Yes, I think we can at least give users the choice and many will choose to pay directly. I don't think advertising dies entirely though as some folks will still prefer ads. But you'll have much greater flexibility when designing biz models and products. I'm particularly excited about what unexpected new experiences are unlocked by value for value payments.
I do think the logic of traditional VC works well here. A big part of my thesis is that we're at ~1997 Internet level adoption (roughly 200M users). From '97 to '07, the Internet grew from ~200M to 2B users and lots of amazing companies were built (Google, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) I think the same thing will happen here. Bitcoin and Lightning Network comprise the Internet of Money and lots of amazing companies will be built on and around that protocol stack. What we saw with the recent token craze was not VC in my mind, but more akin to funding gambling on penny stocks with the hope of cashing out before the music stops. Not my cup of tea.