USV Microfiche Issue #2

Some ideas we’ve been discussing and would love to discuss with you

1/ Rise of the Mini Agent: AI friends aside, consumer agents have struggled to gain adoption. It's possible our entire notion of an agent may be incorrect. Instead of a single monolith with a name that performs large tasks, we might be moving toward a future where thousands of agents constantly compete to perform micro-tasks as part of larger workflows.

2/ Networks of Hardware: We decided to analyze our approach to hardware. One idea we discussed was that investing in hardware and product categories, especially those tied to physical networks and real-world applications, could maybe provide a hedge against the commoditization risk in pure software investments.

3/ Are We Past Peak Airdrop?: We chatted about whether the value and influence of crypto incentives are waning, given economic shifts and increased skepticism. We questioned the continued efficacy of token economics in bootstrapping new networks and started to outline where the next wave of adoption may come from.

4/ Clean Energy Incentives: We discussed how on chain incentives could be used to promote clean energy investments for private citizens, such as attaching tokens to solar panels that users can earn, potentially making it easier to motivate people towards sustainable energy solutions compared to traditional carbon credits.

5/ The Wells Fargo Effect: Designing incentive systems for user-owned networks requires a delicate balance between rewarding participation and maintaining content quality to avoid the "clickhole crap" trap. This principle, long known in corporate sales, still needs emphasis: explicit incentives work only when paired with strong quality measures.

Our more formalized thoughts and announcements

The Three Kinds of Deep Tech Companies by Matt Mandel

Curiosity Networks by Jared Hecht

Does AI Change How Much My Data is Worth? By Grace Carney

Board Meeting Suggestions by Fred Wilson

Continuing The Venture Climate Alliance by Samson Mesele

:-)

1/ Blackbird launched their new payments product, Blackbird Pay, which enables true crypto payments at scale for an off-chain use case. Plus you don’t have to wait for a check

2/ Jam has crossed 500k Jams created in a month

3/ Hiro's 3+ year SEC investigation concluded with no action being taken.

4/ Glif has surpassed 250,000 users

5/ Quizlet has welcomed Kurt Beidler as its new CEO

CFO @ Altbank

Chief Product Officer @ Quizlet

Head of Legal @ Zanskar

VP of Engineering @ Forerunner

VP of Engineering @ Clarifai

Chief of Staff @ Unigrid