Blockchain at Berkeley
Below I capture some projects that I undertook at Berkeley and also go into my motivations for choosing to work on them.
Blockchain GamingApr 2020 - Feb 2022
I got into exploring the intersection of blockchain and gaming while searching for a non-speculative use case of the technology. My exploration of this space started with this a16z startup school video back in 2020. The projects that I pursued at Berkeley coupled with my background in finance and economics led me to connect the dots and explain why over $1.5B+ was raised by blockchain gaming projects in a span of few months in late 2021. This somewhat uncommon perspective helped me land me a strategy project for a leading gaming company.
Blockchain gaming is an interesting space. It has its own set of problems and a fair-share of nay-sayers. But it also has potential to be the dominant business model of the gaming industry. If interested, you can read more about it in this blog post, where I explore the impact of using blockchains in gaming.
Blockchain gaming is an interesting space. It has its own set of problems and a fair-share of nay-sayers. But it also has potential to be the dominant business model of the gaming industry. If interested, you can read more about it in this blog post, where I explore the impact of using blockchains in gaming.
Axie Infinity Apr 2021 - May 2021
In Spring 2021, I was exploring the NFT space and why these digital items commanded so much value (remember Beeple?). Now, initially this looks like a price discovery problem that can be solved by the choice of an appropriate auction mechanism. But, for there to be an auction, you first need to find buyers! It is here where the aspect of community becomes important. On a fundamendatal level, an NFT has value because others ascribe value to it.
Now, communities can take different forms: it can be sports leagues, fans of musical bands, artists, celebrities etc. Games (like movies) have a special kind of community. In this case, the community forms around a shared experience that is constructed. Designers of these experiences have lot more affordances or opportunities to monetize by weaving NFTs inside these experiences. Now, it turns out this is not easy and requires a good understanding of game design and cryptoeconomics! But Axie Infinity was the first game that showed the gaming industry what's possible (and in the process also highlighted the problems that the industry will need to solve before blockchain gaming can aspire to go mainstream) You can read more about the project here.
Now, communities can take different forms: it can be sports leagues, fans of musical bands, artists, celebrities etc. Games (like movies) have a special kind of community. In this case, the community forms around a shared experience that is constructed. Designers of these experiences have lot more affordances or opportunities to monetize by weaving NFTs inside these experiences. Now, it turns out this is not easy and requires a good understanding of game design and cryptoeconomics! But Axie Infinity was the first game that showed the gaming industry what's possible (and in the process also highlighted the problems that the industry will need to solve before blockchain gaming can aspire to go mainstream) You can read more about the project here.
Crypto in Live Streaming and PodcastingSep 2021 - Dec 2021
In the summer of 2021, I interned at Amazon on a growth-related project (more). The product was a newly launched marketplace for virtual tours and online experiences. As part of my main recommendation, I had proposed using user-generated content (UGC) to drive network effects on the marketplace. Gamification was related-idea that I had explored a bit to drive UGC, but I didn't know a lot about how one can gamify experiences. It was an alien territory but for someone who had learned just social psychology, I knew where to look!
So, after coming back to Berkeley, I decided to pursue an independent project to do exactly that: learn how gamification is done and explore this in the context of user-generated content. That enquiry then ultimately crystallized in the form of a project on creating interactive online experiences to tackle echo chambers on social media. You can read more about the project here.
So, after coming back to Berkeley, I decided to pursue an independent project to do exactly that: learn how gamification is done and explore this in the context of user-generated content. That enquiry then ultimately crystallized in the form of a project on creating interactive online experiences to tackle echo chambers on social media. You can read more about the project here.