Richard

Control over intelligence is the defining fight of the coming decade. Whoever owns the AI delivery stack owns a direct window into your interior life. They log all your chats, train on them, and will hand them over when asked. And in the end, they decide the terms on which you'll get to access the most powerful systems humankind has ever built. Venice flips that. On Venice, your AI is yours. Not licensed to you, not gated on their terms, not logged and monitored for compliance, but fully yours and completely private. All of the best open and closed models are accessible through their fully private and uncensored platform and APIs. Just as Bitcoin made money unseizable and Apple made phones uncrackable, Venice makes AI unsurveillable. No company, lab, or government gets to read your conversations with your AI. Only you. This will only become more important. A society stays free only as long as its most powerful tools answer to individuals instead of institutions. AI is about to become the most powerful tool we have, and the next decade decides whether it's something you own or something you're granted. Free societies are built from citizens who assert their freedoms rather than wait to be given them. That's why we're incredibly proud to lead Venice's $65M Series A. Check them out at @AskVenice.

Dragonfly invested into PepperSec, Inc., the developers of Tornado Cash, in August of 2020. We made this investment because we believe in the importance of open-source privacy-preserving technology. Prior to our investment, we obtained an outside legal opinion that confirmed that Tornado Cash as built complied with the law, under the guidance given by FinCEN in 2019. The government has now stated in open court that they are contemplating charges against Dragonfly for having invested into the Tornado Cash team in 2020. On counsel’s advice, we have refrained from public comment. But we can no longer remain silent. We believe deeply in Americans’ right to privacy, and the lack of it remains one of crypto’s largest unsolved problems. We therefore stand by our investment. We did not operate or exercise any control over Tornado Cash, we had no contact with any malicious users, we always encouraged our portfolio companies to follow the law, and we maintain that Tornado Cash itself has a lawful right to exist—a view reinforced by Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury and OFAC’s subsequent rescission of sanctions. Charging a venture firm for a portfolio company’s alleged misconduct would be unprecedented, especially under these circumstances. In 2023 we received a DOJ subpoena and have fully cooperated with the government’s investigation of Tornado Cash, confident that we have always complied with the law. The DOJ has made clear that we are not ourselves a target of their investigation. As with every investment, we provided PepperSec the same advice and support we offer all portfolio companies. We believe the government’s statement in court today was primarily to undermine a defense of Tornado Cash—to make it more difficult for the defense to call Tom to testify on the stand. After all of this time—years later—bringing charges against Dragonfly would be outrageous, contrary to the facts and the law, and would induce a chilling effect onto all investment into crypto and privacy-preserving technologies in America. We don’t believe the DOJ would actually bring such absurd and groundless charges. But if they do, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves.

Career advice that nobody gives: be extremely reliable. I’m not a touchy-feely person. I’m not great at making friends. But people like working with me because I do what I say, when I say. I’m responsive. I follow through. I don't wait around for someone else to step up. If I can't deliver something on time, I flag it early so others can plan around me. That alone is rare. @sama once said the most successful founders at YC all had one thing in common: they replied to messages immediately. It's weird—you would think the most successful founders were the busiest. And they are. But they are also always on top of of their shit. Be that person. People will love working with you, and your reputation for reliability will compound over your career.