Throughout tech history, it has often been the sequels that became the greatest hits.

Underrated strategy for founding the next breakout crypto company: Think about the big, bold ideas from the last era of crypto that didn’t quite work as planned, but still have the potential to be world changing.

Ask yourself: What has changed in terms of infrastructure, UX, regulation, culture, market size, etc. that might make this kind of product/company successful and possible today?

A number of categories are obviously cooking:

• All things stablecoin and stablecoin adjacent
• The intersection of crypto and AI
• Bringing real world assets onchain to reduce friction and expand markets (RWA tokenization)

But there are many more areas that are still unexplored and ripe for reinvention today!

Just a few:

• The evolution of NFTs from PFPs to true digital scarcity across games, media, and collectibles; what form will they take next?
• Verticalized, application-specific blockchains that bend the cost/performance curve in such a way that entirely new applications can move onchain. What becomes possible?
• Making DAOs workable and efficient. This leads to opportunities beyond crypto too for many types of orgs
• Harnessing crypto rails to positively shift the LTV curve of mobile gaming; Imagine reshaping the economics of the entire industry.

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Jason Rosenthal is an Operating Partner and Head of Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX) at a16z crypto. Jason has spent more than 25 years as an internet entrepreneur and executive, including more than 10 years as a startup CEO.

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