Theoretical computer scientist and Columbia University professor Tim Roughgarden has been appointed the head of Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) new crypto research unit.
Roughgardenโs resume includes more than three years as a professor of computer science at Columbia University in New York, along with a 14-year stint at Stanford. He has also served as a research partner at a16z since February last year.
a16z is one of the most active venture capital firms in crypto, with its funds reportedly worth around $9 billion. Partly guided by the firmโs new unit which was announced earlier today, Roughgarden has stated that its funding into crypto research will grow by โmany multiples of the next couple of years.โ
โWeโre currently in a particular moment in time, witnessing a new multidisciplinary field (spurred by web3) blossom before our eyes. There are enormous opportunities to shape this field through research and education.โ
8/ As a research lab within a VC firm, a16z crypto research represents a new funding model for basic researchโone that seems obvious in hindsight (with the long-term focus necessary for fundamental research already hard-wired into the firmโs business model).
โ Tim Roughgarden (@Tim_Roughgarden) April 21, 2022
The firm highlighted Roughgardenโs experience in computer science, research and economics, along with his crypto and blockchain course at Columbia as one of the โbest and most popularโ introductions to crypto online. Roughgarden was one of the first to provide a formal analysis on the fee mechanism for Ethereumโs EIP-1559 upgrade.
According to a16z, the research team will form a multidisciplinary lab that will work with the companies in its portfolio and others to solve โthe important problems in the space,โ increase user adoption and advance Web3 science and technology.
Stanford University professor of computer science and electrical engineering Dan Boneh will also be joining Roughgarden as the senior research advisor. Boneh has worked with a16z for the past four years as a portfolio research advisor and also teaches applied cryptography at the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research.
Major announcement from us today: we’re launching a16z crypto research to advance the science and technology of the next generation of the internet, led by the incomparable @Tim_Roughgarden https://t.co/KtvmP7fSkh
โ cdixon.eth (@cdixon) April 21, 2022
The firm noted that โnew entrepreneurial idea for a Web3 application or protocol tends to uncover fresh research challengesโ that are extremely important to solve in order to solidify the future of blockchain and crypto.
Such challenges include the scaling and development of infrastructure, tokenomics that benefit all participants, and methods to build token economies in Web3 applications such as social media and gaming.
โWith the advent of Ethereum and other blockchains that are fully programmable, web3 has unlocked an extremely rich design space for innovation. Itโs a space that weโve only just begun to explore.โ
Related: a16zโs Chris Dixon tops โMidas Listโ by turning $350M into $6B in 2021
