The internet already has a bot problem — and it's just getting worse.

a16z's Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg speak with Alex Blania of Tools for Humanity. World is building the largest real human network, a proof-of-human layer for the AI era. They cover the technical challenge of proving human uniqueness at scale using iris biometrics, the privacy architecture behind World ID, and why platforms from social networks to dating apps to video conferencing will soon require proof of human verification.

Timestamps:

• 0:00—Introduction
• 4:07—Three Big Ideas People Were Interested In
• 9:05—The Orb Verification Piece
• 15:20—Social Media Bots: PSYOPs and Propaganda
• 29:18—We Had Proof of Personhood for the Longest Time
• 36:44—Next Year Go-to-Market Is Focused on the US
• 40:09—Different Levels of Verification

Resources:

Follow Alex Blania on X: / alexblania
Follow Ben Horowitz on X: / bhorowitz
Follow Erik Torenberg on X: / eriktorenber

Follow a16z crypto for more...
X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto
Substack: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/

As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if the future of lending doesn’t need banks at all?

Paul Frambot, cofounder and CEO of Morpho, explains what it means to build lending infrastructure without banks, and why DeFi’s real breakthrough isn’t “risk-free” loans, but open, onchain markets that make lending more transparent, competitive, and efficient.

In this conversation, Paul breaks down the biggest misconception in DeFi lending, how to think about risk onchain, why institutions are learning faster than expected, and where banks, asset managers, fintechs, and stablecoins fit into the next wave of adoption.

He also shares his long-term vision for finance: a world where open blockchain infrastructure replaces siloed financial systems, access to capital gets broader, and financial products become cheaper, more personalized, and easier to build.

Highlights:

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:36 What Morpho actually does
• 1:22 DeFi’s biggest misconception
  5:26 Why Wall Street is paying attention now
• 6:46 Who’s adopting onchain finance first: Banks or asset managers?
• 9:57 The race for a Euro stablecoin
• 10:49 The future of finance, 5–10 years out
• 11:16 Why finance is still broken
• 13:30 What open mortgage and credit markets could become on open blockchains
• 15:14 The worst advice Paul's received as a founder
• 17:17 What's wrong with an $8 croissant (besides the obvious)

Follow a16z crypto for more...

X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto

Substack: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/

*** As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if opening a trading account was as easy as downloading an app?

Lucas Bruder, CEO of Jito — a Solana-based liquid staking protocol — breaks down why he thinks all of finance is moving onchain, and what his small team is doing to make that happen.

During the 2022-2023 bear market, Jito was getting pitched constantly to jump ship to other chains. Lucas explains why they turned everything down, doubled down on Solana, and chewed a lot of glass.

We also cover how Jito acts like a Cloudflare for Solana, why cheap transactions create surprising problems, what convinced Lucas that the Solana engineers were in it for the right reasons, and his vision for a financial system anyone can access with just a phone.

Follow Jito: https://www.jito.network/

Follow Lucas: https://x.com/buffalu__

Highlights

• 0:00 — Intro
• 0:49 — What is Jito and why does it exist
• 1:11 — Why Solana transactions are less than a penny
• 2:00 — What attracted Lucas to Solana from Ethereum
• 2:39 — How Jito is like Cloudflare for blockchains
• 5:02 — The $1,500 Ethereum transaction fee problem
• 7:21 — The vision: all of finance onchain
• 7:46 — Onchain vs. opening a Robinhood account
• 8:37 — Lucas's journey from robotics to crypto
• 9:55 — Solana's rate of improvement and Anatoly's Law
• 10:44 — The pitch for people new to crypto
• 15:00 — Staying lean at 21 people
• 15:17 — Nicotine as a productivity hack
• 15:58 — Sleep, alcohol, and the Oura ring
• 16:40 — Smallest hill you'll die on: littering and shopping carts

Follow a16z crypto for more...

X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto

Substack: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/

As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.