Marc Andreessen, co-founder and full general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (likewise known as a16z), fabricated a instance for crypto and blockchain as the most significant new architecture change in the tech industry.

In a Bloomberg Wealth interview with David Rubenstein, Andreessen reframed the terms of the debate and shifted away from the talk as to whether Bitcoin (BTC) — and crypto more broadly — is or is not an endurable investment proffer.

"Crypto is a bit like the parable of the bullheaded men and the elephant. People impact it from different sides. They become distracted and carried abroad and energized well-nigh these different topics," Andreessen quipped. For a16z, however, the most crucial aspect of the cryptocurrency is that the business firm sees information technology as a fundamental architecture change in the tech manufacture, drawing in many of the smartest minds in computer scientific discipline.

"Nosotros view information technology [crypto] every bit a technological transformation. At that place's a cardinal technological breakthrough that has happened. It'southward an expanse of computer science called distributed consensus [...] Coin is 1 application [...], but it's but one of many."

Rather than focusing on Bitcoin every bit an asset, Andreessen underscored the blockchain's capacity to enable interactions between actors and software on the internet to form trust relationships in an untrusted surroundings:

"These are new kinds of computers. This is where information technology gets very subtle. Bitcoin is an internet computer that's spread out across hundreds of thousands physical computers effectually the world. It's a transaction processing system that runs without whatever central location. [...] It'due south a new kind of financial system."

For all these reasons, the VC firm is taking crypto very seriously, Andreessen said. A16z has indeed doubled down on its commitment to blockchain evolution in 2022, announcing Crypto Fund III — a $2.2-billion venture fund co-led by Andreessen Horowitz general partners Chris Dixon and Katie Haun — in late June of this year. The fund will invest in blockchain projects at any development phase, "from early seed-phase projects to fully developed later-stage networks."

Related: Former BitGo employee will help deploy Andreessen Horowitz's $2.2B crypto fund

A16z has led numerous important raises in the blockchain space, including the $314-million private token sales for Solana Labs this June. In the months prior, information technology led the $23-million raise for nonfungible token marketplace OpenSea in March, a $28-1000000 investment round in Aleo in Apr, and a $xl-million raise for Talos in May. Back in 2022, a16z was behind Dfinity'south $105-million funding round.

Major United states of america-based crypto exchange Coinbase counts a16z as its largest capitalist. The VC firm owns shares in the exchange worth about $9.7 billion.