Hey Hackernoon Readers, I’m Christian Kameir, one of the managing partners at blockchain venture fund Sustany Capital. -- First of all, a huge thank you to David, and entire Hackernoon community and staff for awarding me five writing awards in 2021:
- Contributor of the Year - Money
- Contributor of the Year - VC
- NFT Wizard of 2021
- Contributor of the Year - Art
- Contributor of the Year - Internet
As someone who has focused on the decentralization of the internet since 2008, I think that the most exciting technology of the present is Web 3.0 because we can return agency to the users of the technology again, rather than allowing large companies to social-engineer users to cater to corporate objectives. Learn more about my thoughts and opinions on Web 3.0 and my journey in the tech industry via the interview below.
1. What do you do and why do you do it?
As managing partners at Sustany Capital, we focus on operating a thesis-driven venture capital firm investing in Web 3.0, decentralized finance, and legal technologies. I have been a tech entrepreneur since the internet dial-up days and led the merger of two of the earliest internet service providers in Europe. In 2000 I moved to California to start a technology venture fund. I studied classical literature and graduated from Muenster's School of Law. I am a board member at Open Travel, co-chair of the Banking and Financial Services Interest Group at the Decentralized Identity Foundation, and lecture a class at Harvard. I write and speak on topics ranging from high-tech investing to decentralized finance, identity, and blockchain. Our current book project - working title 'Streaming Money' - will be published in Q2/2022.
2. Tell us more about the things you write about!
I have been writing on ideas to “fix the web” since 2008. A core objective to me is to fix information distribution on the world wide web to do the most good. As such it is essential to foster solutions that contribute to creating consensus, and reverse the current paradigms that seek engagement for divisive content. Internet users should not be treated as NPCs - gamer-speak for non-player characters - but improve their own experiences daily by network technology that serves the interest of the individual. To me, advertising is not a suitable business model on top of a shared resource (commons).
3. How did you end up on your current career path?
I started in software development in 1985, and I am as fascinated with the opportunities of network technology now, as I was back then. Realizing that I would never be a great coder, but understanding software principles well enough to explain them to others, I decided to join a startup as their general counsel. At the time - in 1997 - we were selling dial-up internet services, and we had to explain why this technology was relevant and interesting. The same is still true for the upcoming fundamental changes to the internet (Web 3.0), today.
4. What tech are you most excited or about right now and why?
Returning control over bytes back to users: regardless if this refers to money or any other digitally expressed value or thought. Blockchain-based solutions are a central part of that, and many other cryptographic primitives that remove friction from our daily lives, and allow individuals around the world to engage in peer-to-peer interactions. Why this may sound corny: these are true freedom technologies!
5. What tech are you most worried about right now and why?
Blockchain-based solutions can both enable self-sovereignty or be ultimate surveillance tools for entities and governments which value individual freedoms less than the control of their subjects (see my article on The Folly of Digital Fiat).
6. If we gave you 10 million dollars to invest in something today, what would you invest in and why?
Disruptive finance solutions that replace the middleman, and Web 3.0 primitives that make centralized institutions unnecessary (read more here).
7. What are you currently learning?
We are currently writing a book on Streaming Money. As strict observers of the scientific methods, we started out aggregating the current financial landscape three years ago. We are learning something new about the evolving financial landscape daily. However, we are interested in a wide spectrum at the intersection of finance, technology, law, and socio-economic issues.
8. What’s the best advice you’ve ever given someone?
Never choose unhappiness over uncertainty!
9. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
A. The meaning of your communication is the response you get.
B. There is no failure, only feedback.
C. The map is not the territory.
About HackerNoon’s 2021 Noonie Awards
The annual Noonie Awards celebrate the best and brightest of the tech industry, bringing together all who are making the Internet and the world of tech what it is today. Please be sure to check out our award categories, nominate, and vote for the people and companies who you think are making the biggest impact on the tech industry today.