David Phelps is a United States-based angel investor, writer, and entrepreneur active in the Web3 and decentralized technology space. He is best known publicly as the co-founder of JokeRace, an on-chain governance and contest protocol that lets communities run votes, competitions, and delegation mechanisms directly on blockchain rails. Before founding JokeRace, Phelps worked at Andreessen Horowitz crypto (a16z crypto), one of the most prominent venture funds in the digital assets industry, where he developed his thesis around decentralized community coordination and governance primitives.
Phelps writes extensively on crypto topics under the handle @divine_economy on X (formerly Twitter) and through his Substack newsletter. His writing focuses on token design, governance mechanisms, and the political economy of decentralized networks. This intellectual output has made him a recognized voice in Web3 circles beyond his investment activity alone. He angel-invests as an individual, not through a formal fund structure, so total assets under management are not disclosed publicly.
Notable investments
Phelps's angel portfolio spans early-stage Web3 infrastructure, governance tooling, and DeFi protocols. Specific investment names and terms are not consistently disclosed, which is common for solo angels operating outside a formal fund. Public information confirms his involvement in projects adjacent to governance, community tokens, and coordination layers – consistent with his JokeRace thesis. The CoinMagnetic database tracks 7 portfolio entries associated with his name. A full public breakdown of these holdings is not available at the time of writing.
- JokeRace – co-founded; on-chain governance and contest protocol
- Additional early-stage Web3 projects in governance and DeFi infrastructure (specific names not publicly confirmed)
Team
As a solo angel, Phelps does not operate through a partnership structure. At JokeRace he works alongside co-founder Sean McCaffery. His prior role at a16z crypto placed him alongside partners including Chris Dixon and Ali Yahya, giving him broad exposure to the early-stage crypto deal landscape before he moved to the operator and angel track.
Recent activity
Between 2024 and 2025, Phelps remained active in shaping discourse around on-chain governance, publishing analysis of contest mechanics, token voting failures, and alternative coordination models. JokeRace continued to expand its integrations, with communities using it for grant allocation, hackathon judging, and DAO decision-making. Public information about new angel deals closed during this period is limited – Phelps does not routinely announce portfolio additions.
Phelps represents a growing archetype in Web3: the operator-turned-angel who combines hands-on product building with early-stage capital deployment. His geographic base is the United States, but his investment and writing activity is global in scope, focused on permissionless infrastructure that can serve any community regardless of location. Given his continued platform and the ongoing demand for credible governance tooling, his influence in the sector is likely to persist – though the relatively small disclosed portfolio size reflects an intentionally selective approach rather than broad spray-and-pray angel activity.
