# USV Microfiche Issue #2

> Mini Agents, Deep Dives on Deep Tech, Incentives, and Leaving A Restaurant Without Asking For The Check

**Published by:** [The Librarian](https://microfiche.usv.com/)
**Published on:** 2024-08-07
**URL:** https://microfiche.usv.com/usv-microfiche-issue-2

## Content

Everything at USV in the last month in under 90 secondsFrolic The J44 mid-journey on it's successful sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Albert is now back home in New York.PercolatingSome 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.Further DiscussionOur 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 MeseleWire Transfers:-)Company Updates1/ 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 CEOKey SearchesCFO @ Altbank Chief Product Officer @ Quizlet Head of Legal @ Zanskar VP of Engineering @ Forerunner VP of Engineering @ Clarifai Chief of Staff @ Unigrid

## Publication Information

- [The Librarian](https://microfiche.usv.com/): Publication homepage
- [All Posts](https://microfiche.usv.com/): More posts from this publication
- [RSS Feed](https://api.paragraph.com/blogs/rss/@thelibrarian): Subscribe to updates
- [Twitter](https://twitter.com/usvlibrarian): Follow on Twitter

## Optional

- [Collect as NFT](https://microfiche.usv.com/usv-microfiche-issue-2): Support the author by collecting this post
- [View Collectors](https://microfiche.usv.com/usv-microfiche-issue-2/collectors): See who has collected this post