Crypto Investors - Linda Xie and Avichal Garg

TL;DR

Blockchain is a decentralized public ledger; smart contracts enable programmable logic to replace middlemen. Mainstream use cases in ~3 years include decentralized exchanges and collectibles (e.g., CryptoKitties). Scaling solutions like state channels, Plasma, and off-chain computation are under active development.

Key insights

• Blockchains have four core components: distributed ledger, consensus mechanism, token economics, and a smart contracting layer.
• Use cases fall into three buckets: programmable money, distributed compute, and distributed apps (prediction markets, distributed VPNs).
• Scaling bottlenecks: Bitcoin/Ethereum transaction fees become prohibitive under heavy usage; solutions include state channels (like a bar tab with off-chain settlement), Plasma (child blockchains), an