Joining Paradigm as an EIR

I’m happy to share that I’ve joined Paradigm as an Entrepreneur in Residence to build the next generation of crypto{graphy & currency}-enabled consumer applications. I’m a long-time consumer builder excited to continue shipping crypto applications like my most recent launch TMR.NEWS, a new type of prediction market. Previously, I’ve built apps in dating, social, and games.

Our industry needs to attract new users with compelling products that transcend the familiar patterns of cyclical apps. Even outside of crypto, users are eager for new apps - when was the last time you downloaded an app you were excited about?

I’m exploring the opportunity for consumer applications enabled by frontier technologies:

• Cryptography for secure, decentralized, stateful systems
• Blockchains for global, permissionless, value transfers and storage
• AI for human-level information production, comprehension, compression

I’m excited to work with product-focused hackers and ship envelope-pushing applications to millions of users. If you have a knack for building 0-1 apps, I’d love to work with you. DMs open on Twitter and my email is sofiane@paradigm.xyz.

Why Paradigm

The team at Paradigm has proven themselves to be amongst the sharpest and most prolific researchers and builders in our industry. I’m grateful to leverage their expertise to build revolutionary products using frontier technologies. Working with people with talent, integrity, and vision like Doug and Georgios is a privilege.

Why Now

Great consumer applications come after periods of investment and growth at the infrastructure layer. Facebook came after widespread broadband internet adoption and affordable personal computers. Instagram and Snapchat emerged after smartphones with quality cameras became ubiquitous and mobile data networks improved. TikTok similarly rode the wave of advancements in computer vision and real-time recommender systems. I believe the time is now to ride the wave of advancements in crypto:

• Any application can be verifiable using ZKVMs like SP1.
• Privacy and attestation to real world information can be done using TEEs and TLS proofs.
• Onboarding and sending your first few onchain transactions feels like web2 using {account, chain, fee} abstraction.
• Everything is cheap and fast using scaled blockchains.

These advancements unlock the greenfield of applications people could only fantasize about just a few years ago.

What’s next

I'm on a mission to ship wildly entertaining consumer apps that showcase crypto's potential. Right now, I'm:

• Building rapid prototypes that make crypto feel like magic (ie. long tail prediction markets, large scale social games, web2↔web3 integrations)
• Running growth experiments that could reach millions
• Testing ideas that sound crazy today but will be obvious tomorrow

If you love shipping 0-1 products and have a track record of:

• Ruthlessly fast iteration
• Design that instantly hooks users
• Growth hacks that actually work

Come build the future in NYC or SF. Whether you have a groundbreaking idea or just want to hack on something fun, reach out at sofiane@paradigm.xyz or DM me on Twitter.

Let's ship 🚤