As the crypto bull market gets started, Alex Pack of Hack VC dives into why he thinks crypto is still so early and how his firm believes crypto and AI will intersect.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.In this episode of Unchained, Alex Pack, managing partner at Hack VC. Pack discusses the firm's recent $150 million fundraise, the challenges of raising capital in a bear market, and the firm's focus on early-stage Web3 infrastructure. He also shares his thoughts on the intersection of crypto and AI, the future of DeFi, and the importance of security in the crypto space. Pack believes that the current infrastructure of crypto is still in its early stages and needs significant improvement before it can reach mainstream adoption. He also sees potential in the development of more secure smart contracts and the integration of AI into decentralized applications.Show highlights:How Hack VC was able to raise $150 million in a bear market, especially after the blowups of FTX, 3AC, and TerraAlex's interaction with SBF, whom he calls a "sociopath," and why he didn't invest in FTXHack VC's philosophy to "back hackers" in cryptoThe goals behind Zuzalu, the new community that resembles Balaji Srinivasan's idea of a network stateWhat the main focus of Hack VC's investments are, including scalability, AI, and DeFiWhy Alex believes that "we are still so early"How Alex believes crypto and artificial intelligence will intersect The role of AI agents and how to use them in decentralized applicationsWhy he thinks that EigenLayer is a great solution for middleware applicationsAlex's opinion on the modular vs. monolithic approach for scaling blockchainsHow DeFi survived the last bear market, contrasted with the collapses of CeFi companies like Celsius, BlockFi and FTXWhether algorithmic stablecoins can ever work and what Alex thinks of Ethena's USDeHow to improve security in crypto, according to AlexWhy the outcome of the Bitcoin ETFs exceeded Alex's expectationsWhat he believes the catalysts are for the next bull marketThank you to our sponsors!    PolkadotGuest | Alex Pack, Managing partner at Hack VCPrevious appearances on Unchained:Dragonfly Capital on Why Ethereum Is So Far in the Lead‘The Last Big Whale’: Why the Crypto Contagion of 2022 Eventually Hit GenesisLinks | New fundBloomberg: Hack VC Raises $150 Million for Bets on Battered Crypto Industry Hack VC Closes $150M Venture Fund I, Bringing AUM to $425MStablecoins:Unchained:What Is Ethena’s USDe Synethic Dollar? A Beginner’s GuideWhat Is Terra and Why Did It Fail?Why It's so Hard to Keep Stablecoins Stable What Is Depegging in Crypto and Why Does It Occur?What Is Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization? A Beginner's GuideEigenLayer ecosystemUnchained: What Is EigenLayer? A Guide to the Decentralized ETH Restaking ProtocolThe Block: AltLayer closes $14.4 million strategic round co-led by Polychain and Hack VCModular vs. monolithic approachUnchained: What Are Modular Blockchains? A Beginner's GuideThree Crypto Pioneers on Crypto’s Monolithic vs. Modular DebateCrypto x AI crossoverio.net and Ritual Collaborate to Boost Global AI Compute Landscape Ritual x EigenLayer: Restaking for AIUnchained: 5 Use Cases of AI in BlockchainZuzaluDecrypt: I Spent a Month Inside Vitalik Buterin’s Social Experiment—Here’s What It Was Really Like-Unchained Podcast is Produced by Laura Shin Media, LLC.  Distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Michele Musso and Executive Producer is Jared Schwartz. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.