Crypto execs lap up Andreessen Horowitz’s call to arms

Internet pioneer and Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen has slammed the US and its coronavirus response—urging great minds to come together to transform the status quo and build a better world for its citizens. And where can you find greater minds than crypto? 

In a lengthy essay published yesterday, the 48-year-old attacked both the left and right. He argued that “we need to separate the imperative to build these things from ideology and politics. Both sides need to contribute to building.” The US’s response to COVID-19 exposed the unfairness of the system, and now the American dream is a sham, he argued. 

“It’s time for full-throated, unapologetic, uncompromised political support from the right for aggressive investment in new products, in new industries, in new factories, in new science, in big leaps forward,” he wrote.

Leaders in the crypto industry lapped up Andreessen’s soliloquy, interpreting his mission to “reboot the American dream” as a call to arms. 

Preston Bryne, a crypto lawyer for Anderson Kill Law, retweeted the essay, as did David Marcus, co-creator of the Libra stablecoin project. Kaz Nejatian, The vice president of Shopify, a Libra Association member, called it “gold” (even though he lives in Canada, firmly outside of America’s dreamland).

Support also came from Balaji Srinivasan, a prominent crypto investor, who tweeted: “This should stir the heart of every founder. We are in this situation because we didn't build enough, we couldn't build fast enough, we didn't value building enough. We get out of this by building.”

Andreessen, who last year launched a crypto school, also said that the US is not making enough of its potential by not building enough. He complained that the university system should be less elitist, housing should be more affordable and transportation should be more advanced. 

“There is only one way to honor their legacy and to create the future we want for our own children and grandchildren, and that’s to build,” he wrote. 

Andreessen’s tirade has not been met with universal acclaim. Game designer and columnist Ian Bogost wrote on Twitter that Andreessen is “part of the wrongdoing”. Others agreed, and said he is just proposing more of the same crony capitalism. 

But there's no time to think: It's time to BUILD.