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Technological Progress

Content Archive

A chronological archive of writing, podcasts, and videos.

Balaji Srinivasan

• 7 min read
Content Archive

I've never really focused full time on writing and public speaking. It's always been just a hobby relative to my primary avocation of technology. Nevertheless, some smart and persistent folks really wanted to see an index of my work all in one place, and even pitched in to help organize it, so here we go! Below is a list of talks, essays, podcasts, and videos that may be of interest. Please also see waitwho.is for a complementary automatically generated index.

2013

During this period I gave a MOOC on startups to ~250,000 students which had several lectures that I think are of continuing interest, including the one that introduced the concept of the "idea maze" (PDF). I also did a panel with Naval Ravikant and the Winklevosses on Bitcoin (BTC price at the time: $127!), discussed the genomics and robotics behind Counsyl for my MIT TR35 address, spoke at YCombinator's Startup School on Silicon Valley's Ultimate Exit, and wrote about how software will eventually lead to mass migrations and the formation of new countries.

Essays

Videos

2014

While at a16z, I did several investment memos and podcasts. I also did a fun commentary on VR with @cdixon, and collaborated on a piece with Naval on the Bitcoin model for crowdfunding prior to the Ethereum ICO.

Essays

Podcasts

Videos

2015-2016

I didn't produce as much content during this period, as I was busy turning around the vehicle that became Earn (and which we sold to Coinbase in 2018). But the first talk on the Network State and the Stanford discussion with Marc Andreessen where the concept of "personal runway" is introduced are worth checking out.

Essays

Videos

Podcasts

2017

I wrote an early piece on tokens that I think holds up reasonably well today (though there's more of a strong terminological distinction between coins with their own chains vs tokens that run on existing chains), as well as another piece on how to actually quantify decentralization. I also wrote about Twitter Moments, which is the unbranded-but-ubiquitous news organization integrated directly into the Twitter platform that gives editorial commentary on headlines, and did an interview with the Wall Street Journal on cryptocurrency. Finally, I gave a followup talk on the Network State and another talk at 1517 Fund that presaged some later work on the pseudonymous economy.

Essays

Podcasts

Videos

2018

My primary focus was being CTO at Coinbase and shepherding the Earn/Coinbase integration. That resulted in Coinbase Earn, which did hundreds of millions of dollars in deals in its first year, including a $100M+ deal with Stellar, and is now built into the main Coinbase app as something every user does along with buying, selling, sending, and receiving crypto. I also lead the addition of new assets, the USDC launch, and several other projects.

That said, I did do an interview with Tyler Cowen, a fireside chat with Naval and Erik Torenberg, and a piece for Coindesk (republished and updated here).

Essays

Podcasts

Videos

2019

I finished up at Coinbase in mid-2019, took some time off, and also did a bit of writing and interviews. Here's a piece on why blockchains are truly distinct from previous databases, as they represent massively multiclient databases where every user is a root user. Here's a pair of interviews with Peter McCormack on the intersection between crypto and VR, here's a fun session with Glen Weyl on innovation at the state level, here's a Stanford lecture on crypto circa 2020, here's a talk on why Bitcoin becomes the flag of technology over the 2020s, and here's an address on how we might build a pseudonymous economy.

Essays

Podcasts

Videos

2020

I had a bit more time to write and speak this year, given the pandemic situation. There's a fair amount of content below, but I'd recommend looking at this early article on COVID-19 (and these tweets), this piece on Bitcoin as the Flag of Technology, this talk on Decentralized Media with Saagar Enjeti and Marshall Kosloff and a related followup with David Perell, and this essay on the Purpose of Technology.

Essays

Podcasts

Videos

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Kevin, Akshay, Krish, and Samar for their feedback and help compiling this archive!

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