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Kickstarter's bizarre blockchain announcement in December 2021 makes so much more sense now that we know Andreessen Horowitz secretly promised them $100 million to pivot to a blockchain-based product built on the also-a16z-backed Celo blockchain.
At the time, I wondered why COO Sean Leow was so insistent on the move despite being apparently very confused about the whole concept.
https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/03/11/kickstarter-blockchain-a16z-crypto-secret-investment-chris-dixon/
(archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240311124253/https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/03/11/kickstarter-blockchain-a16z-crypto-secret-investment-chris-dixon/)
![Kickstarter's COO, Sean Leow, did an interview with The Beat to discuss the announcement. He seemed to be a little bit confused on the whole concept throughout, and seemed to believe that "open source" is some sort of competing idea to blockchains. At one point he stated, "We believe that that data can be structured in a way through a blockchain where it ... can move in a much more efficient and effective way between services ... in a way that open source doesn't allow". Later in the interview he spoke about governance, saying, "our understanding is that [governance] is done more effectively with blockchain then with open-source."](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/077/902/865/576/069/original/51425b72411704f4.png "Kickstarter's COO, Sean Leow, did an interview with The Beat to discuss the announcement. He seemed to be a little bit confused on the whole concept throughout, and seemed to believe that \"open source\" is some sort of competing idea to blockchains. At one point he stated, \"We believe that that data can be structured in a way through a blockchain where it ... can move in a much more efficient and effective way between services ... in a way that open source doesn't allow\". Later in the interview he spoke about governance, saying, \"our understanding is that [governance] is done more effectively with blockchain then with open-source.\"")
@molly0xfff this genuinely explains so much
@molly0xfff ah! yeah we had inspecific suspicions that a lot of the hype was driven by investors (not just at Kickstarter), it's nice to see details starting to emerge
@molly0xfff we hope this also informs how people think about ML hype
@irenes @molly0xfff Yeah was just about to say, similar scenario would nicely explain a bunch of the seemingly absurd LLM AI pivots
@molly0xfff oh no not kickstarter
@molly0xfff Using "then" when he meant "than" makes it funnier and less coherent.
@molly0xfff That’s a lot of money. I wonder if they actually got any of it, can’t read the article.
@jamesbritt ah, thanks, sometimes i don't notice when articles are paywalled because of a browser extension i use. edited the post with a wayback link
@molly0xfff @jamesbritt what extension is that?
I just add 1ft.io/ to the front of the url.
@molly0xfff @molly0xfff It's interesting that seemingly intelligent people are so often incapable of differentiating their feelings of, "it's cool that a blockchain can do that", and "moving my product's fundamentals on to the blockchain will be good for business and our customers".
@molly0xfff awesome. glad to know exactly which billionaire has been behind screwing up my life for the past few years (we decided not to do a kickstarter because of the crypto shit)
@eniko @molly0xfff same here. I had two game projects and one yo-yo project planned, but cancelled them all when Kickstarter tried pivoting to the blockchain. I lost all trust in the company and didn't want to put my fans and followers at risk by using them anymore. KS was such a great tool for me as an artist and I'm still so sad to see how they ruined their reputation overnight.
@docpop well they did recently finally walk it back, so maybe you could use it again now
@eniko @molly0xfff he's also a big investor in the recent "AI" boom, so yeah, double trouble
@molly0xfff "So it was capitalism all along" —Kara Swisher
@molly0xfff I thought the less successful IndieGoGo platform would be desperate enough to embrace the crypto snake oil. But the statement from KS made a number of creators move off KS to other platforms, and some «secondary» services like Backerkit and Gamefound pivoted into fully histing crowdfunding projects themselves.
Hmph. I wondered how they got roped into that. I dropped Kickstarter after I discovered the announcement.
I see Celo has taken a leap up in price today on Coinbase. I presume the Forbes story was taken as a positive sign by the believers.
@jgamble I suspect that's more to do with separate news that the Tether stablecoin is launching on Celo
Ah, I missed that.
For a long while I had wondered when Kickstarter would announce Whoops, our bad, we're not going to base our system on blockchain after all. I'm guessing from the article that it would be more than awkward to do so.
@molly0xfff I love the smell of market manipulation in the morning.
@molly0xfff That's the way synergy works, right? I guess Celo might have some technical virtues - I just now did a cursory look at it - but if we keep hearing about Celo, it apparently won't be because of the technical virtues.
@molly0xfff I just flunked a student for not understanding blockchain and he still made more sense than this
@molly0xfff For those who still believe our economy is operated by rationality
@molly0xfff Appreciate all the inside details about who got paid what, but oof, not impressed that the writer still seems to think "using a blockchain could do something about #Kickstarter fraud."
All the transactions on Kickstarter are accurately recorded already, and perpetually accessible afterwards! They're not getting secretly edited. That's not where the fraud comes in!
"Putting the records on a different type of database" does nothing to stop a project creator from giving up on their promised comic/movie/widget/etc and using the funds to buy themself a house.
@ErinPtah @molly0xfff Ok, but, it is “doing something”. Specifically, artificially pumping up the value of both companies.
@jpanzer @molly0xfff That's only general "doing something", not specifically "doing something about fraud."
And I don't believe KS got a net financial benefit. A lot of creators, including some heavy hitters, took their projects to KS competitors specifically because of the blockchain nonsense. Brandon Sanderson has a BackerKit campaign right now that's at $18 million and climbing -- that alone is at least $900K that KS lost out on.
@molly0xfff
It makes one thoughtful about how many other announcements and "trends" are secretly being puppeted by VC firms....
@molly0xfff Ah, whether to go Blockchain or Open Source, the classic innovator's dilemma.
@molly0xfff how to be a dude in tech and succeed despite knowing literally nothing
@molly0xfff Oh, money, what a surprise.
What a bunch of tools.
@molly0xfff that is how VCs have been making bubbles since the late 90s. Pump as much money as LPs give them. Those start ups will need to spend it on tech products and services and will seem like everyone is growing revenue. Happened on .com, saas, AI 2016, cryto, AI gpt 2023, etc.
@molly0xfff I'm still avoiding kickstarter since that announcement
@molly0xfff ahahaha amazing
@molly0xfff this really reminds me of that jump to conclusions mat... In the worst possible way
@molly0xfff so many frustrating parts of this article. The constant framing of Kickstarter as some sort of dying business, when it made $814 million in 2021 is wild. The idea that the business isn't succeeding if it doesn't double it's business YoY is such an ignorant take.
Kickstarter had built a sustainable business that was trending towards $1 billion a year. They destroyed it all with a pivot to crypto, yet the author at Fortune says "The pivot didn’t hurt Kickstarter". What?! WHAT?!!
@molly0xfff and after covering the rampant fraud in the crypto-space and how much Kickstarter's users hate web3, the authors try to make the case that blockchain "could still present a solution to Kickstarter’s nagging issues. The immutable ledger of the blockchain, with its traceable addresses and transaction history, could help solve the platform’s difficulties with fraud and trust".
These folks are hopelessly crypto-pilled.
@docpop
They hardly "destroyed it all." There is still a ton of money raised on Kickstarter, though there is more diversity of platforms today (with Backerkit and others getting into direct funding). It was a colossally stupid move, and there are absolutely people who won't fundraise there anymore, but their rate of growth wasn't really impacted by it.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/310218/total-kickstarter-funding/
@molly0xfff
This might explain why KS has been getting worse, showing early signs of enshittification.
@godzero @molly0xfff That whole article seems to think Kickstarter desperately needs to set itself on fire just to warm a few investors for a while.
They can't fathom the idea of a company merely turning a profit off of millions in revenue each year by helping creators.
@molly0xfff Quote (by a former employee): “What’s the argument for someone to go to Kickstarter when there’s all these other ways [to raise money] that are more viable, like being a TikTok influencer?”
With employees such as these, no wonder they're in trouble.
@molly0xfff Thanks for sharing the Fortune article. The thing that struck me was that Kickstarter was floundering, not because it wasn't profitable, but it wasn't profitable enough.
Consistently 20,000 projects funded, 10s of millions in revenue?
That's only not a resounding success if you think the only value is in growth for shareholders! but then, this is an article in Fortune...
@molly0xfff Investor money seems to have that effect of pressuring companies into using useless AI tech, which has also been a factor at my job to my dismay.
A16Z will eat the world, if not stopped