Haseeb Qureshi, Dragonfly
Crypto-poker gambit
We sat down with Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, the leading crypto venture capital firm, to get some insights and clarity into this evolving industry.
Haseeb wasn’t always into technology or crypto. He started his career as a professional poker player, and as an individual acquainted with taking calculated risks, investing in early-stage crypto products seemed like a natural fit.
Here are the takeaways from our conversation with Qureshi:
Crypto doesn`t have a lot of finance use cases in the US because of the strong US economy and, therefore, the strong US dollar. However, outside the US – use cases are massive because of currency fluctuations and problems with slow global money movement.
Centralized storage is cheap, so using decentralization doesn`t make sense. Because there aren’t existing trust issues with centralized storage, there are no expectations that people will suddenly stop using centralized storage.
Similar to decentralization, Google is above the US government in the poll in terms of trust – it doesn’t make sense to decentralize search.
Many crypto enthusiasts speak about web3 as allowing individuals to ‘capture the value of the platform.’ However, we use specific platforms because our friends are there. So you trade your data for the joys of the platform. The network effect means these platforms are a zero-sum game.
Crypto isn’t very different from poker. Poker players are often willing to take risks and do things most people wouldn’t dare to do. That’s something innate in a person, and those passionate about crypto are similar. Yet, crypto requires a lot of technical knowledge that must be acquired. So those who have spent their time reading up on it, understanding the fundamentals, and going deep are likely to do well.
NFTs are like Rolex. A Rolex watch may be worth more than the materials that constitute the watch, but it’s the value people assign it that makes the watch valuable. In real life, we have watches, cars, and jets that have high value and show wealth. NFTs are the same concept but native to the Internet. But, again, it’s based on the value people assign it, and few can comprehend the nature of NFT technology.
There are many examples of crypto projects that raised millions in ICOs overnight and disappeared. But VCs like Dragonfly look for projects and people working on something that has the potential for the long-term to be innovative. There’s a mix of get-rich-quick and solve-the-problem people, and a VC’s job is to identify and invest in the latter.
The next big thing in crypto is derivatives. So people in emerging markets, for example, can`t buy US stocks, and web3 can enable this.
Bitcoin has become more like gold (a macro asset) in the crypto ecosystem. Even though it’s been banned in a few countries like China and India, there’s no risk aversion with Bitcoin. It has established itself as a viable digital asset that has the potential to keep going up as long as it doesn’t break. It’s been around for over a decade, which is more than enough time for it to be treated as a real asset.
Organizer: Georgi Koreli
Editor: Jacky Lin
Contributor: Anna Vladymyrska, Advay Pal