你好，PrimitiveVentures

2008年初比特币的出现，并非偶然。在2008年9月份雷曼兄弟破产，美国股市崩盘的前两个星期，bitcoin.org悄无声息注册上线。圈子里神神叨叨的专家动不动就大谈信仰，却很少人普及常识。经济和社会发展的大周期和趋势是重要的常识，这里说下我们看到的三个不可逆的趋势。

三个不可逆的趋势

第一个是贫富差距日益增长的趋势。二战后的世界基尼系数日渐走高，单单在韩国，65岁以上老人的贫困率高达49.6%。退休就等于破产，贫穷成了继续工作唯一理由。未来的中国社会与韩国类似，富三代出现后产生的精英与贵族阶层，可以在很长的一段时间内享有财务积累带来的社会资源与特权。资本驱动的社会需要强大的社会流动性 (social dynamism) 来维系整个社会的鲁棒性，可是随着资本主义的深入，社会流动性日渐下行，阶级日益板结。

第二个是全球化趋势与国粹主义的冲突。经济全球化有利于各个生产要素在全球范围内的最佳配置，但要求我们能够有人类整体命运的高度和跨越民族的格局。在经济发展下行趋势下，原本更加应该拥抱全球化的我们，看到了与“中国民族的伟大复兴”如出一辙且正面冲突的“Make America Great Again”，看到了世界范围的贸易战、汇率战升级，以及川普各项令人扼腕叹息的反移民草案。政客在当今政治环境下的大旋律就是 “不达成共识”，全球化在民粹主义的强势下举步维艰。

第三个是持续个人主义化的大浪潮。随着消费主义的发展给消费者带来极大的选择空间，人们对”表达自我“的需求也成为在温饱后的第一消费要素。Instagram大当其道，人人都是媒体，网红代替品牌，抖音火过明星。随着社会朝极度个人主义发展，个人需要直面作为生存主体的孤独，这就要求真正意义上的财产所有权，以及数据拥有权，这才是“人生而平等”的基本条件。

在三个不可逆的大趋势下，个体的力量似乎只不过是沧海一粟，历史的车轮总会悄无声息地碾过。

 Primitive 是什么 

Eric Meltzer与我相识于对Zcash社区的建设，成为了彼此最好的朋友。作为一个标准的假老外，我们共同作为Zcash的董事会选举人，经历了一个也许是比特币之后最优秀的cryto community从无到有的发展过程。他一口京腔中带着洋味儿的普通话，和我不是特别标准的广普，常常给我们日常的对话添了不少笑料。我们两一起是Zcash，Dfinity, Sia, KyberNetwork, 0x, Cosmos, StarkWare, Chia Network, Mobilecoin, Handshake, Celer, Spacemesh 等项目最早的投资人。

貌似还算正儿八经的合照只有这张了... 

我们清晰地认识到一个好的区块链项目，需要的不仅仅是优秀的加密学家和程序员，更需要有创造性的经济学家，跨界的设计师，以及具有政治领袖气质的社区领袖。

我们经常互相开玩笑说 ”我们不仅仅要穿越熊牛，我们要一起穿越熊群和牛群“ 。我们熟谙”流动性溢价“的套路与致命性，我们在价值判断时保持着极高的批判性。我们都喜欢问创业者一个问题“你这辈子做过什么最叛逆的事情”，我们都有快速区别投机者和founder的眼睛。

无数个夜晚我们会就对未来世界的憧憬聊到天空泛白，无数个项目讨论我们会在对方还没说完就知道对方的判断逻辑。无数通宵讨论后，我们决定一起联手，笃定未来，创办Primitive Ventures。

Primitive在英文的意思有个特别简单优雅的定义—— "First of its kind"。经常用在计算机学科里表示基本的数据类别和基本的计算操作，或者用在加密学里表示以构建加密协议的底层加密算法，或者在生物学里面表示进化早期的物种。我们正处于这个行业的前三分钟，We are in a primitive stage of the industry. 

在文章下面，我附上了我们两的简历和我们的英文的公开信: The Primitive Manifesto.

Satoshi在第一篇公开的论坛帖子里有一句极其值得玩味的话 "It(Bitcoin) takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle" [比特币利用了信息“极易传播，难以被压制”的特性]。我们过去几年的对加密事业的探索过程中，看到了个体之间达成的分布式共识力量之强大，与信息会"持续消散“的特点，让crypto asset拥有了极强的生命力。正是来自于个体对自由和平等，以及对资产和数据确定性最根本的渴望，让我们看到了”熵永增，crypto 永生" 的可能。

我们坚信个体在贫富差距拉大环境下，经济发展下行趋势下，民粹主义升级中以及个人主义化的大潮下，更加需要另一种选择的可能，一个创造平行世界的机会，一个对冲现实世界系统性风险的保险。区块链是在人类在追寻自由和平等的道路上，一个伟大的尝试。

人生最幸运的事情，莫过于和最铁的哥们一起，银鞍白马，快意江湖。

THE PRIMITIVE MANIFESTO

10 years before Satoshi set Bitcoin in motion, John Perry Barlow of the EFF wrote regarding governments in his “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” that:

“[They] have not engaged in our great and gathering conversation, nor did they create the wealth of our marketplaces. They do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society with more order than could be obtained by any of their impositions.”

The same could be said of the majority of investors in the cryptocurrency space. A venture investor’s job ends once a company’s stock becomes liquid, but a crypto investors work has just begun. A hedge fund manager only starts paying attention to opportunities when they hit public markets, but a crypto asset investor should have the tools and network (and indeed, the passion and excitement for new things being built!) to help early-stage startups expand and thrive from day one.

Many firms in the space have rigid theses in which they expound on how people ought to be using crypto assets. We chose the name Primitive to emphasize that we’re still in the Precambrian days of cryptoasset networks. Writing a thesis about something so nascent is an exercise in futility—after a few months, it will only serve as a reminder that no one really knows where the space is going. As William Gibson put it: “The street finds its own uses for things” and indeed, the use cases that real people find for crypto networks are inevitably more innovative and incredible than the ones investors can imagine. At Primitive, we’re proudly thesis-free, and instead, spend all of our waking hours finding and supporting the people building truly valuable things.

We start at the earliest stage and provide founders with capital, support, advice, and the best network in the game. We then continue to support companies and cryptoasset networks as they grow with capital, community, media, and hiring support. We see a viable crypto project as built not only by cryptographers or engineers, but also creative economists, interdisciplinary designers, and charismatic community leaders. Most are fixed-issuance, which means that getting undilutable early stakes in the best projects can create outsized returns.

We’re long-term holders and market cycle agnostic. We've held Bitcoin since the days when most people bought it on an exchange that was intended for trading collectible cards, through two massive bear markets, and rarely trade. We understand crypto economics and human psychology well in a fast liquidity cycle, but don't expect our portfolio to rush for premature liquidity, as it can be fundamentally harmful. There is no compression algorithm for the growth of any community, nor to any form of consensus.

We aim to be a global firm from day one because crypto will be one of the first sectors where Silicon Valley and the US don't have an unfair advantage, unlike the last few major tech cycles. Two of our co-founders speak English and Chinese equally well, and have been fully immersed in those two major investment ecosystems; We are equally well-connected with the exchanges and mining powerhouses in China/Asia, the long-term investors in the Bay Area, hacker houses in Buenos Aires, academic labs in Tel Aviv, and trading communities in Tokyo and Korea.

As we execute this simple but effective strategy, we’re stoked to be backed by some of the most experienced and resourceful investors in the space, about whom we will share more in our following press releases. The list includes top crypto strategies, Asian conglomerates, wall-street powerhouses, the most successful angel investors in the world, and founders we invested before who now choose to reinvest in us.

If you’re working on an interesting project in the cryptoasset space, it’s never too early to get in touch with us: team@primitive.ventures