: Web3 combines Web1 open protocols with Web2 functionality
“The goal of web three is to get the best of both worlds, to get the democratized open protocols of web one and the advanced functionality that we've come to love, mobile apps, fast user experience, everything else from web two and combine those.”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 10:18 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Opinion
Dixon: Focusing on institutional crypto adoption puts the cart before horse
“I think of it as we need to build great products used by billions of people. And then I just assume the institutions will follow. The institutions are going to go where the growth and the money is, frankly. That's what comes first. So I feel like people are pu…”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 17:39 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Dixon: Web3 services will not have dominant network effects locking users in
“In the case of Web three, the network is owned by the community yet. I think you'll have big services. We'll hopefully invest in some of them, but they won't have the dominant network effects that lock you in and users will have a choice. Users can exit.”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 24:58 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Opinion
Dixon: US stablecoin regulation perversely incentivizes offshore evasion
“USDC gets all the attention from the regulators and the other ones are ignored. And it creates this perverse incentive where it actually, I think, incentivizes people to be offshore, more aggressive, because they don't get the scrutiny, and the people that wan…”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 33:06 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dixon: Majority of top studio spinouts are building Web3 games
“Those game developers, I would say the majority of them are now doing NFT web three gaming.”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 34:14 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Disclosure
Dixon: a16z Crypto never joins party rounds and only leads investments
“When we invest, we don't do quote unquote party rounds. We don't put a little bit of money here and dabble. We either invest and lead and back up the truck and put all our resources behind it and roll up our sleeves or we don't invest.”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 41:24 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Opinion
Dixon: Tech workers lack mission drive in SaaS compared to Web3
“This is in no way to diminish other categories, but I just don't think people feel mission-driven with respect to SaaS software, as an example, or databases. I think those are important categories, just so you know, and our firm invests in them. They provide r…”
Chris Dixon Jun 27, 2022 ▶ 42:33 Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Dixon: Blockchain is about to enter an exponential growth flywheel phase
“I think we're about to hit that, I believe, in the blockchain world.”
Chris Dixon Jan 11, 2021 ▶ 26:43 Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
Insight
Dixon: Blockchains are computers capable of making immutable, programmatic commitments
“I call blockchains computers that can make commitments. And so what that means is you write some software on the Ethereum computer and you can write some software that says, I'm going to build a social network. And on this social network, I'm going to commit t…”
Chris Dixon Jan 11, 2021 ▶ 35:02 Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Dixon predicts mainstream consumer blockchain adoption within one to five years
“I would say the short answer is somewhere between one and five years.”
Chris Dixon Jan 11, 2021 ▶ 39:38 Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
Insight
Dixon: Liquidity is a bug, not a feature in venture capital
“I believe that in my business, at least liquidity is a bug and not a feature. And what I mean by that is the ability to sell something is a very, very dangerous thing and can mess with you. And I bet you that if most venture capitalists could sell their stock …”
Chris Dixon Jan 11, 2021 ▶ 1:06:33 Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)

Show 24statements(75 left)

The other half of the tape: Chris Dixon's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 12 times in 11 episodes on Capital Allocators. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Ted Seides 7Sonal Chokshi 1Scott Kupor 1Leigh Drogen 1Joelle Kayden 1Ali Hamed 1

Statements about Chris Dixon, by other people (1)

Opinion
Drogen: Dixon and Wilson build winning crypto tech rather than predict it
“There are a couple of people out there like Chris Dixon at Andreessen Horowitz, Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures that they're making these things. But anybody else, I don't think any of us knows which one is going to win long term.”
Leigh Drogen Jun 2, 2022 ▶ 29:42 Leigh Drogen – Quantamental Approach to Crypto at Starkiller Capital (Manager Meeting, EP.32)

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00438620182019202020212022episodesmentions
03620182019202020212022episodes it came up in
000.831.5620182019202020212022episodesmentions per episode
2022 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2021 7 mentions in 6 episodes 1 per episode
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380) Apr 15, 2024 45m
Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05) Jun 27, 2022 41m
Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172) Jan 11, 2021 53m
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