a16z Crypto

Arweave is a new type of storage that backs data with sustainable and perpetual endowments, allowing users and developers to truly store data forever – for the very first time. Their mission is to become the new Library of Alexandria, but invulnerable to the pitfalls of centralised points of failure, ensuring that humanity’s shared knowledge and history is available to all future generations.

Aztec is building blockchain encryption without trade-offs. Their advanced zero-knowledge cryptography means applications can be efficient, private, and secure.

Coinbase is the most trusted cryptocurrency platform, and an ideal starting point if you're new to crypto. They started in 2012 with the idea that anyone, anywhere, should be able to easily and securely send and receive Bitcoin. Today, they offer a trusted and easy-to-use platform for accessing the broader crypto-economy. _When you deposit on a centralised exchange you receive an IOU for your tokens, which shows up as your wallet balance. When your tokens are held on a centralised exchange, you don't physically own them – the exchange does, and you may lose them._

Compound is a decentralized autonomous interest rate protocol. It allows people to lend and borrow their cryptocurrencies, and establishes money markets by algorithmically setting interest rates based on supply and demand of various assets. Its native token is COMP, allowing holders to propose and vote on changes made to the protocol.

DELV is building the complete suite of decentralized finance. From core infrastructure to structured products, our protocols work together to help create and usher in the new financial system.

dYdX is a leading decentralized exchange that currently supports perpetual, margin trading, and spot trading, as well as lending, and borrowing. dYdX runs on smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, and allows users to trade with no intermediaries.

Trustless and secure crypto custody for everyone

The Forta Network monitors on-chain activity in real-time, detecting threats, security-related events and other noteworthy activity. The network is made up of thousands of detection bots developed by a community of Web3 developers and security experts. Each bot acts like a little security camera monitoring something specific on-chain. Some bots monitor generic threats (i.e. phishing attacks, rug pulls), and others monitor protocol-specific activity (i.e. Lido, Compound). There are two primary actors in the Forta Network: **Users, **who consume threat intel generated by the network. Users could be Web3 wallets, DeFi protocols, or centralized exchanges looking for the latest threat intel to protect their customers. **Developers,** who create and maintain detection bots. They could be a leading Web3 security team, an independent security researcher or a DeFi core dev using Forta to monitor their protocol.

Foundation is a NFT exchange platform that allows users to buy and sell NFTs on the ethereum network.

### What Lido is an open source tool and family of protocols that enables users to mint liquid staking tokens (sTokens) - These liquid staking tokens receive rewards from validation activities of writing data to the blockchain, but unlike their staked counterparts, are "unlocked" which means they can be used in other on-chain activities, like DeFi. Lido protocols let users stake native tokens (ETH, MATIC, SOL) from Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana networks in a fully permissionless way. And as the protocols are deployed on public blockchains, users do not need the website to access the smart contracts. ### Why Traditional staking means that users need to lock-up their ETH or other native asset to be able to secure the network and receive the respective rewards. However, this means that these tokens can't be used for anything else while they are staked. Lido aims to solve this problem. Lido protocols give users liquidity - users are able to receive staking rewards from validation activities, but can sell their stTokens (tokens minted on Lido) anytime they want to exit their staking position. In addition, it allows users to participate in DeFi while getting rewards - Because sTokens are unstaked and thus "liquid", users can use stTokens as building blocks in DeFi protocols at the same time as getting staking rewards from validating activities. The Lido DAO also works with experienced node operators, which decreases the likelihood of technical mistakes that could lead to slashing or penalties and minimizes the technical burden for users to receive staking rewards. Users supply the stake, and the node operators supply the know-how.

Manifold enables web3 creators to have true creative ownership, preserve on-chain provenance, and interoperate with all major NFT marketplaces.

The home for web3 publishing Built on web3 for web3, Mirror’s robust publishing platform pushes the boundaries of writing online—whether it’s the next big white paper or a weekly community update.

### What Morpho is a peer-to-peer layer built on top of other lending protocols like Compound or AAVE. It is a lending protocol optimizer - this means that it improves capital efficiency on lending pools by improving the matching of lenders and borrowers. Morpho can be adapated and deployed to any pool based lending protocol, and it acts as a proxy between the user and the underlying lending pool. In the worst case scenario users get the normal APY of the underlying pool, but when matched they received an improved rate thanks to the P2P matching. You can think of Morpho as an engine that matches users interacting in a pool depending on their preferences to get the best rates for both of them. ### Why Peer-to-peer lending is more efficient than peer-to-pools lending (where lenders provide liquidity or assets, to a pool of assets, and borrowers borrow from it). In P2P lending, lenders and borrowers are matched directly and the interest is paid by the borrowers directly to the lender instead of being paid to a pool to be later distributed among all lenders in a pro-rata basis. Morpho combines the benefits of P2P lending (capital efficiency) with the relative high liquidity of peer-to-pool lending. This enhanced matching results in improved rates for lenders and borrowers.

We analyze 240M+ labeled addresses & their activities, so you can get real-time Crypto, DeFi & NFT insights

Through simple, secure, and scalable technology, NEAR empowers millions to invent and explore new experiences. Business, creativity, and community are being reimagined for a more sustainable and inclusive future.

Opensea is an NFT exchange platform that allows users to buy and sell NFTs on the ethereum network.

Tally is a DAO operations platform that helps people start, join, and grow decentralized organizations.

### What Uniswap is a decentralized exchange protocol (DEX). It allows people to set up or contribute to liquidity pools consisting of various ERC-20 token pairs, or to use the available liquidity to swap their tokens against another using its Automated Market Maker (AMM) mechanism. ### Why AMMS are one of the building blocks in the crypto space as they always provide users with a price between two assets. Uniswap uses a simple X * Y = K, formula to price assets where x is the amount of one token in the liquidity pool, and y is the amount of the other. k is a fixed constant, meaning the pool’s total liquidity is always the same. ### Risk There are various risks involved with using AMMS. These include but are not limited to: Protocol Risk - risk due to mechanics in the design of a protocol. Even when the protocol functions as intended there might be risks e.g. high slippage incurred in trades due to the liquidity curve set-up Smart contract risk - This is risk from an error in the code causing the contract to operate in ways unexpected by the developers. It might leave the code vulnerable to exploits or other attacks Cybersecurity risk - Hackers, Exploiters or other malicious actors trying to attack Uniswap ### Reward Uniswap is arguably one of the largest AMMs in crypto and is usually the protocol where tokens find the most liquidity. Its UI/UX is extremely simple and users can trade most tokens with little problems.